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The Drama Program at the College of Staten Island will be taking on a new shape beginning with the fall semester, 2007. We are offering a new curriculum and requirements for the major and minor as part of a liberal arts education. Many classes are also open to students who are interested in theatre but do not intend to be majors. Our curriculum will offer students access to the most contemporary ideas in theatre and performance, as well as an understanding of earlier theatrical and performance practices across the globe. There is a new emphasis in every class on combining creative and academic work. No matter what class you take, you will be both making theatre and studying it.
With this new theatre program, we have chosen a distinct approach to theatre education that we believe will provide our students with rich sense of the possibilities within theatre studies. This approach will emphasize a range of performance practices, by which we mean theatrical art-making that moves beyond the traditional definitions of theatre. We also intend to allow students to experience theatre studies as a source for a variety of potential careers. These could include moving into a career unrelated to theatre, but moving into that career as a person who has learned creative, collaborative, empathetic approaches to working with others. They also include learning to use theatre as a therapeutic technique, as a resource for classrooms in any discipline. We will be encouraging all theatre students to understand theatre as a visual medium, and there are courses offered for those interested in pursuing design. Our sequence in theatre and performance histories is designed to cover not only the most familiar forms of historical theatre, but also important performance practices that have occurred in places often overlooked in traditional theatre studies. The acting sequence and Directing class ensure that every student has a chance to receive training in these fundamental areas. Every student will also be encouraged to develop special independent projects in the area he or she is most interested in, whether academic, design, directing, puppetry, solo performance, devised performance, or activist performance, to name a few examples. Students can also receive exposure to a full range of theatrical literature through courses cross listed with the English Department, as well as encountering theatre literature in each Drama class.
The Drama Program offers two productions a year that are directed by faculty. These faculty include Professor Maurya Wickstrom (Drama), Professor George Sanchez (Drama), and Professor Lee Papa (English). Professors Wickstrom and Papa stage both historical and contemporary plays. Examples include Tartuffe, Lysistrata, Naomi Wallace's Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Dario Fo's We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Faust, and Skin of Our Teeth. (Link to production photos). Professor Sanchez works with students to create productions based on their own original written work.
There are also numerous student projects, mentored by faculty. These include devised projects, (original, collaborative work in physical and image based theatre), and student directed and designed projects. Auditions for all productions are open to the entire CSI community. Such student work has included Moises Kauffman's The Laramie Project, Holly Hughes' Dress Suits for Hire, and Edward Albee's The Sandbox. There is a Performance Club which is open to all students, and through which additional student projects receive support. The Drama Program is also a participating member of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.