Students explore making strong choices and taking risks as individual performers and as an ensemble, using improvisation as a foundation in the first semester and story theatre in the second. The basics of character development, scenic construction, and dramatic agreement are explored using body, voice, and imagination to create fully realized and committed characters. Using techniques drawn from multiple theatrical backgrounds and pioneers, students heighten their connection to sensory life, environment and relationship in order to strengthen their creativity, imagination and understanding of human behavior. They develop skills related to scenic objectives, listening, impulse, problem solving, physical and verbal communication and given circumstances. They take the skills developed through improvisation in the first half of the year and apply them to text work in the second semester.

An introduction to dance technique as it applies to Musical Theatre performance with a focus on proper body alignment, placement and conditioning, Musical Theatre dance vocabulary, and moving as part of an ensemble. Performance Requirements: Freshman Preview (Fall) and Musical Theatre Curtain Call (Spring). Styles of dance taught are jazz and ballet.

This course is designed to provide another way (in addition to Voice and Speech) for students to use breath and voice to develop a powerful instrument in a communal way with their ensemble. It will also cover the fundamentals of singing and choral singing that are necessary in the professional world of acting, where more non-musical theatre is including song in performance. It will also prepare students to audition for the musical if they so choose during their sophomore, junior or senior year at ChiArts.

An introduction to voice production, including how sound is produced, how it is connected to image and intention, and how it is affective for an audience. Students learn to identify their habits, as well as larger cultural vocal holds that affect the voice, and begin the process of release through physical exploration and warm ups. Using a variety of texts students explore the muscularity and size of speech and sound, and begin to learn to use their vocal mechanism to radiate energy up and out, in order to fill any space they are performing in through the concepts of placement, pitch, tone, pace, and range.

Theatre Studio is designed to be a class where theatrical learning converges for first year theatre students. The focus of this course is threefold: to provide the foundations of theatre vocabulary linked with direct experience (beginning theatre history, technical theatre and stage terms), to learn the habits needed for the discipline of theatrical performance (listening, memorization, collaboration, organization, networking), and to learn how to read a script. The umbrella over these three focal points is growth of the ensemble. We will continue to include Spolin exercises (from 'Improvisation for the Theatre') and games to build respect, rapport, and unity among the group.

Scene study and acting techniques from contemporary playwrights with an emphasis on realism. This course introduces students to the work of Constantin Stanisklavski and elements of dramatic text analysis including beats, objectives, tactics, obstacles, given circumstances and previous action to aid the student actor creating recognizable human behavior, action and theatrical worlds. They also work on dramaturgical research in order to fully understand the world of the play and the circumstances in which it was written and has been performed. In the fall semester, students focus on scenes from a contemporary play. Performance Requirements: Winter Acting Showcase (Fall) and Acting Curtain Call (Spring).

A continuation of the the script analysis skill work begun in Theatre Studio, this course covers theatre's beginning in different cultures around the world with a focus on early Greek and Roman theatre, Shakespeare, and ending in United States with modern playwrights.

An exploration of movement through ensemble, space and in groups. Students uncover the expressive potential of their body through specific techniques in Viewpoints, Laban and African Dance. Focus is given on listening with the entire body, movement to external stimuli and on impulse, making dynamic choices in developing the physical/emotional life of a character, and in generating original performance.

Building on the foundations of Voice and Speech 1A, students continue to specify and deepen their own awareness of habits, and continue to work through physical warms ups to assist in the release of breath and connection to sound and intention. They begin to focus on character expression, based on text analysis, and begin to explore the journey toward vocal transformation. They explore their interior emotional landscape and the connection to image, breath, and release. Using a variety of texts, including poetry, Shakespeare and contemporary playwrights, they focus on rhythm, meter, rhetorical and poetic devices. Students strengthen their articulation and diction and continue to speak with energy that is forward moving through space.

Scene study and monologue work of various theatrical periods with an emphasis on texts with heightened language and physicality including the works of William Shakespeare and other classical playwrights. Students are expected to apply the analytical work introduced in the second year with contemporary playwrights to that of classical works. Performance Requirements: Winter Acting Showcase (Fall) and Acting Curtain Call (Spring).

The focus is on refining the actor's use of their voice through deepening their experience of resonance along with clarifying vowel and consonant articulation. Basic elements of speech will be explored to help the actor bring vocal clarity, energy and point of view to any text. In conjunction with the acting and movement classes, the text used in this class will be from classical periods and playwrights.

Students explore the process of college research, selection, and preparation for college auditions as well as an introduction to entrance into the profession including an overview of the business of acting and audition preparation.