TH 141 Introduction to Theatre

Overview of Course

"All the world's a stage.” While this monologue from As You Like It goes on to describe the seven ages of human life, on the World Odyssey you will find that all the world has stages…some ancient, some new, across time and place societies have expressed dreams, hopes, and lives through storytelling in front of an audience.

Theatre not only reflects how people lived, it dreams of what could be. It is a collaborative art form that appears in many forms: dance, comedy, tragedy, opera, puppets, music theatre. The venues where theatre takes place vary: large theaters seating thousands, smaller venues seating hundreds, and less formal venues transformed into a stage…even Theatre For One, a road box that has toured the world where one actor presents a play to a single audience member at a time.

Where did it start? How is it different in the many ports of Semester at Sea? Why do people make theatre? Why do people still need theatre?

Students will learn to better understand and enjoy theatre, and the interdependent impact of theatre and culture, experiencing its development around the world and how it expresses and informs cultures. Theatre is a collaboration between artists to tell a story in a way bigger than any one artist might: text, performance, music, dance, sound, and visual design all combine to an experience shared with an audience. Like each of our lives as humans, it is born, it breathes, and as it happens it vanishes from in front of us to live on in our memories.