2025-2026 Catalog

TAPS 10100. Drama: Embodiment and Transformation. 100 Units.

This course introduces students to a range of theatrical concepts and techniques, including script analysis and its application to staging, design and acting. Throughout, we investigate how theater - as a collaborative art form - tells stories. Students will act, direct, and design. In doing so, they will gain an understanding of a variety of processes by which scripts are realized in the theater, with an emphasis on the text's role in production rather than as literature.

Instructor(s): P. Pascoe, S. Bockley, S. Murray, M. Fenley     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Summer Winter
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts. Waitlists for TAPS core courses open after resolution for that quarter is complete. To be considered for the waitlist you must sign up here: https://forms.gle/G62skjnAZFmhHcL88 (do NOT send a consent request to the instructor).

TAPS 10200. Acting Fundamentals. 100 Units.

This course introduces fundamental concepts of performance in the theater with emphasis on the development of creative faculties and techniques of observation, as well as vocal and physical interpretation. Concepts are introduced through directed reading, improvisation, and scene study.

Instructor(s): L. Buxbaum, C. Cooper, D. de Mayo, H. Coleman, P. Pascoe, K. Walsh     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Summer Winter
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts. Waitlists for TAPS core courses open after resolution for that quarter is complete. To be considered for the waitlist you must sign up here: https://forms.gle/G62skjnAZFmhHcL88 (do NOT send a consent request to the instructor).

TAPS 10300. Text and Performance. 100 Units.

This course offers an introduction to a number of significant dramatic works and seminal figures in the theorization of theater and performance. But the course's aspirations go much further: we will be concentrating upon the intersection of interpretation and enactment, asking how these pieces appear on stage and why. This will not be merely descriptive work, but crucially it will be interpretive and physical work. Students will prepare and present applied interpretations-that is, interpretations that enable conceptual insights to take artistic form. Throughout, we will be searching for that elusive combination of philological rigor, theoretical sophistication, and creative inspiration-probing the theoretical stakes of creativity and testing the creative implications of analytic insights.

Instructor(s): S. Sastry, J. Muse, N. Ndiaye, S. Elmegreen     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts. Waitlists for TAPS core courses open after resolution for that quarter is complete. To be considered for the waitlist you must sign up here: https://forms.gle/G62skjnAZFmhHcL88 (do NOT send a consent request to the instructor).

TAPS 10700. Introduction to Stage Design. 100 Units.

Approaching theatrical design as a visual art, we will achieve a basic understanding of the theory, methodology and artistic expression fundamental to each area of design for the stage: scenic, costume, lighting, sound, and projections. We will learn how each discipline approaches and executes visual (aural in the case of sound) communication involved in the design process. Students will learn the professional design process, from contracting through production. Projects for this course will be completed using a combination of mediums and materials. Creativity in the execution of visual communication will be of great importance. Students will learn to show collaborators ideas instead of talking about them.

Instructor(s): R. Davonté Johnson     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts. Waitlists for TAPS core courses open after resolution for that quarter is complete. To be considered for the waitlist you must sign up here: https://forms.gle/G62skjnAZFmhHcL88 (do NOT send a consent request to the instructor).

TAPS 10800. Contemporary Dance Practices. 100 Units.

This hybrid studio/seminar course offers an overview of the formal techniques, cultural contexts, and social trends that shape current dance practices. Through both scholarly and practical approaches to course content, students will gain a working knowledge of a wide range of formal and aesthetic approaches to dance. Other topics include the influence of pop culture, the role of cultural appropriation, and the privileging of Western-based perspectives within dance presentation, education, scholarship, and criticism. Selected readings and viewings will supplement movement practice. No previous experience with dance or performance is required. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts.

Instructor(s): J. Rhoads, R. Russell, M. Odim     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts. Wait list requests for TAPS core courses are due several weeks before the quarter begins. Sign up for the wait list at https://forms.gle/G62skjnAZFmhHcL88

TAPS 10900. Moving and Thinking / Thinking and Moving. 100 Units.

Though we often imagine a divide between the physical practice of dance training and the intellectual practice of dance history and theorization, in reality they overlap: movement training is embodied research and a form of intellectual labor, while dance theorization and scholarship is deeply connected to the physicality of thought. This course offers an introduction to dance with an integrated approach to thinking and doing. Students will explore a range of embodied research methodologies that draw from improvisational forms, codified techniques, and social and cultural dance practices. No prior dance experience is required for this hybrid seminar/ studio course.

Instructor(s): T. Post, M. Odim     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory. This course meets the general education requirement in the arts. For questions regarding this class please contact Vicki Walden, vwalden@uchicago.edu. Waitlists for TAPS core courses open after resolution for that quarter is complete. To be considered for the waitlist, you must sign up here: https://forms.gle/G62skjnAZFmhHcL88 (do NOT send a consent request to the instructor).

TAPS 19300. Intro to Drama. 100 Units.

This course explores the unique challenges of experiencing performance through the page. Students will read plays and performances closely, taking into account not only form, character, plot, and genre, but also theatrical considerations like staging, acting, spectatorship, and historical conventions. We will also consider how various agents-playwrights, readers, directors, actors, and audiences-generate plays and give them meaning. While the course is not intended as a survey of dramatic literature or theater history, students will be introduced to a variety of essential plays from across the dramatic tradition. The course culminates in a scene project assignment that allows students put their skills of interpretation and adaptation into practice. No experience with theater is expected. (Gateway, Drama)

Instructor(s): John Muse     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 20601, ENGL 10600

TAPS 20060. The World's a Stage: Performance in Politics, Culture, and Everyday Life. 100 Units.

This course traces the history of the idea that the world might resemble a stage from its ancient roots to its current relevance in politics, social media, and gender expression, among other areas. We will explore these questions by reading performance texts and performance theory from classical to contemporary, by attending plays and watching films, and by considering non-theatrical events as occasions for performance. Students will gain a grounding in performance studies as a discipline and will learn how that critical lens can fundamentally alter how we understand social life and identity. (Drama, Theory)

Instructor(s): John Muse     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 18660, SIGN 26049

TAPS 20120. 21st Century American Drama. 100 Units.

This hybrid seminar focuses on American contemporary playwrights who have made a significant and commercial impact with regard to dramatic form in the past 20 years. Playwrights will include, Tracy Letts, Annie Baker, Lynn Nottage, Quiara Alegria Hudes, Ayad Akhtar, and Amy Herzog. Textual analysis is consistently oriented towards staging, design, and cultural relevancies. Work for the course will include research papers, presentations, and scene work.

Instructor(s): H. Coleman     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Attendance at the first class session is mandatory. Questions: contact vwalden@uchicago.edu.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 27583, AMER 20120

TAPS 20380. Feminist Dramaturgies. 100 Units.

This course invites students to engage with feminism-and its many intersections-not just as a question of representation but as a method for theatrical composition and presentation. We will ask why a performance might be deemed "feminist" and will analyze the specific dramaturgical strategies used to stage feminist questions and provocations, including erasure, saturation, fabulation, distortion, and others we will discover together. Students will learn to recognize and interpret feminist dramaturgy, and will adopt this disposition in practice. Drawing from feminist theory, trans studies, critical race studies and queer theory, we will examine how these frameworks inform the work of playwrights, performance artists, devised theater makers, and choreographers.

Instructor(s): M. Fenley     Terms Offered: Winter

TAPS 20510. Making a Scene: Feminist & Queer Performance in South Asia. 100 Units.

This interdisciplinary course examines key topics, trajectories and analytical methods in the study of gender and sexuality, approaching them in the context of modern and contemporary South Asia. As a constellation of mutually diverse yet interconnected postcolonial nations, the South Asia context pushes us to reflect on how questions of gender and sexuality are animated, constituted, and represented, especially within non-Euro/American frameworks. What theoretical concepts have universal purchase, and what is only ever legible in a local register? How do the forces of global capital and imperial power intervene in these processes? What role do religion, language, caste and class play? We will address these questions through the lens of performance, drawing on ethnographic, textual, visual and filmic sources from various South Asian regions, communities and languages (in translation). We will journey through a range of sites and scenes, including courtesan cultures, queer nightlife, drag performances, classical dance forms, dramatic texts, political protests, and more.

Instructor(s): S. Sastry     Terms Offered: Spring

TAPS 20600. Adapting the Unadaptable. 100 Units.

Fiction has always provided rich source material for drama. But much 20th and 21st century fiction can seem unadaptable-it is often sprawling, poetic, interior, fragmentary, or cerebral (or all of the above!). This hands-on course will challenge students to approach modern and contemporary literature with unconventional tools of staging, editing, and design. Students will also be introduced to the work of contemporary theater companies and productions that have taken on seemingly impossible adaptation projects, and closely study adaptations of Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf and others.

Instructor(s): S. Bockley     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Attendance at first class is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 20603

TAPS 20710. Playing with the Past: Shakespeare, Aeschylus, and Hansberry on the Contemporary Stage. 100 Units.

Playing with the Past explores dramaturgy as an adventurous and inquisitive form of storytelling through the works of Shakespeare, Aeschylus, and Lorraine Hansberry. We will examine the dramaturg's role in building worlds with classic playwrights, inhabiting them through productions, and cultivating connections with audiences and institutions. Through critical engagement with theatrical genealogies, industry practices, and innovations, we will investigate how these writers are produced today. Most importantly, we will develop our own civic-minded dramaturgical practice, considering how thoughtful storytelling has impact beyond the walls of the classroom and the theater.

Instructor(s): G. Randle-Bent     Terms Offered: Spring

TAPS 20730. What makes a Classic Theater: from Core Mission to Concept. 100 Units.

Instinctively we know what a classic is and does in our culture. From Coca Cola to Air Jordans, a classic is a material artifact that resonates across time, class, race, creed and nationality. A classic has staying power, whether it evolves, remains fresh, or re-invents itself in new contexts. In drama, a classic is a more fraught concept. The tradition of a classic canon has been rightly and thoroughly critiqued as racist, misogynist, and exclusionary. In spite of this, the idea of a classic still abides and holds sway in the cultural imaginary. Taught by Associate Artistic Director Gabrielle Randle-Bent, this course takes as its point of departure that Court Theatre is "The Center for Classic Theatre." We begin with the question: What are the practical, critical, and dramaturgical implications for an institution committing to the production of classic work? We will read literary and dramatic criticism to better understand the idea of classic text, we will study the structure of modern regional theatre to interrogate the economic necessity for the production of classic work on contemporary stages, and finally we will read canonical, a-canonical, and new works of theatre to begin to articulate a dramaturgy of Classic Theatre on our own terms.

Instructor(s): G. Randle-Bent     Terms Offered: Autumn

TAPS 21520. Acting Shakespeare. 100 Units.

This acting course will introduce students to the fundamentals of performing early modern drama. Working with plays by Shakespeare, John Lyly, Christopher Marlowe, Margaret Cavendish and other playwrights of the period, we will draw on performance techniques developed by Shakespeare & Company, which focus on the voice, physical gesture, collaboration, and play. Required readings and viewing assignments will supplement our class work by providing context, inspiration, and an introduction to a variety of artists. The course will culminate in a performance of scenes and monologues.

Instructor(s): P. Anderson     Terms Offered: Winter

TAPS 21700. An Actor Observes. 100 Units.

This course addresses techniques and modes of observation and their application to scene study. Observation study is used to strengthen acting choices, build the physical world of the play, and create original, vital characterizations. It also serves to deepen awareness of group dynamics, integrate symbolic, psychological and physical meaning in a character's behavior, and guide the process of breaking down a scene. Students will perform observation exercises and apply their discoveries to scene work.

Instructor(s): P. Pascoe     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory.

TAPS 21730. Movement for Actors. 100 Units.

This course will explore how an actor uses movement as a tool to communicate character, psychological perspective and style. The foundation of our movement work will center on the skills of balance, coordination, strength, flexibility, breath control and focus. Building on the skills of the actor both in terms of naturalistic character work and stylized theatrical text. Students will put the work into practice utilizing scene work and abstract gesture sequences through studying the techniques of Michael Chekov, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Anne Bogart, Complicite and Frantic Assembly.

Instructor(s): D. de Mayo     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Attendance at first class session is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 31730

TAPS 21860. Songwriting for Musical Theater. 100 Units.

This course is a practical introduction to the art and craft of songwriting for musical theater. Students will analyze and practice song form, storytelling through music, and the writing of lyrics and melody for character and tone. In addition to sharing and workshopping new song material weekly, students will learn about orchestration, arrangement, and the structure of the theatrical score by discussing standout examples of the genre. Students will develop a catalog of character- and story-driven songs to be presented at the end of the quarter. A basic knowledge of music theory is expected; experience in songwriting is not required.

Instructor(s): S. Elmegreen     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 24321, TAPS 31860, MUSI 34321

TAPS 22300. Performance Art Installation: The Dreamer and the Dream. 100 Units.

In this course we will explore the relations between dreaming and waking life using a broad interdisciplinary approach. Our point of departure will be psychological, cultural, and religious understandings of dreams. On the basis of the readings and the skills and backgrounds of participants, the class will develop a "performance installation" around the liminal spaces of dream and wakefulness. Readings will include literary texts by Apuleius, Calderon, Shakespeare, ;Schnitzler, and Neil Gaiman, and theoretical texts by Freud, Jung, Klein, and Winnicott.

Instructor(s): P. Pascoe     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 32300

TAPS 22680. Queering the American Family Drama. 100 Units.

This course will examine what happens to the American Family Drama on stage when the 'family' is queer. Working in dialogue with a current production at Court Theatre, we will move beyond describing surface representations into an exploration of how queering the family implicates narrative, plot, character, formal conventions, aesthetics and production conditions (e.g. casting, venues, audiences, marketing and critical reception). Texts will include theatrical plays and musicals, recorded and live productions, and queer performance theory. This course will be a combined seminar and studio, inviting students to investigate through readings, discussion, staging experiments, and a choice of either a final paper or artistic project.

Instructor(s): L. Buxbaum     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): AMER 22680, SIGN 26080, ENGL 22680, GNSE 20116

TAPS 22360. Advanced Musical Theater Writing. 100 Units.

This course is an advanced, project-oriented writing workshop with an emphasis on dramatic structure, storytelling through music, and the exploration of character as practical matters. Each student will propose a new, full-length musical and will work towards the creation of a first draft over the course of the quarter. In addition to presenting and workshopping new scene or song material weekly, students will study, discuss, and draw inspiration from standout examples of the genre. Students will present excerpted readings from their musicals at the end of the course. Some experience in writing for musical theater is expected.

Instructor(s): S. Elmegreen     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 32360, MUSI 34322, MUSI 24322

TAPS 22500. Styles and Practice in Storytelling. 100 Units.

What is storytelling? It can be said that it is the oldest form of observing, synthesizing, and communicating feelings thoughts and information."-Temujin the Storyteller. Every day we use stories to communicate. This course provides students with an overview of the art and practice of storytelling. Chicago is a storytelling town from the Moth to Second Story and from Story Slams to traditional storytelling; performance artists give voice to a wide range of expression. Throughout this learning experience, students will be encouraged to explore the world of storytelling and to nurture their creative voices. Students will create and adapt tales focusing on personal experience, folklore, history, and ethnography. We will learn through participation and observation. The creative experiences in this course will enable students to further their skills in: oral presentation, story construction, performance, artistic critique, and analysis. Students will develop and perform stories from at least three distinct areas of experience. The course provides a creative space for learning and exploration.

Instructor(s): E. Lansana     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Attendance at first class is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 22500

TAPS 23000. Introduction to Directing. 100 Units.

This course employs a practice in the fundamental theory of play direction and the role of the director in collaboration with the development of textual analysis. By examining five diversely different texts using three different approaches to play analysis (Aristotle, Stanislavski, Ball) students begin developing a method of directing for the stage in support of the written text. In alternating weeks, students implement textual analysis in building an understanding of directorial concept, theme, imagery and staging through rehearsal and in-class presentations of three-minute excerpts from the play analysis the previous week. The culmination is a final five-minute scene combining the tools of direction with a method of analysis devised over the entire course.

Instructor(s): S. Murray     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 23000

TAPS 23600. Improv and Sketch. 100 Units.

This course adapts curriculum originally designed for the various schools of modern improvisation (including the iO, the Annoyance and The Second City) and brings it into the classroom. Listening skills, the ability to work well with others as a team, and building scene work organically are highlighted. You will leave this class a better communicator, with interpersonal tools that support other facets of your life.

Instructor(s): S. Messing     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory.

TAPS 23915. Playwriting: Queer Form & Court Theatre's New Musical. 100 Units.

Students will write short plays or one longer play that experiment(s) with queer form. We will consider linear and non-linear structures, disrupting expectations, subverting conventions, and shifting between the fictional world of the play and the real-time presence of the audience. We will focus on how form is integral to queer content. Students are welcome to bring in projects in progress or the germ of an idea, including original stories, adaptations or autobiographical material. Designers interested in 'writing' from a designer perspective are also welcome. Our work will be in dialogue with the new musical Out Here at Court Theatre, for which instructor Leslie Buxbaum is the book writer & co-lyricist. Students will meet production collaborators and be invited to production activities that fall within winter quarter.

Instructor(s): L. Buxbaum     Terms Offered: Winter

TAPS 23930. Fundamentals of Playwriting. 100 Units.

This workshop will explore the underlying mechanics that have made plays tick for the last 2,500 odd years, from Euripedes to Shakespeare to Büchner to Caryl Churchill, Susan Lori-Parks, and Annie Baker, etc. Students will be asked to shamelessly steal those playwrights' tricks and techniques (if they're found useful), and employ them in the creation of their own piece. Designed for playwrights at any level (beginning or advanced), the workshop's primary goals will be to develop a personal sense of what "works" on stage within the context of what's worked in the past, and to generate a one act play, start to finish.

Instructor(s): M. Maher     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): ATTENDANCE AT FIRST CLASS IS MANDATORY.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 33930

TAPS 23980. Writing the Short, Short Play: Investigations in Micro-Drama. 100 Units.

Never in the history of western theater has brevity gotten so much attention. Festivals around the world are devoted to plays five minutes in length or less; perhaps the most revered playwright of the 20th century, Samuel Beckett, guided his career towards the writing of smaller and smaller works; Chicago's Neofuturists have profitably run their show of "thirty plays in sixty minutes" for over thirty years; Twitter accounts disseminate multiple two to three line scripts daily; and sketch comedy continues to evolve and thrive. This course will give an overview of the development of the very short play over the last one hundred and twenty years, but will primarily focus on the writing and development of same, asking students to complete - through workshop prompts - 20 to 30 scripts by end of quarter. A particular effort will be made to bring "traditional" elements of standard-length plays - character, arc, anagnorisis, pathos, backstory, etc - to these miniatures, to test and expand their assumed limitations.

Instructor(s): M. Maher     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Attendance at first class is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 33980

TAPS 24050. New Play Development: Playwrights and Dramaturgs. 100 Units.

This class explores the new play development process from first to second draft and will culminate in a staged reading at the end of the quarter. All the roles of a traditional production process will be a part of this class, with students serving as: playwrights, directors, actors, and dramaturgs. What happens once the playwright is ready to invite in collaborators to develop a script? How does each person bring their unique point of view to the play? How can this process serve both the play and the artists involved? The class is studying the art, theory and process of development as well as working on our feet to try our hands at what we are discovering. We will work to develop student plays in which a first draft is already written. Playwrights with a complete, first draft of a play are encouraged to submit their work for this course and will be selected the quarter before this course is offered. To apply, please send your script and note of introduction to ddemayo@uchicago.edu. Students interested in taking on any of the other designated roles of a production team (actors, directors, dramaturgs) should select either TAPS 20450 New Play Development: Playwrights and Dramaturgs OR TAPS 20451 New Play Development: Directors and Actors. Once enrolled, course instructors will assign tasks taking into consideration student interest. For further information on the course or how to enroll, please contact ddemayo@uchicago.edu.

Instructor(s): Elizabeth Edele (Calamity West)     Terms Offered: Winter

TAPS 24051. New Play Development: Directors and Actors. 100 Units.

This class explores the new play development process from first to second draft and will culminate in a staged reading at the end of the quarter. All the roles of a traditional production process will be a part of this class, with students serving as: playwrights, directors, actors, and dramaturgs. What happens once the playwright is ready to invite in collaborators to develop a script? How does each person bring their unique point of view to the play? How can this process serve both the play and the artists involved? The class is studying the art, theory and process of development as well as working on our feet to try our hands at what we are discovering. We will work to develop student plays in which a first draft is already written. Students interested in taking on these designated roles of a production team (actors, directors, dramaturgs) should select either TAPS 20450 New Play Development: Playwrights and Dramaturgs OR TAPS 20451 New Play Development: Directors and Actors. Once enrolled, course instructors will assign tasks taking into consideration student interest. For further information on the course or how to enroll, please contact ddemayo@uchicago.edu. Playwrights with a complete, first draft of a play are encouraged to submit their work for the companion course TAPS 24050 and will be selected the quarter before this course is offered. To apply, please send your script and note of introduction to ddemayo@uchicago.edu.

Instructor(s): Devon de Mayo     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 34051

TAPS 24410. Transmedia Puzzle Design & Performance. 100 Units.

This course will introduce students to the burgeoning field of immersive puzzle design. Students will develop, implement and playtest puzzles that are suited for a range of experiences: from the tabletop to the immersive, from online puzzle hunts to broad-scoped alternate reality games (ARG). Students in this course will work directly with master puzzler, Sandor Wiesz, the commissioner of The Mystery League.

Instructor(s): S. Weisz     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): MADD 24410, TAPS 34410

TAPS 24420. Games and Performance: Live Action Role Playing Games. 100 Units.

This course delves into the innovative realms of "immersive performance," "alternate reality," and "transmedia" gaming, culminating in student projects designed for a Spring 2025 immersive event co-hosted by the Fourcast Lab, a transdisciplinary initiative at The University of Chicago, to be staged in The Regenstein Library. As we journey through the history of interactive performances from Tudor-era spectacles to the strategic depth of tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons and the vibrant world of Nordic LARPs, students will acquire key skills in scriptwriting, character development, improvisation, digital platforms, and experience design. We will explore the dynamic theories of Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) and Alternate Reality Games (ARG), investigating how these formats challenge the boundaries between the real and the performative while engaging audiences in rich, narrative-driven experiences. By dissecting the mechanics of these interactive formats, students will gain the ability to craft engaging narratives that invite active participation and build community. Collaborations with library staff will be integral, allowing students to leverage the library's vast resources and spaces for creative expression and experiential learning. The course will also embrace progressive ideas of libraries as dynamic hubs for cultural production and innovation, utilizing the library not only as a venue but as a partner in fostering creative exploration. This partnership will provi

Instructor(s): H. Coleman     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 34420, MADD 24420

TAPS 24450. Games & Performance: Invitation and Immersion. 100 Units.

This course explores the 360-degree nature of site-specific performance, creating immersive environments that engage audiences in shifting spatial narratives. It examines Antonin Artaud's "Theater of Cruelty," which prioritizes visceral experiences and disrupts traditional storytelling for deeper emotional impact. Case studies include PunchDrunk's Sleep No More, which reimagines Macbeth as a non-linear, interactive experience in a detailed hotel setting;.And Then She Fell by Third Rail, which crafts a surreal, Carroll-inspired world where spatial design shapes narrative interpretation; and Port of Entry in Chicago, which exemplifies audience-driven storytelling and reflects site-specific performance's evolution. For their final project, students will design performances within the Regenstein Library, leveraging its spaces for transformative experiences. Co-taught by Heidi Coleman and Shade Murray, the course redefines direction, design, and dramaturgy as active processes rather than fixed roles. Key texts include Off Sites (Ferdman), Making Site-Specific Theatre (Smith), The Punchdrunk Encyclopedia (Machon), and Performing Site-Specific Theatre (Birch & Tompkins).

Instructor(s): H. Coleman, S. Murray     Terms Offered: Autumn

TAPS 24612. Introduction au théâtre maghrébin. 100 Units.

Ce cours offre un aperçu de l'évolution de l'art dramatique au Maroc, en Algérie et en Tunisie en examinant des questions telles que l'apport des formes populaires, l'emprunt aux textes étrangers, et le lien entre l'écriture théâtrale et des débats d'ordre social, culturel ou politique. On analysera en particulier les formes d'écriture, de mise en scène et de performance pratiquées par les dramaturges maghrébins et la manière dont leurs créations permettent de repenser les cultures et les mémoires nationales, le rapport entre le théâtre et l'histoire ainsi que la représentation des identités maghrébines et de leur dialogue avec l'étranger. Les dramaturges étudiés comprennent Tayeb Saddiki, Driss Ksikes, Kateb Yacine, Aziz Chouaki, Jalila Baccar, Fadhel Jaïbi.

Instructor(s): Khalid Lyamlahy     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 2025-26
Prerequisite(s): FREN 20500 or 20503
Note(s): Taught in French. All work in French for students seeking FREN credit; written work may be in English for those taking the course for TAPS credit. This is an introductory-level course.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 26012

TAPS 24878. Introduction au théâtre français. 100 Units.

Dans ce cours nous examinerons la production théâtrale en France depuis le Moyen Âge jusqu'à nos jours, prenant en compte la variété et la richesse du théâtre français, ainsi que la place proéminente qu'il a occupé dans la culture française.

Instructor(s): D. Delogu     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 2025-26
Prerequisite(s): FREN 20500
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 24610

TAPS 25170. Pro Show. 100 Units.

Students who are participating in the TAPS autumn quarter Pro Show as either performers or design/production assistants may opt in for course credit after securing approval from the Director of Performance and completing additional assignments.

Instructor(s): D. de Mayo, B. Parry     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 35170

TAPS 25450. Writing the Feature Film. 100 Units.

This course is designed to help the emerging writer focus their creativity into a viable feature film project and screenplay. This includes structure, format, exposition, characterization, dialogue, voice-over, and other aspects of visual storytelling for the screen. Weekly meetings include a brief lecture period, screenings of scenes from selected films, extended discussion, assorted readings and writing assignments. Because this is primarily a writing class, students should expect to deliver four to five pages of written material-including story development materials or screenplay pages-each week.

Instructor(s): K. O'Brien     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 25450, MADD 25450

TAPS 25550. Writing the TV Pilot. 100 Units.

The creation of a TV Pilot is a unique, exciting, and demanding task for a writer. In addition to the responsibility of telling a compelling story, writers are also charged with setting up a "world" and establishing characters and plotlines that will sustain the show over multiple episodes and seasons. In this class, we will delve into the processes required to succeed in this challenging endeavor. This includes creation of pitch materials, plot and character development, outlining, creation of a show bible, and ultimately, writing the pilot episode of an original TV series. The classroom will function as part development workshop and part informal TV writer's room. Through weekly reading and writing assignments we will dissect successful entries into the TV space and tap into our artistic inspirations to evolve our show concepts. From there, we would collaborate as a class by actively brainstorming and workshopping our scripts and series. By the end of the quarter, each student will complete a draft of an original pilot script, as well as a short "Series Bible" detailing the broader scope of the show.

Instructor(s): K. O'Brien     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): MADD 20550, CMST 20550

TAPS 26001. Dance Technique Classes. 000 Units.

This course spans three quarters of attendance and is open to all students from all areas of the University. Dance technique classes meet weekly for 90 minutes. For each quarter you may choose one of three technique tracks: classical dance (primarily ballet), modern/contemporary, or Afro-diasporic forms (hip-hop, jazz, West African). Classes are taught by some of Chicago's most recognized dance professionals and are open to all levels of experience. For 100 units of credit, you must attend eight of the ten classes offered per quarter for three consecutive quarters. Students enroll on a Pass/Fail basis. There is no option to enroll for a quality grade. For more information and for consent to enroll, please contact Julia Rhoads, Director of Dance: jrhoads1@uchicago.edu.

Instructor(s): J. Rhoads     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter

TAPS 26110. Choreographic Methods. 100 Units.

This studio course introduces students to a wide range of methods for creating choreography while considering the complex relationship between bodies, form, aesthetics, cultural contexts, technology platforms, and performance objectives. Grounded by interdisciplinary inquiry and ethical collaboration practices, the course will provide students with a robust toolkit for experimentation and play within dance and movement-based work, including compositional structures, improvised scoring, and choreographic prompts that are inspired by students' unique thematic interests. The course also invites students to consider how choreographic methods can be activated as problem-solving tools across disciplines. Supplementary readings and viewings will drive discussion and analysis while giving students a broad understanding of how choreography engages current social and political issues.

Instructor(s): J. Rhoads     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 36110

TAPS 26210. Modern Dance Technique. 100 Units.

This studio course delves into the principles and practice of contemporary modern dance. Students will learn a series of movement sequences that progress from floor work to standing combinations and traveling phrases, building the skills to move with efficiency, gravity, and dynamics within the body and in space. Explorations of modern dance lineages will also include somatic techniques, improvisation, and the cultivation of an individual movement voice. Readings, viewings, and journal responses will supplement a bi-weekly studio practice, connecting student's embodied experiences to the historical and cultural contexts that gave rise to modern and contemporary dance practices. Prior dance or movement experience is encouraged for this course.

Instructor(s): K. Brody     Terms Offered: Winter

TAPS 26215. Dance Improvisation in Theory and Practice. 100 Units.

This course has a strong component of movement practice and is open to students of any experience level who are willing to move with creativity and generosity. The course takes a broad look at dance improvisation, exploring in equal parts key theoretical readings, historic and contemporary performance examples, and movement practices in the classroom. On its surface, improvisation is often understood to be based on total freedom or openness, where any movement choice can be made. Here, the notion of freedom in improvisation is reconsidered through the sociopolitical realities of how dancers' bodies move through society, and across the studio or stage.

Instructor(s): R. Russell     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 36205

TAPS 26235. Gender and the Dancing Body. 100 Units.

This course explores the relationship between dancing bodies and gender identity in locations such as the stage, nightclubs, on social media, in film, and on the streets. Anchored in intersectional perspectives, the course examines dance as a site of personal and cultural history, resistance, and protest, while also considering its connections to nation and race. The aim of this course is to explore how ideas about gender and sexuality have shaped formal and aesthetic approaches to dance, even as dance serves as a space for contesting normative ideologies. This discussion-based seminar includes film screenings, guest artist sessions, and a final creative project. No previous dance experience required.

Instructor(s): A. Satkunaratnam     Terms Offered: Autumn

TAPS 26285. Site-based Practice: Choreographing the Logan Center. 100 Units.

Students will be given a unique opportunity to create a collaborative, site-based work that culminates in a final performance at UChicago's Logan Center for the Arts. Using embodied research methods that respond to site through moving, sensing, and listening, we'll explore the relationship between the ephemerality of movement and the materiality of bodies and place, and consider how the site-based contexts for dance shift how it is perceived, experienced, and valued. Our quarter-long creation process will begin with a tour of the Logan Center that will provide context to the building's departments, exhibitions, programming, and its relationship to geography and community. Assigned readings, viewings, and conversations with guest artists will delve into the relationship between embodied performance and the sites where it happens-including multidisciplinary community-oriented spaces such as the Logan Center-and will consider the material relationship between bodies, objects, and architecture as well as the digital flows of choreography projected on buildings and exchanged online.

Instructor(s): J. Rhoads     Terms Offered: Spring

TAPS 26290. Mapping Black Social Dance: Hip Hop and House in the Community and Onstage. 100 Units.

This hybrid studio/seminar course offers an overview of the formal techniques, cultural contexts, and social trends that shape current Black social and vernacular dance practices. Modules will be built around Black social culture by looking at key histories and theories around Black dance, music and other cultural aesthetics from hip hop to house. As part of our exploration, we will cover themes such as: the Great Migration, the range of Black social dance forms from blues, jazz, disco, and dancehall that have influenced the evolution of hip hop and house on global scale; and the spectrum of social spaces from clubs to lounges and public events that have been critical to preserving Black cultural heritage and creating safe spaces for belonging and flourishing. Selected readings and viewings will supplement movement practice to give historical, cultural, and political context.

Instructor(s): M. McNeal     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 23620, CHST 26290, TAPS 36290, RDIN 36290, MUSI 33620, RDIN 26290

TAPS 27350. Production in Chicago Theater. 100 Units.

Production in Chicago Theater offers an in-depth exploration of the many departments that collaborate to create a theatrical production. Combining hands-on experience with theoretical study, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the creative, technical, and organizational processes involved in live performance. Through practical assignments and expert-led discussions, students will engage with key areas such as set design, lighting, sound, costumes, props, stage management, and production management. We will examine the history, theories, and practices behind each department while providing opportunities for real-world production experience, fostering collaboration, problem-solving, and project management. By the end of the course, students will have a well-rounded perspective on the complexities of theatrical production and an appreciation for the collective effort required to bring a performance to life.

Instructor(s): A. Borges     Terms Offered: Winter

TAPS 27440. Projection Design & Technology. 100 Units.

In contemporary performing arts, projection design is more integral than ever, enhancing immersive experiences and challenging traditional staging conventions. This course explores the projection designer's process on projects including drama, opera, dance, musical theater, and themed entertainment. Students investigate, discuss, and prepare for the design challenges found in each unique production environment. We will emphasize integrating imagery and video in a theatrical context as well as installation work. Students will become familiar with the most common varieties of projection design equipment and software-including Adobe Suite as well as playback software for theater including Qlab and Isadora, and will learn standard procedures and practices for a projection designer. Final projects will culminate with a live projection mapping presentation.

Instructor(s): R. Davonté Johnson     Terms Offered: Spring

TAPS 27550. Costume Design and Technology for the Stage. 100 Units.

In this course, students will learn the basics of designing costumes for theatrical productions, encompassing the skills of theatrical rendering and sketching, as well as the implementation of the design and basic sewing techniques. Students will learn to adopt a vocabulary using the elements and principles of design, understand and experience the process intrinsic to producing costumes for the theater, analyze the production needs related to costumes, and prepare a finalized costume design for a theatrical production.

Instructor(s): N. Rohrer     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 24554

TAPS 27850. Immersive Sound Design for Live Performance. 100 Units.

In film, sound design is expressive, immersive, and dense, but once complete it's fixed in time forever. This course will explore ways to translate the technical and narrative approaches of cinematic sound design to the dynamic context of live performance (dance, theater, puppetry, etc.). Using a variety of tools and practices from Ableton Live to field recording, students will learn how to create cinematic sonic experiences that are responsive to and imbued with liveness. Final projects will culminate in an evening of live sound-based performances.

Instructor(s): B. Kaufmann     Terms Offered: Spring

TAPS 28010. Stage Design: Worldbuilding. 100 Units.

Stage Design: Worldbuilding explores various forms and processes of designing scenery for live performance. Emphasizing a cohesive reading of text, contextual and historical research, and visual and thematic analysis, the course also covers the documentation required to realize a production. Students will learn how to create and present key deliverables including storyboards, models, drafting, and paint elevations. The course examines diverse approaches and aesthetics in theater, dance, opera, and devised work. Conversations with guest artists will illuminate personal and cultural aesthetics and assigned readings will introduce major trends in modern stage design.

Instructor(s): R. Davonté Johnson     Terms Offered: Autumn

TAPS 28050. Model Making: Sustainable and Creative Environments. 100 Units.

Explore how physical model making can be a tool for artists to envision, test, and manifest built environments. Students will create scale models using industry-standard scenic design tools, materials, and hands-on techniques as well as experiment with more environmentally responsible alternatives. Projects will be designed and built in response to theatrical texts and to changes we would like to see in our own homes and communities. Conversations and readings will highlight the role of artists in climate change discourse, which includes storytelling to inspire awareness, optimism, and change, and conceiving an ecologically conscious reality that can sustain future generations. The course will culminate in students presenting a complete physical scale model of an imagined space followed by peer critique.

Instructor(s): A. Mohn     Terms Offered: Winter

TAPS 28320. The Mind as Stage: Podcasting. 100 Units.

Audio storytelling insinuates itself into the day-to-day unlike other narrative forms. People listen to podcasts while they do the dishes, drive to work, or walk the dog. In this hands-on course, we will learn to produce a podcast from idea to final sound mix, and explore the unique opportunities that the podcast form affords the storyteller. Students will complete several short audio exercises, and one larger podcast project.

Instructor(s): S. Geis     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Attendance at first class session is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 38320, MADD 23820

TAPS 28330. Oral History & Podcasting. 100 Units.

This class explores the potential of the podcast as a form of ethical artistic and social practice. Through the lens of oral history and its associated values - including prioritizing voices that are not often heard, reciprocity, complicating narratives, and the archive- we will explore ways to tell stories of people and communities in sound. Students will develop a grounding in oral history practices and ethics, as well as the skills to produce compelling oral narratives, including audio editing, recording scenes and ambient sound, and using music. During the quarter, students will have several opportunities to practice interviewing and will design their own oral history project. This class is appropriate for students with no audio experience, as well as students who have taken TAPS 28320 The Mind as Stage: Podcasting.

Instructor(s): S. Geis     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 28330, MADD 23833, TAPS 38330

TAPS 28420. Goldoni. 100 Units.

This class is a close reading (in context) of some selected works by Carlo Goldoni, Italy's most prominent playwright of the eighteenth century. It includes discussion of Goldoni's so-called "reform" of Italian theater, whereby elements of Renaissance and Baroque comedy where refashioned to serve a prototypical bourgeois theater; and Goldoni's antagonism with Carlo Gozzi, promoter of a more exotic yet old-fashioned type of comedy. In the latter part of the course we will focus on the Goldoni-Renaissance in the twentieth century, spearheaded by renowned stage director Giorgio Strehler (1921-1997).

Instructor(s): R. Rubini     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 2025-26
Note(s): Taught in Italian.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 34100, ITAL 24100

TAPS 28470. Molière: Comedy, Power and Subversion. 100 Units.

Molière crafted a new form of satirical comedy that revolutionized European theater, though it encountered strong opposition from powerful institutions. We will read the plays in the context of the literary, dramatic, and theatrical/performance traditions which he reworked (farce, commedia dell'arte, Latin comedy, Spanish Golden Age theater, satiric poetry, the novel), while considering the relationship of laughter to social norms, with particular emphasis on sexuality, gender roles, and cultural identities.

Instructor(s): Larry Norman     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 2025-26
Prerequisite(s): FREN 20500 or FREN 20503.
Note(s): Taught in French.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 35000, FREN 25000, TAPS 38470, FNDL 25001

TAPS 28475. Introduction à la comédie: rire, société et genre. 100 Units.

In this introductory-level literature course we will study the evolution of French comedy from the seventeenth-century until today, probing issues such as the problem of laughter, theatricality and performance practices, and the depiction of social and political change. We will in particular study representations of gender from the Ancien Régime (Madame de Villedieu, Molière, Françoise de Graffigny), through the Revolution (Olympe de Gouges), and to twentieth-century experiments in queer performance (Genet) and biting social satire (Yasmina Reza).

Instructor(s): Larry Norman     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 2025-26
Prerequisite(s): FREN 20300.
Note(s): Taught in French. This is an introductory-level course.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 23180

TAPS 28476. Racine. 100 Units.

Racine's tragedies are often considered the culminating achievement of French classicism. Most famous for his powerful re-imaginings of Greek myth (Phèdre, Andromaque), his tragic universe nevertheless ranged considerably wider, from ancient Jewish queens to a contemporary Ottoman harem. We will consider the roots (from Euripides to Corneille) of his theatrical practice as well as its immense influence on future writers (from Voltaire to Proust, Beckett, and Genet).

Instructor(s): L. Norman     Terms Offered: Course not taught in 2025-26
Prerequisite(s): At least one French literature course, 21700 or higher.
Note(s): Course taught in French. All work in French for students seeking FREN credit; written work may be in English for those taking course for TAPS or FNDL credit.
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 25910, FREN 25910, TAPS 35910, FREN 35910

TAPS 28479. Theater and Performance in Latin America. 100 Units.

What is performance? How has it been used in Latin America and the Caribbean? This course is an introduction to theatre and performance in Latin America and the Caribbean that will examine the intersection of performance and social life. While we will place particular emphasis on performance art, we will examine some theatrical works. We ask: how have embodied practice, theatre and visual art been used to negotiate ideologies of race, gender and sexuality? What is the role of performance in relation to systems of power? How has it negotiated dictatorship, military rule, and social memory? Ultimately, the aim of this course is to give students an overview of Latin American performance including blackface performance, indigenous performance, as well as performance and activism.

Instructor(s): Danielle Roper     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 2025-26
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates must be in their third or fourth year.
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 29117, LACS 29117, GNSE 29117, GNSE 39117, LACS 39117, RDIN 39117, SPAN 39117, TAPS 38479, SPAN 29117

TAPS 28480. The Worlds of Harlequin: Commedia Dell'arte. 100 Units.

This course is an introduction to the Italian art of theatrical improvisation or commedia dell'arte, a type of theater featuring masked characters and schematic plots. We will look at the influence of Boccaccio's Decameron on the formation of stock-characters, the introduction of women into the realm of theatrical professionalism, the art of costume and mask making, and the Italian knack for pantomime and gestural expression. Readings include such masterpieces in the tradition of comic theater as Machiavelli's The Mandrake and Goldoni's Harlequin Servant of Two Masters, as well as their renditions in film.

Instructor(s): Rocco Rubini     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 2025-26
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 39601, ITAL 29600, TAPS 38480

TAPS 28702. Italian Comic Theater. 100 Units.

A survey of the history of Italian theater from the Erudite Renaissance Comedy to Goldoni's reform. We will pay particular attention to the tradition of commedia dell'arte (scenarios, stock characters, and plot formation), ancient and medieval influences, evolution and emancipation of female characters, and the question of language. Readings include works by Plautus, Ariosto, Machiavelli, Angelo Beolco (Ruzante), Flaminio Scala, and Goldoni. Toward the end of the course we will consider the legacy of Italian Comedy in relation to the birth of grotesque and realist drama in Pirandello.

Instructor(s): R. Rubini     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 2025-26
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 28702, ITAL 38702, TAPS 38702

TAPS 29800. Theater and Performance Studies BA Colloquium. 100 Units.

This two-quarter sequence is open only to fourth-year students who are majoring and/or minoring in theater and performance studies.

Instructor(s): D. de Mayo, J. Rhoads     Terms Offered: Autumn Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Note(s): 100 units credit is granted only after successful completion of the Winter term.