Notes: Everyone needs to communicate a story with clarity, energy and passion but it is still the #1 fear most people have: getting up in front of a group and selling it. This course will teach you the tools actors employ to inspire, provoke, motivate and excite your listener. Learn how to turn nervous energy into useful, clear communication with confidence. Everyone is born with a natural, expressive voice and this course will help you find it again through fun, practical application of speaking techniques that work for anyone who wants to be heard.

Notes: This course considers the dramatic representations of sexuality found within contemporary theatre, film, and popular culture. There are no prerequisites to enrolling in this course and students from every discipline are welcome. This course examines the representations of sexuality found within contemporary theatre and culture. We will consider the variety of dichotomies which sexuality presents such as masculine/feminine, heterosexual/homosexual, purity/corruption, and deviant/normal. We will explore sexuality as a conceptualization defined by history and politics with social, psychological, and cultural implications. We will question the politics involved in regulating and normalizing sexuality through laws, the media, and institutions such as religion. Finally, we will consider the aesthetic implications of sexuality as portrayed in the drama we discuss.

Notes: Music in contemporary film today represents the most important point of contact for many people with the great symphonic musical traditions that underpin Western musical culture and also (for good and bad) serves as a primary point of contact for the music and culture of non-Western peoples. Films are also filled with popular music, and the intersection of music and image does important work in creating our image of ourselves as a people, giving us common references that are essential for a vibrant culture. The great irony of film music is that, for a long time and still in many cases, film scores were designed to be almost unheard. Music slips in and out of the narrative, usually without drawing our attention. It is for this reason that the early film composers were much maligned by their art music contemporaries. Even now, when the scholarly study of film music is relatively common, many people simply do not hear the wonderful things going on in the score. Therefore, we will begin by re-learning how to listen to film, how to hear what in places has been artfully concealed. Our focus will be on the music of Hollywood film, since its richness could never be exhausted by a single course. If you have interests in European cinema, Bollywood or other filmic traditions, you will get some exposure to them in this course and hopefully will feel inspired to look and listen to these films in a new and rewarding way.