at the University of Chicago

Program Description

Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities: David Bevington, G-B 510, 702-9899, bevi at uchicago dot edu

Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Theater and Performance Studies Option: Heidi Coleman, RC 304, 834-9153, coleman at uchicago dot edu

Theater and Performance Studies Administrator: Patti Lahey, RC 301,702-9315, plahey at uchicago dot edu

The Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS) option in ISHU seeks to animate the intersection of theory and practice in the arts. The program is multiply comparative, requiring that its students acquire facility in the practice of two media (e.g., theater, film, video, dance, music, creative writing) while gaining fluency in the critical analysis of those media. To this end, students receive training in both performance practice and analysis, acquiring the fundamental tools for artistic creation while developing a nuanced and sophisticated vocabulary with which to analyze creativity. In this way, the program aims to contest the ready separation of academic theory and artistic practice or, for that matter, theorists and practitioners.

The program is designed to be flexible (to afford students as much latitude as possible in pursuing their particular interests) and exacting (to guarantee the development of comparative practical skills and rigorous analytic capacities). Students should work closely with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and with the preceptor assigned to the program in order to shape an individual course of study that reflects the student's interests while fulfilling the program's interdisciplinary and comparative requirements. The student's faculty adviser on the B.A. project (see below) will provide additional direction during the senior year.

Program Requirements

Students in the ISHU-TAPS program must meet the following requirements:

(1) Six courses in theory and analysis, encompassing the history, theory, aesthetics, and analysis of theatrical and/or performance practice. These courses in the theory and analysis rubric may be selected from the ISHU-TAPS course offerings listed below or from related course offerings in the College. Ideally, at least four of these courses will be taken from members of the faculty or resource faculty in TAPS. Course selection is subject to the approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

(2) Six courses in artistic practice. Of these, no more than four will include the student's primary medium; at least two will include a qualitatively different medium. Many of these courses will be found in the practical course offerings of ISHU-TAPS listed below, as well as the course offerings in the Committee on Cinema and Media Studies, the Committee on Creative Writing, the Department of Visual Arts, and the Department of Music, among others. Students may need to supplement these course offerings with individually designed "reading" courses. Here, too, the student undertakes course selection in consultation with, and subject to the approval of, the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

(3) Two courses devoted to the preparation of the B.A. project to be taken in the student's fourth year.

Critical Paper. As the first step in completing the program's B.A. requirements, students must complete a critical paper that will presumably become the foundation for the fourth-year performance project. Students must complete this paper by Winter Quarter of their fourth year.

B.A. Project. As the culmination of an undergraduate program combining aesthetic theory and practice, B.A. projects in Theater and Performance Studies will encompass both performance (e.g., directing a play, choreographing a dance performance, shooting a film) and analysis (e.g., B.A. paper).

B.A. project proposals are selected by the student in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies, subject to the approval of the Chair of the Theater and Performance Studies Option, and supervised by a faculty member. Selecting a B.A. project adviser from the core and resource faculty in ISHU-TAPS is encouraged but not required.

A preceptor (typically a graduate student with special expertise in theater and performance studies) assigned to the program will serve as a supplementary adviser for all B.A. projects, working with students on the mechanics of writing and providing tutorial assistance.

The problems addressed and encountered in the B.A. project will be further explored in the ISHU-TAPS B.A. Colloquium taken during the student's fourth year. Deadlines for the B.A. project, assuming spring graduation date, are as follows: a completed draft of the creative project by the end of Winter Quarter, the final draft by Friday of fifth week in Spring Quarter for honors consideration, Friday of eighth week in Spring Quarter for graduation.

Summary of Requirements

6	theory and analysis courses
6	artistic practice courses
2	courses encompassing supervision of a B.A. project (ISHU 29800 and 29900)
14	total

Application. Students wishing to enter the program should consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Spring Quarter of their first year or as soon as possible thereafter. Students must apply to the program by the end of their second year or, in extraordinary circumstances, no later than the end of Autumn Quarter of their third year. Participation in the program must be declared to the Director of Undergraduate Studies before registration.

Grading. All courses in the major must be taken for a quality grade.

Honors. Eligibility for honors requires an overall cumulative grade point average of 3.25 or higher, a GPA of 3.5 or higher in the courses taken for the Theater and Performance Studies major, and a B.A. project that is judged by the first and second readers to display exceptional intellectual and creative merit.

TAPS Faculty

D. Bevington (Emeritus), H. Coleman, J. Comaroff, T. Gunning, D. J. Levin, L. Norman, D. N. Rudall, D. Rutherford, H. Sinaiko, M. Stokes

TAPS Resource Faculty

L. Kruger, L. Letinsky, W. Mazzarella, C. Mazzio, J. Zeitlin

TAPS Lecturers

T. Burch, P. Pascoe, D. Stearns, T. Trent