What is action? What is character? What are gesture, timing, rhythm, and stakes? How do actors, playwrights, and directors collaborate to create an experience in space and time? This seminar offers theater artists the chance to examine their craft from the inside out. In the first half of this course, non-writers make up stories, non-actors act, and those who have never directed direct. We begin by exploring the energy in the body, focusing on stillness and release. We continue with physical exercises from both the eastern and western traditions leading into improvisation as a method for tapping the sources of true impulses. We consider the Viewpoints as a tool for creating kinetic compositions spontaneously in space. In the text analysis section, we study the expression of action and character through structure and dialogue. By midterm, everyone directs a short scene from Chekhov. At the same time, students learn to express character/action through costume, spatial, and sound design. In the second half of the term, the students direct and perform a series of scenes from one contemporary play. Directors and actors work together to rehearse, design, stage, and present a public performance of this event.