This project-based class is for directors and actors engaged in the process and techniques of analyzing, exploring, and staging (original) works of theater. “Teams” of Director & Cast work in collaboration with corresponding courses for student playwrights and designers whose work has been chosen for participation in the Bennington Plays Festival. Directors will be chosen through a proposal / vetting process. Actors will be cast through audition. Projects will have a preferred running time somewhere between 20 -50 minutes.

In a laboratory atmosphere we will investigate the process of realizing a text’s dramatic potential and nurturing that potential through the use of various analysis and rehearsal techniques, designed to help bring a new play to life. Particular attention will be placed on developing strong skills of communication which allow for a vibrant collaboration between the actors and director, with the playwright as they continue to refine and develop their emergent scripts, and with the design team as they realize for the first time the world of this new play.

Everyone meets Wednesday afternoon with additional meetings on weeknights, to be determined.