Performance and Communication Arts
Major and minor offered
The curricular and extra-curricular activities of the department of performance and communication arts (PCA) are guided by a number of fundamental assumptions:
• all performances are acts of communication, and all acts of communication are performances;
• all humans communicate, and all humans -perform;
• performance entails not merely the disingenuous act of faking but more important the creative and constructive act of making;
• communication entails not merely the transmission and reception of messages but more important the community-inducing communion among humans that the transmission and reception of messages makes possible;
• performance and communication are not just acts in which humans sometimes engage but rather the fundamentally humanizing acts that shape who we are and how we negotiate our relationships with others and with the material world in which we live; and
• examination of the basic components of performance and communication theory, when coupled with repeated practice in the art of shaping performances and engaging in communicative acts, enables students to become more effective and ethical producers and more discriminating and critical consumers of performances and other communicative behaviors.
Theater studies engages students in critical inquiry into previous performances and previous performance texts, as well as artistic engagement with the craft of producing original texts and performances. Performance studies, a broader term, includes theater studies, but also encompasses a broader array of performance behaviors, including (among others) the performance of gender; the performance of self in everyday life; the performance of texts other than plays; ritual performances; and political performances, both mainstream and activist.
Rhetorical studies focuses on the use of symbols to alter attitudes and induce others to act in a particular manner. Students engaged in rhetorical studies are challenged to critically examine previous attempts at persuasion, as well as to enter creatively into the production of original persuasive messages. Communication studies, a broader term, includes rhetorical studies, but also encompasses a broader array of communication behaviors in a wider variety of contexts, including among others interpersonal, small-group and intercultural communication.
In addition to regular course offerings, the department also regularly sponsors public events, including faculty-directed productions, student-directed productions, showcases and performance hours, faculty and guest lectures, and a variety of workshops related to the intellectual and artistic mission of the department. These events are designed to serve multiple purposes (e.g. to entertain, to inform, to celebrate, to critique, to provoke) and multiple constituencies (e.g., departmental majors and minors, particular communities within the University, the University at large and the North Country community). All events are free and open to the public, and we encourage participation in the shaping and mounting of the department’s season of events.
Learning Goals
The department’s curriculum is designed to enhance students’ competency in seven specific areas:
• Reading texts (with “texts” broadly defined to include written and oral texts, as well as visual and physical texts). Before graduating, majors must demonstrate the ability to attribute reasonable meanings to texts, as well as an understanding of why they attribute the meanings they do to texts.
• Creativity. Before graduating, majors must demonstrate the ability to engage in creative problem-solving strategies and a facility in creative expression.
• The production of knowledge. Before graduating, majors must demonstrate an understanding of what inquiry entails, the ability to initiate and successfully pursue a line of inquiry, and an understanding of knowledge as constructed, embodied in individuals, and embedded within larger structures of power that value different types of knowledge differently.
• Audience-centered performance/communication. Before graduating, majors must demonstrate the ability to analyze an audience accurately and to adapt messages and performance/communication strategies to meet the exigencies of particular audiences.
• Solo and collaborative endeavors. Before graduating, majors must demonstrate the ability to conceive and execute a solo project and the ability to collaborate successfully with others.
• Critique and self-reflexivity. Before graduating, majors must demonstrate the ability to respond critically to others’ work in a manner that is informed, informative, constructive and humane, as well as the ability to engage in sustained and meaningful assessment of their own work and the processes involved in the generation of that work.
• Communication and performance ethics. Before graduating, majors must demonstrate an understanding of the responsibility communicators/performers have to themselves, their audiences and society; the ability to interrogate the ethics underlying the communication/performance of others’ texts; and the ability to construct/communicate/perform texts in an ethical and responsible manner.
While some departmental courses address all of these competencies, most focus sustained energy on enhancing a few of them. The department assumes that growth is incremental, occurring over the course of the student’s completion of the major or minor.
Major Requirements
Most students who major in the department begin with an interest in one of the two broad areas of inquiry described above: theater/performance studies or rhetoric/communication studies. The department’s major is designed to enable students to pursue that interest passionately and in depth. However, we are also committed to a philosophy that emphasizes both depth and breadth of study; accordingly, the curriculum requires majors to enroll in courses that span the various areas of inquiry. Thus, majors explore the rhetorical and communicative dimensions of performance and the performative dimensions of rhetoric and communication.
Majors choose one of the two areas as their primary area of concentration and the other as their secondary area of concentration. Eleven courses are required to complete the major. Fulfillment of the major requires the following:
1. Majors must take six courses in their primary area
of concentration, at least two of which must be introductory
courses and at least four of which must be advanced courses.
Introductory courses in rhetoric/ ommunication
studies include:
111.
Rhetoric and Public Speaking.
126.
Persuasion: Analyzing Rhetorical Texts.
127.
Introduction to Communication Studies.
212. Special
Topics in Rhetoric/ Communication
Studies.
221. Intercultural
Communication.
Introductory courses in theatre/performance
studies include:
103.
Stagecraft.
107.
Beginning Acting.
113.
Introduction to Performance Studies.
125.
Introduction to Dramatic Scripts.
202.
Sound for the Stage.
204.
Costume History and Construction.
213. Special Topics in Theater/Performance Studies
215.
Dramatic Texts in Context.
223.
Playwriting.
255.
African-American Drama.
Advanced courses in rhetoric/ communication
studies include:
211.
Advanced Public Speaking.
216.
Argumentation and Debate.
222. Interpersonal
Communication.
225. Peer Mentoring in Rhetoric and Communication
312.
Special Topics in Advanced Disciplinary Texts.
315.
Gender and Communication.
316.
Communication Theory. .
322.
Native American Oral Traditions.
326.
American Public Address.
329.
Rhetoric of Social Movements.
330. Ritual
Studies.
331. Presidential
Campaign Rhetoric.
Advanced courses in theatre/ performance
studies include:
203.
Stage Lighting.
207.
Characterization.
209.
Acting Styles.
214.
Group Performance.
270. Collaboration
Across the Arts.
309.
Directing.
313.
Special Topics in Advanced Disciplinary Practice.
319,320.
Shakespeare.
322.
Native American Oral Traditions.
323.
African Drama.
324.
Elizabethan/Jacobean Drama.
327. Drama
By and About Women.
330.
Ritual Studies.
338.
20th-Century Avant-Garde.
340.
Performance Art.
355.
Studies in World Dramatic Literature.
437. Contemporary
British Theatre. (London)
2. Majors must take three courses from the above list for their secondary area of concentration, at least one of which must be an introductory course and at least two of which must be advanced courses. While a few courses appear in both areas of concentration, students are not allowed to “double dip” — that is, all courses must be designated as fulfilling a course requirement in one of the two areas of concentration.
3.
Majors must complete a seminar in disciplinary methods
during their junior year. This course will culminate in
the production of a senior project proposal, which will
be reviewed by the department as a whole.Majors will
not be allowed to enroll in 489/490, Senior Project, or
498/499, Honors Senior Project, until the department approves
their project proposals. When submitting proposals, students
should designate whether they wish to be considered for
enrollment in 498/499. The department will determine which
proposals warrant enrollment in 498/499, Honors Senior
Project.
4. Majors
must complete either 489/490,
Senior Project, or 498/499, Honors Senior Project. Students
enrolled in 489/490 are assigned a senior project advisor
who is solely responsible for overseeing the execution and
evaluation of the project. Students enrolled in 498/499 are
assigned a three-person senior project committee, one of
whom will be designated as the student’s primary
senior project advisor, with the other two serving as readers.
Students enrolled in 498/499 must orally defend their senior
project.
Minor Requirements
Minors choose one of the two areas — rhetoric/communication studies or theater/performance studies — as their primary area of concentration and the other as their secondary area of concentration. Fulfillment of the minor requires the following:
1. Minors must take four courses in their primary area of concentration, at least two of which must be introductory courses and at least two of which must be advanced courses;
2. Minors must take two courses from the above list from their secondary area of concentration, at least one of which must be an introductory course and at least one of which must be an advanced course. While a few courses appear in both areas of concentration, students are not allowed to “double dip” — that is, all courses must be designated as fulfilling a course requirement in one of the two areas of concentration.
Electives
In addition to the courses listed above that fulfill major
and minor requirements, the department also offers the
following electives which do not count for major or minor
credit:
100. Beginning Ballet.
101. Production Credit.
200. Intermediate Ballet.
226. Introduction to Japanese Drama.
244. Techniques of Screenwriting.
300. Advanced Ballet.
306. Advanced Screenwriting Workshop.
400. Independent Study in Ballet.
480. Independent
Study.
Honors
To graduate with honors, a major must maintain
a 3.5 GPA in the department and a 3.0 GPA overall, the major’s
senior project proposal must be approved for enrollment in 498/499,
Honors Senior Project, and the student must earn at least
a 3.5 in 498/499.
Associate Professors
Rebecca C. Daniels, B.A., Stanford; M.F.A., Portland;
Ph.D., Oregon
Associate Professor of performance and communication arts
Co-Chair of the department
Kirk Wayne Fuoss, B.S., Baylor; M.A.,
North Carolina/Chapel Hill; Ph.D., Louisiana
Associate Professor of performance and communication arts
Co-Chair of the department
Randall T. Hill, B.A., M.A., Chapel Hill;
Ph.D., Louisiana
Associate Professor of performance and communication arts
Co-Chair of the department
Andrea J. Nouryeh, B.A., Wisconsin; M.A.,
Columbia; Ph.D., New York
Associate Professor of performance and communication arts
Assistant Professors
Traci Fordham-Hernandez (co-chair), B.A., M.A., Wisconsin;
Ph.D., Syracuse
Assistant Professor of performance and communication arts
Co-Chair of the department
Ann Marie Gardinier Halstead, B.A., LeMoyne College;
M.F.A, Virginia Commonwealth University
Assistant Professor of performance and communication arts
Visiting Professor
Zachary A. Dorsey, B.A., University of Washington; M.A., Ph.D., Texas at Austin
Production Manager/Lighting
Designer
John C. Larrance
Costume Shop Supervisor
Selina French
