Theater Arts Class Schedule | Spring 2026

3-3-6 units, HASS-A

 Students to join Theater Arts faculty and staff in the development of a fully-staged production for an audience in MIT's laboratory for the performing arts at W97. Students collaborate as performers, designers, writers, choreographers and technicians. Weekly rehearsals, design labs, and workshops introduce students to an array of rehearsal and performance techniques over the course of the term. Culminates in a public performance, open to students at all levels of experience. Each term evolves a different project which may include community-driven interventions, classical or contemporary plays, devised works, screenplays, musicals or other live performance events.  Enrollment limited.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Explores the actor's dramatic instincts with body, voice, imagination, language, and action. Studio exercises foster creative curiosity, improvisation, collaboration, and a sense of kinesthetic and spatial awareness. Develops communication skills and offers varied approaches to relating with self, ensemble, character, dramatic material, and audience. Limited to 20 per section.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Thorough exploration of the voice in the context of human communication, provides a progression of exercises designed to free, develop, and strengthen the voice — first as a human instrument and then as the actor's instrument. Explores a progression of voice work that begins with physical awareness and breathing, moving into breath awareness, discovery of the body as the source and amplifier of sound vibration, opens the vocal channel, and develops strength and range in creative expression. Uses historical speeches and heightened language text to expand use and freeing of voice and self. Subject may culminate in a public presentation. Final grade highly dependent on attendance. Students taking graduate version will complete additional assignments. Limited to 20; preference to Theater majors, minors, and concentrators who have pre-registered.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

Examines the theatrical event from the perspective of composition in a performance workshop. Studio exercises address the process of developing a theatrical work through an internalized understanding of compositional principles in theater. Examines physical action in time and space. Includes outside readings, videos, short essays, and in-class discussions. Provides the performer, director, choreographer, designer or writer opportunities to engage with large and small group ensembles in creation of theatrical events. Topics include image, motion, shape, repetition, gesture, and spatial relationship. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Preference to majors, minors, and concentrators. Admittance may be controlled by lottery.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

 Studio workshop introduces students to the collaborative artistic practice of directing for the theater, opera, and other live performance disciplines. Weekly sessions provide students the opportunity to develop innovative theatrical events through rigorous analysis of dramatic texts, social practices, musical scores and libretti, and other source materials. With a focus on collaboration, students conduct dramaturgical research, experiment with behavior and motion, create compositional studies, design interventions, and complete other scenographic exercises culminating in an end-of-semester presentation for an invited audience. Generative studio prompts are complimented by selected readings, field trips, interactions with guest artists, and video viewings. Students are encouraged to bring their own unique points of view and to celebrate difference. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Explores the realities of the body in space and motion - interacting with gravity, momentum, inertia, alignment, negative space, one's imagination, one's body, other bodies, the present room and rooms from memory, geometry, stillness, and more. By releasing tension and abandoning the notion of pre-planning, students experience a natural, spontaneous flow of movement, opening themselves up to, and diving into, whatever might happen. Develops alertness in order to work in an energetic state of physical disorientation, self-correcting what doesn't work and reinforcing what does on the spot, discovering physical/emotional truths and shared moments that leave students aware, centered, incredibly present, and sharply alive. Students taking graduate version will complete additional assignments. Limited to 20 per section.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

 Introduces the fundamental skills and concepts of scenography through a series of individual design projects structured to explore the relationship of the performer to the environment, the interrelation of lighting and stage design, and the evolution of visual narrative. Develops a basic visual literacy for the theater by honing skills in drawing, model building, 3-D modeling, digital image manipulation, and color theory. Projects complimented by study of artworks and theories by Cindy Sherman, Sol LeWitt, Alan Kaprow, Robert Wilson, Bertolt Brecht, Caspar Neher, and others. Lab fee required. Enrollment may be limited.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

 Explores drawing as a fundamental component of the design process. In-class drawing exercises focus on developing the hand-to-eye relationship and pre-visualization skills essential to any designer. Studies the use drawing as a route to understanding space and form and achieving accuracy through expression. By drawing figures, landscapes and/or still life compositions in a variety of media, students investigate the figure/ground relationship while dealing with tone, line, and composition, which are all requisite elements of design. Provides exposure to designers who have used drawing as a central component of their work. Students create a portfolio that includes in-class drawings, studies done outside of class, and one research-based written project. Lab fee required. Limited to 20.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

 Introduces the craft of writing for the theater, with special attention to the basics of dramatic structure. Through weekly assignments and in-class exercises, students explore character, conflict, language and plasticity in scenes and short plays. In workshop format, students present individual work for feedback and heavily revise their work based on that response. Readings include a variety of plays.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Students apply performance skills to embodying characters in scripted scenes. Studio work further develops dramatic instincts and creative expression of the actor's body, imagination, and voice. Introduces the challenges of synthesizing self, character, events, physical actions, and offers approaches to interpreting scripted material. Weekly rehearsals with a scene partner. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited to 20.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Laboratory-style class explores and invents techniques used to create dances. Students practice techniques focused on how and where to begin making a dance — sampling some of the endless ways to start a process, such as from the body, an idea, text, or a song — and then how to build up from there. Students make dances that are more than just a collection of moves, but events that do something, say something, or ask something. Builds a clear understanding of how a dance has an arc, a clear beginning, middle, and end, so that by doing it or watching it, both participants and audience end up somewhere new. Develops an understating of, and facility with, a wide variety of topics used to explore, start, and generate movement, dance, and performative events involving bodies moving through space. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Explores the history, concepts, and techniques of sculpting space with light within a contemporary context. Students experiment with a wide range of approaches, tools, and skills to develop their own creative vision. Focuses on discrete forms that include live performance, installation, architecture, and developments in applied technologies. Studio projects alternate between conceptual studies and realized designs reflective of students' own unique interests and talents. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Introduces the elements of a sound designer's work, such as music and sound effects which inform and make stage action plausible, to sound system design and placement and the use of microphones. Discusses how effective sound design enhances live performance by clarifying storytelling, heightening emotional experience, and making words and music legible to an audience. Provides students with the tools to continue practicing and appreciating the art regardless of their professional ambitions. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

 Students write and produce a pilot episode of a narrative podcast (about fifteen minutes in length); sources come from interviews or research that students conduct. At the start of the term, students pitch possible stories. Discussions of selected episodes of narrative podcasts such as Serial, Homecoming, and This American Life. Introduces the basics of podcast recording with a primer on using Logic Pro X and hardware like the Apogee Duet. Students record and edit a rough draft of their podcast using provided portable recording studio kits. Podcasts shared with the larger MIT community at the Podcast Listening Room at the end of term. Students taking graduate version complete alternate assignments. Enrollment limited.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

 Refines the student actor's investigation of languages of the stage, including work on heightened texts and physical presentations. Explores issues of creative expression and embodying character within styles of different theatrical traditions. Time periods and styles studied may differ from term to term and may include an open presentation. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

 Builds on skills and theories introduced in 21M.716, with the goal of expansion of the one-scene translation project from the previous class into a full-length play translation. Includes selected readings and continued weekly progress on the play translation project, in consultation with instructor. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

4-0-8 unitss, HASS-A

 Students workshop their full-length play completed in 21M.780/21M.781 as part of the MTA Playwrights Lab, a collaboration between MIT students and professional actors and directors. Each writer engages in note sessions with a director and prepares a rehearsal draft. Writers attend rehearsals for a staged reading of their work and collaborate with their director and cast. Writers are expected to participate in other readings in the Lab, as a stage direction reader and as an audience member. Following the public presentation of the play, students process the experience and complete a final revision of the script. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 10.

3-3-6 units, HASS-A

 Students to join Theater Arts faculty and staff in the development of a fully-staged production for an audience in MIT's laboratory for the performing arts at W97. Students collaborate as performers, designers, writers, choreographers and technicians. Weekly rehearsals, design labs, and workshops introduce students to an array of rehearsal and performance techniques over the course of the term. Culminates in a public performance, open to students at all levels of experience. Each term evolves a different project which may include community-driven interventions, classical or contemporary plays, devised works, screenplays, musicals or other live performance events.  Enrollment limited.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

 Refines the student actor's investigation of languages of the stage, including work on heightened texts and physical presentations. Explores issues of creative expression and embodying character within styles of different theatrical traditions. Time periods and styles studied may differ from term to term and may include an open presentation. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Thorough exploration of the voice in the context of human communication, provides a progression of exercises designed to free, develop, and strengthen the voice — first as a human instrument and then as the actor's instrument. Explores a progression of voice work that begins with physical awareness and breathing, moving into breath awareness, discovery of the body as the source and amplifier of sound vibration, opens the vocal channel, and develops strength and range in creative expression. Uses historical speeches and heightened language text to expand use and freeing of voice and self. Subject may culminate in a public presentation. Final grade highly dependent on attendance. Students taking graduate version will complete additional assignments. Limited to 20; preference to Theater majors, minors, and concentrators who have pre-registered.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

Examines the theatrical event from the perspective of composition in a performance workshop. Studio exercises address the process of developing a theatrical work through an internalized understanding of compositional principles in theater. Examines physical action in time and space. Includes outside readings, videos, short essays, and in-class discussions. Provides the performer, director, choreographer, designer or writer opportunities to engage with large and small group ensembles in creation of theatrical events. Topics include image, motion, shape, repetition, gesture, and spatial relationship. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Preference to majors, minors, and concentrators. Admittance may be controlled by lottery.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

 Studio workshop introduces students to the collaborative artistic practice of directing for the theater, opera, and other live performance disciplines. Weekly sessions provide students the opportunity to develop innovative theatrical events through rigorous analysis of dramatic texts, social practices, musical scores and libretti, and other source materials. With a focus on collaboration, students conduct dramaturgical research, experiment with behavior and motion, create compositional studies, design interventions, and complete other scenographic exercises culminating in an end-of-semester presentation for an invited audience. Generative studio prompts are complimented by selected readings, field trips, interactions with guest artists, and video viewings. Students are encouraged to bring their own unique points of view and to celebrate difference. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Explores the realities of the body in space and motion - interacting with gravity, momentum, inertia, alignment, negative space, one's imagination, one's body, other bodies, the present room and rooms from memory, geometry, stillness, and more. By releasing tension and abandoning the notion of pre-planning, students experience a natural, spontaneous flow of movement, opening themselves up to, and diving into, whatever might happen. Develops alertness in order to work in an energetic state of physical disorientation, self-correcting what doesn't work and reinforcing what does on the spot, discovering physical/emotional truths and shared moments that leave students aware, centered, incredibly present, and sharply alive. Students taking graduate version will complete additional assignments. Limited to 20 per section.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Introduces the elements of a sound designer's work, such as music and sound effects which inform and make stage action plausible, to sound system design and placement and the use of microphones. Discusses how effective sound design enhances live performance by clarifying storytelling, heightening emotional experience, and making words and music legible to an audience. Provides students with the tools to continue practicing and appreciating the art regardless of their professional ambitions. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

 Students write and produce a pilot episode of a narrative podcast (about fifteen minutes in length); sources come from interviews or research that students conduct. At the start of the term, students pitch possible stories. Discussions of selected episodes of narrative podcasts such as Serial, Homecoming, and This American Life. Introduces the basics of podcast recording with a primer on using Logic Pro X and hardware like the Apogee Duet. Students record and edit a rough draft of their podcast using provided portable recording studio kits. Podcasts shared with the larger MIT community at the Podcast Listening Room at the end of term. Students taking graduate version complete alternate assignments. Enrollment limited.

3-0-9 units, HASS-A

 Builds on skills and theories introduced in 21M.716, with the goal of expansion of the one-scene translation project from the previous class into a full-length play translation. Includes selected readings and continued weekly progress on the play translation project, in consultation with instructor. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Students workshop their full-length play completed in 21M.780/21M.781 as part of the MTA Playwrights Lab, a collaboration between MIT students and professional actors and directors. Each writer engages in note sessions with a director and prepares a rehearsal draft. Writers attend rehearsals for a staged reading of their work and collaborate with their director and cast. Writers are expected to participate in other readings in the Lab, as a stage direction reader and as an audience member. Following the public presentation of the play, students process the experience and complete a final revision of the script. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 10.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Students apply performance skills to embodying characters in scripted scenes. Studio work further develops dramatic instincts and creative expression of the actor's body, imagination, and voice. Introduces the challenges of synthesizing self, character, events, physical actions, and offers approaches to interpreting scripted material. Weekly rehearsals with a scene partner. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited to 20.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Laboratory-style class explores and invents techniques used to create dances. Students practice techniques focused on how and where to begin making a dance — sampling some of the endless ways to start a process, such as from the body, an idea, text, or a song — and then how to build up from there. Students make dances that are more than just a collection of moves, but events that do something, say something, or ask something. Builds a clear understanding of how a dance has an arc, a clear beginning, middle, and end, so that by doing it or watching it, both participants and audience end up somewhere new. Develops an understating of, and facility with, a wide variety of topics used to explore, start, and generate movement, dance, and performative events involving bodies moving through space. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited.

4-0-8 units, HASS-A

 Explores the history, concepts, and techniques of sculpting space with light within a contemporary context. Students experiment with a wide range of approaches, tools, and skills to develop their own creative vision. Focuses on discrete forms that include live performance, installation, architecture, and developments in applied technologies. Studio projects alternate between conceptual studies and realized designs reflective of students' own unique interests and talents. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited.