Requirements

Two people on stage throwing up their hands and releasing gold glitter.

Moderation Requirements

The program’s curriculum emphasizes courses in context and technique, ensuring that a strong foundation is built in the first two years of study. The following courses are required of all Theater and Performance students before Moderation: Introduction to Contemporary Performance, Introduction to World Theater Traditions, and Theater Making. Students must also take at least two of the following three courses as pre-Moderation requirements: Introduction to Playwriting: The Theatrical Voice; Introduction to Acting: The Actor and the Moment; and Introduction to Directing. Students participate in the creation and performance of a collaboratively created Moderation project in the context of the Theater Making class.

Beyond Moderation
After Moderation, students are required to take two electives in each of the three areas of study: context, technique, and creative practice and research (for a total of six courses). One of these should be a course designated Junior Practicum, and one elective can be substituted with participation in a faculty-or guest artist-led production. Students also complete a Senior Project, which may take the form of an original performance, production of an existing play or excerpted play, written play, or research paper.

Second Focus

Second Focus in Theater and Performance (five courses total):
- One of the following courses from the "Context" section of the Theater & Performance course list:
Introduction to Contemporary Performance
Introduction to World Theater Traditions

- Two of the three following courses from the "Technique" section of the Theater & Performance course list:
Introduction to Acting: The Actor and the Moment
Introduction to Playwriting
Introduction to Directing

- Two additional 200 or 300-level classes from any part of the Theater & Performance course list*

*Please note that Theater Making is the only course we cannot open to students who are not planning to moderate in T&P since it is the course directly linked to moderation.

Courses and Areas of Study

Senior Project

For the Senior Project, students choose from one of the following three categories:

Overview and Philosophy
The Theater & Performance Program encourages students to explore all aspects of the analytical,
interpretive, creative, and collaborative practice of the art form during their time at Bard. The
program supports and celebrates Senior Projects that take a wide variety of forms and artistic or
analytical approaches. We believe that collaboration and process are the central elements necessary in the creation of
any theatrical event.

The Senior Project is an opportunity for students to build on their work in T&P classes as well as
expanding into new roles and collaborative artistic journeys. A Senior Project should reflect a
student’s own artistic interests, and the trajectory of their study at Bard. For instance, if your
Senior Project will be a written play, you should take (or plan to take) an intermediate or upper-
level playwriting class, and if you will be directing, you should take a directing class. Your
advisor is available to you to discuss your plans, ideas, and goals.


Project Formats and Options
Senior Projects can take any of three formats, each beginning with a presentation in the Fall Work In Progress Festival (WIP):

  • 1) Performance Project
    Students may choose to create a performance based project as their Senior Project. Roles can take the form of: Playwright, Director, Designer, or Performer. Students would share a copy of their work product (script, design/research portfolio) along with a 15 page accompanying reflection paper. All students participate in the Fall WIP Festival, and students then may choose to participate in the Spring Senior Project Festival in LUMA, in which case they must team up with at least one other T&P senior, or can self-produce their performance projects elsewhere on campus. 
  • 2) Playwriting Project
    Students may choose to write a play as their Senior Project, along with a 2-3 page forward or afterward describing their inspirations and intentions.. A student who is writing a play as their Senior Project should prepare to share their work in the Fall WIP Festival (5 min). Advisers can guide the process of discovery through discussion.
  • 3) Research Project
    Students may choose to write a research paper or project on an element of theater or performance history or contemporary theater and performance. This can take the form of a 50-60-page paper, or other formats (such as a dramaturgy casebook or design portfolio) to be determined on an individual basis. Students pursuing this category should plan to present their research/thesis/designs in the Fall WIP Festival. (5 min). 
    Senior Project Guidelines
Recent Senior Projects in Theater and Performance
The Bacchae. Photo by Jacques Luiggi

Recent Senior Projects in Theater and Performance

  • Audience Patina: An Enmeshment of Architecture and Theater
  • Writing a Play, Creating a World: The Stars Come Out at Night
  • Love and Loss and Cake for Breakfast
  • Accommodation and Coping in Medieval Catholic England: A Historical Dramaturgy Casebook for The Chester Mystery Cycle’s Play 14: Christ at the House of Simon the Leper, Christ and the Moneylenders, and Judas’ Plot