:format(webp))
Major: Bachelor of Arts
MajorOverview
The undergraduate program in Theater and Performance Studies aims to provide a robust, non-conservatory program that joins the study and practice of performance within the context of a liberal arts curriculum. The department gives students a firm grasp of historical, cultural, and practical contexts in which live performance develops. With close faculty contact, department majors pursue areas of interest that may include acting, directing, writing, dance, devised theater, design, stage management, performance theory, and cultural studies.
Requirements
Core Program Requirements
Core Requirement (4 units)
TAPS 1
Introduction to Theater and Performance Studies
Theater and Dance Studies (16 units)
TAPS 11
Introduction to Dance Studies
TAPS 11N
Dramatic Tensions: Theater and the Marketplace
TAPS 11Q
Art in the Metropolis
TAPS 26N
Can Beauty Save the World?: Climate Change and the Arts
TAPS 26Q
Climate Change and the Arts
TAPS 34N
Comedy and Power
TAPS 36
Dangerous Ideas
TAPS 40N
Family Drama: American Plays about Families
TAPS 100C
History of World Cinema III: Queer Cinemas Around the World
TAPS 101F
Close Cinematic Analysis: Poetic Cinema
TAPS 122P
Undergrad Performance Project
TAPS 139
Pacific Ocean Worlds: A Sea of Islands
TAPS 151
Dramaturgy
TAPS 151D
Ethical STEM: Race, Justice, and Embodied Practice
TAPS 152L
Nietzsche: Life as Performance
TAPS 153H
History of Directing
TAPS 153P
Black Artistry
TAPS 154G
Black Magic: Ethnicity, Race, and Identity in Performance Cultures
TAPS 155
Social Sculpture
TAPS 155A
Aura, AI, and Sports
TAPS 155W
The Wretched of the Stage
TAPS 160P
Performance Art
TAPS 165
Introduction to Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity
TAPS 167
Introduction to Greek Tragedy: Gods, Heroes, Fate, and Justice
TAPS 167H
The Avant Garde
TAPS 192A
AI Art, Performance, and Aesthetics
TAPS 250E
Exhibition/Performance: Identities on Display
TAPS 250J
Baldwin and Hansberry: The Myriad Meanings of Love
TAPS 255L
Critical Practice Lab
TAPS 255M
Indigenous Methodologies of Dance, Movement, and Other Ways of Knowing
TAPS 258
Black Feminist Theater and Theory
TAPS 260E
The Sacred at Hand
TAPS 264S
Race, Gender, Justice
HUMSCI 2
Dangerous Ideas
Practicum (18 units)
See Acting or Theater-Making section below for subplan-specific practicum options.
Electives
Electives (10 units)
All courses in TAPS and DANCE qualify as electives. Four units of ITALIC or SLE can also count as electives.
Writing in the Major (WIM)
Capstone
Capstone Experience
TAPS 200
Senior Project
During the senior year, students complete a senior project (also known as a "capstone") to fulfill the 60 units required for the major. .
All TAPS Majors must complete a Capstone Project that represents significant work in any area of theater and/or performance. The project must be an original contribution, such as directing a play, devising an original piece with a group, writing a script, choreographing a dance, designing a set, lights, or costume for a show, creating a solo, acting a significant role, writing an essay, or another creative enterprise agreed upon with advisors. Work for this project typically begins in the junior year’s spring quarter and must be completed by the end of the senior year. Students enroll in four units of TAPS 200 Senior Project during the quarter in which their capstone project takes place. Students pursuing capstone projects must submit an adviser-approved proposal to the Production Manager, to be approved by the Artistic Director and Director of Undergraduate Studies no later than the end of spring quarter of the junior year.
Subplans
RequiredActing Subplan
About the Acting Subplan
The Acting Subplan, also called the Acting Concentration, develops students’ skills in acting for the theater and related performance contexts. In practicum classes, students enhance their creative abilities under the guidance of teaching artists. Students also complete complementary coursework in theater and performance studies. They are encouraged to explore playwriting, directing, and/or devising to expand their exposure to central ideas and approaches in the field. Students in this concentration are encouraged to take the required courses TAPS 120A Acting I: Fundamentals of Acting, TAPS 121V Voice for the Actor, and TAPS 127 Movement for the Actor early in the major as a gateway for their further technique classes.
Acting Subplan Requirements:
Practicum (8 units)
TAPS 22AX
Theatre of the People: Performance Based Acting
TAPS 29
TAPS Production Units: Acting
TAPS 103
Beginning Improvising
TAPS 104
Intermediate Improvisation
TAPS 105
Advanced Improvisation
TAPS 120B
Acting II: Advanced Acting
TAPS 120M
Audition and Monologue
TAPS 122M
Main Stage Theater Project
TAPS 122P
Undergrad Performance Project
TAPS 122V
Voice II: Shakespeare and Greeks
TAPS 123V
Voice II: Dialects and the International Phonetic Alphabet (I.P.A.)
TAPS 124D
Acting for Non-Majors
TAPS 125S
Shakespeare Now! An Actor's Lab
TAPS 126S
Studio Performance Project
TAPS 127M
Masks for Performance: Essential Mask, Character Mask, and Commedia dell'Arte
TAPS 127P
The Spirit of Play
TAPS 127W
Introduction to Clown
TAPS 128W
Clown II: Advanced Physical Idiocy
TAPS 173
Making Your Solo Show
TAPS 183C
Interpretation of Musical Theater Repertoire
TAPS 184B
Topics on the Musical Stage
TAPS 184C
Dramatic Vocal Arts: Songs and Scenes Onstage
SINY 121
On Stage and Backstage: Navigating the Landscape of Professional Theater in New York -- Real Artists
Theater-Making Subplan
About the Theater-Making Subplan
The Theater-Making Subplan, also called the Theater-Making Concentration, develops students’ creative skills in theater-making. The theater-making concentration reflects the collaborative interdisciplinary nature of theater practice, with rich partnerships and dialogues between the crafts of directing, playwriting, producing, design, and stagecraft. Students learn skills to build original theater productions. The disciplines under this concentration offer a broad cross-section of theater-making skills and approaches. Students in this concentration are encouraged to take the required courses TAPS 30 Introduction to Theatrical Design and TAPS 101P Theater and Performance Making early in the major as a gateway for further studies.
Theater-Making Subplan Requirements:
Practicum (10 units)
TAPS 28
Makeup for the Stage
TAPS 31
Introduction to Lighting and Production
TAPS 42
Costume Construction
TAPS 44
Wigs & Hair
TAPS 100
Introduction to Theater Practice
TAPS 122M
Main Stage Theater Project
TAPS 122P
Undergrad Performance Project
TAPS 130A
Beauty in Light: The Aesthetics of Lighting Design
TAPS 130T
Lighting Design for Musical Theater
TAPS 131E
Lighting in Cinema
TAPS 131M
Light in Art & Architecture
TAPS 132
Costume Design
TAPS 132F
Costume in Film
TAPS 132S
Shopping, Styling, and the Culture of Costume
TAPS 133
Set Design
TAPS 133A
Set Design for Musicals and Opera
TAPS 134D
Drawing and Storyboarding for Theater and Film
TAPS 134F
Production Design for Film and TV
TAPS 134P
Scenic Painting
TAPS 134S
Prop Design for Stage and Screen
TAPS 135
Drafting in Vectorworks
TAPS 135D
Scenic Design and Model Building- With 3D Printers and Glowforge
TAPS 135P
Digital Rendering: Photoshop, Procreate and After Effects
TAPS 136J
Projection Design
TAPS 137E
ETC Eos Programming for Lighting Design
TAPS 138M
Magical Realism
TAPS 138P
Introduction to Puppetry: Object Performance in Theory and Practice
TAPS 170A
The Director's Craft
TAPS 170B
Theater Lab: Acting and Directing
TAPS 173
Making Your Solo Show
TAPS 177
Dramatic Writing: The Fundamentals
TAPS 178C
Dramatic Writing Workshop
SINY 121
On Stage and Backstage: Navigating the Landscape of Professional Theater in New York -- Real Artists
Up to four units of an acting class may also count toward this requirement.
With the approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies, students may be able to count a limited number of the following special research or independent study courses towards the practicum requirement: TAPS 39 - Theater Crew, TAPS 140 - Introduction to Projects in Theatrical Production, TAPS 190 - Special Research, TAPS 231 TAPS Production Units: Lighting Design TAPS 232 TAPS Production Units: Costume Design, TAPS 233 TAPS Production Units: Scenic Design, TAPS 235 TAPS Production Units: Dramaturgy
Honors
OptionalHonors
Honors Overview
For a select number of students, the department confers the Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Theater and Performance Studies degree. To qualify for departmental honors, students must meet the following requirements in addition to the other requirements of the TAPS major:
Applying to the honors program involves a written application, including a project proposal and transcript, which establishes the student’s work in the department and outlines the area of research that the student wishes to pursue. Students must have at least an overall university GPA of 3.3 and a 3.5 GPA in courses counting towards the major.
Students must have completed a significant portion of their major coursework before enrolling in honors. It is recommended that students take courses that have prepared them for advanced study in the proposed area of research.
Students enroll in TAPS 202 Honors Thesis, which is worth four units total. Students must enroll in this course each quarter during the senior year (one unit in autumn, one unit in winter, and two units in spring). It is graded S/NC (grade determined by the student’s advisor).
The honors thesis (described below) is due on May 15 in spring quarter and is double-marked by the primary advisor and one other Stanford faculty member.
Entry into the honors program does not guarantee an honors degree. The student’s thesis advisor makes the final decision to confer an honors degree upon evaluating the quality of the thesis.
Honors Thesis
There are two ways to undertake an honors thesis. The first is to write a 40-50 page essay, presenting research on an important issue or subject of the student’s choice. The second option is for students to use their involvement in a creative project as a case study. In this situation, the honors thesis critically analyzes the creative work. Typically, the creative project is the student’s capstone, but subject to the advisor’s approval, a student can write on a substantial creative project other than the capstone. This essay is shorter (about 30 pages) because the creative work constitutes part of the honors project. Students are expected to work consistently throughout the year with their advisor, whom they identify at the time of application. Advisors can be selected from Academic Council faculty or artists-in-residence. Lecturers can be asked to co-advise with an Academic Council faculty member.
Required Course for Students Pursuing Honors
TAPS 202
Honors Thesis