Repertory Theatre

Repertory Theatre Syllabus

IMPROVISATION

• TH:Pr4.1.II. a. Discover how unique choices shape believable and sustainable drama/ theatre work. 

THESPYS™

• PA630.Re7.1.II.a – Demonstrate an understanding of multiple interpretations of artistic criteria and how each might be used to influence future artistic choices of a drama/theatre work.​
• PA605.PR4.1.8.b – Use various character objectives and tactics in a drama/theatre work to overcome an obstacle.

PLAY/MUSICAL PRODUCTIONS

• TH:Pr6.1.II. a Present a drama/theatre work using creative processes that shape the production for a specific audience.​
• TH:Re8.1.II. a. Develop detailed supporting evidence and criteria to reinforce artistic choices, when participating in or observing a drama/theatre work. 
• TH:Cr2-II. b. Cooperate as a creative team to make interpretive choices for a drama/theatre work.

AUDITION by Michael Shurtleff​

• TH:Re8.1.II. c. Debate and distinguish multiple aesthetics, preferences, and beliefs through participation in and observation of drama/theatre work.

READING SCRIPTS

• TH:Re9.1.I.a. Examine a drama/ theatre work using supporting evidence and criteria, while considering art forms, history, culture, and other disciplines.​​
• TH:Pr4.1.II. b. Identify essential text information, research from various sources, and the director’s concept that influence character choices in a drama/theatre work.

THEATRE HISTORY

• ​TH:Cr2.I.a. Explore the function of history and culture in the development of a dramatic concept through a critical analysis of original ideas in a drama/theatre work.​​​

CRITIQUING

• TH.Re7.1.I.a - Respond to what is seen, felt, and heard in a drama/theatre work to develop criteria for artistic choices of a drama/theatre work.​

VOCABULARY

• TH:Re8.1.II. b. Apply concepts from a drama/theatre work for personal realization about cultural perspectives and understanding. ​

Quiz #1 - Semester 1

• DRAMATURG.     A literary adviser or editor in theatre, opera, or film who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and printed programs, and consults with authors or directors, and does public relations work.
• BIT PART.     An acting role with very few lines.
• CRITIC.     A specialist in evaluating plays.
• FOIL.     An acting role that is used for personality comparison, usually with the main character.
• LEADING ROLE.     The main characters in a play or musical.
• STOCK CHARACTER.     A character who displays the same characters traits in many different productions; i.e. the maiden, the flirt, the braggart, the soldier, etc. May have originated from com media dell'arte.
• STRAIGHT PART.     A role in which the actor and the character portrayed are similar in appearance and personality.
• WALK-ON.     A small acting part without speaking lines.
• UNDERSTUDY.     A person who learns a role and who can perform it in the absence of an actor.
• SIDEKICK.     A secondary lead, often a comic role and a friend to the lead.

 
Quiz #2 - Semester 1

• SAG-AFTRA.     The combined union of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of TV and Radio Artists to protects on-camera and voiceover artists.
• SUPPORTING ROLES.    An actor who performs a part in a play or film below that of the leading actor(s), and above that of a bit part. In recognition of important nature of this work, the theater and film industries give separate awards to the best supporting actors and actresses. These range from minor roles to principal players and are often pivotal or vital to the story.
• CASTING.     A pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra for a particular role or part in a theatrical production.
• GENRE.     A category of artistic composition, as in theatre, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.
• READERS THEATRE.     Form of theatre in which plays are read to an audience form a script and brought to life by thereaders' voices, facial expressions, and controlled movements.
• CHILDREN’S THEATRE.     Theatre written, designed, and performed for kids.
• MELODRAMA.     Plays based on romantic plots that have little regard of convincing motivation or detailed characterization andthat have the primary goal of keeping an audience involved using any means.
• FARCE.     A kind of comedy characterized by clowning, practical jokes, and improbably situations.
• CRITIQUE.     A detailed analysis and assessment of a theatrical performance. Often a written review of show, but sometimes an in-person complete evaluation of a performance.
• CRITICISM.     The analysis and judgment of the merits and faults of artistic work. This is the individual comments about the various parts of a work of art. It does not need to be negative.

 
Quiz #3 - Semester 1

•  ANTON CHEKHOV.     A Russian playwright who is known for writing The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, and Three Sisters.
• BETH HENLEY.      An American playwright and screenwriter known for her play Crimes of the Heart won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama,
• FRANK LOESSER.     An American songwriter who wrote the lyrics and music to the Broadway musicals Guys and Dolls and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won separate Tony Awards for the music and lyrics in both shows, as well as sharing the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the latter.
• GEORGE BERNARD SHAW.     An Irish playwright  whose major works include Man and Superman, Pygmalion, and Saint Joan. He was awarded the1925 Nobel Prize in Literature.
• GEORGE S. KAUFMAN.     An American playwright and theatre director who won the Pulitzer Prize for his play You Can't Take It With You and for his musical Of Thee I Sing. He also won the Tony Award for directing Guys and Dolls.
• HAROLD PRINCE.     An American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musicals of the 20th century, including ​Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, and West Side Story. He has won 21 Tony Awards, more than any other individual.
• IRVING BERLIN.     An American composer and lyricst who is widely considered one of the greatest songwritersin American history. He wrote Annie Get Your Gun and White Christmas.
• JASON ROBERT BROWN.     An American musical theatre composer and lyricist. An accomplished pianist, he has often served as music director, conductor, orchestrator, and pianist for his own productions. He has won Tony Awards for his work on Parade and The Bridges of Madison County.
• JERRY BOCK.     An American musical theater composer. He received the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the musical Fiorello! and the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist for the musical Fiddler on the Roof.
• JERRY HERMAN.     An American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. He has been nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles.

 
Quiz #4 - Semester 1 

• LANFORD WILSON.     An American playwright who helped to advance the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. He was one of the first playwrights to move from Off-Off-Broadway to Off-Broadway, then Broadway and beyond. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Talley's Folley. 
• LORRAINE HANSBERRY.     An African-American playwright who is known for writing A Raisin in the Sun. 
• MARSHA NORMAN.     An American playwright who won the Pulitzer Prize for her play, 'night Mother, and the Tony Award for the book and lyrics of The Secret Garden. She also wrote the libretto for The Color Purple and the book for The Bridges of Madison County.
• NOEL COWARD.     An English playwright known for plays such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter, and Blithe Spirit. 
• OSCAR WILDE.     An Irish poet and playwright who became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is best knows for writing The Importance of Being Earnest.
• SAMUEL BECKET.     An Irish novelist, playwright and theatre director, who is best known for writing bleak, tragicomic, black comedy with gallows humor. His famous plays include Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and Happy Days.
• THORNTON WILDER.     An American playwright who won three Pulitzer Prize awards. He is known for writing Our Town and The Skin of our Teeth.
• TOM STOPPARD.     A Czech-born British playwright who has won an Academy Award and four Tony Awards. He is known for writing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead as well as the film, Shakespeare in Love.
• TYRONE GUTHERIE.      An English theatrical director instrumental in the founding of the Stratford Festival and the Guthrie Theater.
• WILLIAM INGE.     An American playwright from Kansas he had a string of memorable Broadway productions including  Come Back Little Sheba, Bus Stop, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, and Picnic, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize. 

 
Quiz #5 - Semester 1 

• ANNIE GET YOUR GUN.     A musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin about the fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley, a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler.
• ANYTHING GOES.     A musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter that concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London with a stowaway, an heiress, an English lord, a nightclub singer, and Public Enemy #13.
• BIG RIVER.     A musical with music and lyrics by Roger Miller based on Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
• BYE BYE BIRDIE.     A stage musical with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams. It was inspired by the phenomenon of popular singer, Elvis Presley, and his draft notice in to the army.  
• CAMELOT.     A musical with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe about the King Arthur legend and the relationship between Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere.
• EVITA.     A musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice that concentrates on the life, acting career, rise to power, charity work, feminist activity and eventual death of Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentinian president Juan Perón.
• FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.     A musical with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. Based on Tevye and his Daughters, this musical centers on a father of five daughters and his attempts to maintain his family and religious traditions while outside influences encroach upon their lives.
• GREASE.     A musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey about 10 working class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of peer pressure, politics, personal core values, and love in the 1950's
• HELLO, DOLLY.     A musical with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman that follows the story of a strong-willed matchmaker, as she tries to find a match for a miserly and well-known unmarried wealthy man.
• HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING.     A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning musical by Frank Loesser based on book of the same name. The story concerns young man, who with the help of the book, rises from window washer to chairman of the board of the World Wide Wicket Company. 

 
Quiz #6 - Semester 1 

• JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.     A rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. The story is loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the last week of Jesus's life, beginning with the preparation for the arrival of Jesus and his disciples in Jerusalem and ending with the crucifixion. 
• KISS ME KATE.     A musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and the conflict on and off-stage between the show's director, producer, and star, and his leading lady. A secondary romance concerns another actress her gambler boyfriend who runs afoul of some gangsters.
• LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.     A horror comedy rock musical with music by Alan Menken and lyrics and a book by Howard Ashman. The story follows a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. 
• MAMMA MIA.     A jukebox musical based on the songs of ABBA composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, former members of the band. It is about an independent hotelier in the Greek island who is preparing for her daughter's wedding with the help of two old friends. The daughter invites three men from her mother's past in hope of meeting her real father.
• MAN OF LA MANCHA.     A musical with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion. It tells the story of the "mad" knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. 
• MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT.     A musical comedy composed by John Du Prez and Eric Idle with lyrics by Eric Idle. It is a highly irreverent parody of the Arthurian legend. 
• MY FAIR LADY.     A Tony Award winning musical based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns a cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from a professor so that she may pass as a lady. 
• NEWSIES.     A musical with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman about a homeless New York City newsboy who befriends two newcomers to his trade and a publisher who sets new rules that make it harder for the young newspaper salesmen to make a buck.  The boys go on strike with the aid of a journalist  who gives them some tips in public relations.
• THE KING AND I.     A musical composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is about the relationship between a British schoolteacher hired as part of a plan to modernize his country, and the ruler of Siam. It won the Tony Award for best musical, as well as winning a Tony Award twice for best revival of a musical.
• THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE.     An operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan about a young man, who having completed his 21st year, is released from his apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted pirates.

Quiz #1 - Semester 2  

• CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF.     A Pulitzer Prize winning play by Tennessee Williams set in a plantation home in the Mississippi Delta of a wealthy cotton tycoon. It examines the relationships between family members, primarily between his son tycoon's son and his wife
• CLYBOURNE PARK.     A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning  play by Bruce Norris written as a spin-off to Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun. It portrays fictional events set during and after the Hansberry play, and is loosely based on historical events that took place in the city of Chicago.
• CRIMES OF THE HEART.     A Pulitzer Prize winning play by American playwright Beth Henley about three sisters who reunite at their grandfather's home, after Babe shoots her abusive husband.
• DOUBT.     A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play by John Patrick Shanley about a fictional Catholic Church School, a beloved and progressive parish priest, and a rigidly conservative nun who suspects the father of sexual misconduct with the school's first African-American student.
• EVERYMAN.     A late 15th-century morality play that uses allegorical characters to examine the question of Christian salvation and what Man must do to attain it. The identity of the playwright of this play is unknown.
• GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS.     A Pulitzer Prize winning play by David Mamet that shows parts of two days in the lives of four desperate Chicago real estate agents who are prepared to engage in any number of unethical, illegal acts to sell undesirable real estate to unwitting prospective buyers. 
• LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT.     A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play by American playwright Eugene O'Neill about one day in the life of a family dealing with addiction and chronic illness.
• MEDEA.     An ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides about a wife who takes vengeance on her unfaithful husband by murdering his new wife as well as her own children.
• NIGHT MOTHER.     A Pulitzer Prize winning play by American playwright Marsha Norman about a daughter who calmly tells her mother that by morning she will be dead, as she plans to commit suicide that very evening.
• RAISIN IN THE SUN.      A play by Lorraine Hansberry that tells the story of a black family's experiences in Clybourne Park, a fictionalized version of the a Chicago neighborhood, as they attempt to improve their financial circumstances with an insurance payout following the death of the father.

 
Quiz #2 - Semester 2 

• RABBIT HOLE.     A Pulitzer Prize winning play written by David Lindsay-Abaire about the way a family survives the loss of a four year old child.
• TARTUFFE.     A comedy by Moliere about a falsely pious and penniless fool who has arranged to marry the daughter of a wealthy man, and the families attempt to kick him out. 
• THE ADDING MACHINE.     A play by Elmer Rice that focuses on an account at a large, faceless company, after he murders his boss when he discovers that he will be replaced by technology. It tells the story of his arrest, trial, execution, and excursion into the afterlife.
• THE CHERRY ORCHARD.     A play by Anton Chekhov about an aristocratic Russian landowner who returns to her family estate just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage.
• THE HEIDI CHRONICLES.     A play  by Wendy Wasserstein that follows a woman from high school in the 1960s to her career as a successful art historian more than twenty years later.
• THE HOMECOMING.     A play by Harold Pinter a play set in North London about five men who are related, and the wife of one of the men. The play concerns the woman and her husband return to England, which has distinctly different symbolic and thematic implications. 
• THE SHADOW BOX.     A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play written by actor Michael Cristofer. The play focuses on three patients who are coming to the end of their lives, and their respective families. They are part of a psychological program where they live within the hospital grounds and have interviews with a psychiatrist.
• WAITING FOR GODOT.     A play by Samuel Becket in which two characters wait for the arrival of someone who never arrives. 
• WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?     A play by Edward Albee that examines the complexities of a bitter and frustrated marriage of a middle-aged couple.
• ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD.     An absurdist, existential tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, that expands​ upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet. 

 
Quiz #3 - Semester 2 

• BOOK.     The script of a musical.
• CROSSOVER SCENE.     A short scene played in front of a drop or curtain while scenery is being changed.
• ENTR’ACTE.     Music that takes place between arts in a play.
• OVERTURE.     The music, usually a medley of the show's songs, played at the beginning of a musical.
• SCORE.     The music composed for a musical.
• PRODUCTION NUMBER.     A large-scale musical sequence involving many performers in lavish costumes; frequently a dance number.
• COLD READING.     Reading aloud from a script or other text with little or no rehearsal, practice or study in advance.
• TYPECASTING.     Assigning actors to roles based on their appearance.
• STANDBY.     A performer who is not in a show and whose sole responsibility is to cover for the lead if they are unable to perform.
• PREPARED AUDITION.     Rehearsed and/or memorized material that is presented to be selected for a theatrical production.

 
Quiz #4 - Semester 2 

• RESUME.     A brief typed account of qualifications and experiences in theatre.
• HEAD SHOT.     A photograph of an actor's face.
• POLISHING REHEARSAL.     When actors start running a theatrical performance and the director cleans small details.
• BLOCKING REHEARSAL.     Practices for planning stage movement.
• READING REHEARSAL.     A practice for learning and understanding the script.
• TECHNICAL REHEARSAL.     Running a show to practice lights, sound, scenic changes, and other elements of the show.
• WORKING REHEARSAL.     Practices where the director helps the actors craft their performances.
• GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES.     The specific details and conditions of a character's life, the play's setting, and the events that have led to the current scene, influencing the character's actions and motivations.  
• "AS IF"     An acting concept that refers to what an actor does when they perform the character's life from the perspective of what they would do in the same situation.
• MISE-EN-SCÈNE.     The arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a play.

 
Quiz #5 - Semester 2 

• OPEN.     The production is officially presented to the public as the final, polished version, with the cast, costumes, lighting, and sets all in place. 
• REGIONAL THEATER.      A professional or semi-professional theatre company that produces its own seasons. Typically refers to a professional theatre outside New York City. They are usually non-profit, commercial, union houses.
• REPERTOIRE.     A stock of monologues that an actor is prepared to perform for auditions.
• REPERTORY THEATER.     A residential theatre company that presents works usually in rotation where the same group of theatre artists create all elements of the production.
• PORTFOLIO.     A collection of theatrical work used by theatre artists to apply for admission to training programs or to seek employment, and to secure scholarships and grants.
• PEKING OPERA.     A form of Chinese drama that originated in the nineteenth century.
• PREVIEW.     A set of public performances that precede an official opening that allow the director to make adjustments based on an audiences' reactions.
• PAC.     A building or center that houses various performing arts like theatre, music, and dance. 
• COPYRIGHT.     The exclusive legal right given to a person who creates new material to authorize others to use their work in any form.
• THE HAROLD.     Long-form improv theatre that was developed by Del Close, Charna Halpern, and the Upright Citizens Brigade.

 
Quiz #6 - Semester 2

• OSLO.     A play by J. T. Rogers, recounting the true-life, previously secret, back-channel negotiations in the development of the pivotal 1990s Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
• THE HUMANS.     A play written by Stephen Karam set in run-down Manhattan apartment in Chinatown at Thanksgiving as a family deals with aging, illness, and a changing economy. 
• ALL THE WAY.     A play by Robert Schenkkan, depicting President Lyndon B. Johnson's efforts to maneuver members of the 88th United States Congress to enact, and civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr. to support, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 
• WAR HORSE.      A play based on the book of the same name by children's writer Michael Morpurgo, adapted for stage by Nick Stafford, about a boy and his beloved equine and the odyssey to bring him home during World War I.
• RED.     A play by John Logan about artist Mark Rothko in his New York studio in the 1950's and his ethical struggle with painting a group of murals that will be displayed in an expensive and exclusive restaurant. 
• GOD OF CARNAGE.     A play by Yasmina Reza about two sets of parents, one of whose child has hurt the other at a public park, who agree to meet to discuss the matter in a civilized manner, but results in the evening devolving into chaos. 
• THE COAST OF UTOPIA.     A trilogy of plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage, written by Tom Stoppard with focus on the philosophical debates in pre-revolution Russia between 1833 and 1866. 
• THE HISTORY BOYS.     A play by Alan Bennett about a boys' grammar school in the north of England in the early 1980s, that follows a group of pupils preparing for the Oxford and Cambridge entrance examinations under the guidance of three teachers with contrasting styles.
• I AM MY OWN WIFE.     A play by Doug Wright is an examination of the life of German antiquarian Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, born Lothar Berfelde, who killed her father as a young child and survived the Nazi and Communist regimes in East Berlin as a transgender woman.
• VANYA AND SONYA AND MASHA AND SPIKE.     A play by Christopher Durang about the relationships of three middle-aged single siblings that has elements which were derived from works of Anton Chekhov, including several character names, the play's setting in a cherry orchard, and the theme of the possible loss of an ancestral home.