Theater, Dance, and Media Offers Mix of Courses

UPDATED: January 26, 2016, at 1:25 p.m.

With a new slate of sophomore concentrators, the undergraduate degree in Theater, Dance, and Media will offer 12 courses this spring that span a spectrum of acting, dancing, and directing.

Courses include tutorials and more niche offerings, such as a movement lab, a scenography course, and a course on Argentine tango. Officially launched in October, the new concentration offered 13 courses in the fall semester. Five sophomores declared TDM as their concentration in November, following two juniors who had already declared earlier. According to English professor Martin Puchner, who chairs the TDM concentration committee and led the program’s development, TDM now has 13 concentrators.

Chair of the Committee on Dramatics Prof. Martin Puchner, left, and graduate students Tarryn Li-min Chun, center, and Elizabeth M. Phillips, right, attended an open forum on the future of theater at Harvard in April. By Y. Kit Wu

The concentration strives to integrate both the academic and practical perspectives across the three disciplines that comprise the field of study, according to program affiliates.

Deborah D. Foster, the director of undergraduate studies for TDM, emphasized the applicability of the courses beyond the stage or screen.

“The instructors are working very hard to direct students to think with the practice they are using to investigate what theater, dance, and media forms actually produce in terms of knowledge, resources, and personal expression about what’s going on in the world,” she said.

TDM 120: “What’s So Funny? Introduction to Improvisational Comedy” was a popular course scheduled on Monday, with around 130 students auditioning for 14 spaces. Dramatic arts lecturer Remo F. Airaldi, the course’s instructor, stressed the usefulness of the skills learned through improvisation for success outside of the classroom.

“We are going to be studying comedy and collaboration,” Airadi said. “It’s deceptive because it’s not so much about comedy as it is collaboration, which can be applied to any field.”

Puchner echoed TDM’s common theme: the intersection of the different artistic disciplines in an attempt to understand their impact on society.

“We’ve said from the beginning that we present traditional theater and dance course,” Puchner said. “But we are really interested in is connecting these three. We don’t want them to be silos.”

Several concentrators said they already see the benefits of this integrated approach in the classes they have shopped this semester.

“It has something for those who are interesting in the academic side and the performative,” Eliza B. Mantz ’18 said of the required sophomore tutorial, taught by Puchner. “[It’s] combining seminar based discussions with performances, thinking not only about what it means but also why and how.”

Despite the curricular emphasis on combining both theoretical and practical perspectives to theater, dance, and media, some concentrators said there is still room to achieve a greater balance between the approaches.

“TDM listed courses are practiced based,” TDM concentrator Sam A. Hagen ’18 said. “I hope it will change. I hope there will be more theory-based.”

Foster admitted the concentration is in its beginning stages, and said administrators may continue to refine the class offerings to better reflect the concentration's goals.

“The more a student has the experience of being engaged in this complicated social, intellectual practice the better prepared they are for the world,” Foster said.

—Staff writer Brittany N. Ellis can be reached at brittany.ellis@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @britt_ellis10.