Contemporary Women Playwrights In this course we will read and discuss the work of the most influential and interesting American and European playwrights from the 1980s to the present. Authors will include: Maria Irene Fomes, Caryl Churchill, Suzan-Lori Parks, Adrienne Kennedy, Ntozake Shange, Judith Thompson, and Naomi Wallace. Issues of race, class, and gender will be closely examined. Readings will include selections from performance and feminist theory.

Contemporary Women+ Playwrights In this course we will read and discuss the work of influential contemporary American playwrights from the late twentieth century to the present. Authors will include Maria Irene Fomes, Ntozake Shange, Lynn Nottage, Larissa Fasthorse, Martyna Majok, and others. Issues of race, class, and gender will be closely examined. Readings will include selections from performance and feminist theory.

Fall Production Studio: Acting The cast works as part of a company interpreting, rehearsing, and performing a play. Those receiving credit can expect to rehearse four to six nights a week. Appropriate written work is required. Participation in the course is determined by auditions held the previous term.

Acting I: Beginning Acting Rigorous physical and psychophysical exercises attempt to break through the cultural and psychological barriers that inhibit an open responsiveness to impulses, to the environment, and to others. Attempt is made to free personal response within improvised scenes and, eventually, within the narrative structure of a naturalistic scene. Attention is given to various theories of acting technique. Students are expected to audition for departmental shows.

Devising, Directing and the Actor-Creator Devised theatre is the practice of creating original theatrical works without reliance on a formal script. It draws from ensemble theater techniques, physical theater, and improvisation. In this course, students will create increasingly complex performances from a variety of sources including movement, text, and the visual arts. Techniques from the physical theater, including Viewpoints and LeCoq training, will serve as the foundation for the course. Students will explore multiple roles in the devising theater process, including directing and performing, while developing skills as multi-hyphenate theatrical artists. Coursework will include readings and research on contemporary devising and experimental theatre companies.

Acting III: Scene and Monologue Study Designed primarily for majors who have had experience on stage or have otherwise demonstrated a serious interest in performance. The skills introduced in Acting I and Acting II are given intensive application to different kinds of dramatic texts, primarily realistic in nature. Attention will be given to expanding the performer's range of emotional and intellectual expressiveness.

Directing I: Beginning As a group, students will analyze one or two plays to discover the process involved in preparing a script for production. Attention will be given to production and design concepts, textual values, auditions, rehearsals, and the structuring of a performance in time and space. Students will also cast and direct one or more scenes to be worked on and performed in class. The practical work is combined with written analysis.

The Plays of Station Eleven This course will provide a study of theatrical literature through an interrogation of the specific ways live performance and the human body inform meaning in text-based theatre. We will begin with a reading of the novel Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, the plot of which centers around a traveling troupe of actors performing plays after a plague. After studying the novel and subsequent television series, we will begin a deep reading of the plays depicted within the story, including Shakespeare’s King Lear and Hamlet. Following these tragedies, we will read modern plays that explore different forms, themes, styles, and methods of theatre-making, again led by the evocations of post-pandemic performance. Contemporary plays will include Jonathan Payne’s The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll’d, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Liz Duffy Adams’ Dog Act, Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, Caridad Svich’s Twelve Ophelias, and Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play.

The Creative Process In this course, students will have the opportunity to dig deeply into their own creativity and explore the processes by which ideas emerge and are given shape in the arts. The experiential nature of this course integrates cognition and action, mind and body.  Students will engage in a range of modes of discovering, knowing, and communicating, which are designed to push them beyond their present state of awareness and level of confidence in their creative power.  Practical work will be closely accompanied by readings and journaling, culminating with the creation and performance of a short project.

Theatre History Using the dramatic text as the primary focus, this course will chart the progression of theatre from its ritualistic origins to the advent of modern drama. This survey will include an overview of theatrical architecture, the evolution of design and acting styles, and the introduction of the director. Since theatre does not exist in a void, a consideration of the social, cultural, political, and scientific milieu of each era studied will be included in the course. 2 1/

Michole Biancosino

Reviews and ratings for Michole Biancosino at Middlebury College.Michole Biancosino teaches Contemporary Women Playwrights, Contemporary Women+Playwrights, Fall Production Studio: Acting and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Michole Biancosino good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

I had a great experience in Michole's class. We did lots of effective and fun improv activities in class. Towards the beginning of the semester we had more readings/responses for homework and towards the end it was more so working on memorizing and workshopping scenes and monologues. Overall, this class was something I looked forward to every week, and I will miss it next year. I would highly recommend this class to anyone who is interested in acting. 

I really love this course! Michole is very passionate about devising and knows how to warm people up to express themselves through movements and interactions. The readings were very inspiring, and I never found them to be a burden - it was some styles of theatre that I haven't encountered yet. It's a great course if you feel like moving around :)

This course was extremely manageable. Mainly, all journals are extremely brief and easy to complete. The projects are manageable and interesting. The course requires you to be bought in to the material.