African American Drama In this course we will respectfully investigate African American performance and theatre history since the late 19th century by exploring works of playwrights such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Amira Baraka, Adrienne Kennedy, August Wilson, and Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins. We will also engage with theoretical essays by Alain Locke, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Patricia Hill Collins and more, that illuminate how, despite centuries of lethal stereotyping, the stage has been and continues to be a forum for self-representation, unification, resistance, and liberation. Guest artists will provide firsthand accounts in conversation with the students. Dramaturgical and critical responses to the materials will strengthen production interpretation and design skills.

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.

La Vida en Vermont: Reflections of the Migrant Community In this course we will engage with local migrant community members predominantly from Latin America to learn about their lives in Vermont. How do newcomers navigate different cultural landscapes? What do they miss of their homelands and where do they find resonance in New England? Materials such as El Viaje mas Caro The Most Costly Journey will provide historical and ethical foundations. Representatives from community partner organizations such as Addison Allies will support our understanding of local circumstances. Following interviews working with applied theatre skills, students will prepare staged readings to share the stories of migrant community resilience for English and Spanish speaking audiences. This course is a Public Humanities Lab; Spanish language skills welcome but not required.

Cultural Community Collaboration & Production In this course we will produce the fourth annual Día de Muertos Celebration. The Celebration culminates in a community procession amid altars and performances honoring the Day of the Dead (November 2nd), contextualized by advance workshops and activities. The scope of this project requires planning with partners throughout campus, including students, staff, and faculty, as well as with regional community members. This experiential course will be modeled on Project Based Learning, as goals include engaging fruitfully with off-campus community, deepening cultural competencies, and strengthening project management skills. We will deepen our understanding of Mexican and Mexican-American cultures and contemporary Latinx experiences, as we plan and implement cultural events. Spanish-language skills are helpful but not required. This is a half-credit course.

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/

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.

Spring 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 during the term prior to the performance.

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.

Contemporary Latinx Playwrights In this course we will investigate Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x artistic activism since the 1960s in the works of playwrights such as Luis Valdez, Josefina Baéz, John Leguizamo, and Guadalís Del Carmen. In alternating in-person and online meetings, we will engage with scripts as diverse in aesthetic approach as they are in societal concerns (including misrepresentation, unfair labor practices, gender roles, immigration, and colorism). Conversations with guest artists will enhance readings about historical events that inspired theatrical challenges to the status quo. Creative responses to the materials will strengthen critical interpretive skills including production dramaturgy, performance, and design.

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.

Mexican Revolution/Revelation Using theatrical workshop techniques, students in this interdisciplinary will explore the socio-political-economic history, literature, music, dance, graphic art and architecture that reflect the period of time commonly known as the Mexican revolution. The course will consist of both academic research as well as dramatic and musical performance. The work will center around adapting scenes for the theater from Mariano Azuela’s novel of the revolution Los de Abajo. Students will study, contextualize and incorporate various elements of Mexican folk music into these scenes.  The course will culminate in a dramatic presentation of the work.

Contemporary Native American Playwrights In this course we will study plays and productions by contemporary Native American, First Nations, and Canadian Métis playwrights such as Mary Katherine Nagle, Larissa Fasthorse, Drew Hayden Taylor, and Monique Mojica. We will engage with scripts that reflect Indigenous resistance to settler colonialism, challenge harmful stereotypes, reclaim cultures, traditions, and languages, and celebrate survivance. Conversations with guest artists will enhance readings of critical theory and history that situate theatre as a tool for healing, transformation, sovereignty, and the future of Indigeneity.

Native Presence and Performance: Reclaiming the Indigenous Narrative In this sminar we will respectfully engage with contemporary Native American and First Nations theatre makers representing the nations of the Kiowa/Delaware, Onieda/Ojibwe, Cherokee, and Kana/Rappahannock. Additionally, we will meet with Abenaki culture bearers to learn how cultural expression has contributed to their nation’s reclamation and decolonization in Vermont and the Northeast. Despite centuries of attempted erasure, the Indigenous of the Americas have survived and thrived in powerful ways. Conversations with Native leaders and artists, will deepen understanding while strengthening communication skills (including listening); writing assignments will strengthen critical, sensitive, and reflexive analysis.

Olga Sanchez Saltveit

Reviews and ratings for Olga Sanchez Saltveit at Middlebury College.Olga Sanchez Saltveit teaches African American Drama, Acting I: Beginning Acting, La Vida en VT: Reflections and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Olga Sanchez Saltveit good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

Engaging and transformative class! The instructor creates a safe, supportive space to explore emotion and character. Great balance of technique, creativity, and confidence building. Highly recommend!!

I took this class with Ashley Baptiste in Fall 2024. (Sorry Olga the review doesn't reflect you!). I hated the course. It's a waste of time for those with prior acting experience. As a professor, Ashley is commanding, and rude. She comes off as nice initially but was very mean with a few students and had her favourites. She is not open to change, discussion or adapting. Grading criteria was unclear, and effective feedback was not given. I did not learn anything from this class. Would not recommend taking it with her - she made me miserable.

Prior to this class I had no acting experience, Professor Olga was very helpful and cared about your well being throughout all of our projects. I learned a lot and homework was never too much, if you really didn't have time and communicated, you could extend when you'd turn it in, otherwise it was perfect as an intro into the theater department.