3 credits (additional credit available for participation in music/vocal chamber ensemble courses)
Spring 2008, Continuing Education Cross-Lists: Theatre/German/Music MU 095 Z4 CRN 11726 THE 096 Z8 CRN 12094 WLIT 017 Z1 CRN 12087Theatrical Rehearsals: M, W, TH evenings & some weekends, Feb 15th - May 2nd
Musicians in the ensemble and vocalists will rehearse separately and receive credit for participating in chamber ensemble sections. Those rehearsals TBD based upon participating performers' schedules and those of Conductor and Vocal Director.
Full rehearsal calls (cast and orchestra):
Monday, March 31st at 7:00 pm
Monday, April 7th at 7:00 pm
Wednesday, April 16th at 7:00 pm
Sunday, April 27th - 1st Dress Rehearsal at 3:00 pm
Tuesday, April 29th - 2nd Dress Rehearsal at 7:00 pm
Friday, May 2nd - 3rd Dress Rehearsal at 8:00 pm
Performances:
Saturday, May 3rd at 3:00pm & 7:30pm
Sunday, May 4th at 3:00pm
This unique interdisciplinary class will study The Three Penny Opera, the trail-blazing musical collaboration of dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, which updated John Gay's Beggar's Opera for a restive German audience during the decadent years of the Weimar Republic. The work transformed the musical theatre, drawing inspiration from jazz and cabaret and levying a fierce social and political critique. The course will be divided into 3 modules, each devoted to studying a different aspect of the work: the historical and socio-cultural context of Germany between the wars (Mahoney); the musical innovation and legacy of Kurt Weill (Schneider); and the revolutionary impact of Bertolt Brecht as a writer, director and theorist on the modern theatre (Perlmeter). The focal point of the semester will be an experimental workshop production of the play. Students must participate in the production in some capacity and can choose to receive an additional practicum credit by either working behind the scenes on an aspect of the design, participating in the production dramaturgy, or by auditioning to perform in the ensemble. The performances will occur May 3rd and 4th and will be part of the final exam. In addition, two separate one-credit chamber ensemble courses will be offered - one for musicians performing in the orchestra, and another for vocalists - allowing further exploration of Weill's complex score outside of the rehearsal process.
Dennis F. Mahoney, Professor of German
Professor Dennis Mahoney is Director of the Global Village Residential Learning Community at the Living/Learning Center, where he also has served as former Director of the German House Program. He was also honored with UVM's 2001 Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in Teaching (Full Professor). His expertise on the literature of the Age of Goethe, German Romanticism, German intellectual movements, and the German film have earned him a guest professorship at the University of Augsburg in Germany. He is the author of numerous articles on Goethe, Novalis, Schiller, and others. His book on the Roman der Goethezeit is a seminal work and has brought him national and international recognition. This is also the case for his three books on the German Romantic writer Novalis, two written in German and one in English. His book on the Critical Reception of Novalis' Novel "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" is a model for the literary reception theory, and was named one of Choice magazine's "Outstanding Academic Books for 1995." In his most recent book project, he served as editor of The Literature of German Romanticism (2004), which is volume 8 in the Camden House History of German Literature series, the most detailed history of German Literature in English. Prof. Mahoney is University of Vermont coordinator for the UVM Student Exchange Program in Augsburg, Germany.
Wayne Schneider, Associate Professor of Music
Wayne Schneider (Ph.D., Cornell University) is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Vermont where he teaches music history and serves as University Organist. He edited a collection of new essays on Gershwin, The Gershwin Style, published by Oxford University Press (1999). His other publications include an edition (with Judith Tick) of Rith Crawford's orchestral music, published by the American Musicological Society (2nd ed., 1996), and articles and entries in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (forthcoming), Grove Dictionary of American Music, Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Harvard Dictionary of Music, American Music, Humanities, Notes, and the Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter. He is organist and choir director at First Congregational Church, Essex Junction. His wife, Paula Olsen, is co-director of the Champlain College library. They live with several cats.
Rachel Perlmeter, Guest Artist & Curator
Rachel Perlmeter is a playwright, director, curator and performer. Her writings for the stage have been developed by the Playwright's Center in Minneapolis, Soho Think Tank's Sixth Floor Series, Mabou Mines' Suite artist residency program, the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, and the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin, where she received a Masters' in Theatre History and Criticism and was the recipient of two Foreign Language and Area Studies grants for her interdisciplinary work on Russian theatre, a Social Sciences Research Council grant for excellence in the humanities, and a Morton Brown Scholarship. She has been a Fulbright artist and a TCG/International Theatre Institute fellow working with experimental theatres in Russia. Prior to moving to Vermont, she curated arts-education outreach programs for New York City Ballet, worked with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and launched a series of international protest plays in South America while serving as a guest artist at the Centre for Contemporary Arts at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. Last fall, she directed an interdisciplinary celebration of the work of Marguerite Duras at the University of Vermont, which featured her site-specific staging of Duras' rarely seen India Song. Her texts for performance include MOSCOW PLAYS, WANDERLUST, NEURASTHENIA, and her latest play, OSTENTATIOUS POVERTY, which she recently presented as a work-in-progress as part of the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival at FlynnSpace, and will continue to develop with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Vermont Arts Council, and the Vermont Arts Endowment Fund of The Vermont Community Foundation.
History 20% -- Review Essay
Due 2/19
Music 20% -- Take-Home Exam
Due 4/1
Theatre 20%-- Review Essay
Due 4/29
Assignment sheets will be provided by each module instructor with details and criteria.
Final Project 20%
Proposal for final project due 3/18
(See detailed notes on potential project topics below.)
Final Projects will be due during exam week (after the production) details TBA.
Participation 20%
Components of Participation Grade:
Weekly class attendance, preparation and engagement
Workshop Production (each student in the course must participate in some capacity either on stage or behind the scenes)
The final creative project is an opportunity to synthesize the various perspectives and disciplinary approaches covered. Students may explore their own disciplinary response or work in a new medium. Both individual and collaborative projects are possible. A one-page project proposal will hone the focus of the work and allow for constructive feedback on the project design in advance of its completion. Students are encouraged to work in an imaginative manner, to blur the boundaries, and to create their own critical response to the coursework. Examples of possible final projects might include:
THINK CREATIVELY!!!
Last modified January 30 2008 04:03 PM
