You don’t have to be a Theatre major to indulge your creativity. Our department offers classes open to all University of Utah students that allows them to explore new interests, gain new skills or reignite an old passion. Need Fine Arts, Humanities, or Diversity credits? Check out our courses for Non-Majors here!
THEA 1013: Survey of Theatre
Fulfills Fine Arts Foundation (FF); also available as an online course
Students will explore the art of theatre through lecture and participation. Students learn about theatre’s craft areas–acting, playwriting, designing, directing; production areas; management areas; history and aesthetics. Theatre’s search for truth and construction of meaning, and contributions to civilization (advocacy). Attend live theatre.
THEA 1033: Acting I For Non-Majors
Fulfills Fine Arts Foundation (FF)
Acting techniques for non-majors. Students learn basic acting skills through class participation in monologue work, scene work, and improvisations.
THEA 1040: Dramatic Arts in Television
Fulfills Fine Arts Foundation (FF); Online Course
Students will explore television as a theatrical art form. Television content and structure will be examined and critiqued through multiple lenses, including historical antecedents and international media issues.
THEA 1050: Introduction to Visual Arts of Theatre
Fulfills Fine Arts Foundation (FF)
Students will discover and explore the visual world of the theatre, including the design process. Students investigate elements and principles of design, and learn to apply them in the analysis of costume, scenery, and lighting. Meets with THEA 1550.
THEA 1160 & THEA 1170: Production Run Crew
Providing students hands-on practical backstage experience in the complex workings of a university theatre production, this course requires evening and weekend production work on one production within the semester. Sections correspond to each consecutive show for the semester, and specific crew assignments are assigned by the instructor.
THEA 1760: American Political Theatre
Fulfills Diversity (DV) and Fine Arts Foundation (FF)
Theatrical scripts and performances provide unique, inside looks at the impact of American politics on everyday life. Readings and discussions of plays that reflect problems of class (Labor-Capital), conflict (The Cold War, and Vietnam), caste (Race, Gender) and sexual preference.
THEA 1770: Black Theatre
Fulfills Diversity (DV) and Fine Arts Foundation (FF)
This course explores perspectives of historical and contemporary American society from a minority viewpoint through reading and analyzing plays written by Black authors from antebellum times to the present. The course examines works by African-American dramatists, and it compares these with a body of plays that shaped the popular image of Black life in America and in many cases perpetuated negative stereotypes of African-Americans.
THEA 2000: Production Design for Film & TV
Prerequisite: THEA 1050/1550 or Instructor's Approval
Production design for Film and TV is a survey course for majors and non-majors who are interested in learning about the design and production of scenery, costumes and lighting for film and television productions. The course reviews the history of American film design and current trends in film/TV production design techniques. Film and documentary viewing is included with weekly lectures.
THEA 2033: Acting II for Non-Majors
Fulfills Fine Arts Foundation (FF); Prerequisite: THEA 1033 or Instructor’s approval.
Advanced acting techniques for non-majors. The course builds upon skills and techniques developed in Acting I through focused approaches to character creation and acting styles across diverse theatrical forms.
THEA 3001: Zen and the Art of Eastern Theatre
Fulfills Fine Arts Foundation (FF)
An introduction to the performance styles and traditions of the dramatic arts of Japan, this course focuses on the practice and performance styles of Noh, Kyogen, Kabuki, and Bunraku. Basic Zen meditation will be explored to understand the mental discipline required of these highly theatrical and non-realistic forms, which continue music, dance, and narrative.
THEA 3040: Introduction to Voice and Speech
Fulfills Fine Arts Foundation (FF)
This course is designed for students who wish to improve voice and speech skills in the interest of clear and effective communication. Emphases include body release, grounding of the breath, alignment, resonance, projection, rhythm, and pacing.
THEA 3600: Stage Management
Introduction to the creative and administrative work of a stage manager, including forms and formats, protocols, and roles of the stage manager in a University production.
THEA 3792: Queer Theatre
Fulfills Diversity (DV)
Queer Theatre asks students to contemplate the relationship between American drama written by LGBTQ+ playwrights and the ever-evolving U.S. culture these plays reflect.
THEA 4220: New Play Workshop
Instructor's Approval Needed
Students explore the collaborative processes which bring a new script from the page to production.
THEA 4320: Scene Painting
Instructor's Approval Needed
This is a hands-on studio course. Students will learn basic and intermediate scenic artist painting techniques that are used for both stage and film scenic production. Techniques include: texturing, marbling, wood graining, faux painting, and drop painting.
THEA 4390: Survey of Historic Costume
Prerequisite: THEA 1050/1550 or Instructor's Approval
A survey of key periods in costume history. Through visually supported lectures and period clothing research projects students are immersed in the history of clothing throughout the world. This course is for all students who are interested about the history of clothing and the social and historical influences of each period.
THEA 4630: Theatre for Social Action
Fulfills Upper-Division Communication/Writing (CW)
Open to all students. Students will learn and demonstrate specific teaching methods for applying theater to service-learning situations outside the traditional theatre classroom (e.g., drama/theatre-in-education, social-issue-focused-theatre (SIFT), theatre with special populations, crisis prevention, drama therapy). A service-learning scholar course co-listed with the Bennion Center.
Also, check out the classes we offer through Continuing Education for noncredit.