Performance, Theater, and Dance Requirements

The Department of Performance, Theater, and Dance offers students a multidisciplinary approach to understanding performance; highlights the development of original work; focuses on performance praxis as inquiry; and emphasizes social responsibility. Under its umbrella, the disciplines of theater, dance, design, mixed-media performance, and performance studies offer multiple, perspectives on collaborative performance-making and study. The program emphasizes hybridity both among these disciplines and beyond them, guided by four core values: collaboration, leadership, community reciprocity, and justice.

In the spirit of the liberal arts, our multidisciplinary approach invites students to integrate knowledge from varied fields into performance work and to understand complex discourses on performativity from multiple disciplinary lenses. As they move through the major, students deepen their understanding of themselves as artist-scholars. They articulate individual relationships to the department’s core values; demonstrate increased skill in self-reflection, multicultural sensitivity, and the comparison of social values and ethical systems; and develop as artists who make and perform with commitment, skill, creativity, and critical engagement.

Our annual production season features work by visiting artists as well as students, faculty, and staff. With the exception of TD393, all departmental courses and production experiences are open to non-majors. All public performances are free and open to the community.

Co-Chairs, Assistant Professor Matthew Cumbie and Senior Lecturer Bess Welden

Matthew Cumbie (Assistant Professor); John Ervin (Technical Director); Annie Kloppenberg (Professor); Jessie Laurita-Spanglet (Visiting Instructor); Kate Marchessault (Visiting Instructor); Kate Pestana ’87 (Academic Administrative Assistant); Gwyneth Shanks (Assistant Professor); Nell Shipman (Visiting Instructor); Jim Thurston (Associate Professor); Bess Welden (Senior Lecturer)

• TD124 Performance, Politics, and Practice
• TD262 Collaborative Company
• TD393 Ways of Seeing
  Seminar to be taken either junior or senior fall; prerequisite TD 124
• Humanities Theme Lecture Series (1 credit hour)
  Recommended in conjunction with a creative process course related to the theme, but may be taken at any time.

• Production — 4 credit hours; one of the following courses:
  • TD139 Introduction to Stagecraft
  • TD245 Stage Management: Leadership Behind the Scenes
  • TD264 as Production Stage Manager for Faculty-led production

• Praxis — 4 credit hours; one of the following courses:
  • TD135 Introduction to Design
  • TD 242 Acts of Activism
  • TD 247 Performing the Museum
  • TD 258 Improvisational Practices in Performance
  • TD 281 Directing
  • TD 285 The Choreographic Process

• Students design and justify their own pathways through the major in consultation with their major advisor, considering both breadth of experience and deep engagement with their individual convictions.
• In a written Pathway Rationale, majors develop and articulate an understanding of the core values of the department: collaboration, leadership, justice, and community reciprocity. These values are introduced in the courses in common, deepened in the area requirements, and will serve as guiding principles for students in their continued study.
• Up to 12 credit hours may be taken outside the department, with a written rationale explaining applicability of each course to a student’s focus in the major and approval by faculty vote.
• No more than four credits of one- and two-credit Dance Technique Labs and Performance Credits (TD 164 or 264) can be counted toward the major, even though students may indeed take more than four such credits during their Colby careers.

• Senior Scholars
  Full year; GPA requirement; College approved in spring of junior year, 16-19 cr; up to 8 cr can be applied to the major pathway.
• Senior Honors Thesis
  Full year; GPA requirement; department approved in spring of junior year, 8 cr; up to 4 cr can be applied to the major pathway.
• Independent Study
  Full year or half year, advisor approved; no GPA requirement, Variable cr; Up to 4 cr can be applied to the major pathway.
• Declaration of engagement in a class or production
  This experience, based on the student’s primary area of interest, becomes the capstone project and could be in the fall or spring of senior year. Credit is granted in the course the student enrolls in to complete this requirement.

The theater and dance-interdisciplinary computation major focuses on the growing relationship between computation and performance scenography and the multiple applications of software technologies to stage design. It offers a sequenced, stage design-based curriculum while also providing students with exposure to the theory and practice of dance, acting, choreography, and directing. Students should begin by taking Performance, Theater, and Dance 124 and Computer Science 151 in their first year, then Performance, Theater, and Dance 135 and Computer Science 231 (fall) and 251 or 252 (spring) in their second year. The remaining requirements may be taken in any other semester in consultation with the major advisors in performance, theater, and dance and in computer science. 

An 11-course* (44 credit) major with the addition of three faculty-led production experiences, one each in the areas of performance and stage management and an additional experience determined in consultation with the major advisor. *All courses below are four credits unless noted.

No requirement for the major may be taken satisfactory/unsatisfactory.

Minimum GPA Students need a 2.0 (75, or a C) in order for course credit to count toward the major.

Required Courses in Performance, Theater, and Dance
Performance, Theater, and Dance 124; 135; 171 [or two courses from 115 (two credits), 116 (two credits), 117 (two credits), 119 (two credits)]; 281 or 285; 235 or 365

Required Courses in Computer Science
Computer Science 151, 231, 251 or 252, 351, 369 or 451 Senior Capstone (four credits). Designed in consultation with major advisors in both departments.

• TD124 Performance, Politics, and Practice
• TD262 Collaborative Company
• Humanities Theme Lecture Series (1 credit hour)
  Recommended in conjunction with a creative process course related to the theme, but may be taken at any time.

• Students design and justify their own pathways through the minor in consultation with their minor advisor, considering both breadth of experience and engagement with their individual convictions
• Up to four credit hours may be taken outside the department, with a written rationale explaining applicability of each course to a student’s focus in the minor and approval by faculty vote.
• No more than four credits of one- and two-credit Dance Technique Labs and Performance Credits (TD 164 or 264) can be counted toward the minor, even though students may indeed take more than four such credits during their Colby careers.
• Minors are encouraged, but not required, to take seminar 393, Ways of Seeing, as a part of their pathway.

Performance, Theater, and Dance majors with a minimum cumulative grade point average in the major of 3.65 and an overall GPA of 3.5 at the end of the January term of the junior year are eligible to apply for the honors thesis. Honors projects signify a serious engagement with independent research and can be a total of six to eight credits during a student’s final two semesters (which may or may not include a JanPlan). After securing an advisor and developing a project proposal, students submit proposals to the department by an early March deadline. Honors theses require unanimous approval by the department. Students wishing to change their honors project during the year must petition the department for approval. Completion of the honors thesis includes an oral presentation at the Colby Liberal Arts Symposium, and students must receive an A- or above on their thesis to graduate with “Honors in Performance, Theater, and Dance.”