Undergraduate Program

Course Credit: 4

This course is theoretical. It introduces the students to the vocabulary of the stage and performance space (including drama, theatre and performance, and forms and styles in European theatre tradition, Indigenous theatre of Bangladesh and South Asia), the theory of Rechard Schechner, the basics of play analysis with emphasis on the Poetics.

Course Credit: 4

The course introduces the students to the vocabulary of Bangladesh Studies as an emerging inter-disciplinary sub-field drawing upon history, anthropology, political science, cultural studies and performance studies. It aims to empower the students with critical understanding of historical background and geo-political evolution of this region. This course explores the socio-economic-political and cultural tentacles of the emergence of Bangladesh as a new nation in 1971. It also focuses on postcolonial formation of state, society and cultural nationalism as well as cultural differences in the context of Bangladesh.

Course Credit: 4

It is a practical course designed to train the actor’s physical apparatus, i.e. the body and voice. It includes training in speech, music, dance and yoga/acrobatics.

The process of acting as envisioned by Stanislavski, improvisation and ensemble work. It is mandatory for the students, as a part of their learning experience, to participate in Course 305 as observers and take up specific duties as assigned.

The students are to perform one of the tragedies explored in Course 104 (Tragedy Theory) along with the practice of various Improvisation and Theatre games.

Course Credit: 4

To examines the concept of tragedy in the Poetics, Oedipus Rex, Neo-classic vision of tragedy, Phaedra, Macbeth / Hamlet / Lear. It also provides a brief history of Greek and Roman theatre.

The students are to perform one of the tragedies explored in this Course.

Course Credit: 4

This course is theoretical and practical, and builds on Course 101 by providing an introduction to the language of creativity and visual expression, a study of elements and principles of design and how they are applied in the theatre. (Examination: a group of three to six students to-present a piece that will show how they conceive theatre. It is also mandatory for the students, as a part of practical learning experience to participate in Course 305 as observers and take up specific duties as assigned).

Course Credit: 4

This practical course helps students to embark on a creative journey to learn and exercise the fundamental concepts, technologies, applications and approaches to the dynamic landscape of ICT focusing on digital exploration of theatre technology and scenography.

Course Credit: 4

It examines the concept of comedy in the Lysistrata/Frogs, Taming of the Shrew, School for Wives/Tartuffe and Henri. Bergson. It also provides a brief history of Elizabethan and Neo-classic theatre.

Course Credit: 4

It is a practical course designed to build on Course 103. It includes training in speech, music, dance and mime. The students are to perform one of the comedies explored in Course 152 along with the practice of various Improvisation and Theatre games.

Course Credit: 4

This is a theoretical course designed to help the students explore the concepts of rupaka, itivrtta and rasa as laid out in the Natyasastra and analyze Abhignyana, Sakuntala, Mrchchakatika and Urubhangarm.

Course Credit: 4

This is a practical course designed to help the students develop their physical apparatus and crafts in terms of the principes of Angika, Vacika and Sattvika as laid out in the Natyasastra. It is mandatory for the students, as a part of their learning experience, to participate in Course 503 as observers and take up specific duties as assigned.

Course Credit: 4

This is a practical course designed to explore the notion of performance space and Aharya Abhinaya in the Natyasastra and its use in contemporary performance. The course also provides a brief history of Sanskrit theatre. It is mandatory for the students, as a part of their learning experience, to participate in Course 503 as observers and take up specific duties as assigned.

Course Credit: 4

The students are to improvise on and create a performance of any one of the marga-naty as studied in Course 201. It is mandatory for the students as a part of their learning experience, to participate in Course 503 as, observers and take up specific duties as assigned.

Course Credit: 4

This is a theoretical course designed to help the student explore the form, structure and rasa in the Loka-natya of Bangladesh (including the theatre of the ethnic communities) and study the Padma-puran by Bijay Gupta and the Ramayana by Krttibasa. Physical apparatus of performers are analyze with anthropological views.

Course Credit: 4

This is a practical course designed to help the students develop their physical apparatus and crafts with the help of traditional acrobatics/lathi-khela/wrestling, mask making, make-up, music, dance and songs of Bangladesh. It is mandatory for the students, as a part of their learning experience, to participate in Course 504 as observers and take up specific duties as assigned.

Course Credit: 4

This is a practical course designed to explore the nat-mandap and asar as performance spaces, lighting techniques, convention in costume and properties and mask making in loka-natya and find contemporary relevance for them. The course also provides a brief history of indigenous theatre of Bangladesh. It is mandatory for the students, as a part of their learning experience, to participate in Course 504 as observers and take up specific duties as assigned.

Course Credit: 4

It examines the concept of comedy in the Lysistrata/Frogs, Taming of the Shrew. School for Wives/Tartuffe and Henri. Bergson. It also provides a brief history of Elizabethan and Neo-classic theatre.

The students are to perform one of the comedies explored in this Course.

Course Credit: 4

This course introduces Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism and Expressionism as artistic movements in Europe, their history and basic tenets and examines plays by Ibsen, Chekhov, Maeterlinck, Strindburg, and Wedekind.

Course Credit: 4

The course is designed to introduce students to major movements in European theatre such as Futurism, Epic Theatre, Theatre of the Absurd, Surrialism, Constructivism, and examines plays by Bertolt Brecht (Galileo), Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot), Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman) and Heiner Mueller (The Hamletamachine).

Course Credit: 4

This is a practical course designed to explore new departures in performance spaces, lighting techniques, costume, properties and mask making in the modern and post-modern European and American theatre.

Course Credit: 4

The course is designed to help the students to use Stanislavski’s system for building the character and creating the role. It presents the theory with the help of improvisations and theatre games and then explores ways of applying the theory in a full-length play. Emphasis will be given on the development of the actor’s inner resources as applied of dramatic action, and consideration of basic stage techniques.

Course Credit: 4

The students in groups of 3 to 6 are to make a presentation on European theatre with the help of song, dance, mime and dialogue. It can be explored by producing a full length theatre production.

Course Credit: 4

This is a theoretical course designed to help the student explore the diverse forms of theatre and performance in African region reading against the Euro-centric discourse. It critically offers the students to understand the idea of “Africa” not as an all-encompassing term but an impure blend of multiple performance cultures.

Course Credit: 4

This course introduces students to colonial theatre in Bengal from Lebedeff’s introduction of the proscenium stage in 1795 to IPTA’s production of Nabanna in 1944 and discusses plays by D.L. Ray (Shajahan), RabindranathTagore (Raktakarobi) and Bijan Bhattacharya (Nabanna).

Course Credit: 4

It introduces the students to theatre in East Pakistan and Bangladesh and discusses plays by Munier Chowdhury, Saeed Ahmed, Syed Waliullah, Abdullah al-Mamun, Salim al-Deen, Mamunur Rashid and Mamtazuddin Ahmed.

Course Credit: 4

This course is designed to introduce the students to the medium of Television and help them to develop their skills and disciplines and channel their imagination in a way that is appropriate to act in TV drama and produce plays for the medium.

Course Credit: 4

The course seeks to introduce students to the uses of theatre in the development of underprivileged communities. It involves the examination of Freirean theory and Boalian practical techniques of working community situations. The students will be required to visit a community and devise a performance under supervision of the course instructor present it in the community and then they will present the devised performance in the laboratory context of the university.

Course Credit: 4

The students in, groups of 3 to 6 are to make a presentation on Bangla theatre with the help of song, dance, mime and dialogue.

Course Credit: 4

This theoretical course is designed to facilitate the student to understand the multiplicities of theatrical forms in China and Japan. It aims to introduce the aesthetic vocabularies and histories of Chinese Opera focusing on Peking Opera (Beijing Opera) and Noh and Kabuki theatre of Japan. This course problematises the Orientalist notion of a singular Asianness and seeks new points of departure to reclaim theatre arts in a non-homogenous cultural world.

Course Credit: 4

It is a theoretical and practical course on the fundamental principles of play making. It includes studies in script Analysis, development of production concept, dramatic picturization and composition, staging strategies, business, tempo, emphasis, variety and unity of effect.

Course Credit: 4

This is a practical course which aims to introduce students to some of the tools and techniques involved in writing successfully for the theatre. The course examines the flexibility and variety of theatre as a story-telling medium and will look at some of the many different approaches available to the playwright. It investigates the underlying bases of theatrical fiction and focuses on the fundamentals techniques in structuring the fiction in terms of ‘dramatic conflict’ (plot, act-structure, character development, conflict, dialogue, rhythm and format -and the five-phase sandhi as discussed in the Natyasastra). The students will be encouraged to explore their own interests and develop their own creative processes.

Course Credit: 4

TiE (Theatre in Education) is a process that uses interactive theatre and performance practices to help aid the educational process. This course seeks to introduce students to the uses the educational process and curriculums with researches and devices. It involves the examination of education, ‘Dialogic’ education and the use of theatre in teaching-learning process. The student will be required to visit an educational institute/community and devise a performance under supervision of the course instructor.

Course Credit: 4

The Psychology of Theatre investigates how psychology and theater can complement and inform one another. It provides tools and insight for the actor in character and play analysis, shows how this insight can be applied toward the creative process and performance endeavors, and explores the application of theater techniques toward goals beyond performance for personal insight and empowerment.

Course Credit: 4

The course is designed to help the students to conceptualize the basic principles of Epic Theatre in acting and design and explore them in performing a play by Bertolt Brecht.

Course Credit: 4

This theoretical course exemplifies theatre studies between disciplines focusing on how as one of the oldest media, theatre has survived many epochal and paradigm shifts in media technology. This course offers the student contemporary idioms, vocabularies and theoretical statements to enquire both reciprocal and contested relationship between theatre and other mediums: cinema, radio, television, computer, mobile phone and internet based networked experiences as well as the the digital expressivities.

Course Credit: 4

It is a continuation of Course 401, in which the students are required to select a text for production, develop a production concept, present a’ performance of sixty minutes or under, and develop a detailed promptbook.

Course Credit: 4

This course is an introduction to the field of performance theory. The course explores performance as a way of understanding events and activities an everyday life (from funerals to arcade games) as well as looking at performance as a specialist activity devoted to entertainment and education. The course explores theories of acting, embodiment, representation and mimesis, and the impacts of technological developments such as sound recording, photography, film, video and the Internet on our conception of performance. While surveying performance theory paradigms mainly from/through the disciplines of theatre, and anthropology, this course will specifically focus on issues of Intercultural performance with brief examinations of non-Western performance theory.

Course Credit: 4

The course provides a basic introduction to the qualitative and quantitative methodologies applicable in the field of theatre. The aim is to help students in the planning of research projects by combining quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Through the guided development of a research paper, participants learn to identify a research topic, to formulate research questions, to undertake a literature study, to collect and analyze relevant data, and to develop a written sustained argument linking theory and evidence. Three to four research questions will be selected and developed to projects during the course.

Course Credit: 4

The course gives an overview of nonprofit arts: organizational design, strategic planning, financial management and leadership. The students are also instructed in the basic principles and procedures of management and financial areas of the theatre. Students will be required to successfully complete a practical assignment with a theatre group in Bangladesh.

Course Credit: 4

Theatre as an artistic practice is not autonomous: it takes place in a complex social field, the effects of which necessarily influences and shape the practice itself. The course is designed to introduce students to introduce the concept of theatre as a social phenomenon in a social, poetical, cultural and historical context; and to introduce sociological concepts useful in the analysis of the social contexts of the Theatre on Bangladesh.

Course Credit: 4

This course is designed to introduce the students to the mediums of digital technology and help them to develop their skills and disciplines and channel their imagination in a way that is appropriate to act in social media platforms and produce plays and contents for the evolving digital mediums in a neo-liberal globalised world.