Conservatory Designer Training

Twelfth Night on Shakespeare's Globe stage John Tramper, photographer

BFA Designers spend one semester of the junior year studying at Shakespeare's Globe in London. Shakespeare's Globe enables design students to have studio classes, lectures, and projects at the Globe Theater in their own group studio backstage. The designers work on assigned projects with the resident Globe designer and may have the opportunity to design a staged reading at the Globe; their work may also be exhibited at the Globe Museum. Design students have a weeklong practicum in one of London's major theaters.

· Credit: The 12 credit design course is an intensive workshop experience for costume and set designers. Designers take classes in the following areas, in addition to the academic program:

· Design: Students work closely with acting students, focus on the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries through text work, theater symposia, and a final design project presentation.

· Text Analysis: Designers work with the Principal Director on Elizabethan/Jacobean plays.

· Project Presentation: Using work from the studio and London's endless resources, give voice to their individual work.

· Life Drawing: Designers work on their technical skills in studio classes with unclothed and historically clothed models.

· Designers Studio: Designers collaborate with acting students on two main projects.

· Designers Practicum: A week-long internship in one of London's major theaters in the area of their choosing: set design, costume design, lighting design, props, or scene painting.

· Movement/Combat: A shared course with acting students to enhance the understanding of the actors' needs in this area. Academic Program for Actors and Designers In addition to the conservatory actor-training program, there is a strong academic component. Through the disciplines of textual analysis with lectures on social and historical backgrounds of Shakespeare's world, students gain knowledge and insight into Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.

· Credit: Students receive 3 credits for Shakespeare's Plays in Context and 3 credits for British Art and Culture per semester.