Program Overview

The Ph.D. Program in Theatre at The Graduate Center is designed to develop scholars of broad theoretical background and demonstrated research ability in dramatic theory and criticism, dramatic structure, and history of theatre. Students may also study performance theory and theatre organization and development. Within these broad areas of study, students may specialize in American theatre and drama, in British and European theatre and drama (including French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Scandinavian), and in Asian theatre. Although the program's emphasis is on primary research, an attempt is made, whenever possible, to bridge the gap between theatre as an area of knowledge and as a performing art and to form an alliance of understanding between the scholar and the practitioner.

The Program also features:

Interdisciplinary Options with distinguished Graduate Center Faculty in other fields and through a consortial arrangement with New York University and Columbia University.

Affiliations with the Martin E. Segal Center Journal of American Drama and Theatre Slavic and East European Performance Western European Stages.

Courses

First-year doctoral courses may be taken at one or several of the senior colleges of the University; advanced doctoral seminars are offered at The Graduate Center and through an academic consortium with New York University and Columbia University.

Doctoral courses in theory and criticism include such topics as dramatic genres, film study, theatre theory and criticism, and theatre and related performing arts. Doctoral courses in dramatic structure include seminars in individual playwrights (such as Ibsen, Strindberg, or Molière), movements (romanticism, realism, modern avant-garde), themes (such as individualism or metatheatre), national traditions, and comparative drama.

Doctoral courses in history and production include seminars in theatre history and production of a given period and country (e.g., 18th-century British Drama and Theatre), seminars in aspects of contemporary performance theory and technique (e.g., simulations, theatre audiences), film seminars, and seminars in varying aspects of theatre organization and development.

Directed independent study and externships in theatre for credit are also available.

Recent Seminars Include:

• English Restoration and 18 C. Drama
• Middle Eastern Theatre
• Interculturalism
• Animation as Art and Cultural Form
• The Current New York Season Eastern European Theatre
• Feminist Theory and Performance
• Melodrama
• European Avant-Garde Drama
• Latin American Performance
• The American Movie Musical
• American Political Drama
• Performing the Renaissance: Theatre and Theatricality
• Beckett and his Heritage
• Theatre and Popular Culture
• Lesbian and Gay Theatre and Performance
• African Cinema
• Classicism Contemporary German Theatre in Production
• Kabuki and No
• Medieval Performance
• Opera and Theatre: Tangled Relations
• Puppets and Performing Objects on Stage
• Post Colonial Performance

Faculty

The program's faculty, consisting of distinguished scholars as well as critics of the professional theatre, is very much concerned with the professional opportunities and careers available to its students. Students are encouraged to take full advantage of the resources of The Graduate Center as well as to explore avenues of interdisciplinary cooperation.

Theatre program faculty are either Central Appointments, who teach only at The Graduate Center or Constituent College Appointments, who also teach at one of the CUNY colleges. Central Appointments have offices at The Graduate Center and function as the core faculty of the Program, serving as mentors to incoming students. Current Central Appointments are Marvin Carlson, Daniel Gerould, Jean Graham-Jones, Judith Milhous and David Savran.

Theatre Faculty include:

Film Faculty include:

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