THEA 110 Theater and the Art of the Stage
This course surveys core elements of theater. Students engage a time-spanning selection of works, performance traditions, and contemporary practices while developing familiarity with creative and technical roles. The course considers how theater reflects society and diverse perspectives, including how staging, design, and performance choices shape meaning for audiences. Works from a range of periods and styles are examined to connect theater to broader social and artistic contexts.
4 Undergraduate credits
Effective December 15, 2025 to present
Meets graduation requirements for
Learning outcomes
General
- Describe foundational concepts and practices in theater as live performance and in production as the processes and roles that realize it.
- Identify the basic elements of theatrical events, including artistic, technical, and contextual frameworks.
- Outline selected developments in U.S. and global theater across periods and styles.
- Explain how theater functions in civic and cultural life, fostering social engagement, dialogue, and community.
- Apply introductory analytic approaches to texts and performances, noting stylistic and thematic perspectives.
Minnesota Transfer Curriculum
Goal 6: The Humanities and Fine Arts
- Demonstrate awareness of the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities.
- Understand those works as expressions of individual and human values within a historical and social context.
- Respond critically to works in the arts and humanities.
- Engage in the creative process or interpretive performance.
- Articulate an informed personal reaction to works in the arts and humanities.
Goal 7A: Human Diversity, Race, Power, and Justice in the United States
- Understand the development of and the changing meanings of group identities in the United States' history and culture.
- Demonstrate an awareness of the individual and institutional dynamics of unequal power relations between groups in contemporary society.
- Analyze their own attitudes, behaviors, concepts and beliefs regarding diversity, racism, and bigotry.
- Describe and discuss the experience and contributions (political, social, economic, etc.) of the many groups that shape American society and culture, in particular those groups that have suffered discrimination and exclusion.
- Demonstrate communication skills necessary for living and working effectively in a society with great population diversity.