The Top 5 Classes List

In honor of starting senior year and feeling a bit sentimental, I decided a flashback, top 5 list was needed. In order of some importance, I present THE TOP FIVE CLASSES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE COLLEGE THEATRE DORK FOR THE BETTER.

5. Stage Combat. The obvious one first. I’ve been determined to study stage combat since I was fourteen. At the end of my freshman year, I organized my future semester schedules so that if I obtained permission and filled out a lot of paperwork, I would be able to take the combat classes offered (which is why I first took Voice and Movement). As a result of my unrelenting determination, I not only have taken classes and earned three weapon certifications but my theatre department now offers even more combat classes than ever! There’s even talk of offering a major in the future but I don’t have enough time to wait for that. I’m very happy to have my minor and to have helped the changes get started.

4. Modern Dance I. Talking about classes I love – I took this one twice and was really tempted to take again this semester. I went in and came out with completely different expectations of modern dance and just dance in general. I may never have nice technique but from watching the video from mid-term and final practicals, I can see the improvements made over the last few years. More important than rhythm and a straight standing leg though, taking Modern I made me a lot braver and was the first dance step towards being physically capable with quidditch and stage combat.

3. English Composition. Not a theatre class, I know. This was actually the first class I took my freshman year, required for all students who went to schools that didn’t offer AP classes like mine. I remember it being extremely boring and easy and that I wrote the two essays on Harry Potter because I could. The real reason why this class makes the list is because as part of my weekly assignments, I had to keep up a blog – a blog that I’m still writing three years later. I earned that A grade.

2. Acting Lab. You would think it would be Intro to Acting, but I’m giving the #2 spot to Acting Lab, where underclassmen would volunteer to act in the directing class projects. I lost count how many times I’ve actually taken this course – although the first time I took it was when I met the Crazy Theatre Artist!  I probably took more mental notes in this class than pen and paper notes in any other class. If it wasn’t for this class, I probably wouldn’t have gotten to work with as many of my peers as I have, or gotten so many different styles of directing or the range of roles: from high school girls at dances to the mentally insane.

1. Voice and Movement. I’ve blogged about my love for this year-long class I undertook with the BFA class during my sophomore year before. Ultimately, beyond any  class I’ve taken, this is the one that really did it for me. I learned more from this one professor than I ever probably have from any other teacher and more about people than I’ve ever given thought to, especially myself and my classmates. Thanks to this class, I started singing again. I tried tai chi, acupuncture and picked up dance classes (which lead me into stage combat and my second minor). Thanks to my taking this class even as a BA, the department has started offering a new class for him to teach. V+M introduced me to the likes of Pina Baush, Alice Faye and the world of movement theatre and I am so very grateful for that.

Looking over my academic transcript, I am really satisfied. Sure, I never had an impeccable GPA or always got my assignments turned in. But by the end of the school year, I’ll have a degree I am proud of – a BA with two minors! I took classes that truly interested me and they weren’t always theatre-related: art history, dance, writing, fairy tales, pop culture, script writing. Sometimes, other classes led me to even better things (like that random English Shakespeare class…I ended up winning a scholarship to take a class in New York City!). In three out of the four years of college so far, I haven’t gotten to do everything I wanted to – but I have done almost everything. Besides that, I’ve got one more year left to wrap my academic transcript up.