For the first time ever, seniors in the BFA drama program at The New School for Performing Arts will be presenting capstone projects next semester. The class of 2017, who started their degrees when the Drama BFA was introduced four years ago, will be the first class to graduate and complete the senior project.
Members of the graduating class were required to complete a directed research class in acting, which is an intensive study with scenes and monologues, and/or a directed research class in which they designed their own project to meet their senior capstone requirement to graduate.
“The directed research projects class is an opportunity for students to…dig deeper into their training and goals as multidisciplinary artists,” said the director of academic and faculty affairs of the drama program, Carrie Neal.
Of the 36 seniors, 24 have chosen to design their own project in the Directed Research: Projects class, half of whom are also taking the Directed Research: Acting class. Due to the volume of projects that this pioneering class has taken on, there will be at least two shows performed each week starting in March, according to Neal.
“There will be senior project presentations happening almost everyday, but for sure every week, between March and [the end of the semester],” Neal said.
The students who have elected to put on their own productions are required to fill the role of either writer, director, producer, performer, or a combination of these roles. Aside from this minor stipulation, students were given very few guidelines.
“I really have been impressed with their strong embrace of being the guinea pigs for everything,” said Kitt Lavoie, a professor overseeing half of the projects in his section of the Directed Research: Projects class. “On one hand, they are guinea pigs, and on the other hand, they’ve got probably a lot more freedom [than future classes] with what their projects [can] be.”
This openness has resulted in an extremely diverse and eclectic pool of projects that vary from 360 degree virtual reality narratives to a one-woman burlesque show that challenges the idea of slut shaming.
“[Our capstone project was] up for interpretation and a lot of people found the romanticism in that. If [students] always wanted to do something, now they can devote time and energy to it,” said Victoria Pike, a senior in the drama program who is working with 360 degree narratives for her project.
At this point, the students designing their own senior projects already know where and when they’ll be putting on their performances. The earliest performances will be taking place in March, and from then on, they’ll be spread out through the semester. In total there will be 20 performances put on next semester, including a film festival composed of five capstone projects at the end of May. These presentations will be held in various venues around campus and open for anyone to enjoy.
Starting next semester, advertisements for these projects will begin to crop up in the form of flyers approved by the marketing and communications department of the drama program, and Facebook event invites.
“I think our biggest hope is to get non-drama students to come and see our work,” Pike said of this undertaking.
Photo by Nicole Coiscou.