How do you bring a story to life with other people? This course reimagines the rehearsal room as a collaborative laboratory where actors and directors work as creative partners rather than hierarchies. Learn to act by actually acting. This course throws you into the rehearsal room to experiment with texts, develop your creative instincts, and discover how performances take shape through collaboration. Through playful, physical exercises, you'll unlock scenes from famous playwrights, from contemporary writers to classical texts, finding action in language, building characters through image and movement, and making bold interpretive choices. Move beyond lectures about what these texts "mean" - you'll develop practical tools for reading like an actor, experimenting fearlessly, and shaping your work with creative partners. Along the way, you'll learn the director's craft: how to analyze a script, guide collaborators, and make choices that bring a vision to life. Directing is a transferable skill. At its core, directing is about crafting a vision, communicating it clearly, and guiding collaborators toward a shared goal - skills essential to any leadership role, startup, research team, or creative project. Whether you're an experienced performer, curious about directing, or simply want to understand how to lead creative processes, this course offers practical frameworks for working with others to turn abstract ideas into concrete realities. Drawing on methods from my professional directing work, the course is designed as a collaborative laboratory where everyone contributes to the creative process. The course is open to actors and directors of all levels; no previous experience is required. TAPS Ph.D. students are required to enroll in TAPS 372 for 4 units. This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways-AII credit.
2-4 units · Letter (ABCD/NP)
How do you bring a story to life with other people? This course reimagines the rehearsal room as a collaborative laboratory where actors and directors work as creative partners rather than hierarchies. Learn to act by actually acting. This course throws you into the rehearsal room to experiment with texts, develop your creative instincts, and discover how performances take shape through collaboration. Through playful, physical exercises, you'll unlock scenes from famous playwrights, from contemporary writers to classical texts, finding action in language, building characters through image and movement, and making bold interpretive choices. Move beyond lectures about what these texts "mean" - you'll develop practical tools for reading like an actor, experimenting fearlessly, and shaping your work with creative partners. Along the way, you'll learn the director's craft: how to analyze a script, guide collaborators, and make choices that bring a vision to life. Directing is a transferable skill. At its core, directing is about crafting a vision, communicating it clearly, and guiding collaborators toward a shared goal - skills essential to any leadership role, startup, research team, or creative project. Whether you're an experienced performer, curious about directing, or simply want to understand how to lead creative processes, this course offers practical frameworks for working with others to turn abstract ideas into concrete realities. Drawing on methods from my professional directing work, the course is designed as a collaborative laboratory where everyone contributes to the creative process. The course is open to actors and directors of all levels; no previous experience is required. TAPS Ph.D. students are required to enroll in TAPS 372 for 4 units. This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways-AII credit.
Offered in Winter 2026 at Stanford University.