Concentrations
All TAPS majors are required to select a concentration in Acting or Theater-Making. TAPS minors may also choose to concentrate in Dance. General guidance on course sequencing is available from the TAPS Director of Undergraduate Studies, Michael Rau; the Coordinator of the Acting Concentration, Stephanie Hunt; the Coordinator of the Theater-Making Concentration, Becky Bodurtha; and the Coordinator of the Dance Concentration, Aleta Hayes.
Major Concentrations
The Acting concentration develops students’ skills in acting for the theater and related performance contexts. In practicum classes, students enhance their creative abilities under the guidance of teaching artists. Students also complete complementary coursework in performance studies and are encouraged to explore playwriting, directing, and/or devising in order to expand their exposure to major ideas and approaches in the field. Students in this concentration are encouraged to take the required course TAPS 120A Acting I: Fundamentals of Acting early in the major as a gateway for their further technique classes.
This concentration develops students' creative skills in theater-making. The theater-making concentration reflects the collaborative interdisciplinary nature of theater practice, with rich partnerships and dialogues between the crafts of directing, playwriting, producing, design and stagecraft. Students learn skills to build original theater productions. The disciplines grouped under this concentration offer a broad cross-section of theater-making skills and approaches. Students in this concentration are encouraged to take the required courses TAPS 101P: Theater and Performance Making and TAPS 30: Introduction to Theatrical Design early in the major as gateways for their further studies.
Minor Concentrations
The Dance concentration offers diverse approaches to dance as a performing art, cultural practice, political act, and embodiment of ideology and beliefs. The minor requirements integrate academic and creative studio work to help students develop a command of dance as an art form and as a subject of critical inquiry. Students study a range of techniques grounded in Western dance practices as well as a variety of global dance forms, and have regular opportunities to perform, choreograph, and collaborate. Guidance on course sequencing is available from the TAPS Director of Undergraduate Studies, Michael Rau and/or from the coordinator of the Dance concentration, Aleta Hayes. Students in this concentration are encouraged to take the required course DANCE 11 Introduction to Dance Studies early in the major as a gateway for their further studies.
The Theater and Performance Studies concentration provides students with historical, critical, and practical knowledge about theater and performance. Guidance on course sequencing is available from the TAPS Director of Undergraduate Studies, Michael Rau. Students in this concentration are encouraged to take the required course TAPS 1 Introduction to Theater and Performance Studies early in the major as a gateway for their further studies.
Declaring
To Declare the Major
First, download one of the Major Program Proposal forms (Acting or Theater-Making) linked below. Then, fill in planned or proposed classes for each field of the form. Meet with Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) Michael Rau (mjrau [at] stanford.edu) and have your major advisor sign off on the form. (If you do not have a major advisor, the DUS will help you identify one.) Once completed, email the signed form to tapsstudentservices [at] stanford.edu. Finally, declare the major in Axess.
To Declare the Minor
First, download one of the Minor Program Proposal forms (TAPS or Dance) linked below. Then, fill in planned or proposed classes for each field of the form. Once completed, email the form to tapsstudentservices [at] stanford.edu. Finally, declare the minor in Axess.
Honors Program
Eligibility
For a select number of students, the department confers the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Theater and Performance Studies. To qualify for departmental honors, students must meet the following requirements in addition to the other requirements of the TAPS major:
- Applying to the honors program involves a written application, including a project proposal and transcript, which establishes the student’s work to date in the department and outlines the area of research that the student wishes to pursue. Students must have at least an overall University GPA of 3.3 and a 3.5 GPA in courses counting towards the major.
- Students must have completed a significant portion of their major coursework before enrolling in honors. It is recommended that students have taken courses that have prepared them for advanced study in the proposed area of research.
- Students enroll in TAPS 202 Honors Thesis, which is worth four units total. Students need to enroll in this course each quarter during the senior year (1 unit in Autumn; 1 unit in Winter; 2 units in Spring). It is graded S/NC (grade determined by the student’s adviser).
- The honors thesis is due on May 15th in the Spring quarter and is double-marked by the primary adviser and one other Stanford faculty member.
- Entry into the honors program does not guarantee an honors degree. The final decision to confer an honors degree is made by the student’s thesis adviser upon evaluating the quality of the thesis.
Requirements
There are two ways to undertake an honors thesis. The first is to write a 40-50 page essay, presenting research on an important issue or subject of the student’s choice.
The second option is for a student to use their involvement in a creative project as a case study. In this situation, the honors thesis critically analyzes the creative work. Typically, the creative project is the student’s capstone, but subject to the advisor’s approval, a student may be able to write on a substantial creative project other than the capstone. This essay is shorter (about 30 pages) because the creative work constitutes part of the honors project.
Students are expected to work consistently throughout the year with their adviser, whom they identify at the time of application. Advisors can be selected from Academic Council faculty or artists-in-residence.