Performing Narratives

(4 Credits)

Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors and Graduate Students (with instructor’s permission, after video application) This is a studio class in which performance is used as a way of investigating identity. The purpose of the work is to find nuance in how one understands one’s own identity and how one understands the identity of someone or something very different from the self. This could be another person, another idea, another entity – such as family, a nation, a corporation, a university, or a natural phenomenon. For example, one assignment might be to create a five-minute performance taking on the behavior of a real person who one cannot imagine ever being. Each student will create and present an original performance for a curated audience on the final day of class. Students do not need to be performers to participate in or to gain from this class. For those with performance experience, skills will be refined, toward increased power and increased nuance. All genres of performance are welcome: theater, music, dance, interdisciplinary. The professor will use exercises she has developed over decades, both as a teacher and in her performance work as a professional theater artist. World-class guest artists are integrated into the syllabus, collaborating with the professor to help create memorable and transformative activities. The class is conducted like a workshop, and meets once weekly on Sundays* from January 25 to April 12, excluding Sundays that are University holidays. Each student is expected to take proactive responsibility for creating an incubator environment where risk-taking is supported. Students from all disciplines and all schools throughout the university are welcome. Students from other professional schools, who are not studying artistic forms, but who wish to have greater communication skills, or who are preparing to take on leadership roles, are welcome. To apply for this class, please record a one-to-two-minute video in which you explain what you believe you can contribute to a creating a supportive class community, and what about people unlike yourself is of interest to you. Submit your video to Yumin Oh by email (yumin@annadeaveresmith.org) no later than November 30, 2025. For more information, email Professor Smith (ads2@nyu.edu) and cc Yumin Oh (yumin@annadeaveresmith.org). *The dates for this class are: Jan 25, Feb 1, Feb 8, Feb 15, Feb 22, March 1, March 8, March 29, (Saturday) April 11, and April 12.