Students at the Academy are asked to analyze Shakespeare from the standpoint of literary criticism but how does a performing artist approach Bard’s work? Does an academic’s approach the work differently from an actor or director? Where do their respective approaches differ or coincide? How do Shakespeare’s biography and knowledge of his era affect performing his work? What unique skills required in acting in a verse drama as compared to a contemporary work?  These are the kind of questions we explore in this yearlong course. Students will prepare and perform a sonnet and Monologue in class and perform in an end of the year ASM. Suggested reading will include Russ McDonald’s Bedford Companion to Shakespeare, John Barton’s Playing Shakespeare, and Thinking Shakespeare by Barry Edelstein.

The second semester will be spent analyzing some of the greatest works of the tonal era from a variety of perspectives including, among others, theoretical, harmonic, motivic, and compositional approaches. In addition, students will try their hand at composition in a variety of basic forms and styles, culminating in a final project: either the analysis of a work of their choosing or the composition of a new work. Throughout both semesters, students will be exposed to various types and styles of Western Art Music, the history thereof, and a multitude of different theoretical, compositional, and analytical approaches.

MU80b: Musicianship

This studio-based course is geared for students who have had prior training in art. Emphasis is placed on advancing drawing and painting skills through observational studies. Instruction focuses on traditional materials and processes and the development of technique. Students will explore graphite, charcoal, conte crayon, pastels, watercolor and acrylics, as well as printmaking and sculpture media. In addition to structured assignments, students will have the opportunity to experiment with a new medium, or pursue an independent project of their choosing. A modest amount of outside work will be required to meet the demands of the course. Prerequisite: Art Foundations Course or equivalent.

In this course, we read books that high school girls love. Most but not all of the literature we’ll read comes from female authors, and all of the protagonists will be girls and women. You might reflect on the fact that the vast majority of the literature you’ve read so far in your education has been written by male authors and has focused on male protagonists. What difference might it make if this were not so? Why do girls often especially love the books that are written by and about girls? Are female characters somehow different from the male characters you’ve known? (We might usefully compare Jane Eyre’s story with Pip’s, as a starting point.) Are the challenges facing female characters the same as those facing their male counterparts? And, if we find issues that are specific to female characters, in what ways have they changed since the days of Jane Eyre? Or are they really pretty much the same? We will engage these questions and themes, as well as many others (love, marriage, sexuality, reproduction, to name but a few), as we delve into a number of big, fat wonderful novels. We’ll begin with Jane Eyre and Tess of the D’Urbervilles, then continue into the Twentieth Century with Virginia Woolf, and conclude with the contemporary novel The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. We’ll also read a fourth modern novel, and if we have time, we’ll do some modern short stories, and/or poetry. We’ll finish the term with a viewing of the film Thelma and Louise. (FYI:  Boys are very welcome also!) For 12s only.