The School of Visual Theater - Study program
The
school offers a 4-year curriculum that entitles its graduates
to a final certificate recognized by the Israel Ministry of Education.
Visual theater embraces inter-disciplinary approaches rather than
medium- or genre restrictions, and concentrates on the combination
and interaction of arts, skills and materials. Therefore a study
program in visual theater offers such a wide variety of creative
areas: space design, sculpture, painting and drawing, directing,
acting, puppet design and puppetry, street theater, movement,
dance and release techniques, music, voice production and singing,
dramatic writing, lighting and video.
Unlike other schools, the School of Visual Theater is not divided
into separate specialization programs. Every year the students'
study program is built of various courses in these fields. In
addition to regular yearly classes, the school hosts guest artists
both from Israel and from abroad, who give intensive workshops
and lectures.
Throughout their years in the school, students receive practical
tools and theoretical knowledge, combining group and personal
work and performance experience. Each student is personally advised
and groomed according to his/her needs and interests.
Foreign students
Individual Courses Price
Study requirements
Registration for individual courses
The Academic program - collaboration with the David Yellin College of Education in Jerusalem (general information).
courses list
First year students – a minimum of 25 credits (in classes)
Second year students – a minimum of 20 credits (in classes)
Third year students – a minimum of 17 credits (in classes)
Fourth year students – a minimum of 14 credits (in classes)
(The same study load is required of students taking the School of Visual Theater's combined study program with David Yellin Teachers' College)
Production Crew – each and every student is required to take part in the production crews of school events. Participation in a single event or project entitles the student to one credit. A student chosen to serve as "super-producer" at an even or project will be entitled to two credits. Every student may accumulate five credits a year from school productions.
Information about production crew essentials will be provided during the school year.
Mandatory courses – Elective Courses:
Most classes are electives, but for the following exceptions:
Mandatory courses for first year students:
Theory:
1. Theater and Live Performance towards the End of the Millennium – Dr. Dror Harari (year course)
2. The Void in the Arts: Monochromatic Performance and Imaginary Spaces – Dr. Daphna Ben-Shaul (year course)
3. "Cinematic Expression" – Orna Levi (year course)
4. Ways of Representation and Modes of Reading – Tzipi Weitzman (year course)
5. "Visual Discourse" – Guy Gutman (1st semester)
6. The Art of Dance in the Twentieth Century – Idit Suslik (year course)
Practice:
1. Combined Techniques for Stage Presence – Tal Haran (year course)
2. Design in Space - Kinneret Kisch (2nd semester)
Production Crew – see above
Notes:
1. Lighting – on February 1st – 5th, 2009 a lighting workshop will be held. Participants will be entitled to use the school's lighting equipment.
2. Students who will not have been trained to use the school technical workshop during the 'getting acquainted' week, will not be permitted to use the workshop equipment.
Mandatory courses for second year students:
Theory:
1. Performance: Between Art and Theater, Between Object and Action – Dr. Dror Harari (1st semester)
2. On the Body in Performance – Dr. Dror Harari (2nd semester)
3. Ways of Representation and Modes of Reading – Tzipi Weitzman (year course)
4. Modernism and Contemporary Art – Tzipi Weitzman (year course)
Practice:
Production Crew – see above
Mandatory courses for third year students
Theory:
1. Ways of Representation and Modes of Reading – Tzipi Weitzman (year course)
2. Modernism and Contemporary Art – Tzipi Weitzman (year course)
Practice:
Sources of Motivation in Movement Work – Maya Levi (year course)
3rd year students are required to take part in production crew during the summer marathon (one credit).
Mandatory courses for fourth year students
Theory:
1. Towards the Finale – Yuval Rimon (year course)
2. Ways of Representation and Modes of Reading – Tzipi Weitzman (year course)
3. Modernism and Contemporary Art – Tzipi Weitzman (year course)
Taking Classes in Other Institutions
The school holds an exchange program with various art schools in Jerusalem: Bezal'el Academy of Art, Musrara School for Photography and Imaging, The Center for Music and Dance of the East, The Rubin Academy of Music and Dance, the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio.
Information on registration for courses open to you in these institutions is available at the School Office during counseling.
The Art of Dance in the Twentieth Century – History, Theory and Aesthetics
Stopmotion Animation
Advanced Animation
Ways of Representation and Modes of Reading
The Void in the Arts: Monochromatic Performance and Imaginary Spaces
Voice Coaching
Vocal Ensemble
Techniques
Combined Techniques for Stage Presence (Foundations Class)
Combined Techniques for Stage Presence (Continuing Class)
Someone to Talk to
Writing for the Stage
Thinking for the Stage
Introduction to Music
"Cinematic Expression"
Modrnism and Contemporary Art
Sources of Motivation in Movement Work
Music for Visual Arts
Acting
Acting for the Camera
Directing Short Silent Film Workshop – Directing Short Talking Film Workshop
Temporary Environments – Advanced Course in Developing Dramatic Space
Design in Space
Basic Design
Not Everything Goes
Towards the Finale
Sound Editing
On the Body in Performance
Performance: Between Art and Theater, Between Object and Action
Photography and Editing
Composition in Movement
Reading, Writing and Thought
Voice
Drawing
Visual Discourse
Two Hours of the Public's Time – Art and Time
Puppet Theater for Beginners
Puppet Theater for Advanced Students
Theater and Live Performance Towards the End of the Millennium
The Art of Dance in the Twentieth Century – History, Theory and Aesthetics
Idit Suslik – Year course | 2 hours a week (2 credits)
Elective for 1st, 2nd 3rdand 4th year students
The course will present and study the various genres that developed in the art of dance throughout the twentieth century, directly related to social, cultural and artistic concepts that shaped this epoch. Our point of departure will be the romantic and classical ballet of the nineteenth century that joined into a defined code of rules the thematic foci of dance as an art, and their concrete aesthetic realization in the works themselves. Against the models that took hold in ballet, central genres of dance in the twentieth century will be presented, as well as the artists identified with them. Through them we shall examine the changes that have taken place in the perception of dance as art, in defining the limits of this medium, and the uses of expressive means by which dance stands out compared to other art forms. Several topics will serve as central pivots for discussing all the genres to be presented: the dancing body as a reflection of periodic social norms; fictional space and stage design mirroring trends in visual arts; gender images and feminine representations; the body as a tool to express national and cultural identity; dance between tradition and change – modern and post-modern interpretations of canonic classical works, etc.
Stopmotion Animation
Yonatan Zur – 1st semester | 4 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for 1st, 2nd, 3rd year students
Students will create short films in etudes to develop their animation skills – learn how to make objects move at the animator's will, how bodies with different weight move, how various materials behave in the world. Later we shall delve into character animation – develop acting skills and deal with concepts such as motivation, will and consciousness of the characters.
In addition, we shall regularly view animation films from around the world.
Animation (Advanced)
Yonatan Zur– year course | 2 hours a week (2 credits)
Elective for 2nd-3rdand 4th year students
In this course, each student will be working on a personal animation project (up to two minutes long). The class will be conducted as weekly tutoring sessions in which each student will get the guidance needed for his/her specific project. Once a month, the entire class will gather for joint studies. The course will concentrate on the process of producing the film with all its aspects: from initial idea to script, story-board, animation, designing characters and sets, tests, camera shoots, editing and soundtrack. Emphasis will be placed on a process of personal research, "learning how to learn by oneself" and finding information sources and modes of learning independently and through experience. Throughout the year, several weeks will be devoted to workshops offered by guest lecturers on the basic topics of character animation, timing, skeletal construction and set lighting.
Ways of Representation and Modes of Reading
Tzipi Weitzman – year course, 2 hours a week (2 credits)
Mandatory for all students
Given the basic duality in visual art of awareness and vision, we shall examine modes of vision in the history of art as an organized viewing which is a part of a general world view and a tool for shaping awareness.
The first part of the course will focus, among other things, on body, text and space in the myth world and in the classical world, and in the metamorphoses of motifs and classical themes into the Christian world until the Baroque period.
In the second part of the course we shall focus on modernity and modernism. Literature, music and film will enrich the discussion of cultural contexts, visits to exhibitions and art events will expand class discussion
The Void in the Arts : Monochromatic Performance and Imaginary Spaces
Dr. Daphna Ben-Shaul – year course | 1.5 hours a week (1.5 credits)
Mandatory for 1st year students
Elective for 2nd 3rd and 4th year students
The course will have two contexts: in "Void 1" (1st semester) we shall locate the evolution of the artistic void in the spirit of the avant-garde and focus on monochromatic procedures. In "Void 2" (2nd semester) we shall expand the concept to imaginary spaces of several kinds: artistic spaces appropriating, voiding or undermining the real status of an existing environment; transitions to utopian or other worlds; and apocalyptic and post-traumatic theatrical or cinematic spaces
Voice Coaching
Meirav Ben David – 1st semester | 2 hours a week (2 credits)
Elective for 2nd 3rd and 4th year students
- Exercises in singing, listening and being aware of tone
- Improvisation in voice and movement
- The voice as a tool for personal development
- Experiential work on voice production and singing styles of various musical traditions.
- Learning ancient and folk songs as a model and key for contemporary improvisation and composition
Vocal Ensemble
Meirav Ben David – year course | 1.5 hours a week (1.5 credits)
Elective for 2nd 3rd and 4th year students
This small ensemble will handle polyphonic material (two-four part): classical material of various periods, early folk material of various musical traditions. The work is open to students' own original works combined with movement and improvisation.
Techniques
Odelya Kuperberg – year course |1.5 hours a week (1.5 credits)
Elective for 2nd 3rd and 4th year students, restricted to students with relevant dance experience!
Combined Techniques for Stage Presence (foundations)
Tal Haran – year course | 2 hours a week (2 credits)
Mandatory for 1st year students
Initial familiarization with combined techniques using movement, voice and language to hone the stage presence (charisma) of the performing artist:
elements of warm up, developing skill and variety of control on every level of personal experience. These are primal tools, independent of content and style.
The practice of improvisation scores in various formats (solo, duet, small group and ensemble) emphasizes listening and interaction, mutuality and tapping the imagination of the individual artist.
Combined Techniques for Stage Presence (continuing class)
Tal Haran – year course | 2 hours a week (2 credits)
Elective for 2nd and 3rd year students
Continued development of breathing, moving, sounding and verbal practices, refining control of the performer's physical-mental tools. Emphasis on developing practices suited personally for the performer's own work and for directing others.
Someone to Talk to – Writing
Dr. Efrat Mishori – year course | 2.5 hours a week (2.5 credits)
Elective for 2nd and 3rd year students
We shall begin with a pile of verbal raw material, written texts that are interim products necessary for creating our book. Together we shall attempt to turn them into an organized pile: a logical set of items that will add up to a complex whole. The basis is text, but the book that each student will create does not need to be categorized within the traditional literary cabinet. It may be an interlacing sequence of poems and other text fragments, combine image and text, and might also be joined by an audio disc or anything else that will make up the unique specificity of our field of interest. The course is based upon in-depth reading of texts, etudes and personal consultations.
Writing for the Stage
Ira Avneri – year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for 2nd and 3rd year students
Students write for the stage while considering the needs of the medium and experiencing different modes and styles of writing.
The course also includes reading plays and both theoretical and practical studies of classical dramatic writing principles.
Thinking for the Stage
Ira Avneri– year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
Mandatory for 1st year students
- Theater as a visual medium
- Theater as metaphor, the stage as the world
- Dramatic structure
- Israeli theater and Jewish myths
- Man and divinity from Sophocles until the prese
Introduction to Music
Marcelo Pilewsky – 1st semester | 2 hours a week (2 credits)
Elective for 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students
The course aims to introduce fundamental concepts in musical thinking; present the components of musical composition and analyze processes they incur; analyze musical works through historical and technical perspective.
Key terms: rhythm, dynamics, texture, musical instruments, extra-musical matter in the musical work, structures and processes in music.
"Cinematic Expression"
Orna Levi – Year course | 2 hours a week (2 credits)
Mandatory for 1st year students
In this course we shall follow the development of film as a language and the honing of this language since the early twentieth century until the present.
We shall familiarize ourselves with the language of film, the history and development of the image. In class we shall watch fragments of films and hold discussions.
Modrnism and Contemporary Art
Tzipi Weitzman – Year course | 2 hours a week (2 credits)
Mandatory for all students
Prominent works of art, central art events, important theory and criticism essays will serve as points of departure for a careful mapping of the complex and, at times, obscure domain of art since the latter decades of the twentieth century. We shall attempt to read and sometimes decipher works of art currently created within their capitalist cultural contexts, that have wrought significant changes in the essential definition of art, modes of its presentation, ways of its acceptance and the like – while addressing questions and issues raised by the students. The course will also include visits to exhibitions (outside of Jerusalem as well), and, possibly, encounters with artist-curators.
Sources of Motivation in Movement Work
Maya Levi – year course | 3.5 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students
The course will consist mainly of lectures and critiques, dealing with various sources of motivation for works in movement:
From design: the design of space and the stage, objects and their use, costumes.
From text: the choice of text, its deconstruction and treatment.
From sound: sound as a point of departure for work in movement, the bond between music and movement.
The course will host experts in various fields respective to the subjects of study.
Participation in the movement technique class is prerequisite to participation in this course.
Music for Visual Art
Marcelo Pilewsky – 2nd semester | 2 hours a week (2 credits)
Elective for 1st, 2nd ,3rd and 4th year students
In the performing arts and media, music is a basic component. It is not merely a decorative element in plays, films and advertisements but constitutes an integral part in creating them. The course focuses on the role of music in arts in general and in theater and film in particular. The course objectives: establishing a system to comprehend processes, characteristics and musical techniques that are expressed in film soundtracks. A further study will be made extra-musical content in the context of its relation to the visual image.
Language Games: Art Simulates Art
Dr. Dafna Ben Shaul – 2nd semester | 1.5 hours a week (1.5 credits)
Elective for 2nd and 3rd year students
The course offers the observation of a major, multi-faceted phenomenon: art's narcissistic tendency to demonstrate itself, its media and images through its products, and not make do with a 'transparent' representation of images.
We might call this meta-language (as in literary discourse, meta-theater, meta-cinema…); reflexivity, self-oriented-ness and more. We shall deal with it by focusing on several significant questions - and primarily in what ways and to what ends does a work turn towards itself – and by studying in-depth some examples of art forms, including film and performance.
Acting
Haim Abramsky – year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for 1st year students
The course offers improvisation techniques for enriching the physical and emotional expressive abilities of the actor, focusing on three aspects:
- Examining partner dynamics on stage, work on listening, initiative and real time reaction for the creation of relationships and dramatic tension.
- Deepening the actor's inner world, etudes for finding a spectrum of personal expression capacities and exploring the actor's various facets.
- Examining space as a component of the actor's work, how the actor is affected by space and can use it to enhance acting and stage presence.
Through these aspects we shall explore the foundations of action, feeling and will, in an attempt to create spontaneous and individual expressivity.
Acting for the Camera
Haim Abramsky – year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for 2nd, 3rd, 4th year students
The course examines the actor's work for the camera by etudes filmed in class as well as projects prepared outside class. Training covers techniques for emotional expression, text comprehension, and relating to different types of shots. The camera, unlike the stage, requires a different kind of concentration in acting – minimalist, internal. The purpose is to expose an internal world and convey it through the camera to the viewer, and especially find the confidence and ease with which to express various levels of the actor's being.
Directing Workshop for Short, Silent Films ,
Directing Workshop for Short Talking Films
Orna Levi – year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students
Very short films are made in the workshop.
Studies include: cinematic language and syntax, directing, script writing, production and criticism (What I see, what I want to tell and how I tell it.)
Temporary Environments – Advanced Course for Developing Dramatic Space
Kinneret Kisch – 2nd semester | 3 hours a week (1.5 credits)
Elective for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students
- Dramatic text as a point of departure for personal work in space
- Work process relating to external sources of inspiration
- Memory in space – reconstructing memory in visual space and following process of recall
- Work in models; developing an idea through 3-dimensional sketches
The course will include video projections and presentations.
Super-Sonic Sculpture
Gabi Kricheli – year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for 2nd and 3rd year students
The course will examine the relation between sound and space and the options that sound offers in a sculptural environment. The course is mostly practical and will include both home and class assignments, work with several simple sound computer-programs maintaining a user-friendly attitude to this technology, encounters with artists and lots of good music.
Design in Space
Kinneret Kisch – 2nd semester |3 hours a week (3 credits)
Mandatory for 1st year students
- From 2- to 3-dimensional, fundamental etudes for developing 3-dimensional space
- Work with models; developing an idea through 3-dimensional sketches
- The spectator in space; meaning of point of view in spatial experience
- Text as motivation for developing space
Fundamental Design
Yuval Rimon – year course | 2 hours a week (2 credits)
Elective for all students
Throughout this course we shall experience design in various materials, emphasizing orderly work processes, familiarizing ourselves with tools and characteristics of different materials and their theoretical significance in the work of art.
Students will be required to prepare etudes both in class and outside, as well as equip themselves with (simple) tools upon demand.
Not Everything Goes
Gabi Kricheli – year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
The course consists of practical work and class lectures, and aims to familiarize the students and enhance their understanding of the art world in which we function, and help them take a stand about it. We shall be introduced to artists of various media, emphasizing the visual arts, and possibly visit several exhibitions, encountering active artists. Several presentations will take place throughout the year, aiming to generate a personal identity as artists. This is the core of this course, and the lecture content will be suited to the works actually brought to class.
Towards the Finale
Yuval Rimon – year course |3 hours a week (3 credits)
Mandatory for 4th year students
The course is a weekly encounter to handle in depth each student's personal and inter-personal work processes, enabling us to hold the Finale as the final event summing up the process of studies at our school. Occasional encounters will be held with various teachers and guests for presentations to enhance and enrich discourse.
Sound Editing
Marcelo Pilewsky – year course | work in groups (1 credit)
Elective for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students
The course offers familiarization with computer programs and different means of recording and audio editing. The class includes guided work in a sound room as well as theoretical studies of basic musical terms and various preparation techniques.
Students will be required to experience the analysis and composition of music.
The course is intended for students without formal musical training.
On the Body in Performance
Dr. Dror Harari – 2nd semester | 1.5 hours a week (1.5 credits)
Mandatory for 2nd year students
Performance: Between Art and Theater, Between Object and Action
Dr. Dror Harari – 1st semester | 1.5 hours a week (1.5 credits)
Mandatory for 2nd year students
The course reviews new perceptions in theater and visual art since the latter half of the twentieth century leading to the (not quite painless) birth of a new art form: performance. The course examines the link between these revolutionary developments and fundamental changes of thought in Western Civilization. It will also familiarize students with important artists, their theoretical and practical approaches.
Photography and Editing
Yonathan Shohat – Year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for all students
The course aims to offer students the tools necessary for work in digital photography and editing. The 1st semester will be devoted to fundamentals, technique and theory, familiarization with the camera, editing program and the history of this medium, and work will consist of short assignments. The 2nd semester will be devoted to supporting longer personal projects, whether done especially for this class or as support for projects done in other classes. We shall emphasize developing a personal language as photographers and editors, and an introduction to the 'post' world – color corrections and compositing – with the after-effects program.
Composition in Movement
Odelya Kuperberg – year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for 1st year students
This course will offer process work on creating in movement. We shall learn how to turn visual or verbal data into rules for movement. We shall define a movement rule and establish it as a conceptual axis for the work. The same movement rules will constitute the initial foundation for movement improvisations and for seeking personal movement. Guided improvisations will lead to composing a set movement phrase. This will be done through various etudes and techniques of processing material such as transferring the movement phrase, movement dynamics and sequence, generating motifs and their roles in the composition.
The first half of class time will be devoted to physical warm up based on various modern dance techniques, and focus on body awareness and its expressivity.
Reading Writing and Thinking
Dr. Efrat Mishori – year course | 2.5 hours a week (2.5 credits)
Elective for 1st year students
Together we shall go hunting for that evasive animal called "poetry" and feel out its fur up close. Getting out of something requires to first go into int. Therefore: we shall read poems, learn how to regard them, stop and think, read again, talk, ask questions, open something, close something else, relate to the Hebrew language, identify forms and structures, find parallels in sculpture, compare to singing, juxtapose it to music, unravel, connect, weld, dismantle and hope to reach as close as possible to whatever it is that is already as close as possible, only we have no tools to see or use it.
Voice
Ruth Vider - Magen – year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students
Studying the fundamentals of the human voice experience.
- The physical body as a vibrating instrument, raising awareness of body vibrations, enriching and expanding the correspondence between the source of vocal vibration and the rest of the body.
- Raising awareness of body structure as supporting the voice.
- Body and voice – how the human voice lives and senses space – voice as sculpting space.
- Energy centers in the body – awareness of energy centers and their integration in vocal vibrations.
- Voice and the performer – how voice creates theatrical language, singing and theater.
- Language as defining space, work on gibberish and written text.
- Text as a vocal theatrical experience.
Drawing
Gabriel Rogel – year course | 4 hours a week (2 credits)
Elective for all students
The term 'drawing' embraces a variety of actions whose common factor is work on two-dimensional surfaces, large or small, flexible or rigid.
The course aims to develop a visual, physical experience through doing: observing objects, the human body and space, creating volume – experiencing means of concentration. The course will offer exploring materials and examining the limits and subtleties of each material.
Drawing the human body in its real dimensions as well, nocturnal landscape, work in given time frames, control and lack of control, drawing as a tool for immediate/spontaneous expression.
Visual Discourse
Guy Gutman – 1st semester | 2 hours a week (2 credits)
Mandatory (students can choose in which year to take this course)
Visual discourse makes room for discussion of several of the central issues dealt with in the School. In each class we shall examine one of the fundamental terms of the theater world – stage, audience, actor, play, stage design etc. – and check its conceptual limits through the multi-disciplinary prism. What is stage in the work of video artists such as Douglas Gordon or in the books and events of the visual artist Sophie Calle? Who is an actor in the performances of Marina Abramowitch or in the stage world of Pina Bausch? The course offers a look at visual theater and multi-disciplinarianism as a point of encounter and interaction of languages, terms and sensibilities that constantly challenge each other.
Two Hours of the Public's Time
Guy Gutman – year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students
Whether the work lasts a mere few seconds – like Alighiero Boetti 's lamp that flickers once a year only, or a seven-hour long opera like the work of Robert Wilson, or a thousand-year long project as in the work of Jem Finer - they all require our attention for a limited period of time and that is the element of time that charges them with meaning. In these works, the significance of terms such as scenario, play, choreography, drama and narrative do not cease to change and are constantly redefined. The course offers a gaze at time as the central tool in an artist's work, and observe various ways to use it. We shall discuss contemporary multi-disciplinary artists in whose works narrative and time are central: from Laurie Anderson to Matthew Barney through such artists as Robert Lapage, the Wooster Group, Bill Viola, Pina Bausch and Tony Oursler. By a series of practical projects, the course offers each student the opportunity to experience and develop a personal approach to constructing visual narratives. "Two hours are a short period of time, but they are also forever using two hours of the public's time is a complex, difficult craft." "Shakespeare used something which can be used today just as well – he took a few hours of the public's time. He used this time in such a way as to compress into it second after second of incredibly rich living material". (Peter Brook)
Puppet Theater for Beginners
Roni Mosenson Nelken and Amit Drori – year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for 1st year students
The class is intended for 1st year students interested in puppet theater, whether as future puppeteers or just to 'have a taste', as well as for continuing students who have not studied puppet theater in the past, or were not admitted to the advanced class. This class is not a repetition of the beginners course of former years.
Puppet Theater for Advanced Students
Roni Mosenson Nelken and Amit Drori – year course | 3 hours a week (3 credits)
Elective for 2nd ,3rdand 4th year students
The course is intended for advanced students interested in developing puppet theater projects, who have studied with Amit or Roni in former years.
Theater and Live Performance Towards the End of the Millennium
Dr. Dror Harari – year course | 1.5 hours a week (1.5 credits)
Mandatory for 1st year students