TAPS 22AX: Theatre of the People: Performance Based Acting

Course Description

Theatre of the People is a performance-based course in which students create and perform an original play or musical that addresses burning social issues. The course’s approach to play creation is accessible to both beginners and experienced theatre makers, and anyone who is curious about how to use art to affect socio-political change. Students will build their skills in acting, character creation, clowning, mask work, devised theatre, sketch comedy, writing for the stage, musical theatre, working in an ensemble, dramatizing social forces, and site-specific performance.  

Our practical work will be supplemented with lessons about theatre’s rich history of speaking truth to power—from the Commedia Dell’Arte troupes of Renaissance Italy to the work of contemporary theatre makers like Dario Fo, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Mbongeni Ngema, and Percy Mtwa. The students’ original play will be performed for the public at the culmination of the course.

This course fulfills the Creative Expression (CE) requirement.

Meet the Instructor

Rotimi Agbabiaka

Rotimi Agbabiaka is a Lecturer in the Theatre and Performance Studies department, where he teaches courses in acting and solo performance. As an actor, Rotimi most recently originated the roles of Aladdin in The Magic Lamp (Presidio Theatre), Salima in House of Joy (California Shakespeare Theatre) and Cellphone in If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons, Off-Broadway). Other acting credits include roles at Yale Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Magic Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Shotgun Players, and TheatreWorks. Rotimi is also a company member of Word for Word, Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience (BACCE), and the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe. As a playwright, Rotimi penned and toured the solo shows Homeless,Type/Caste (Theatre Bay Area award), and MANIFESTO, and the musical, Seeing Red—co-written with Joan Holden and Ira Marlowe and produced by the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

Rotimi has taught acting, movement, and play creation at the Yale School of Drama, Middlebury College, Bennington College, Southern Illinois University, the California Institute of Integral Studies, and American Conservatory Theatre, among others. Directing credits include the world premieres of VS. at TheatreFIRST and The Red Shades: A Trans Superhero Rock Opera at Z Space. Rotimi trained at the Moscow Art Theatre, received an MFA in Acting from Northern Illinois University, and has presented work at museums (the deYoung), in parks (with We Players), on street corners (with Jess Curtis’ GRAVITY), and on nightlife stages around the world (as alter ego Miss Cleo Patois).