Christopher Baker
dramaturg · playwright · director · teacher
Teaching
Experience
Academic Positions
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Associate Professor (2019-present)
Assistant Professor (2013-2019)
Lecturer (2008-2013)
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Visiting Assistant Professor (1997-98)
Lecturer (1995-97)
Other
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Graduate Program Director, Theater (January 2020-present)
Hartt School at the University of Hartford
Guest Lecturer (2006-2011)
Moscow Art Theatre School
Guest Instructor (March-June, 2003)
International School of the Philippines
Guest Workshop ( January 2000)
Harvard University
Teaching Assistant (1988-1990)
Thoughts on Teaching
My primary goal is to get students to think theatrically. To read plays as instigations for productions—live events that will affect audiences emotionally and intellectually and will generate a host of meanings. To think first about how a play looks and sounds and how it can be experienced in space. To appreciate that suspense, mystery, the clash of opposites, shouting, whispers, the unexpected, the fantastical, and jokes are ways that theatre artists communicate great truths while keeping audiences engaged. To remember that time is a crucial element in live performance—no skipping ahead or pausing—and so the structure of a piece shapes an audience’s experience and conveys meaning. To know that audience and performers are the only necessary and sufficient elements in the theatre. more...
Representative Courses and Syllabi
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
Textual Analysis (TH 730)
What are the methods of analysis that are most applicable (and helpful) to the creation of productions and most useful to theatre practitioners?
3 credits - graduate - 7 students
World Theater Repertory 2 (TH793)
After discussing Neo-classical, Romantic and Enlightenment ideas that inform 19th and early 20th century drama, this course explores the various modes of the Modern Theatre.
3 credits - graduate - 14 students
Avant Garde Theatre (Dramatugy Seminar) (TH729)
This course traces the contentious, rebellious, inventive and self-destructive impulse of the avant garde from the beginning of the 20th century to contemporary practice.
3 credits - graduate - 5 students
Production Dramaturgy (Dramaturgy Seminar) (TH729)
A project-based seminar on the "toolbox" of the production dramturg.
3 credits - graduate - 5 students
Producing (Dramaturgy Seminar TH 729)
A project based seminar introducing concerns and techniques of producing, from mission statements to budgets to season curation.
3 credits - graduate - 5 students
Play Analysis for Production (TH 120)
A "gateway" course for theater majors, the class explores strategies to analyze plays for performance as well as placing those plays within an historical context .
3 credits - undergradate - 20-30 students
Classical Repertory (TH320)
What do the plays of fifth-century Athens and the Roman Republic have to offer us in the twenty-first century? How might contemporary theater artists produce these works?
3 credits - undergradate - 20 students - Fufills UMass Junior Year Writing requirement
Modern Repertory (TH 322)
This course traces the development of Modern drama and theatre including the expectations and social conditions for which the playwrights wrote.
3 credits - undergradate - 20 students - Fufills UMass Junior Year Writing requirement
American Repertory (TH330)
This class explores American theater and drama from its beginnings to contemporary practice, including texts, acting techniques, producing organizations, business and politics.
3 credits - undergradate - 20 students - Fufills UMass Junior Year Writing requirement
Introduction to Theater (TH100)
What makes the theatrical event unique? How do we read dramatic literature? What is the role of theater in different cultures and communities? How is theatre made and why?
4 credits - undergraduate - 80 sudents - general education course
From Top: Visual analysis by UMass graduate student Bethany Eddy; plot bead analysis diagram by UMass graduate student Samantha Doolittle;students rehearsing scene in Classical Repertory class at UMass; ; Costume design for Orestes chorus member at University of North Carolina by Lara Knight.
