Advancements in Digital Media (workshops and seminars) consists of research in the use of emerging digital technologies in the performing arts, drawing from the UCLA HyperMedia Studio's work with physically interactive media environments. Participants explore new relationships between author, performer, and audience enabled by digital technology, carrying seminar ideas into workshop experimentation with media in performance. The experiments with digital technology occur throughout the session, interspersed with scheduled discussions of historical precedents and the theoretical and practical consequences of workshop results. Participants are encouraged to consider the relationships and tensions among these new possibilities and the other forms to which they will be exposed in The Collective.

The Art of the Auteur: Executing Reaction (workshops/rehearsals) allows each participant to be the sole creator of a short piece of theater, using other students as performers. Without a text as a map, they are expected to react to a work of art, an ancient ruin, one stanza of text, one movement of a piece of music, etc., as the impetus for their work, and then to pull from their new understanding of the forms explored in the workshops.

Alternative Methods of Direction (workshops). Lead by acclaimed director Alexander Morfov, participants are encouraged to develop personal approaches to interpreting and staging text- pulling from their own imaginations as much as "established" techniques, such as those influenced by Stanislavski and Meyerhold.

Introduction to Ancient Greek and Roman Theater (workshop) will familiarize participants with the use and importance of masks within the origins of Western drama.

Introduction to Cham Mysteries (workshops). Participants will be trained under the direction of Master teacher Lama Lobsang Tardo- exploring the physical, rhythmic, and meditative techniques.

Collaboration Workshop (workshops/rehearsals) is the guided rehearsal time, during which the participants create their short pieces.

Introduction to Dervish Dance (workshops). Participants will be trained under the direction of Master teacher Bahattin Dogan Hodja- exploring the techniques and exercises of both group and individual dance models.

Eastern Movement and Physical Theater (workshops) is an intense exploration of techniques and fundamentals often missing from Western training, such as those intrinsic to Kabuki, Kathakali, Noh, Pantomime, Clowning, Commedia dell'Arte, Acrobatics, Ngonpa, Chinese Opera, the Twang Theater of Vietnam, the Lakhon Dance Theater of Thailand and Cambodia, Pencak Silat of Sumatra, the Tsam dances of Mongolia, and the Changguk Theater of Korea.

The History of Collaboration (seminar) explores one of theater's most unique aspects, its collaborative nature. Unlike other artistic media, theater depends on a constant collaborative process in order to create. The seminar studies the tradition of collaborative practice in theater, and traces, through its historical and cultural variants, the significance of its development from the Greeks to the present.

Introduction to Karagoz (workshop) will familiarize participants with a shadow puppetry tradition that has adopted resistance against oppression, ribald humor, and folk wisdom as its hallmarks.

Rebuilding Narrative: The Fusion of Theatrical Forms (seminar) has a twofold purpose. The first is to discuss and contextualize the forms learned in the workshops, exploring each subject's specific aesthetic concerns and formal history. Particular attention is paid to how each form uses the element of story in performance. The course also explores how contemporary artists- such as Tadashi Suzuki, Anne Bogart, Peter Brook, and Reza Abdoh- use alternative techniques and the idea of multicultural fusion in their production work and creative processes.

The Roots of Performance and The Application of MythsThe Roots of Performance and The Application of Myths (seminars) focus on dramatic adaptations of myths and legends in several cultures and theatrical styles- tracing the role mythology has played in the arts throughout the ages, and challenging the students to find ways for the contemporary artist to use these stories in new and vital ways. In the 2006 session, focus will be placed on Thracian mythology and its global parallels, the mysteries of Dionysian and Orphic cults, gender roles and stereotypes, and the results of anthropological investigations.