Students in Theater Professor Ellen (Cap) Corduan's Theatrical Stage Make Up course experiment with various make-up techniques, this lesson was classic whiteface clown. This lecture/laboratory course investigates the principles, techniques and materials of character stage makeup and practical application. Students will apply, in a production setting, principles, techniques and materials of character stage makeup. They will identify historical justification for period makeup and apply techniques for live animation, clowning and dramatic character.

Students in Dr. Robert Carr's Writings in Aesthetics course listen to a fellow student who discusses his recent portfolio defense, and then worked on their group and independent projects. Located at the interface between theory and production, this course is a writing intensive Communication Studies course that capitalizes on this vantage point to critically examine the professional arts comprising our curriculum, namely film, video, graphic design, photography, interactive media, and professional communication. Through weekly readings and writings, seminar discussions, presentations, and a term length qualitative research project, this writing intensive course bridges the theory/production dichotomy. 

Students in Theater Professor Mary Vreeland's  Acting for the Camera course, An intensive scene study course for the advanced student actor, spent their class time recording short commercial scripts for the camera. The scene was reviewed and Professor Vreeland and the rest of the class gave immediate feedback. 

Students in Professor Kevin McCarthy's Sound Design course, using an arsenal of props, add sounds to a movie clip. Foley artists devise and record the everyday sounds heard in films, television shows, and video games—noises like footsteps, a sword being drawn from a sheath, the swishing of clothing, or punches being thrown, etc. This course examines the elements of post-production sound design within the context of film and video production. This course blends the artistic and the technical. Students  use nonlinear editors, digital audio work stations and analog and digital recording equipment to design soundtracks for their film and video productions.

Students in Theater Professor Ellen (Cap) Corduan's Theatrical Stage Make Up course experiment with various make-up techniques in an effort to make themselves look decades older. One student exclaimed, "Wow, I look like my Grandmother!" This lecture/laboratory course investigates the principles, techniques and materials of character stage makeup and practical application. Students will apply, in a production setting, principles, techniques and materials of character stage makeup. They will identify historical justification for period makeup and apply techniques for live animation, clowning and dramatic character.

The university's first ever "Writer in Residence" with  The New York Times bestselling author, and Fitchburg State University Alum, R.A. Salvatore '81, '91 continued today with Salvatore visiting classes. First, he stopped into Communications Media Professor Kyle Moody's History of Interactive Media and Games, and then visited English Studies Professor Kisha Tracy's World Lit I: Myths & Traditions course. In both, Salvatore discussed his journey as a writer, starting at Fitchburg State University, and all of the many places, opportunities, and experiences that  brought to him to where he is today. He also held Q & A sessions with the students.

Hand-to-hand combat Students in Kelly Morgan's Stage Movement: Combat course learned how to safely act out various forms of hand-to-hand combat. Stage movement: Combat is a workshop-oriented course that utilizes the basic techniques of movement that emphasize developing the  student's potential for effective physicalization of a character on stage. Learn more about our Theater Concentration here.

 Film and Video Professor Robert Harris takes it "old school" when he helps a student reel up her film assignment to be projected.

Students in Film and Video Professor Robert Harris' Film Styles Genres & Movements class were in the studio setting up for an interview with Alum Buffy Cautela ‘22 for a segment for Film School Confidential: Stories of Fitchburg State Communications Department Past & Present. The thrust of the project is to produce a compendium of short stories of the students, faculty, alumni of the university's Communications Media Program. Learn about our Film & Video Program here.