Stanford Theater and Performance Studies (Stanford TAPS)
The concept of Stanford Drama (now Stanford Theater and Performance Studies or Stanford TAPS) was a focus on the notion of the “scholar/director,” or “scholar/artist”. A practice that combined both a practical knowledge of all aspects of theater with a strong background in the theory and history of performance. This concept was grounded in a faith that the historically and theoretically informed performance maker could make a more substantive contribution to the field than those students who, as in most doctorate programs in theatre and performance are engaged primarily with theoretical and historical concerns.
I confess I do not believe in time. I like to fold my magic carpet, after use, in such a way as to superimpose one part of the pattern upon another. Let visitors trip. And the highest enjoyment of timelessness-in a landscape selected at random-is when I stand among rare butterflies and their food plants. This is ecstasy, and behind the ecstasy is something else, which is hard to explain. It is like a momentary vacuum into which rushes all that I love. A sense of oneness with sun and stone. A thrill of gratitude to whom it may concern-to the contrapuntal genius of human fate or to tender ghosts humoring a lucky mortal. Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory
Stanford Theater and Performance Studies (Stanford TAPS)
