• Concentration Overview
    As a performing arts major with a concentration in theater, you will take performance, studio, history, and seminars. Playwrights, actors, and stagecraft artists: you will develop, cultivate, and hone the skills you need to succeed in performance, design, and instruction (teaching), and become a prime candidate for graduate programs. 

    In performance courses, you will be members and sometimes soloists in production and ensembles in front of live audiences. These courses emphasize collaborative skills and ensemble performance. In studio courses, you will study acting in-depth, exploring specified techniques such as the Stanislavski Method, Alexander, Meisner, Hagen, Adler, and Spolin Technique. You will explore improv, stage combat, pantomime, puppetry, and devising to become confident, well rounded, performance artists. Studio courses emphasize technique, repertoire, presentation, and ultimately, creative performance or design projects. History courses provide the context for all theater practice and enhance students’ ability to perform, write about, promote, question, or collaborate with artists working in any theatrical style. Finally, seminar courses give students the theoretical foundation for their craft. Portfolio building, workshops, master classes, script analysis, and more help the artist to find their voice and contribute with confidence to the arts world. 

    In addition, you will undertake three internships, including a semester-long, full-time professional experience relevant to performing arts and theater. You will complete a two-semester senior thesis on a topic relevant to theater, and containing interdisciplinary components. You will experience the integration of theory and practice through coursework, experiential learning, and independent field research and/or creative composition in the senior thesis sequence.
     
    group of students gathered on stage during performance taking a knee towards crowd
  • Curriculum
  • Internships and Careers

Mainstage Performances

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Actor dressed and posed for in Midsummer Nights Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Actor dressed and posed for in Midsummer Nights Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
actor lays on floor in costume with beanie hat with nasa button on top
Waiting for Godot
actor lays on floor in costume with beanie hat with nasa button on top
Waiting for Godot
cast of play stands at attention for applause at end of show
West Side Story
cast of play stands at attention for applause at end of show
West Side Story
main cast of wizard of oz play characters stand facing the back of the stage with arms linked
Wizard of Oz
main cast of wizard of oz play characters stand facing the back of the stage with arms linked
Wizard of Oz
actors dance and sing in dark setting of stage
Wizard of Oz Production
actors dance and sing in dark setting of stage
Wizard of Oz Production
Comedy Showcase 2
Melancholy play
Comedy Showcase Production
Comedy Showcase 2
Melancholy play
Comedy Showcase Production
Shrek 2
Shrek! the musical
Shrek 2
Shrek! the musical
two actors sitting on same chair together
The importance of being earnest
two actors sitting on same chair together
The importance of being earnest
The play that went wrong
the play that goes wrong
Comedy Showcase Production
The play that went wrong
the play that goes wrong
Comedy Showcase Production
two actors embraced on the stage floor during a performance
Mainstage Play: The Clean House
Mainstage Play: The Clean House
two actors embraced on the stage floor during a performance
Mainstage Play: The Clean House
Mainstage Play: The Clean House
Actor holding up red cloth prop during play
The Clean House
Actor holding up red cloth prop during play
The Clean House
Two actors crouched dressed up in costumes during play one as dog one as male dog owner
Into the Woods
Two actors crouched dressed up in costumes during play one as dog one as male dog owner
Into the Woods
Actor posed before song in red riding hood outfit
Into the Woods to Student Performance
Actor posed before song in red riding hood outfit
Into the Woods to Student Performance
group of actors as pirates carrying one actress across stage
Pirates of Penzance
group of actors as pirates carrying one actress across stage
Pirates of Penzance