Our Mission
The Department of Theatre Arts is dedicated to engaging students in a current, dynamic, experiential, and diverse educational experience. The program offers students a unique combination of contemporary theory and practice within the context of a broad-based liberal arts education. The faculty of teachers, artists, and scholars provides students with models of excellence in our classrooms, studios, on our stages, and in the profession regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Theatre Arts majors earn a Bachelor of Arts degree grounded in history, literature, theory, and applied practice. Our curriculum provides a foundation in the Theatre, with each Concentration (Performance, Design & Technology, and Theatre Studies) creating opportunities for exploration and specialization. Mainstage productions provide opportunities for students and faculty to work together creatively and collaboratively on material spanning genre, period, and style.
The Department of Theatre Arts is also actively committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming community where each student can evolve to the fullest. This commitment is evident in our curriculum, programming, production season and the mentoring of students.
The Department of Theatre Arts faculty are Artists and Scholars working in the profession but here for our Students. Our faculty take pride in their professional achievements, but are fully committed to the education, mentorship, and evolution of our students. We also bring up numbers of guests each semester--working professionals giving time, teaching, and providing opportunities.
Accreditation
The Department of Theatre Arts is fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Articulate self-reflection and respond as a member of the local community and global society; to continually evaluate and motivate one's actions—connecting work as artists and as global citizens to sustainability in all of its forms - social, environmental and economic.
- Develop the ability to articulate the importance of storytelling to the arts, humanities, broader social development, and evolution of society through/by connecting interdisciplinary studies from General Education and Minor courses to their work as Theatre Artists
- Demonstrate (in written, visual, aural and oral forms) an understanding of a play, musical, live performance or production in terms of its (local, national, global) social, political, cultural, aesthetic and historical context
- Evaluate a theatrical work for its context and clearly articulate an understanding of that work through a discipline specific interpretation or response—applying theatre practices and developing various techniques, skills and methods for creating works of live performance.
