The Theatre Arts Program offers a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Arts. The major is designed to provide students with a fundamentally sound and well-rounded bachelor of arts education and training in theatre and in its related arts of performance and design; to nurture students’ creative, metaphorical, critical, analytical, interpretive, and synthetic thinking and reasoning skills; and to develop their collaborative and interpersonal skills. These various skills will help students succeed in wide range of careers.

It is the objective of the Program to instill in its students an abiding respect for theatre as an historical and cultural institution; to enhance their appreciation for theatre’s significant role in a society’s social, political, and cultural life; and to prepare students for the world of the professional theatre, for graduate study, and for the demands of the twenty-first century workplace in a global economy.

The degree requires 52 credit hours. The Program’s core curriculum requires 37 credit hours of study in the areas of performance, design, theatre history, dramatic literature, theatre management, and technical theatre. Students then have the flexibility to choose one of three tracks of study, each requiring 15 credit hours. Students can focus in Performance, Design/Technology, or Theatre Studies, a track that provides even more flexibility by giving students the opportunity to fashion their own area of focus, such as critical studies or dramatic writing for example.

The Program’s productions are considered learning laboratories and are therefore academic in nature. Consequently, students participating in productions as directors, actors, designers, and stage managers are enrolled in academic courses and receive the full three credit hours offered by all other courses at the college. These courses are considered topics courses, for they investigate the work of a particular playwright, of a particular period or style, and of significant issues and ideas.

In addition to its curricular requirements, the Program provides students with practical experience in all aspects of theatre production as part of their overall education. Students learn collaborative skills not only as actors, directors, and designers, but also as theatre technicians and area managers as they work together to accomplish objectives and to solve problems.

Rigorous study that challenges students’ intellectual and creative capacities, the creative process, a professional attitude and work ethic, and artistic integrity are the emphases of all Theatre Arts Program courses and productions.

In addition to the 52 credit hours for the degree, students are also required to complete the requirements for the College’s Common Core of Studies and the English department’s foreign language requirement. Students are exempt from two semesters of a foreign language provided they took three years of one foreign language or two years each of two foreign languages in high school.