Creative and Research Opportunities

Four students perform onstage in the New Works Festival 2018.

New Works Festival

Each Spring semester, the department produces a new works festival of short plays written, directed, acted, designed, and produced by students. It is an opportunity for students to experiment with different modes of expression and to collaborate on new, developing works.

Senior Showcase

Loyola Marymount University’s Theatre Arts Program, faculty and staff, each spring present a Senior Showcase to Los Angeles and Hollywood entertainment industry professionals. Senior Theatre Arts majors who are interested in performing in the showcase are required to audition.

Actors who are cast will register for the course, Thea 351 Theatre Practicum: Showcase, open to Theatre Arts seniors only. They will dedicate their time in this course to rehearsing and preparing to present polished audition material for the showcase, learning and practicing how to utilize valuable promotional tools such as creating effective self-tapes for auditions, developing a showcase webpage and video, fine tuning professional pictures and resumes, and strategizing effective social media tools including effectively reaching out to Entertainment Professionals through invitations to the Showcase and connecting through additional networking techniques and platforms.

These young emerging artists of LMU’s Theatre Arts Program will have completed four years of performance based acting training, enriched with a liberal arts curriculum, and participation in production. Production experience can range from classical and contemporary work, Broadway musicals and New Works, ensemble-devised work and on-camera based television and film work with LMU’s School of Film and Television.

The LMU Theatre Arts program offers the Senior Showcase in order to give interested Theatre Arts seniors the opportunity to celebrate their talent as they perform for an invited audience of Hollywood agents, managers and casting directors, and to meet the challenges of the world of professional performance. They each carry with them the conviction that dynamic performance is born not of happenstance, but of deep exploration of human values and creativity, sustained passion, the study of those artistic and social principles that enable them to better understand their society and environment, relentless discipline, and the love of imaginative play.

Del Rey Players

Established in 1931, the Del Rey Players is a student-run theatre company that produces four shows every year, plus special events and special performances. The Del Rey Players gives LMU students the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the production process in a completely student-run atmosphere. This program welcomes students of all class years and majors.

Theatre in Color

Theatre in Color is a new club geared towards artists of color that works to uplift them, help them excel, and provide resources and guidance. This club was created so that all artists of color felt like they had a space of their own where they can succeed and explore stories and ideas that are their own. Watch A Night of Black Excellence, presented by Theatre in Color.

Undergraduate Arts Showcase/Research Symposium

The annual Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) is a chance for undergraduate students to present what they have learned through their research experiences to a larger audience. The Undergraduate Research Symposium provides an excellent opportunity for all members of the LMU community to actively engage with students who have been immersed in thought-provoking questions and challenging global issues. The symposium includes an arts showcase, poster sessions, and presentation sessions by students from all academic disciplines.

Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival

The Theatre Arts Program regularly participates in the KCACTF Festival to see one another’s work and to share ideas. Responders regularly observe our productions and provide constructive feedback.  In addition to performances, there are a wide range of activities that in the past have included workshops and seminars on such topics as playwriting, auditioning, voice, movement, stage combat, theater for children, scene painting, scenery construction, and so on.