Students majoring in Theatre Arts should be able to:
- Strengthen their skills in observation, concentration, and imagination
- Effectively apply learned acting techniques to performance and/or creative works of their own
- Interpret dramatic texts and critique theatrical performance using appropriate critical language and analytical frameworks
- Integrate effective use of body and voice in communication in a theatrical space
- Read technical drawings, and apply a basic understanding of scenery, scenic materials, construction procedures, and standard theatrical lighting practices to theatre production
- Identify the basic elements of stage direction; analyze a play script from the point of view of the director; articulate and defend a production concept; develop actor-coaching skills; and identify elements of direction that communicate story, theme, and concept
- Positively contribute to the field of theatre performance, history, and production.
Students majoring in Theatre Arts are presented with the opportunity to value:
- Theatre as a live, human, creative, and spiritual experience, which has the power to transform and educate as well as entertain an audience
- Non-Western theatrical styles and genres
- The impact design and production have on the theatrical experience, and the relationships and contributions of all collaborators and theatrical personnel and how they contribute to the creation of theatre production across a broad spectrum of styles and genres
- Individual expression through exploration, analysis, and creation of dramatic writing
- First-hand European theatre tradition; Stanislavski and Epic theatre performance techniques; the history, geography, and culture of Germany and Russia, through our semester study abroad program.
Students majoring in Theatre Arts should know:
- Basic theories, techniques, and process of dramatic writing and structure, and various approaches to translating original dramatic material from the page to the stage/screen
- Basic world theatre history and dramatic literature, including exemplary works and genres
- Basic performance and design genres, styles, and techniques
- Basic strategies of career development and audition/interview methods.