The Department of Theatre & Dance offers students an intensive pre-professional training program in the performing arts within the context of a liberal arts education designed to prepare students for advanced educational programs, internships and the professional performing arts market.

The Department of Theatre & Dance offers the following degree programs:

• Bachelor of Fine Arts with degrees in Acting, Dance, Design/Technology and Musical Theatre
• Bachelor of Arts in Performing Arts with options in Dance or Theatre

The Department also offers the following minors:

• Theatre (Acting or Design/Theatre Technology)
• Dance

The Department’s programming is divided into three major areas:

• Training
• Production
• Professional development

Opportunities for experiential learning abound as most courses in the curriculum emphasize hands-on instruction. Theatre and dance offerings include a variety of sequential courses in acting, choreography, dance, design, directing, musical theatre, technical theatre, and dance and theatre history and literature. Each year, the department produces six major, faculty-directed/choreographed productions, resulting in ample opportunity for students to gain technical and performance experience in the Donald C. Bedell and Wendy Kurka Rust theatres, fully equipped professional facilities. The Department of Theatre & Dance frequently collaborates with the Department of Music in musical theatre productions. Additional projects, including those directed by students, are staged in the more intimate Rust Flexible Theatre and “found spaces.” The department regularly incorporates outside professional companies and guest artists into its normal on-campus programming, and it strongly emphasizes student professional development through outside internships, masterclasses, conventions, festivals and semester-long employment.

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