Our Mission

The Department of Theatre and Film is committed to providing liberal-arts based preprofessional training which imaginatively balances theory and practice. Through classroom study, studio/laboratory preparation, field studies, and stage productions, students are challenged to pursue a commitment to individual excellence, collaboration, and a passion for their discipline, and to develop a firm grounding in the core components of live and mediated performance. Students seeking professional careers, preparing for advanced degree programs, training to be educators, or pursuing interdisciplinary study in the arts participate in contemporary production practices encompassing new, modern, and classic works interpreted to confront and illuminate the diverse concerns of contemporary life.

Production is an essential and integral part of the department's educational mission. Students are provided with a variety of opportunities to gain experience and develop creative and collaboration skills both before and behind the scenes. In the selection of dramatic narrative and other works, the department seeks to reflect vital contemporary issues, personal and public, in varied and challenging forms, both new and classic, thereby creating a forum for cultural and social concerns. The program actively pursues the development of new works and practice, collaborations with urban arts and educational institutions, and the expansion of cultural exchange.

The Department of Theatre and Film is an accredited institutional member of the
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOLS OF THEATRE