THEATRE DEGREE PROGRAMS

• BFA with Musical Theatre Emphasis
• BFA with Acting Emphasis
• BFA with Design Emphasis
• BA in Theatre
• Minors: Theatre, Performance Studies, and Dance

The Theatre Department provides students with a solid and comprehensive intellectual and historical background in theatre and performance as cultural and artistic phenomena that have flourished in many different forms and contexts throughout the world. Students are trained rigorously and practically in the arts and crafts of the theatre. The Department enhances the cultural and intellectual life of the Southwestern University and Georgetown communities through presenting challenging and entertaining theatre and performance events in which students gain that practical artistic experience. Through both academic and artistic rigor, students gain important intellectual and critical skills as well as expertise in artistic processes.The Department focuses on educating intelligent, insightful, and compassionate theatre artists, technicians, managers, scholars, and teachers and on advocating the value of theatre and performance knowledge and training and as life skillsThe Department acknowledgesthe fact that the professional and academic job markets for theatre artists and scholars are highly competitive. Students need to be able to compete in that marketplace, including admission into the best graduate programs. They also need the skills and insight necessary to create theatre and utilize their theatre training and skills in communitieswhere cultural activities are rare and in contexts where theatrical and performance skills, methodologies, and perspectives could enhance ways of perceiving the world and of working and solving problems. The Theatre Department is committed to teaching theatre as a vital academic discipline in a liberal arts context while maintaining a strong production program that gives students practical artistic experience.

The Theatre Department offers two degree options. The Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) is intended for students who want to pursue careers in the professional theatre, obtain graduate conservatory training focused on artistic processes, or who simply want to focus their undergraduate course work intensively in theatre. Students who become candidates for the B.F.A. must complete several core courses and pass an audition and/or portfolio review process at the end of the first semester of their sophomore year. To maintain their status as B.F.A. candidates, they must participate in Spring Semester juries in their sophomore, junior, and senior years during which they demonstrate their academic and artistic growth through further auditions and portfolio reviews. The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) is designed to provide students with a solid grounding in all areas of theatre studies including history, dramatic literature, performance, design, management, and technical theatre. Students who choose the Bachelor of Arts option often combine their work in theatre with work inother disciplines, are interested in graduate education focusing on research and scholarship, or are certifying to teach.