Theatre

Leah R. Gallant-McFall, Associate Professor

John O'Hagan, Professor

Trish Brown Schmit, Professor

Christine Calkins Steele, Professor

Faculty from other disciplines also support this program.

The performing arts play a vital role in a liberal arts education, the community, and society as a force that can educate, challenge, inspire, uplift, and heal both audience and artist. Realizing this potential requires skill in the art form, personal discipline, and humility—values our program strives to instill in our students. The Department of Theatre and Dance provides practical, rigorous, and thoughtful training that develops artistic, professional, and life skills for students to share with the world.

We offer our Theatre majors and Theatre minors and Dance minors multiple avenues through which to grow as artists, community members, and Christian Scientists. They demonstrate performance and production skills; critical thinking; historical and cultural awareness; and personal character through discipline, compassion, and humility. Throughout our program students put theory into practice in the classroom, in the costume and scene shops, in theatre and dance productions, on interdisciplinary abroads, through participation in regional festivals, and in workshops with visiting professionals and guest artists. The Theatre major capstone, THEA 420 Directing, encourages students to synthesize their training by producing and directing a one-act play. Dancers have the opportunity to choreograph for the yearly mainstage Dance Production. Students also have opportunities to design, build, and work in all aspects of technical production.

We value the interdisciplinary nature of a liberal arts education and foster an expansive approach to performing arts by recognizing the value of related arts: literature, creative writing, studio art, and music. In the performing arts the student-artist is the canvas, making inseparable the progression from theory to practice to performance. As a result, students grow in their understanding of themselves and in their empathy for others, becoming more compassionate, thoughtful, inspired human beings whose work extends far beyond Principia.

All practicum classes require proper registration for student participation. The maximum transferable credit for a major in theatre is five courses or 15 semester hours. The maximum transferable credit for a minor in theatre or dance is two courses or six semester hours. Non-credit theatre and dance production courses are not transferable.

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