Building a Solid Foundation Through Live Performance
Theatre at WOU provides students with a solid base in acting, directing, technical theatre and design, performance, history, literature and theory. Each term students participate in professional productions in various styles ranging from contemporary to classical. Students are prepared for post-graduate opportunities including graduate program teacher licencor programs, internships, professional theatre and participation in the arts in their communities.
Our graduates have acted in and designed for such theatres as the Oregon and Utah Shakespeare Festivals, the Houston Alley Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, the Shakespeare Company (Chicago), Yale Repertory Theatre, the South Coast Repertory Theatre, the Santa Fe Opera, the Salem Repertory Theatre, Artists Repertory Theatre, Minneapolis Children’s Theatre, Seattle’s ACT, Portland Center Stage and off Broadway.
The Theatre Program offers a B.A./B.S. and a B.F.A., with a curriculum that includes historical, practical, technical, and creative aspects of the art, providing a solid base in acting, directing, technical theatre and design, performance, history, literature, and theory. The program’s theatrical productions exhibit artistic standards to which students can aspire. Students will be prepared for post-graduate opportunities including: graduate programs, teacher licensor programs, internships, professional theatre, and participation in the arts in their communities.
Program Objectives – Graduating students from the Theatre Program will:
- Understand processes involved in creating theatre, from script analysis through public performance.
- Demonstrate competency in various production processes (B.F.A. students achieve significant mastery in one area of study).
- Understand the historical, literary, theoretical, stylistic, and cultural dimensions of theatre, and how theatrical works exist within societal contexts.
Resources
Resources include a main-stage theater which seats 619 and houses a scene shop and lighting, sound, costuming and makeup areas. The theatre department also has two black box studios. The department produces three mainstage shows a year with a musical every other winter. There is also a yearly one acts fesitval produced by the directing class, several staged readings and a fully produced, student directed studio show. Western has five full time theatre faculty members. Guest artists are invited to perform, offer workshops, performances and lectures throughout the year for the campus community and the general public.
Contact:
Box Office 503-838-8462
email: killipl@wou.edu
503-838-8340
