BA Theater Arts - Acting

The BA in Theater Arts/Acting Concentration training program is based on creative strategies for students to grow artistically and become first-rate performers. The curriculum gives students a strong foundation across a wide range of industry fields including acting for stage and film, dance, directing/performance, playwriting, theater history, design and technology. The BA program also offers a strong liberal arts component that helps nurtures well-rounded young artists whose goals are to enter the professional industry or continue on to graduate school.

OUR APPROACH

The concentration curriculum provides a precise order of progression that intensifies our students’ skills as actors/performers on two levels: One is working on technique: on skill, voice, body and coordination; second is inviting them into totally free improvisation.

First year Acting courses are based on Stanislavski’s principles of acting. Working on technique, on the self, requires the use of fundamental exercises in Relaxation,Concentration, In-the-Moment Behavior, Observation, Sense and Emotion Memory, Movement and Voice. Working on the part moves the student from the preparation of their instrument to the preparation of the role.

During the sophomore and junior year students will learn an extensive vocabulary of acting developed by theatre masters such as Michael Chekhov, Sanford Meisner, Jerzy Grotowski Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Uta Hagen, and Robert Lewis. This step-by-step process includes work on the script through scene study and rehearsal process: given circumstances, character biography, objectives, tasks and behavior, activities and actions. The students will create a character, with his/her own needs, desires and life.

An increasingly diverse and innovative American theater demands a variety of skills and techniques from its performers. Our Classical Theater courses teach techniques that include finding the meaning of each word, scanning the meter in the verse, locating the operative words and images in the verse and prose, examining the punctuation and overall structure of the text on the page. The appreciation of language in classical text is key to unlocking action, situation, character psychology, and thought process; enabling the actor to express the complexities of classical drama with depth and clarity.

The Bachelor Arts (BA) Theater Arts program offers students the opportunity to explore many facets of theater in one of three concentrations: Acting, Directing, and Design/ Technical theatre. The BA in Theater Arts students receive a solid foundation in all aspects of theater as part of a well-rounded liberal arts education.

Students have the freedom to delve deep into the Performing Arts curriculum or supplement their theater degree with a double major or minor. Students also have the opportunity to choose a minor in such fields as English, communications, psychology, and business, a choice that can lead to careers in performing arts management, playwriting, dramaturgy, performing arts history and research, psycho-drama therapy, and broadcasting.