(Above Photo: Contemporary Theatre History students, faculty, and friends participate in the "Nelken-Line" Project)

Engaged Scholarship. Thoughtful practice. Citizenship.

The BA considers theatre scholarship, performance practice, and community-building as interrelated endeavors. The core of the program is dramaturgy: considering the theatrical past; interrogating the reasons for doing theatre now; and writing critically about performance. BA students study a range of historical and contemporary texts, theories, and devising approaches that inform studio work, foster critical generosity, and engage a range of academic disciplines. 

We develop resourceful artists--people who consider all aspects of the theatre event--from writing or devising a text, to finding and using space, to developing audiences, to performing. This student-centered program prepares students to theorize, create, and share new performance, to reflect and write critically about their own practice and the performance they see around them, by placing theatre within a conversation about how society shapes art, and art shapes society. 

Upcoming and recent BA projects include:

• Marike Splint residency

• the Penn State School of Theatre Nelken-Line 

• the Paula Vogel Presidents Day Ubu Bake-Off Challenge

• Team Dramaturgy for Fall 2018 production of Naomi Iizuka's Polaroid Stories