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Department of Theatre

BFA: Theatre Studies: Playwriting, Directing, & Dramaturgy

Theatre is about relationships and collaboration: Relationships between actors, between actors and the director and between the audience and the world the playwright has created. Long before any opening night, there’s the relationship between the playwright and the words on the page, the collaboration between the playwright and the director as those words are illuminated upon the stage and between the dramaturg, playwright and director who work in unison to create a deeper understanding of the work, the ideas and the world the audience is about to encounter.

Director working with actors during rehearsal

What to expect-

The Theatre Studies concentration allows students to study the core cluster of playwriting, directing and dramaturgy, along with the many other facets of theatre. In consultation with your advisor and faculty mentors, students may also integrate study abroad and professional internships as part of their degree program and have the opportunity to pursue other academic minors or even secondary areas of study that can augment their work in theatre studies. The flexible curriculum in Theatre Studies allows for a high degree of individual exploration.

This exploration may also include the areas of:

  • Devising, Adaptation, Documentary and Immersive Theatre
  • Social Issues and Racial Justice Theatre
  • Theatre History and Theory & Criticism
  • Arts Management

Theatre Studies students have numerous opportunities to employ the practical applications of theatre by participating in:

  • The Armory Free Theatre Season (Student Produced Productions) 
  • The Brown Theatre Collective (Plays for and by BIPOC) 
  • Impulse 24/7 (Our 24-Hour Play Festival) 
  • INNER VOICES Social Issues Theatre 
  • SPOT (Student Playwright Outreach Theatre) 
  • Sunday Shorts (New Short Works) 
  • Theatre Studies New Works Festival (Creating and Sharing of New Works)
  • Scholastic Presentations for the Undergraduate Research Symposium.

As juniors and seniors, students gain further knowledge by being assigned as Assistants to the Director and Assistant Dramaturgs for main stage and studio productions. The immersion of working with resident and guest directors helps students appreciate diverse directing styles and the types of research needed from dramaturgs to help inform a production.   

Along with the education from a world-class university, graduating with a BFA in Theatre Studies has allowed our students to pursue careers as arts administrators, directors, writers, critics, casting directors, theatre company managers and theatre company founders. Other graduates have used their four years in Theatre Studies to hone their interest in order to pursue advanced degrees in theatre and many other areas. With its broad-based approach, Theatre Studies prepares students for their entry into the world of theatre.

INTERVIEW / PORTFOLIO REVIEW INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND HERE

CURRICULUM INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND HERE

For more information, please contact Thom Miller at miller64@illinois.edu.

Director working with actors during rehearsal

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