Student Experience
The Show Must Go On(line)
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Theatre
You’ll learn, create and perform in the new Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts, an inspirational space that is home to the theatre program. You’ll take part in productions that are innovative – and often provocative. Faculty will help you develop your own identity through classes, workshops, projects and productions.
About the Major
The program focuses on the process of creating theatre including performance, design and analysis. This approach enables students to develop tools with which to approach other disciplines with creativity and rigor. Students may major in theatre or minor in theatre or design and production. Majors maintain high academic and artistic standards as they work on individual and collaborative projects. (See a calendar of events and opportunities)
Our department being small means we get close, and the professors take a personal interest in our development both as artists, and as people.
Frankie Outlaw — theatre major, Japanese and religious studies minor
What ultimately distinguishes Hamilton’s program is what one professor calls its “contemporaneousness.” Productions not only entertain but explore the many social and multicultural dimensions of performance. Theatre on the Hill is a dynamic, challenging community that aims to awaken and cultivate every student’s creative potential and presence.
Careers After Hamilton
- General Manager, Actors Theatre of Phoenix
- Actor, Donna on USA Network’s Suits
- Master Electrician, South Coast Repertory Theatre
- Chief of Strategy and Planning, Goldman Sachs
- Producer, NBC Universal Media LLC
- Foreign Service Officer, U.S. Department of State
- Physical Therapist, Rhode Island Rehab Institute
- Teacher/Theatre & English, NYC Board of Education
- Public Relations Director, Dallas Children’s Theater
- Features Producer, Entertainment Tonight
A Sampling of Courses
Out Loud 106S
Through the introduction of a variety of performance genres, this course develops oral communication, public speaking and public performance skills. Although no prior experience in performance or public speaking is expected, students will learn about and participate in such genres as storytelling, solo performance, hip-hop theatre, spoken word poetry, Sprechstimme and cabaret. Writer/performers to be studied/performed include Tim Miller, Karen Finley, Ntozake Shange, Danny Hoch, Sarah Jones and Bertolt Brecht.Not eligible for concentration credit. Oral Presentations.
View All CoursesPuppetry & Object Theatre 219S
This is a production and performance course to introduce students to the basics of puppetry. It will explore a variety of puppetry techniques.
View All CoursesOutrageous Acts: Avant-Garde Theatre and Performance Art 236S
An examination of experimental art’s capacity to shock and to force us to recognize ourselves from new and unexpected perspectives. The historical, cultural and philosophical origins and influences, as well as exemplary works from the early avant-garde movements (1890-1940) and more contemporary avant-garde theatre and performance art (1950-1990). Discussion of the art, music, literature, theatre and film of Surrealism, Symbolism, Expressionism, Dada, Futurism, Constructivism, Epic, The Living Theatre, Grotowski, Monk, Wilson, Foreman, The Wooster Group, Hughes, Finley. Oral Presentations.
View All CoursesAfrican-American Theatre from Ira Aldridge to August Wilson 238F
Study, discussion and oral performance of selected works of drama by African-Americans from the 1860s to the present. Focuses on themes within the plays in relation to the current social climate and how they affect the play's evolution in the context of changing U.S. cultural and political attitudes. Oral Presentations.
View All CoursesTragedy: Then and Now 244
How did Greek tragedy work in the city of Athens? Athens was a radical democracy but was based on slave labor and the exclusion of women. How is this implied contradiction displayed in the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides? But tragedy also has contemporary life. How do these plays transcend their time of production? An opportunity to examine relations of gods/humans, fate/choice, as well as gender, class/ethnicity and sexuality. Readings to include works by Seneca, Racine, Sartre, O’Neill, Heaney, Fugard.
View All CoursesDirecting 303F
Fundamentals of play direction and script analysis. Study of selected directors and directorial problems; the direction of exercise scenes; and direction of a final scene or one-act for public presentation.
View All CoursesToday and Tomorrow
