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THEATER AT EMORY!

A Program Centered in Liberal Arts Education
The Department of Theater Studies is committed to teaching theater as an integral part of a liberal arts education. Unlike many pre-professional conservatory programs, we require academically rigorous study as well as hands-on learning in the wide range of sub-disciplines of theater: literature and criticism, playwriting, performance, technology, design, and administration. In-depth courses and laboratory projects allow students to develop more specialized knowledge and skill, but always within the context of this broader understanding, which opens the mind to larger questions of psychology, culture, and history. The advantage is that our students can think, question and create outside of the box of "acting" or "design." They are encouraged to re-imagine and redefine theater rather than simply fit themselves into existing models.

Educating the Whole Person
We believe the range of theater study teaches and exercises creativity, real-world problem solving, leadership skills and teamwork, pragmatism and imagination, discipline, analysis of language, and a sense of personal connection to one's work. Theater study can integrate the body, voice, and imagination, while also challenging the cognitive mind.

Small is Good
Classes are small and provide extensive contact with our faculty, who are among the most highly regarded teachers in Emory College. Faculty and students grow acquainted and work together in classes and in Theater Emory projects. Faculty members also help students select courses and projects, and even initiate tutorials and experiments in areas of special interest.

A Professional Laboratory: Theater Emory
The Department has a unique partnership with Theater Emory, our resident professional theater that has attracted artists from across the continent and around the world. The faculty use Theater Emory as a laboratory where they and selected students, can work side-by-side with other professionals to explore the classics, new plays, and workshops addressed to particular questions. This chance to work with professional artists is a rare opportunity in undergraduate education.

After Graduation
Graduates of our programs have joined prestigious theaters in New York or London, or entered graduate MFA and PhD theater programs (Yale, Brandeis, Stanford, and Northwestern) and have started their own theater companies both in Atlanta and New York City. We have been equally pleased to see our students admitted to law, business, and medical schools, or initiate a path to other careers. Study and participation in theater can help prepare a student for a variety of professional lives as well as for a lifetime of learning.

Curriculum. Most courses in Theater Studies are open to any interested student. Theater Emory also welcomes students at all levels of experience, onstage and backstage. Introductory courses especially for beginners are 101 (Introduction to Theater), 190 (Freshman Seminar), 121 (Introduction to Acting), and 131 (Basic Stagecraft). Students with some previous knowledge of theater are urged to consider 201 (Reading for Performance), 221 (Acting: Scene Study), 222 (Acting: Speeches and Monologues), 223 (Voice and Diction), 224 (Movement) and 230 (Principles of Design) as well as 215 and 216 (History of Drama I and II).

Honors Program. Outstanding majors in the department have the opportunity to graduate with Honors, High Honors, or Highest Honors in Theater Studies. To be eligible, the student must be a major in the Department with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.5 by the end of the junior year. The candidate for honors then must propose a thesis or production project and, after approval of that proposal from the department, will be assigned an honor's advisor who will supervise the thesis or project and, upon its completion, lead, with at least one outside examiner, an oral or written examination that will determine the degree of honors achieved. Honors are awarded in a special commencement ceremony and are noted on the honoree's commencement program and diploma.

Theater Opportunities. Atlanta is a major metropolitan area and it affords many different theatrical experiences. Currently forty-two theaters operate in the city; some of those in addition to presenting their own work also stage touring productions that feature nationally recognized artists. Internships have been arranged for advanced students to work with some of these theaters, including the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, the Alliance Theatre, Horizon Theatre Company, and Out of Hand Theater. Internships also have been arranged in major theaters around the country.

Theater Emory presents professional and student productions developed from new works and classics. Since 1982 Emory has enjoyed a unique collaboration of professional directors, actors, designers, choreographers, playwrights, and dramaturgs from throughout the United States and abroad. They work side by side with our liberal arts students in Theater Emory productions and workshops, and serve as mentors and teachers in many courses.

Theater Emory functions in the best tradition of a research university: posing questions, challenging assumptions, and examining values in search of lasting truths. “A theater company cannot find its voice solely by following preexisting models,” says Vincent Murphy, artistic producing director. “We investigate questions about the form and content of our work. We produce theater that evokes ideas that challenge ourselves and our society.” This approach is evident in several ongoing projects: the Playwriting Center, the Issues Troupe, and Classics in Context.

Professional Affiliations. Theater Emory is the producing organization of Emory University and is affiliated with the Department of Theater Studies. It is a constituent member of the Theatre Communications Group, Inc., the national association of nonprofit professional theatres, and a member of the Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts. It operates under a seasonal agreement with Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

The Playwriting Center of Theater Emory creates a support system for the development of important new work for the stage and, increasingly, screen, with linking artistic and academic missions. The Biennial Brave New Works play festival has developed more than 100 new works, many of which have been produced in American regional theaters from the Yale Repertory Theatre to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and internationa lly in theaters in South American, Canada and Europe. In recent years, Brave New Works has also included Emory faculty projects and exceptional student work. Since its inception in 1989, The Playwriting Center has commissioned and developed scripts with major playwrights including Arthur Kopit, Frank Manley, Steve Murray, Robert O'Hara, Robert Schenkkan, Wole Soyinka, Naomi Wallace and Elizabeth Wong. Projects are chosen for the Center by the Director of the Playwriting Center, Lisa Paulsen, and her colleagues based on recommendations and nominations from the Advisory Board and Emory faculty and staff. 

A few of the gifted faculty members in the Emory Theater Department

Leslie Taylor, Chair, ltayl04@emory.edu

Leslie Taylor has designed sets and costumes for over 100 productions. Most recently, she designed sets and costumes A Streetcar Named Desire for Georgia Shakespeare Festival and King Lear for Theater Emory. Currently Chair of the Theater Studies Program at Emory University, she also served as the Artistic Director for Theater Emory's 2000-2001 season. She is resident designer for Theater Emory, and has designed for GA Shakespeare Festival, the Center for Puppetry Arts, the Alliance Theater, Georgia Ensemble Theater and Theatrical Outfit. Her work has been seen at Opera Theater St. Louis, GEVA Theater in Rochester, NY, Merrimack Theater, Portland Stage Company, Indiana Repertory Theater and Off-Broadway.

On Broadway she was the Associate Designer with Ming Cho Lee on the Tony award-winning production of K-2 and The Glass Menagerie starring Jessica Tandy. She was the Associate Designer for The Odd Couple starring Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers. In 1983, she received a Maharam Award for her work on K-2 and has had her work chosen as Best of Atlanta by the Journal Constitution and Creative Loafing. She received her BA with Honors from Wellesley College, her MFA from New York University School of the Arts, and a post-graduate study from The League of Professional Theater Training Programs.

Theater at Emory, Emory University, 224 Rich Building, Atlanta, GA 30322, 404-727-2574

Lisa Paulsen, Director Playwriting Center, lpaulse@emory.edu

Lisa Paulsen joined the Theater Studies faculty in 2001 and regularly teaches courses in acting.   She has also been part of creating a unique co-teaching model for playwriting, in conjunction with the Creative Writing faculty. In 2006, Ms. Paulsen was named Director of the Playwriting Center of Theater Emory, which includes the bi-ennial play development lab, Brave New Works. As a resident actor and director for Theater Emory, she has directed This Property is Condemned as part of the Young Acts and Midsummer Night's Dream. She also appeared as Lily in Ah, Wilderness!, as well as taking part in The Family Project and Brave New Works. In addition, she choreographed several of the violence sequences for King Lear, directed by Tim McDonough and was period style coach for She Stoops to Conquer, directed by Michael Evenden.

Her professional research in acting and directing includes credits at Shakespeare Festivals in Georgia, California, Utah, Oregon, Texas and six seasons with PCPA Theaterfest. She has played dozens of roles ranging from Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion to the Marquis de Merteuil in Les Liasones Dangereus to Rosalind in As You Like It. Directing credits include How I Learned to Drive, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, and The Road to Mecca.   Her filmography includes a featured role in "Psychopathia Sexualis" directed by Bret Wood and distributed by Kino International, and a collaboration on "Happy Crying Nursing Home," directed by Niklas Sven Vollmer. Ms Paulsen served as Artistic Associate and Education Director for California Shakespeare Festival, and on the acting faculty at University of Alabama. She received her MFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University and her BA from University of Northern Iowa. Lisa is originally from Ames, Iowa.

Theater at Emory, 218 Rich Building, Emory University, Rich Building, Atlanta, GA 30322, 404-727-8020

Scott Little, Director of Technical Theater, selittl@emory.edu

Scott Little, prior to Emory, has worked as technical director and assistant professor at Oklahoma State University and The University of South Dakota. Scott has been in the educational field for the last eleven years and has also worked with The Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, Black Hills Playhouse, The University of Wyoming Summer Theatre, and LAMB Productions in Sioux City, IA. He likes to think of himself as a well-rounded technical theater junkie, having designed not just lights, but sound, properties, and scenery as well. He has a B.S. in theater from the University of Wyoming and an MFA in technical production from the University of South Dakota.

Theater at Emory, 230 Rich Building, 1602 Fishburne Drive , Atlanta, GA 30322, 404-727-7223

Ready to contact Theater at Emory? Here are the people who can answer your questions...

To ask questions about the Department of Theater Studies, contact John Ward jward03@emory.edu or 404-727-6751

To inquire about auditions for productions, contact Robert Schultz rschult@learnlink.emory.edu or 404-727-6462

To ask your questions about Theater Emory, contact Hunter Hanger hhanger@emory.edu or 404-712-9118

Visit Theater at Emory on the web at THEATER AT EMORY

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