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Welcome to the Department of Theatre at Bowdoin College!

Welcome to the Department of Theater and Dance at Bowdoin College. We believe in fostering a healthy atmosphere of artistic inquiry, creative exploration, and intellectual rigor. As a department, we are interested in work that is lively and forward-thinking.

We are committed to understanding the social and historical roots from which contemporary work springs. We believe deeply in exploring the interdisciplinary links between both disciplines, and in the value of studying the arts within the liberal arts context of the college. Come take a class, see a show, or audition for a performance. We want to encourage your participation at all levels of interest.

Opportunities in Theater

Bowdoin’s Theater program emphasizes the creation of original work and the interpretation of dramatic literature from a historically, socially, and politically informed perspective. This mission is supported by courses in performance, creative process, theory, history, design, technical theater, interdisciplinary offerings, and an active production schedule.

The department emphasizes theater's relationship to dance and other art forms as well as its fundamental connection to the broad liberal arts curriculum. The program's goals include theater literacy, an understanding of theater's role in the community, and an appreciation of what it means to act, write, design, direct, research, critique, reflect, and create. The aim is to develop and nurture imaginative theater practitioners who collaboratively solve problems of form and content with a passionate desire to express the rich variety of human experience on stage.

Students are exposed to traditional and experimental performance forms in class and on stage. Motivated students have additional opportunities for research and advanced work through courses in Ensemble, Studio 305, Acting Shakespeare, Comedy, and in Independent Studies, Honors Projects and participation in departmental productions.

Fullfilling the Arts requirement

Any 100 level course in the department that interests you. Department Requirements

Majoring in Theater

If you are interested in literature, consider doing an English/Theater major. If you would like to combine theater with another department, consider creating a self-designed major, such as Italian/Theater or Theater/Education. Self-designed and Interdisciplinary majors may soon have a crew assignment. We don’t offer a traditional theater major, but students with a specific interest will find plenty of opportunities to grow as artists and scholars by taking courses and working on productions. We suggest, for example…

Design Emphasis

Take Principles of Design, Stagecraft, Puppetry, Acting I, Performance Art, Making Theater, Viewing and Reviewing, Studio 305, & courses in Visual Arts. History, Music, Literature and a Dance class.

Acting Emphasis

Take Acting I, Acting II-Movement, Acting II-Voice, Shakespeare, Comedy, Studio 305 or Ensemble, a dance class, something experimental, one semester off-campus in a conservatory setting like BADA or NTI, work backstage on a show, take Stagecraft. Audition for everything, see everything.

Directing Emphasis

Take Making Theater, Acting I, Directing, Principles of Design, Stagecraft, Ensemble, Studio 305, classes in Visual Art, Dramatic Literature classes in English, such as Shakespeare, Modern Drama; direct something for Masque and Gown; do a directed study on-campus; read every play you can get your hands on; see everything. Take classes in history, literature, music, and other departments that relate to what you want to bring to the stage.

Dance/Theater Emphasis

Take Making Dances, Making Theater, Dance 111/112, 211/212, Acting I, Acting II, Directing, Making Dances II, Improvisation, Performance Art, Viewing and Reviewing, Ensemble, Studio 305, Rebel Dancers, make pieces for the dance concert, do a directed study on-campus.

For a list of Courses CLICK HERE

Performance Highlights

Besides student and faculty performances, the department sponsors visits by nationally known dance companies, choreographers, and critics for teaching residencies and performances. A partial list includes Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, Johanna Boyce, Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, Richard Bull Dance Company, Merce Cunningham, David Dorfman Dance, Douglas Dunn, Meredith Monk, Mark Morris, Phoebe Neville, Wendy Perron, Pilobolus, Dana Reitz, Kei Takei, UMO Performance Ensemble, Doug Varone, Trisha Brown Company, and David Parker and the Bang Group; and lectures by dance writers Susan Foster, Jill Johnston, Laura Shapiro, and Marcia B. Seigel. These professionals teach master classes and offer lecture-demonstrations as part of their visits to campus, and sometimes are commissioned to create choreography especially for the Bowdoin dancers.

The department also presents numerous plays and performance events, directed or created by faculty, guest artists and by students. Recent departmental productions have included Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, the premiere of Elizabeth Wong's China Doll, Elizabeth Egloff's Phaedra, Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom, Shakespeare's Macbeth, and a collaborative theater piece directed by Shauna Kanter, with live original music by John La Barbera. In conjunction with the department's activities, visiting artists present performance workshops and professional courses in a variety of areas. The department has sponsored several residencies and performances by artists such as Spalding Gray and Dan Hurlin (both Obie-award-winning performance and theater artists).

A Few Of Our Gifted Faculty

Gretchen J. Berg

Lecturer in Theater Performance

Phone: (207) 725-3341
Work Location: 607 Memorial Hall
E-Mail: gberg@bowdoin.edu

Gretchen Berg performs with Portland, Maine-based modern dance company Berg, Jones and Sarvis. She works as an artist in residence integrating theater, dance, visual arts, and classroom curriculum in New England schools and art museums.

Berg teaches graduate courses at the University of Southern Maine and developed a course entitled Learning and Teaching About Diversity Through Performance Art at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. She has taught theater and performance art courses at Bowdoin College since 1993.

Sonja Moser

Lecturer in Theater, Acting Chair of Theater and Dance

Phone: (207) 725-3419
Work Location: 602 Memorial Hall
E-Mail: smoser@bowdoin.edu

Sonja Moser (B.A., Sarah Lawrence College, M.F.A., Columbia University) teaches courses in acting, directing, voice and ensemble collaboration; her teaching methods derive from her training with Jacques LeCoq, Anne Bogart and Kristin Linklater. She comes to Bowdoin from New York City, where she worked as an actor and director for venues such as P.S. 122, HERE, The Ohio Theatre, Dixon Place, The Flea, Expanded Arts and Location One.

Her Off-Broadway credits include the New York premier of Maria Irene Fornes' Enter the Night at the Signature Theatre and Late by Sarah Ruhl for the New Works Now Festival at the Public Theatre. She has worked regionally for the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, the University of Iowa at Iowa City, and the HBO Workspace in Los Angeles, as well as at the Islesford Neighborhood House on Little Cranberry Island, where she currently resides. She is particularly interested in the work of emerging playwrights and the creation of original work.

Davis Robinson

Associate Professor of Theater

Phone: (207) 725-3424
Work Location: 604 Memorial Hall
E-Mail: drobinso@bowdoin.edu

Davis Robinson (B.A., Hampshire, M.F.A., Boston University) teaches acting, directing, and courses in Theater Styles, Comedy, Ensemble Creation, and Shakespeare. He has worked professionally as an actor and director around New England for over twenty years in film, television, and on stage, and often directs for The Shakespeare Theater at Monmouth. Recent work includes Antony and Cleoptra, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and You Can't Take It With You.

He trained in Paris with Jacques LeCoq, and is particularly interested in movement-based theater, contemporary playwrights, and the creation of original work. For several years he worked closely at Emerson College with renowned voice teacher Kristin Linklater.

He is also founder and director of the award-winning Beau Jest Moving Theater with whom he acts, writes, directs, and tours nationwide, including runs Off-Broadway and appearances at Lincoln Center and the Picollo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. His book, The Physical Comedy Handbookwas published by Heinemann in 1999. Davis studied movement and improvisation for many years with Tony Montanaro at the Celebration Barn Theater.

To learn more about the Faculty CLICK HERE

365 Days / 365 Plays

During October 2007 Bowdoin College participated, along with 52 other colleges and universities, by presenting Week 49 of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks' year-long project of writing a play a day. To reflect the project's generosity and ambition, the entire department of theater and dance - including all faculty, staff and students - are collaborating on the production. Each day students are performing the play of the day in locations around campus. See schedule for further details.

Independent Study

An independent study in theater may take several different forms. Students have written original plays: studied the theater of another culture: researched a specific playwright and directed one of his/her productions: researched and designed productions based on a specific theater genre: researched related areas such as drama therapy or theater and social change.

Your proposal will have a better chance of being accepted if you are well prepared, i.e. you've taken Acting and Directing before proposing a show. Independent studies should only be undertaken if you are motivated, have taken the course work that prepares you, and are interested in doing advanced research or performance in a topic that isn't covered by an existing class.

The topic and requirements for reading, writing, viewing, and performing are negotiated between the student and advisor according to individual circumstances. But regardless of how the project is framed, there are expectations that apply to all Independent Study projects.

Facilities

Memorial Hall, a striking gothic-style granite and stained glass memorial to Bowdoin's Civil War veterans, was completed in 1882 and houses the College's main performance spaces. Pickard Theater, a generous gift of Frederick William Pickard, L.L.D., in 1955, includes a 600 seat theater with proscenium stage equipped with a full fly system and computer lighting.

Renovations of Memorial Hall in 2000 included a complete remodeling of the main theater, and construction of the 150 seat, flexible Wish Theater, made possible by an extraordinary gift from Barry N. Wish '63 and Oblio Wish. Renovations also include a fully equipped design classroom, new seminar rooms, expanded rehearsal space, and a new dance studio. The department maintains an additional studio in Sargent Gymnasium for smaller classes and student rehearsal.

Contact Us

Department Coordinator: Noma Petroff
Dept. Phone: (207) 725-3663
Dept. Fax: (207) 725-3372
E-mail: theater-dance@bowdoin.edu

Mailing Address:
Department of Theater & Dance
9100 College Station
Brunswick, ME 04011-8491

And Visit Us on the Web by CLICKING HERE!