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Welcome to the School of Theatre at Boston University

A theatre conservatory within the embrace of a metropolitan university, our School offers programs in acting, directing, design, production, management, theatre education, and theatre arts. Our programs foster the synthesis of imagination, intellectual inquiry and technical skill by combining rigorous training with study in a traditional liberal arts curriculum. We offer unique educational experiences for students possessed of theatrical imagination and professional promise.

A diverse and accomplished full-time faculty and staff, augmented by guest artists and part-time trainers, serve approximately 240 undergraduate and 30 graduate students each academic year. The School produces six fully mounted productions each season, offers an additional 35 to 40 workshop projects, and enjoys professional affiliations with the Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the Huntington Theatre Company, the professional theatre-in-residence at Boston University.

We encourage prospective students to explore our programs of study, enjoy a virtual tour of our spaces, and schedule an on-campus visit. Should you find that our program goals align with your personal goals, we would welcome your application to the School of Theatre. We also welcome the attendance of all our friends at our upcoming productions. For show and subscription information, please visit the “Events” section of our website.

Looking forward to your visit, Jim Petosa, Director, School of Theatre

History

The School of Theatre in the College of Fine Arts at Boston University was established in 1954 as one of the country's leading institutions for the study of acting, stage management, design and production, and all aspects of the theatrical profession. Since 1982, the School of Theatre has enjoyed an educational and artistic collaboration with the Huntington Theatre Company, the professional theatre-in-residence at Boston University.

Other professional theatre affiliations include Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Actors Shakespeare Project, The Guthrie Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Olney Theatre Center, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre. Notable alumni include Andrew Lack, chairman of Sony BMG, and actors Jason Alexander, Michael Chiklis, Geena Davis, Faye Dunaway, Julianne Moore, and Alfre Woodard

Professional Theatre Initiative

The School of Theatre has a long tradition of embracing the value of the  professional theatre’s participation in the education of our students.  We have now arrived at a landmark number of professional theatre  ventures that embrace, in a special way, the possibilities of building  strong bridges between the study and practice of the theatre arts.

The Professional Theatre Initiative seeks to provide opportunities for  stimulating, creative interactions between participating theatres and  our students. Our hopes for the future are nothing short of creating  models or producing relationships that deepen the educational experience, providing a special path for professional experimentation,  and creating new possibilities for the creation of new plays for the  theatre.

We are pleased to celebrate our professional partners in this endeavor.  Here in Boston, the Huntington Theatre Company and the Boston  Playwrights' Theatre are the cornerstones of the initiative. Reaching  outward, new relationships with the Actors' Shakespeare Project in  Boston and Olney Theatre Center for the Arts in metropolitan Washington,  D.C., along with the Williamstown Theatre Festival, further enhance the  possibilities of this initiative.

Huntington Theatre Company

The Huntington Theatre Company has served as the professional  theatre company in residence at Boston University since 1982. Regarded  as Boston's leading professional theatre, the company mounts seven  mainstage productions each season, attracting performers and other  artists from around the world. The Huntington recently celebrated its  25th anniversary.

The Huntington richly supplements the School’s theatre training. The  company operates under an Actors' Equity contract and has a professional  artistic and support staff of fifty people. The company shares the  Boston University Theatre mainstage, the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, scene and costume shops, and equipment with  the School of Theatre, and the productions of both organizations  alternate in repertory.

A cooperative schedule offers students a unique opportunity to  observe the workings of a topflight professional theatre company while  they rehearse and build their own productions with equivalent technical  expertise, aesthetic sensibility, and critical expectations.

The relationship between the School of Theatre and the Huntington  provides students with an exceptional range of participation in  professional work. In addition to performance opportunities, a variety  of assistantship positions are offered throughout each season in costume, lighting, scenic design, directing, stage management,  production, and business administration.

Venues

Boston University Theatre: Home to the School of Theatre’s Mainstage, Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley Studio 210, the Design and Production Center offices, and the Huntington Theatre Company (Boston University’s professional theatre-in-residence).

The building today known as the Boston University Theatre, and constructed in 1923, was designed as America’s first civic playhouse. Designed by J. Williams Beal Sons and originally named the Repertory Theatre of Boston‚ the theatre was built to be a permanent home for the Henry Jewett Players‚ a Boston–based repertory theatre company. In October 1953, Boston University purchased the facility, and the vision with which the founders had initially created the theatre again began to be realized.

The School of Theatre has now used the theatre as its primary facility for performance, design, and technical production for three decades. The Theatre program presented its first production, Nicholas Evreinoff's The Chief Thing‚ in December‚ 1954. Its students and faculty annually present approximately seven productions in the theatre’s main auditorium and in the upstairs space‚ now called Studio 210‚ which was originally the Repertory Theatre’s ballroom.

In 2005, the School of Theatre began producing two shows annually in the Huntington Theatre Company’s new Virginia Wimberly Theatre, housed at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts in the heart of Boston’s South End neighborhood. The Calderwood Pavilion serves as a theatre hub and a cultural landmark for the City of Boston. It provides a home for artistic collaborations; fosters the development of new plays; creates more opportunities for youth and community outreach; and expands the existing BCA complex to include more performance venues for Boston’s smaller arts organizations.

The Calderwood Pavilion was designed by Boston–based architects for the arts Wilson Butler Lodge Inc. working with theatre consultants Fisher Dachs Associates and acoustical consultants Acentech. It is a 35‚000 square feet complex with a three–story interior space‚ which includes two theatres‚ rehearsal rooms‚ and backstage facilities.

Performance Core

All freshmen Performance students are admitted into the Freshman Core Performance Curriculum. The Performance Core provides a foundation for all future study in either the Acting or Theatre Arts majors. Through improvisation, scene study, ensemble work, and exercise, students begin the journey toward the free, integrated, and transformable expression of the voice, body, intellect, imagination, and emotion.

Performance Core classes include:
         Acting
         Movement
         Voice & Speech
         Alexander Technique
         Theatre Ensemble
         Stagecraft
         Introduction to Dramatic Literature

The Freshman Core is designed to provide an appropriate context for faculty evaluations of each student's strengths, interests, and potential for success in the upper years of training. At the end of the freshman year, each student declares a major in either Acting or Theatre Arts. This decision is reviewed by all members of the Theatre Performance faculty before a student is officially enrolled in his or her major.

Acting (BFA)

The Acting program prepares talented and committed students for careers in the professional world of Theatre and the related media of Film and Television. The program curriculum stresses the development of imagination, intellect, physical and vocal skills, technique, and professional behavior. This allows students to create a wide range of roles in performances of varying styles.

During each year of the program, courses in acting, movement, voice and speech, and dramatic literature follow a carefully integrated sequence of class exercises and related public performance.

The committed students who pursue an Acting degree at Boston University discover who they are, what they do well, and what they are capable of doing. They learn to be believable actors and to work productively under the stress of the theatrical profession. Most importantly, they learn to integrate performance skills with personal sensibility. Prior to entering the BFA Acting program, students must complete the Performance Core curriculum.

London Study Abroad!

Boston University's Theatre program offers students the opportunity to live and study in one of the world's most important cities for theatrical performance. The program is offered in conjunction with the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA). Students enroll in one Boston University core course, Contemporary British Theatre, as well as LAMDA coursework specifically designed for students in the Boston University Program.

LAMDA faculty members teach courses in Acting, Voice, and Movement, which meet for a total of twelve hours per week. This coursework complements the Contemporary British Theatre course, for which students attend theatre performances on a semiweekly basis. Upon successful completion of the program, students earn sixteen Boston University credits.

About LAMDA

The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts is one of the leading drama schools in the English-speaking world. Several drama training schools in the greater London area, some dating back to 1861, joined together to become LAMDA. The Academy's teaching faculty is comprised of both experienced permanent staff and a number of outside specialists and professionals who focus on classical training.

For more information, visit Boston University's London Programmes.

Auditions and Portfolio Reviews

1. Apply. Prior to scheduling an artistic review, prospective students must submit an application to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

2. Schedule an Artistic Review. After submitting their application materials, students should schedule a Performance Audition or Portfolio Review online, after October 1, through our Appointment Quest System. The interview season for regular decision candidates runs from mid-January thru the first weekend in March. In addition to Boston, auditions and portfolio reviews are held in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, at the USITT National Convention, and in London.
2008 Artistic Review Dates and Locations

3. Prepare Materials. Audition Details, Portfolio Review Details.

Learn more about applying by CLICKING HERE

Auditions

BFA Performance Audition
Prospective performance students should prepare two, two-minute monologues: One modern (theatrical, non-film, 1880 to present), One classical (in verse, Shakespearean preferred)

Additionally, please bring a picture and resume. No additional materials required. However, applicants may wish to present a portfolio representing their additional interests in theatre (i.e., a script or a portfolio of directing work). A brief interview will follow the audition.

For more on auditions CLICK HERE

Come for a Visit!

Undergraduate Performance Program:

During these informal, hour-long sessions, a tour leader provides prospective students and their parents with an overview of the School's programs. Because the tour leader also fields questions, prospective students are encouraged to review the School website prior to attending an Information Session.

Summer Information Sessions are offered Monday through Friday, by appointment only. Reservations are required with two weeks advance notice, please.

Call 617-353-3390 to schedule your appointment.

A Few of our Gifted Faculty

Jim Petosa, Director
jpetosa@bu.edu

BA and MA, Catholic University of America. Artistic director for the Olney Theatre Center (OTC) since 1994. Also serves as artistic director for National Players and as one of three artistic directors for Potomac Theatre Project. Petosa has directed more than 35 plays in the last five years. His OTC directing credits include: The Laramie Project; She Loves Me; 'Art'; Look! We Have Come Through! (Helen Hayes Award nomination); Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Helen Hayes Award); Shadowlands; The Miracle Worker; The Trip to Bountiful; and Sight Unseen. For Potomac Theatre Project: Closetland; Marisol; Dog Plays; Statements After an Arrest; Good; and The Trial of the Catonsville Nine. National Players' productions include: Much Ado About Nothing, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, and Othello.

Petosa has served on the faculty of The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., the University of Maryland—College Park, and the Heifetz International Music Institute at St. John's College in Annapolis. He has also been a visiting professor at Middlebury College in Vermont and an artist-in-residence at George Washington University, Georgetown University, and the Smithsonian Institution. As a guest artist, he has directed at the John F. Kennedy Center, Studio Theatre, Round House Theatre, Washington Jewish Theatre, and Rep Stage. In addition, he directed the Theater J production Collected Stories, part of Olney Theatre Center's Potomac Theatre Festival 2000, for which he was nominated for a 2001 Helen Hayes Award for outstanding direction.

Sidney Friedman, Head of Theatre Arts and Professor (Dramatic Literature and Directing)
sidf@bu.edu

AB, Princeton University; MA, PhD, University of Iowa. Additional training: American Conservatory Theatre, Southern Methodist University. International Stage Movement Institute, Lessac Institute for Voice and Speech, Alexander Technique with Marjorie Barstow. Taught at Washington University in St. Louis, 1966 to 1981. Director of over 80 productions: most recently at BU, Pictures of Patty Hearst, Noises Off, and Prelude to a Kiss; most recently professionally The Servant of Two Masters, Enchanted April, and The Philadelphia Story.

Jonathan Lipsky, Professor (Acting and Playwriting)
Lipsky@capecod.net

BA, Oberlin College; MFA, University of Iowa. Jon Lipsky is a playwright whose work has appeared at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New Plays, American Repertory Theatre, La Mama ETC., Berkshire Theatre Festival, Missouri Rep, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Theater Emory, Sugan Theatre, and other regional theatres. He is a director and Artistic Associate at the Vineyard Playhouse on Martha's Vineyard, where he lives, and has been playwright-in-residence at the Merrimack Rep, TheatreWorks/Boston, and Boston's Museum of Science.

His work includes: Living In Exile—a retelling of the Iliad; The Survivor: a Cambodian Odyssey; Dreaming with an AIDS Patient; Maggie's Riff; Molly Maguire; Beginner's Luck; and an interconnected series of nine short plays called Book of Revelations. In 2007, he won the Boston Critic's Eliot Norton Award for Best Direction in a small company. His award-winning collaboration with jazz musician Stan Strickland, , was presented at Coming Up For Airthe Boston Center for the Arts in September and will be touring later this year. He is currently developing a musical adaptation of Jack London's The Call of the Wild, which will tour with the Olney Theatre Center's National Players in 2007-2008.

Learn all about our wonderful faculty by CLICKING HERE

Contact Us

Contact by Phone
Performance: 617.353.3390
Design & Production: 617.273.1668

Contact by E-mail
Performance: theatre@bu.edu
Design & Production: design@bu.edu

Send correspondence to
Boston University
School of Theatre
855 Commonwealth Avenue
Room 470
Boston, MA 02215

And visit us on the web by CLICKING HERE!