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The Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies is the intellectual and artistic center at Brown for faculty and students interested in the aesthetic, historical, literary, practical and theoretical explorations of performance in global perspective – theatre, dance, speech, performance art, and performative “roles” in everyday life. The Department’s distinguished faculty consists of leading scholars and artists who are at the forefront in researching and teaching new and innovative methodologies produced by the intersection of the study of craft and the study of history and theory.

Every season, the Department mounts five theatre productions and three dance productions. Students are active in every aspect of production - learning the rigors of craft through participation in production as well as through class work in acting and directing, dance, playwriting, movement, history, theory, design, technical theatre, intermedial performance, and performance ethnography.

The Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies offers two concentration tracks: one in Theatre Arts and one in Performance Studies. These concentration tracks are described in greater detail in the Courses section on this site. Both tracks of study make full use of Brown's flexible curricula.

The Department offers a concentration in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. Concentrators chose a "track" to study within the concentration-- a Theatre Arts track or a Performance Studies track. The track in Theatre Arts combines the study of dramatic literature, theatre history, and dramatic and theatrical theory with the opportunity to take practicum courses in various theatre arts, including playwriting, acting and directing, design, dance, and film and video making. As essential aspect of Brown¹s theatre program is the engagement of the student in theatrical performance in order to help him or her to arrive at a fuller understanding of the relationships between drama as literature and theatre as enactment.

The undergraduate academic and production programs at Brown combine to offer each student a vital and well-integrated theatre experience. For the Theatre Arts concentration track a total of ten courses are required in theatre history, dramatic literature and theory, and studio and technical production. Along with courses stressing scholarship and research, sequential practicum courses are available beginning in the Freshman year in acting and directing, playwriting, dance, and technical direction and design.

The Theatre Arts concentration track draws heavily from course offerings throughout the University and interdisciplinary work is stressed. In addition to an excellent faculty in Theatre, students have access to distinguished faculty members from such Departments and Programs as English, Classics, Comparative Literature, Africana Studies, Anthropology, Music, Modern Culture and Media, Religious Studies, and American Civilization, and Literary Arts. Students can also take courses at the Rhode Island School for Design. Participation in exchange programs in the United States and abroad is possible and Double Concentration and Honors programs are also available.

Classes are open to everyone, not just concentrators, and we often draw widely from interested students across the university. That said, more advanced classes do have entry requirements, so plan your course of study carefully. You do not have to be a concentrator to audition for shows and concentrators are not privileged in casting.