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The Acting Program At...

The Theatre Department promotes a love of learning, a desire for excellence and professional behavior in its students and faculty through balanced attention to coursework and production experience. All students are encouraged to seek practical experience in productions.

The Department strongly supports the ideal of liberal education promoted at the College. We believe that by liberally educating our theatre majors in the humanities, sciences, and languages as well as in a comprehensive theatre specialty, we produce superior theatre practitioners.

Mainstage season typically consists of five to seven departmental productions each academic year. Plays are chosen to expose students to different theatrical styles and genres and with as wide a variety of production experience as possible.

Center Stage is a student-run organization open to all College of Charleston students with a love of theatre. Center Stage produces four to six productions annually.

Premiere Theatre involves faculty, students and local professional theatre practitioners in the production of contemporary plays.

The Shakespeare Project offers two summer productions of Shakespeare’s plays each year, drawing on the talents of faculty, student and community performers.

The Department of Theatre offers a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre with five concentrations. In addition to a breadth of study in the major’s core (a 21-hour component shared by all majors), students are given the freedom to choose an area of focus, which include:

    •     General Theatre. Students who love everything about the theatre or who have specific interests in dramaturgy, playwriting, history, African-American theatre or simply want the broadest exposure to the field may choose this 36-credit-hour option.
    •     Performance (acting/directing). This track is the most popular choice in our Department and offers a 42-hour course of study. Beyond the core, course work includes three levels of acting, directing, voice (diction) and movement for the actor.
    •     Scenography I (Costume design and technology). This 42-hour concentration not only serves students with career goals in the costuming fields, but also attracts students interested in fashion design or other aspects of the fashion industry. In addition to the core, course work involves classes in design, pattern drafting, art history and rendering.
    •     Scenography II (Scenic/lighting design and technology). This is a 42-hour concentration in these highly employable areas of theatre production. Examples of some of the courses included beyond the theatre core include design, scenic painting, art history and advanced stagecraft.
    •     Theatre for Youth. This concentration of 42 hours explores theatre and dramatic techniques and their applications for and with young audiences. A partial list of the courses in the track outside the theatre core includes creative drama, children’s theatre and directing.

Other means of tailoring a student’s experiences include a host of elective courses outside the requirements of any of the concentrations. A small sample includes courses such as Stage Combat, Playwriting III, special topics acting classes such as Acting Shakespeare, and Acting IV, Musical Theatre Performance Workshop and other musical theatre classes, and the History of Fashion and Manners.