How does live art reflect and transform local, national, and global culture and politics? Pursuing this theme you will learn how to read and stage plays; how to devise performance (making original, physical theater from scratch); and how to watch and write about performance and visual culture as a spectator and critic. Particular attention is paid to learning how power and identity are expressed through performance — including race, class, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, and citizenship.
Theater and Performance Studies courses can be combined with classes in the arts, humanities, or social sciences (such as art, biology, English, history, psychology, or women’s studies). You can customize your major in order to prepare you for any career that requires skills in critical thinking, creative thinking, problem-solving, close reading, oral communication, academic writing, movement, and collaboration — including but not limited to the arts, business, teaching, social work, law, and medicine.