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The performing arts program serves as an excellent preparation for both advanced graduate study and careers in theatre.

Our students provide considerable talent and leadership in the staging of both main stage and studio projects. Stage experience is considered an important feature of the training process for actors, dancers, directors, designers, technicians and choreographers. Students experience a diverse repertoire of classical, contemporary, musical and experimental performance work and explore new ground in the art and science of design and technical theatre. Muhlenberg College provides exceptional facilities, from the intimate and flexible black box space to the traditional proscenium theatre. Students work, rehearse and perform in four fully-equipped theatres and multiple studios designed for theatre and dance.

Visit New Voices: Production of original plays by Muhlenberg students.

Acting. The ultimate goal of the acting program is to create actors who know how to work on a role within the context of the play and who have flexibility in their craft. Class size is limited and studio work is intense and demanding. The performance sequence is designed to create a thinking actor who can work in many theatre disciplines, who is connected to humanity and to self, and who has initiative as an artist. Practical study includes acting technique, voice and speech, movement for the actor, and the process of rehearsal and performance. Scholarship includes performance theory, theatre history and dramatic literature. All students on campus, regardless of major, are eligible to participate in the department's performance program.

Directing students study the conceptual and practical knowledge needed to bring the text to the stage. The process focuses on elements of plot, character, space and sound as well as the significance of collaboration and the historical study of signal directors in the field. Directing is considered an expressive art form where creativity, clarity, vulnerability and personality are the hallmarks of good directing.Students work in classroom, studio, and mainstage settings and serve as stage managers and directing assistants to faculty and professional guest artists. The department sponsors a production program that reinforces the belief that as an academic discipline, theatre must be an intellectual and practical pursuit simultaneously. Shops are professionally staffed and provide ample resources to support the production program.

Design and Technical Theatre students receive an educational experience that emphasizes design as effective visual communication as well as compelling theatrical experience. Students are encouraged to discover the power of the stage to enlighten, question and provoke. Design students may work in multiple areas of costume, light, scenic and sound design as well as in technical staff positions on both department productions and student-initiated studio productions.

Musical Theatre training is an integral part of the production program. In addition to staging at least one major musical production during each academic year, the department encourages students to take individual vocal training, dance instruction, and special topics classes to enhance their skills and to participate in campus choral and opera groups. Students are also given the extraordinary opportunity to audition, perform, design, dance, and work with the Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, which presents three major musical theatre works on the Muhlenberg College campus
each summer. Students work with Equity guest artists, professional directing and design staff, and full orchestra in productions that run six days a week.

Performance Studies investigates the human body engaged in symbolic action using methods drawn from disciplines as the performing arts, cultural anthropology, ritual studies, and popular culture studies. It analyzes theatre, performance art, dance, and music, but it also inquires into cultural performances like political protests, fashion shows, sporting events and worship services. The Performance Studies concentration includes the introduction to performance studies, one acting course, one directing course, and three more courses in theatrical and aesthetic theory or theatre history.

Stage Management students receive an introduction to the craft of the theatre stage manager and the professional stage management process. Study includes the theory and historical development of contemporary practice as well as the acquisition of specific skills and knowledge required to coordinate technical and dseign elements, effectively work with directors, and call and maintain shows. Stage managers and assistant stage managers are an integral part of the department's production program of concerts, plays and musicals.

For more information about the theatre program, please fill out the following form to receive our department brochure and sample production materials.