Drama and Theater Arts

What it’s about:

The major in drama and theater arts cover many aspects of staged plays, including theater history, literature, and criticism; acting and directing; lighting, scenery, and costume design; stage management; playwriting; and art administration. Your may specialize in one area while you obtain a broad foundation in many of the other areas.

What the study major is like:

The first thing to decide is whether to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree. In a B.A. program, you gain a broader education, but may have difficulty competing with B.F.A. graduates in the professional world. But although the B.F.A. prepares you more rigorously for a theatrical profession, you may be less able to explore other areas of interest while you’re in college.

You can generally choose from a wide variety of theater-related courses. In dramatic arts courses, you study dramatic style and structure, theories of criticism, and the functions of theater artists, technicians, and managers. Theater history and dramatic literature courses cover Western theater from ancient Greece to the twentieth century. In directing courses, you learn how to analyze a script’s style, form, and action, with the goal of translating the text into a staged production.

Introductory acting courses teach the fundamentals of relaxation, trust, sensory awareness, group interaction, and reaction, and response. Improvisations, group exercises, and monologues are usually included. In advanced acting courses, you generally do scene work of increasing complexity in various classical and contemporary styles.

In courses in speech and voice, you practice phrasing, dialect, and breath control. Stage movement (sometimes taught as dance) develops relaxation and expressiveness. Theater history and criticism courses, often taught as lectures, involve considerable reading, discussion, and paper writing. Design and production courses are typically more hands-on; usually the lecture portion is coordinated with a laboratory session in which you work with tools and materials. For a concentration in arts administration, you study business and public relations/communications, in addition to taking theater courses.

Theater students and faculty members are typically opinionated and creative; class discussions and projects can be high-spirited. To add to the excitement, you may study, in a single day, contemporary theater in an acting course, and end by rehearsing a performance art piece.

But the wide range of work is not only a blessing; if you do not have good organizational skills and time management skills, it can also be a curse. The greatest challenge that majors face is being committed to too many production projects. You must be able to withstand the rigors of nightly rehearsals, while still participating fully in your classes. Developing time management skills and the ability to take care of yourself (proper eating and sleeping) may be the most important thing you can do to ensure success as a drama and theater arts major.

The presence of a graduate theater program at an institution may have both advantages and disadvantages. Faculty members connected with a graduate program tend to be more high-powered, and production standards tend to be more professional. On the other hand, the graduate program may overshadow the undergraduate program. The size of a program may also make a big difference: larger programs may offer a greater variety of courses and more chances to act, direct, and design, whereas at smaller colleges, there may be more production opportunities.

Career options and trends:

Actor, director, technician, or designer*; drama teacher; business manager, marketer, or publicist for theater*; arts educator at regional theaters*.

Competition for jobs is fierce in the performance segment of the industry. Versatility in one way to expand your career possibilities. Although technicians and arts administrators usually find more work than actors, directors, and designers, all theater student should be able to multitask. For example, touring companies might hire actors who have the technical skills to set up and strike, or take down, a set. Regional theaters may hire graduates to teach in their educational programs or to participate in work-shops or other short-term projects. Taking jobs in related areas can often open doors for future work in your specialty.

Source: CollegeBoard 2012 Book of Majors