Program Overview

At OSU, we offer a Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre, based on the traditional values of a liberal arts education. In this program, you receive excellent introductions to acting, design, production, history and literature. Simultaneously, through your General Education Curriculum (GEC), you develop an understanding of the world within which theatre exists. This broad-based, open-ended, and in many ways self-directed approach to theatre serves our students well, positioning them for every kind of theatre work and professional opportunity in the arts industry. In addition to the typical careers in performance, related positions include designers, technicians, audience education specialists, property managers, electricians, costumers, running crew, box office managers, publicity, and promotional personnel. Facilities at OSU include three theatres, three acting studios, a design studio, and scenery, lighting, and costume laboratories.

 

Our BA is set up to offer you a fairly flexible way of pursuing your study of theatre. We do not offer highly sequenced courses focused on discrete skills development because such sequences provide little opportunity for curricular choice on the part of the student. Rather, with the BA, you can individualize your program to a great extent, deciding when you take the required courses to best suit your particular interests. And, in your junior and senior years, you can take advantage of courses that are more advanced in either performance or technical theatre areas.

 

The other really important distinction of our BA at OSU is OSU! The university makes possible so many opportunities for our students. Because we offer a flexible degree, you can extend your education beyond the basic required major curriculum. Without numerous sequences of required skills classes, you have the opportunity to distinguish your BA by undertaking minors, second majors, study abroad, internships, and senior honors projects. 

 

As well, OSU's location in central Ohio and its relationship to the Wexner Center for the Arts places us in the midst of a dynamic theatre scene. As a student at OSU, you will have the opportunity to see first-rate professional theatre productions that feature every genre of performance. Even more, you have access to the amazing work that the Wexner Center brings to Columbus. Between our networks of professionals from the region and those who visit the Wexner Center, you will meet engaging, significant guest artists in workshops and residencies. Recent residencies have featured Marcel Marceau, Anne Bogart and SITI, Kathleen Turner, Jules Fisher, and Julie Taymor.

 

In addition to basic understandings of theatre production, literature, and history, we work with you to develop a host of transferable abilities:

• To grasp complex problems and produce imaginative solutions
• To explore alternative goals and investigate various means of achieving them
• To establish long-range objectives and develop the discipline, organizational skills, artistry, and self-assurance to achieve those objectives
• To effectively collaborate and employ group problem-solving strategies
• To bring together research and insight from a variety of sources
• To write with clarity, to think precisely in the moment, and to speak confidently