Program Overview

Performance Theatre Degree

Overview

The Performance Theatre Degree is a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) program that prepares students for a career on stage or in front of the camera. The program emphasizes the development of performance craft and the study of different styles.

Program Details

• Program Type: Major
• Format: On Campus
• Estimated Time to Complete: 4 years
• Credit Hours: 120

Marketable Skills

• Analytical knowledge of historical/social context
• Teamwork
• Oral and written communication
• Multi-cultural/diversity competencies
• Workplace resourcefulness/innovation

Program Highlights

• The Department of Dance and Theatre maintains the University Theater (409-seat proscenium theatre) and the Studio Theater (160-seat black box), and the technical facilities to support the annual season.
• Qualified undergraduate students perform lead roles, direct public productions, stage-manage, and design scenery, costumes, lights, make-up and wigs.
• Students can acquire a diverse range of communication and organizational skills that are applicable to many careers.
• Combining the degree with studies in journalism or a law degree could lead to a career as a theatre critic or an entertainment lawyer.
• Students are often offered performance and design opportunities as part of outside professional projects of the faculty and are able to audition for local theatre groups.
• UNT has several student organizations for students to network and further hone their skills and craft.
• Scholarships are available based on merit and talent.

Career Paths

• Acting (both stage and film)
• Acting coach
• Artist-in-residence
• Box office manager
• Directing
• Drama education and criticism
• Lighting, costume, makeup, props, scenery or sound design
• Marketing director
• Producing
• Stage crew member
• Stage managing
• Theatrical photographer
• Theatre teacher at an elementary or secondary school

Courses

• Theatre and Social Change (3 hrs)
  • Exploration and examination of the potential relationship between theatre and contemporary issues from social, political and personal perspectives.
• Rehearsal and Performance for the Stage (3 hrs)
  • Focuses on the process of preparation for performance in a produced play.
• Acting: Styles and Periods (3 hrs)
  • Exploration of the advanced acting challenges of period and aesthetic styles.
• Acting: Musical Theatre (3 hrs)
  • Exploration of singing acting techniques, analysis of music and libretti, song selection for voice type, and the development of audition material.
• Acting for the Camera (3 hrs)
  • The exploration of camera acting and audition technique.
• Acting: Realism (3 hrs)
  • Practical exploration of theories and methods of building a character.