Overview

The heart of the Department of Theater and Performance Studies is practice and production, supported by rigorous analysis of performance and theater theory, history, technique, and literature.  Students both study performance and learn through it, using it to further their research investigations through embodied practice and to strengthen or experiment with performance techniques. With numerous opportunities to work on performances from all areas ranging from dramaturgy to acting, from set design to stage management, and from playwriting to directing, students also learn to apply a performance studies lens onto other phenomena in the world outside the traditional boundaries of theater.   Because of the inherent interdisciplinarity of the field, students learn to ground their practice in deep thinking and analysis within a liberal arts context. With this holistic approach, students craft their trajectory through the major, with opportunities to take advanced courses in their areas of interest, such as in acting, playwriting, solo performance, directing, design, performance studies and theater research, stage management, and technical theater. 

Theater majors culminate their time in the department with a senior comprehensive project in their area of interest and supported with direct mentorship and guidance from department faculty and staff. 

Located in the arts capital of Los Angeles, the department engages with community partners and arts institutions. From attending productions at southern California theaters to bringing arts education into local schools to a sustained internship program to bringing in local artists into our classes and to our relationship with Oxy Arts, being in the city of Los Angeles is integral to our work. 

The department also taps into national and international theater movements, and frequently hosts guest artists, speakers, and performers from around the world. 

Students in Theater and Performance Studies will: 

• Become collaborative artist scholars who have a deep understanding of the work and power of performance in and on the world through the study of theater and performance studies.
• Find their own voices and the means to express those voices through learning aesthetic and creative skills.
• Combine theory and practice through embodied expression.
• Engage with the local and global community through the practice and study of live performance.
• Transform their ideas into performed expressions inside and outside of the theater.