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The Theatre and Musical Theatre Major in a Liberal Arts Program

It is the goal of the department of theatre and dance to provide training for professional, community and academic theatres within the framework of liberal arts education. The theatre program also serves as one means of acquiring a liberal education.

A liberal education serves to broaden horizons, break down prejudices, and build inquiring open minds; it is of value no matter what the student's future goals. Theatre and drama, which are ultimately concerned with all aspects of humankind's experiences, have special relevance to a liberal education. The more the theatre majors in a liberal arts program understand about humankind, the more experiences they have entered into imaginatively and projected to others from the stage, the more they will be able to order, clarify and understand their own lives and the world in which they live. Of all the disciplines in a liberal arts university, theatre may be the one most clearly related to the pattern of peoples' lives and normal experiences.

The theatre and musical theatre major deal with the life of humans as reflected in the history of the theatre and in the range of dramatic literature. As such, theatre is a form of human knowledge, but one that functions through feeling as much as through thought. The student will find that the dramatic literature of both past and present tends to reflect the ideas and feelings of its ages, because dramatic expression changes as man's conception about himself and his world change. In short, theatre deals with the basic aspects of human existence that we are constantly trying to comprehend.

The theatre and musical theatre major learns to deal with the societal aspects of humankind as reflected in the creation of an art form. These aspects are the interpersonal and interpersonal relationships created through total involvement as a theatre person. Through work on a production, whether on stage or backstage in a supportive role, theatre majors must learn independence from as well as dependence on fellow students. A comprehension must be developed of individual identity and responsibility to the goals of a production or the academic program.