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Smith
offers theatre enthusiasts extraordinary opportunities
both on and off the stage. The theatre program features
some 35 courses in performance, playwriting, directing,
design, literature, history, and dramatic theory. Courses
include Theatre History and Culture, Acting, Directing, Writing
for the Theatre, Set, Costume, and Lighting Design, and
a rich array of courses in world drama, including American
Theatre, Black Theatre, African and Caribbean Theatre,
Canadian Theatre, and European
theatre.
Read
the department's mission statement >
View
a gallery of images from recent productions >
The
Theatre Department, which has approximately 30 majors, welcomes
students to audition for its productions. It is part of the
Five College Theatre departments consortium, which mounts
various theatre productions. The department's season consists
of five major productions, two of which are usually directed by
students. In addition, each semester student directors and
designers produce a festival of one-act plays and participate
in the New Play Reading Series. Studios and laboratory performances
initiated, produced, and directed by students provide additional
opportunities to direct, design, act, and stage-manage.
 Smith’s
Theatre Department presents an adventurous mix of plays from
a variety of cultures, periods, and genres. Recent seasons
have included major productions of Lillian Hellman’s
The Children’s Hour, directed by
guest artist Austin Pendleton; García Lorca’s House
of Bernanda Alba; the Pulitzer Prize–winning How
I Learned to Drive, by Paula Vogel; Flight, by the South African playwright David Lan; and the world
premiere of the music-theatre work, Star Messengers, by Smith theatre faculty
member Paul Zimet and composer Ellen Maddow.
Even more happens off-stage
at Smith. The faculty and staff sponsor guest workshops,
lectures, and presentations by top professional performers,
playwrights, technicians, and designers. Students learn from
visiting innovators of the modern theatre such as playwrights
Pearl Cleage, Wendy Wasserstein, Michel Tremblay, and Alice
Tuan; Muriel Miguel of Spiderwoman and Peggy Shaw of Split
Britches; designers Ralph Lee, and Jane Musky; directors
Max Stafford-Clark and Chuck Mike; performers Ruth Malaczech,
Deb Margolin, David Strathairn, and Billie Whitelaw.
Students
also frequently participate in workshops in acting, design,
directing, and writing for theatre by world-renowned artists
in these fields. Moreover, faculty and staff lead field trips to New York City each year that enrich students' understanding of particular areas of focus in theatre. These field trips frequently include attendance at a variety of plays and performances and meetings with performers, playwrights, directors,
producers, and stage managers active in the New York theatre
scene. Some of the theatre artists who met with students
on recent trips are John Guare, Calista Flockhart, Anne Bogart,
John Leguizamo, Cherry Jones, Marie-Irene Fornes, David Esbjornson,
and Roger Rees.
Smith maintains an extensive historical costume collection
of women’s clothing from the
19th and 20th centuries.The theatre faculty members
have a variety of interests, including Hispanic-American
drama, the theatre of Chekhov, Molière, feminist theatre, African-American
and African-Caribbean drama, Asian theatre, musical theatre, performance art,
improvisation, and collaborative creation. The department has specialists in
costume design, computer-aided scenic design, lighting design, sound design,
voice, movement, stage management, technical theatre, and theatre publicity
and promotion.
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