The School of Theater + Film is committed to providing liberal arts based professional training that imaginatively balances theory and practice. Through classroom study, studio/laboratory preparation, field studies, and stage productions, students are challenged to pursue a commitment to individual excellence and collaboration, discover a passion for their discipline, and develop a firm grounding in the core components of live and mediated performance. Students seeking professional careers, preparing for advanced degree programs, training to be educators, or pursuing interdisciplinary studies in the arts participate in contemporary production and critical studies practices encompassing new, modern, and classic works interpreted to confront and illuminate the diverse concerns of contemporary life.
Production is an essential and integral part of the department’s educational mission. Students are provided with a variety of opportunities to gain experience and develop creative and collaboration skills both before and behind the scenes. In the selection of dramatic narrative and other works, the department seeks to reflect vital contemporary issues, personal and public, in varied and challenging forms, new and classic, thereby creating a forum for cultural and social concerns. The program actively pursues the development of new works and practice, collaborations with urban arts and educational institutions, and the expansion of cultural exchange.
The School of Theater + Film is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Theatre.
The university’s urban location enables the School of Theater + Film to provide students with the richest diversity of teaching staff in the studio and the maximum of diverse educational experiences without. The resident faculty are active members of the region’s arts and creative community, as professional practitioners as well as educators. Their work is represented at every major theater company in the area, as well as through other arts organizations including smaller theaters, film units, dance companies, production companies, the media, and educational institutions. They frequently engage their students as assistants on creative projects, and they facilitate student placements as interns and regular employees with a variety of organizations. The associate faculty are of the highest caliber, both as practicing artists and as teachers of their craft.
Graduates of the program have gained admission to both university graduate programs and professional training programs, they have entered the profession directly, they have become teachers and university professors, and they have pursued a range of related professions in the arts, commerce, law, social services and the public sector.
Theater Arts B.A./B.S.
Undergraduates in theater arts are expected to acquire basic skills in performance, design and production, practice, and dramatic literature and theater history. These basic skills are developed in the core requirements. The remaining credits are met through a selected option, performance, design/production, or theatrer studies, which provides for flexibility and allows a student to specialize in an area of interest. Students choose from electives in Theater + Film, and World Languages and Literatures (Kabuki, Peninsular Drama, and Sophocles/Euripides).
Requirements
In addition to meeting the general University degree requirements, the Major in Theater Arts must complete 68 adviser-approved theater arts credits to include the following:
Courses
12 credits chosen from the following:
| TA 330 | Multicultural Theater | 4 |
| TA 369 | Women, Theater, and Society | 4 |
| TA 467 | Modern Theater I | 4 |
| TA 468 | Modern Theater II | 4 |
| TA 471 | Theater History: Periods and Topics | 1-4 |
| TA 472 | Theater History: Major Figures | 1-4 |
4 credits of the following:
| TA 333 | Workshop Theater: Directing/Stage Management/Dramaturgy | 1 |
| TA 334 | Workshop Theater: Scenery & Lighting Production | 1-2 |
| TA 335 | Workshop Theater: Management/Publicity | 1 |
| TA 336 | Workshop Theater: Costume Production | 1 |
with a maximum of 2 credits in any one of the above. Workshop credits in excess of this maximum may be used to satisfy elective and general requirements
Total Credit Hours: 68
Courses taken under the undifferentiated grading option (pass/no pass) will not be accepted toward fulfilling department major requirements. All courses used to satisfy the major requirements must be graded C or above.
At least 16 credits of upper-division Theater Arts courses, including 2 credits from TA 333, TA 334, TA 335, and/or TA 336 must be taken in residence at Portland State University.