Theatre Arts

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

• Dordt's Theatre Arts Department hosts multiple one acts and student productions, and two mainstage shows each year. Auditions for campus productions are open to all students, so you will have the opportunity to get to know students from a variety of programs, while honing your creative skills. You can also serve in positions backstage, from costuming to lighting. American College Theater Festival representatives respond to each performance, giving our students the opportunity to advance to regional and national competition.
• We have been invited to perform whole and partial productions at the annual regional Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. One-person shows, sets, costumes, and original music compositions have received awards, and our students have advanced to the finals in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition.
• Apply for theatre arts internships. We have had students intern at the Guthrie and CLIMB theatres in Minneapolis, the Santa Fe Opera, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California, and more.
• You will learn hands-on skills by working in the scene shop, costume shop, and box office. Many of these are student employment positions, allowing you to get paid while learning valuable skills.
• Both the scene shop and the costume shop employ student workers to complete projects, offering students hands-on experience. Dordt students with building, painting or sewing experience may apply for a work study position.

To learn more, you can also view the program strengths and learning outcomes for this program.

You can choose a focus such as acting and directing, design and technical, playwriting, drama ministry, or theatre management. Our acting classes are active. Our design courses are hands-on. And our students go on to careers in stage management, acting, and directing, both regionally and in major cities across the country.

At Dordt, you will learn how to glorify God through a career in theatre, using the platform as an opportunity to show Christ in today’s culture.

Students looking to get a degree in theatre arts will take a series of theatre arts courses that will cover stagecraft, directing, and playwriting. Students will get hands on experience by participating in the production of various theatrical performances. Additionally, students will choose an emphasis to focus their degree.

Theatre arts majors are required to complete the theatre subsection of CORE 160.

Theatre Practicum: Students apply for one to three hours of academic credit for work on a theatre production. Registration for credit is required in the semester in which the project is to be produced. In addition to rehearsal, performance, or technical work, regular meetings and some written work are required.

Making Theatre: Practice with fundamental concepts in interpreting and staging theatrical texts, with emphasis on the tools used by actors and directors to bring a play from the page to the stage.

Applied Crafts I: Stagecraft: An introduction to set construction, the materials used, and safe scene shop practices with hands-on application of learned techniques.

Scenography I: Fundamentals of Theatrical Design: An introduction to the elements of design and color theory in the realms of scenic, lighting, sound, props, and costume design. Prerequisite: Theatre Arts 103.

Dance I: Fundamentals of Dance: An exploration of dance history, styles, and improvisation methods. A program focusing on the art and movement technique of various dance styles. The course is tailored to each student’s abilities while challenging their knowledge and understanding. Practice and repetition will be key elements in this class, and will progress from the basics, adding more detailed analysis of the exercises. Satisfies one Core activity requirement.

Scenography II: Advanced Theatrical Design: This advanced theatrical design course will take a more in depth look at scenic design, as well as other design areas connected to the departmental productions for the academic semester. It will explore the materials needed, principles used, and practices of these design areas. This course will enable students to feel comfortable with and be employable in an introductory position in scenic design and the other design areas covered. Prerequisite: Theatre Arts 113; or permission of instructor.

The Actor’s Instrument: Voice and Movement: An integrated approach to developing vocal and physical agility in order to improve the expressive capability of performers and public speakers. This course includes performer well-being practices and foundational training in stage combat.

Improvisation: Generating for Performance: Improvisational thinking is a valuable skill for leaders, creatives, and anyone in collaborative and/or generative contexts. This course considers our human capacity for improvisation, its value in our lives, and its applications in any vocation. Students will expand their improvisational capacities in an active learning environment.

Dance II: Dance as Art: A deeper exploration of dance history, styles, and improvisation methods than 120. A program focusing on the art and movement technique of various dance styles, implementing information learned into beginning choreography. The course is tailored to each student’s abilities while challenging their knowledge and understanding. Practice and repetition will be key elements in this class, and will progress from the basics, adding more detailed analysis of the exercises. Satisfies one Core activity requirement.

Applied Crafts II: Introduction to Stage Management: A focused study of the skills and mechanics necessary to contribute well to the production process as a stage manager with an emphasis on organization, leadership, and communication.

Applied Crafts III: Lighting and Sound Technologies: A hands-on look at the programs and materials used to create successful lighting and sound designs for the stage.

Applied Crafts IV: Costume and Make-up Studio: This studio-style course is an introduction to basic sewing and make-up application techniques, materials, and methods for theatrical use.

The Actor’s Process: Character Development: An exploration of approaches to developing a role for the stage or screen. Students will study and experience various methods in character development and practice the specific skills required to adapt to different genres, periods, and mediums, including dialects, imagination
work, movement and mask work, and styles of acting.

Dance III: Dance Choreography and Performance: Apply foundational dance skills and improvisation to advance understanding of choreography techniques. Focus on creating dances of various styles for solos, small groups, and large groups, culminating in the choreography and performance in a live dance concert. Prerequisite: Theatre Arts 120 or 220; or permission of instructor.

Special Topics: These courses are special-interest courses utilizing instructor strengths and student interests. Each topic will be concerned with material not usually treated to any great extent in regularly scheduled courses.

Theatre in Cultural Context: An overview of the global history of theatre including movements and representative plays and playwrights from Western and non-Western traditions. This course will focus on the ways in which social and political conversations are carried out on stage and how cultural climate has both influenced and been influenced by playwrights, performers, and theater-makers. May not be taken on a pass/fail basis. Not recommended for freshmen students. Satisfies Core Program writing-intensive requirements.

Theatre Today: Examines current trends, achievements, and problems in contemporary Western and non-westerns theatre and dramatic literature. Students will read dramatic theory, contemporary dramatic literature, and situate their developing understandings within a Reformed worldview. Not recommended for freshmen students.

Applied Theatre: Capstone Production Project: The course content (directing, design, acting, technical theatre, playwriting, producing, research/writing) will be designed for each individual in consultation with a departmental supervisor. Work on the project will be done in two or three semesters with enrollment in the final semester. May not be taken on a pass/fail basis. Open only to majors and minors with junior or senior standing.

Scene Study: Apply foundational acting skills and advanced methods to develop roles for stage and screen. Students will work collaboratively to rehearse
and perform scenes and develop audition repertoire. Recommended for students who have already taken other performance courses or
have experience acting in Dordt productions.

Writing for Performance: Students will engage in the exploration and practice of writing for performance, in any medium, but concentrating on theatre. The students will explore effective ways to translate ideas, insights, politics, and passions into words that will be performed, in the myriad rhythms of human dialogue and monologue, within an effective story structure.

Advanced Directing: Build on foundational skills to advance understanding of directing for the stage. Students will study concepts central to successful directing and apply them in and outside of class, culminating in the direction of a one-act play. Prerequisite: Theatre Arts 102; or permission of instructor.

Majors Seminar: A course on the arts and vocation, specifically related to theatre. Students will investigate all aspects of their calling as theatre artists including professional practices (such as goal setting, resume writing, and auditioning), career wellness and sustainability, and the place of theatre arts in God’s kingdom.

See the course catalog for more information.