Overview

Authentic Experience

Whether your passion is acting under the lights or tech work behind the scenes, you can learn it all by working on mainstage productions. Theatre productions are held in the Severns Theatre at Truman State University, which also serves as a classroom laboratory,  and the more intimate Black Box Theatre, which is used for many of the student-produced productions. Pursue your own ideas through our student-directed (and often student-written) lab shows and one-act plays. Gain valuable experience performing, building scenery, sewing costumes and managing all the fine details of a theatre production.

An Unusually Thorough Approach

Along with studio and practical courses in acting, design, tech, and directing, you take courses that trace the literature and history of western theatre from the ancient Greeks to America’s postmodern avant-garde. You come away with a clear sense of how theatre reflects its time and place, why theatre is central to an understanding of a given culture or period, and the varied effects of theatre on a community.