Western Oregon University's bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees in Theatre Arts provide solid training and preparation for aspiring theatre professionals with an emphasis on introducing students to the skills and techniques that will allow them to enter into graduate level training or the professional arena.

Our programs create theatre artists who recognize and appreciate the importance of American and world theatre as a dynamic part of our social, and political and cultural lives.

Our programs cultivate in theatre students a high standard of ethics and of personal and professional responsibility as they prepare students in all aspects of theatre: set, costume, make-up, sound and lighting design and technology, acting, directing, playwriting, theatre management, theatre history, theory and criticism.

Those with a special interest in theatre education will find theatre classes as a part of their elementary education program, and those interested in middle or high school teaching will find that the school of education offers a master of arts in teaching degree which, when added to the B.A. or B.S. in theatre, will provide a licensure for teaching drama in the state of Oregon.

Our graduates have acted in and designed for such theatres as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Houston Alley Theatre, the South Coast Repertory Theatre, the Santa Fe Opera, Minneapolis Children's Theatre, Seattle's ACT, Portland's Center Stage and off-off Broadway.

Our graduates have also contributed their talents to playwriting, directing, desiging and theatre management in and around the state. Other graduates have gone on to careers in television, film, arts administration and teaching in public school, colleges and universities.

Western Oregon University provides opportunity for students' participation in the national and regional competitive activities of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Several design students have been chosen to represent the Northwest Region and have exhibited their work in the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; and three of our productions have been selected for performance at the regional festival in conjunction with the Northwest Drama Conference.

The theatre program provides opportunities for student participation in three or four mainstage productions per year and at least one student-directed studio produciton as well as other theatre activities. Every other winter term, we produce a musical and we do at least one mainstage production every summer.

Productions are performed in Rice Auditorium on campus. It seats 619 in the mainstage auditorium and 52 in the studio theatre. The Gerald and Selma Leinwand Outdoor Festival stage is available for summer events. Rice Autitorum also houses a scene shop and lighting, sound, costuming and make-up areas.

Western's chapter of Alpha Psi Omega, a national drama honorary, is actively involved in the theatre program and offers a drama scholarship for returning students.

Career Opportunities and Student Successes

In 1989, Rex Rabold, a long-time Oregon actor and Western graduate, was awarded Western's Distinguished Alumnus Award. David Kay Mickelsen, a Western graduate and professional costumer designs in major regional and Off Broadway theatres. Recently he completed costume designs for the premiere of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas at the Minneapolis Children's Theatre.