About the Program
With classes as small as 11 students, it’s nearly impossible to go unnoticed in Westminster’s theatre program. You’ll work side-by-side with devoted professors who are passionate about helping you succeed, and collaborate with classmates who push you to do your very best.
Performing is a huge part of the program. You’ll have the chance to tackle major roles even as a first-year student, and have access to 2 performance spaces (1 proscenium and 1 black box) and spacious scene and costume shops. Westminster is also in the process of expanding Florence J. Gillmor Hall, creating enhanced classroom, rehearsal, and performance spaces.
What You'll Learn
- Develop the skills needed to produce creative, expressive, and distinctive work on the page, on-stage, and backstage.
- Develop an appreciation for the role of story as the driving energy in all theatrical work—artistic and academic.
- Become a leader capable of facilitating the collaborative, ensemble environment that is the hallmark of great theatre.
- Embrace your role as an inductee into the community of theatre artists.
- Demonstrate the ability to think, write, and speak self-reflectively, analytically and fluently, about your own and other’s work.
- Expand your personal, social, and global understanding through engagement in a diverse array of theatre work on campus and in the community.
- Explore the connection between physical, mental, and emotional health and successful theatre work.
- Demonstrate core artistic and academic competencies that inform all theatre studies.
- Discover the value of authentic inquiry, risk-taking, effective self-evaluation, active listening, spontaneous generosity, and insatiable curiosity.
Plan of Study
During your first 2 years in the program, you’ll explore a wide range of classes including acting, costuming, stagecraft, and dance. As you begin to specialize your craft, you can choose from advanced classes like musical theatre, directing, stage lighting, and dramatic theory and criticism, while utilizing your theatre training hands-on in productions on campus and throughout the Salt Lake community.
The Theatre Arts Program offers 3 degrees. All students enter the program on track to graduate with a bachelor of arts in theatre. If you want to pursue a bachelor of fine arts, you must audition/interview in your sophomore year to be accepted into the degree track.
Learn About Theatre Auditions
Faculty members often arrange additional opportunities in a student's field of study with partner organizations.
Bachelor of Arts in Theatre
The bachelor of arts in theatre allows you to explore a wider range of studies in performance and backstage. This is also a great option if you’d like to double major.
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre
Performance Emphasis
The bachelor of arts in theatre with a performance emphasis is designed to prepare you for a professional career as an actor. You’ll take rigorous courses focused on styles of acting, voice work, movement, and audition techniques. To complete your degree, you’ll select and prepare a repertoire to market yourself as an actor and audition for future theatre work or graduate programs.
Production and Design Emphasis
The bachelor of arts in theatre with a production and design emphasis is set up to help you design and produce an effective portfolio that showcases your knowledge, skills, and personal qualities that will help you secure future theatre work or pursue graduate studies.
Sample Courses
Devised Theatre
In this course, you and your classmates will work as a cohort to create and perform a piece, borrowing from the idea of the Living Newspaper, where the script originates from the entire group (rather than from a specific writer) and pulls inspiration and materials from current events.
Technical Internship
In this course, you will use your classroom knowledge for practical experience at companies including Salt Lake Acting Company and Pioneer Theatre.