The Theatre Department produces a full season of faculty- and student-directed productions each year, including classics, musicals, and cutting-edge new dramas. As many as 10-15 productions each season provide students with numerous opportunities to create exciting theatre.

Four shows are produced each season in the Mary L. Welch Theatre.  Located in the Academic Center, the Mary L. Welch Theatre is an intimate thrust stage and seats 204 people.  Recent and ongoing technical upgrades in the Welch Theatre give students the opportunity to work with state-of-the-art equipment. In 2003 the theatre upgraded its dimming controls and added brand new ETC lighting instrumentation. More recently, the department has improved the sound system in the theatre, upgrading the theatre to surround-sound, and adding computer controlled playback and digital sound editing capabilities in the control areas.

Recent productions in the Welch Theatre include Cole Porter’s most popular musical Anything Goes, a modern take on the ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata, the American classic Look Homeward, Angel, Steve Martin’s hilarious farce The Underpants, and the expressionistic drama Machinal.

The Dragon’s Lair Theatre, our flexible black-box space, is home to a variety of student-produced shows.  In 2007, the DLT was outfitted with all new lighting instruments selected specifically for this intimate space.  Student-directed work recently produced in the Dragon’s Lair Theatre includes the full-length plays Proof and Fat Pig, as well as one-acts such as “Undertones,” “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls,” and “The Lover.”

The Theatre Department also produces a touring children’s theatre company, the Emerald City Players, that takes shows “on the road” to local area schools. Recent Emerald City Players productions include “The Just So Stories,” “Heads and Tales,” and “Once, Twice, Thrice!”

The theatre complex also houses production facilities, including a fully equipped and staffed costume shop, dressing rooms, a makeup room, rehearsal space, faculty offices, and a design studio. The Theatre Department's scene shop, located in a separate facility across campus, has been updated in recent years. In the past two years, the department has replaced aging equipment, added welding and metalworking capability, and has improved safety with the installation of a dust collection system.

The department has also recently added Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) and the sound editing software SFX.  Students have access to AutoCAD, Vectorworks, and SFX.

Click here for 2008-2009 Schedule