MARY L. WELCH THEATRE

       Located in the Academic Center, the Mary L. Welch Theatre is an intimate thrust stage theatre, seating 204 people. The theatre complex also houses production facilities, including a small black-box theatre called the Downstage Theatre, a fully equipped and staffed costume shop, dressing rooms, 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.

       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.

       The department has also added Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) capability in the past year. Students use industry standard programs such as Vectorworks, Lightwright, SFX, and Adobe Audition in their classroom and production work.