Theatre Arts and Performance Studies
Description
The Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies (TAPS) is the intellectual and artistic center for the aesthetic, historical, literary, practical, and theoretical explorations of performance in global perspective – theatre, dance, speech, time-based art, and even performative “roles” in everyday life. The TAPS concentration offers three tracks with many points of overlap among them: Performance Studies, Theatre Arts, and Writing for Performance. Concentrators gain exposure to a broad spectrum of performance modes and methods -- acting, directing, dance, and writing, and chose an avenue of focus among them. Everyone graduates having studied craft, gained familiarity with history, and investigated the role of performance arts in culture.
Student Goals
Students in this concentration will:
- Gain skill in one or more of the practical crafts of theatre, dance, public speaking, or performance art
- Increase abilities in speech and communication
- Gain familiarity with the history of theater, dance, and other performing arts from transnational perspectives
- Explore areas of performance theory
- Gain familiarity with dramatic texts and theatrical contexts
- Enhance their writing abilities
- Produce a body of creative work
- Create a capstone project in the senior year
Requirements
Click here for a list of the TAPS concentration requirements, including capstone requirements.
For more information about this concentration, please visit the department's website.
Honors and Capstones
View Honors website
Candidates for the Honors program should have an outstanding academic record and should apply to the Department by the seventh semester. They must enroll in TAPS 1990 and complete an honors thesis, the topic of which would be determined before Semester 7. Honors theses proposals are due April 1 of the student’s junior year. Proposals can be submitted electronically to Professor Patricia Ybarra, the Honors Thesis Advisor. Please visit the TAPS website for additional guidelines and eligibility requirements.
Tracks
- Performance Studies
- Theatre Arts
- Writing for Performance
Liberal Learning
This concentration allows you to address the following Liberal Learning goals:
- Enhance your aesthetic sensibility
- Expand your reading skills
- Collaborate fully
- Understand differences among cultures
- Embrace Diversity
- Engage with your community
- Learn what it means to study the past
- Evaluate human behavior
- Work on your speaking and writing