The Department is strongly grounded in small classes for maximum interaction between students and a world-class faculty at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Professors, on a first-name basis with students, transform lives with their dedication to teaching and commitment to the highest professional standards. At the heart of it all, our superb student body makes the Department a community brimming with creative energy.
Because of our reputation as one of the outstanding teaching departments at the university and because theater offers a chance for building community, for coming together in our often impersonal world, students recognize that the skills and values we teach are more important today than ever. These skills and values — discipline, teamwork, communication, creative expression, collective problem-solving — change lives and define careers, whether students choose to work on stage, film, or TV, or to go on to pursue successful careers in law, broadcasting, management, advertising, arts administration, teaching, and social work.
Guest Artists
Our students, staff and faculty benefit tremendously from the department's active connections to the worlds of theater, TV and film in that we are constantly playing host to talented creative people in the department. Over the past few years, we have enjoyed lectures by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks and Paula Vogel, had students work side-by-side with people like Tony-award winning sound designer Rob Kaplowitz, writer-director Laurie Carlos and scene designer David Korins, participated in workshops with casting agents Patricia McCorkle, Robyn Carus and Sherry Thomas, had playwrights Alice Tuan and Constance Congdon as guest writers for our annual fundraisers.
Want to see the whole list of recent guests? Download it here
Mission Statement
Within the context of a broad-based liberal arts education, the bachelor of arts in theater at the University of Massachusetts Amherst offers an integrative, balanced program of studies that prepares students either to undertake specialized training for careers in theater or to draw upon their arts education in allied fields and pursuits. The master of fine arts program in theater prepares students to compete effectively for careers as directors, designers, and dramaturgs.
In both programs, a production season is central to the Department's mission — providing not only a laboratory for arts instruction but a dynamic and multifaceted outreach component that enables the Department both to draw upon and serve the larger community. The Department of Theater is committed to the goal of cultural diversity and to the belief that a systematic study of theater in its many aspects can impart lifelong learning skills in creative problem-solving, effective teamwork, and interpersonal communications.
For more information:
If you'd like to learn more about the department, arrange a tour, or speak with a student or faculty member here, contact our main office at umasstheater@theater.umass.edu or call 413.545.3490.
