Welcome, and thank you for exploring the website of Northeastern University’s unique Department of Theatre, where we blend a vibrant spirit of innovation with vigorous academic inquiry across disciplines.
Why study Theatre in college? We answer this complex question with decisive vigor: Theatre teaches us to listen actively, allowing us to slow down and find depth. Theatre is where we rehearse for the unexpected and where we learn to live with uncertainty. By engaging artistically in difficult conversations, Theatre is where we make sense of what we witness around us.
As a hub for Creative Practice Research, we make theatre to generate new knowledge and new understanding. We develop and hone the basic human literacies of creativity, collaboration, and communication through critical creative practice. We have significant interactions across disciplines that contribute to a fuller education for our students; by teaching them the foundation of art as ethical responsibility we offer them a more promising future, with vital and employable skills in creative problem solving through active collaboration and deep empathy.
Theatre seeks to explain what is unexplainable about our experience through the telling of stories. Playwrights, actors, directors, designers, composers, production managers—we all collaborate in order to tell these stories in the most compelling ways to an audience, which is the most essential element in Theatre. We explore humanity through the practice of communication and collaboration. It is my firm belief that this exchange deepens our understanding and leads to a richer experience of life for all of us. We are doing it right now, as we face the current challenges in our country and in our world.
As a community, we welcome those who are:
- Intellectually curious, self-motivated, ambitious, fearless, and generous
- Multi-dimensional—passionate about performance, and also interested in discovering design, directing, playwriting, or arts administration
- Interested in studying and making an array of theatre productions
- Eager to see great theatre and engage with professional actors, directors, and designers while studying in Boston
- Ready to work with our faculty and staff to develop their own professional identity and outlook.
If this describes you, come join the Department of Theatre! As part of the College of Arts, Media & Design—a radically relevant hub for creativity and collaboration—you will be in the middle of a progressive urban campus in one of the world’s most vibrant theatre cities.
Associate Professor & Chair
December 2022