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Why Major in Theatre at Allegheny College

Allegheny Theatre students learn to engage critically and creatively with the wider culture that surrounds them, producing original work and developing skills to connect with audiences in compelling ways.

Unusual Combinations
Students often combine Theatre with:

Division

  • Visual and Performing Arts

Program Type

  • Major
  • Minor

Number of Credits

49 for major24 for minor

Where Theatre Alumni Work Today

Business Manager

Timberlake Studios

Zoe (Aaron) Regan ’13

Co-Artistic Director

Gum-Dip Theatre

Katie Beck ’14

Audio Office Administrator

The Public Theater

Carrie Miller Freeman ’09

Living History Education Program Director

TimeLine Theatre Company

Juliet Hart ’91

Actor and Voiceover Artist

Self-Employed

Tony Chiroldes ’84

Director of Production

Orlando Shakespeare Theater

George Hamrah ’89

Grants Coordinator

Cleveland Foundation

Colleen McCaughey ’13

Director

Retainer Consulting Services

Kelly Mednis ’96

Company Manager

UK tour of Lion King, Disney Theatrical

Fred Hemminger ’97

Assistant Professor of Theatre

Mary Baldwin University

Molly Seremet

Lecturer in Lighting Design & Technology

University of Massachusetts

Amanda Fallon

Education Director

University of Massachusetts

Jim Scriven

Production Office

Perelman Arts Center

Itzel Ayala

Drama Director

Theodore Roosevelt High School

Katie Beck

Theatre and Visual Arts Teacher

Grayson School

Mary Lyon

Company Manager

City Theatre; Contemporary American Theater Festival

Richard Ellis

Your Four-Year Journey

Theatre Overview

Year 1: Understanding

Most majors take all three introductory courses: Introduction to Theatre, Theatre Production (you can focus on scenery, costumes, or lighting), and Acting 1. You can also participate as a performer, stage manager, or technician in Playshop Theatre productions as soon as your first year at Allegheny.

Year 2: New Approaches

In your second year, you’ll take Text and Performance and begin to find your place in theatre through elective courses in Acting, Directing, Design, History or Management.

Year 3: Delving Deeper

The show must go on! As you move into your third year, you will continue in theatre electives, take a Theatre History course (if you haven’t done so already), and elective coursework in Communication, Dance, or Film. All Theatre majors take the Junior Seminar and prepare individual proposals for their senior projects.

Year 4: The Comp

To round out your time at Allegheny, you will complete your electives as well as complete the Theatre Senior Comp, often integrated with a Playshop Theatre production or produced as a workshop. Then you’re all set to go out into the world — break a leg!

Research and Internships

Learn Through Expression

We’ll set the stage for you success through hands-on opportunities. You’ll learn to develop the capacity to use drama as a medium to connect with audiences in effective ways.

Our theatre students expand their skills through internships, research, community engagement, study away, and more.

Beyond the Classroom

Allegheny’s Playshop Theatre was inaugurated by Alice Huntington Spalding in 1929 with her production of Dear Brutus in Arter Hall. In the intervening years, the Playshop has produced over 500 plays. In 2009, it moved to its current home in the Vukovich Center for Communication Arts. The Playshop season is now performed in the Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre.

Research and Creative Activity

Thanks to the Andrew W. Mellon Collaborative Undergraduate Research in the Humanities grant, and new Richard Cook and Teresa Lahti Scholars Symposium, students have the opportunity to work on research projects with faculty under school-wide, department-specific, or project-specific grants.

Internships – Pennsylvania, Ohio

  • Bull Moose Progressive Marketing – (Meadville, Pennsylvania) – Public Relations, Advertising, Graphic Arts
  • Ketchum Advertising – (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) – Public Relations, Advertising, Graphic Arts
  • Cleveland Public Theatre – (Cleveland, Ohio) – Performing Arts Theater
  • Public Theatre – Performing Arts Theater
  • Pittsburgh Public Theatre – (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) – Theatre
  • Cleveland Public Theatre – (Cleveland, Ohio) – Theatre
  • Pittsburgh Civic Lights Opera – (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) – Theatre

Internships – New York

  • Grey Advertising – (New York City, Bucharest) – Public Relations, Advertising, Graphic Arts
  • INTAR
  • Shakespeare in the Park, Public Theater
  • Signature Theatre
  • SpotCo
  • New York Theatre Workshop

Study Away Opportunities

Faculty members partner with colleagues from other departments and lead summer Experiential Learning Study Seminars (ELs) abroad, taking students on interdisciplinary explorations of global issues. Some of the EL destinations led by the department faculty have been Great Britain, India, Italy, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and South Africa.

Recent Senior Comps

The Senior Comp is the culmination of four years of experience, imagination, and study. It is the moment when you demonstrate what you’ve learned by teaching us something new.

  • Spatial Theory, Veterans Studies, and their Presentations on the Stage in The Unreturning
  • So You Think You’re In Charge: Women and the Mid-Twentieth Century Musical
  • “Living with Nora: An Exploration of the Meisner Acting Technique through A Doll’s House, Part 2”
  • “Psychopathologies and the Methods of Creative Art Therapy”
  • “A Case Study of ECT in the Musical next to normal”
  • “What a ‘Peace’ of Work: A Cultural Commentary on America’s Tribal Love-Rock Musical Hair”

Faculty and Staff

Michael Mehler

Professor

Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh; M.F.A., University of Texas at Austin; B.S. Northwestern University

Rachel Hoey

Assistant Professor

B.A.,M.A., San Diego State University; M.F.A., Indiana University

Frequently Asked Questions About the Theatre Program

What type of degree is an Theatre major?

Students who major in Theatre at Allegheny College will earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Are there any clubs and activities available for Theatre students?

Yes, there are multiple campus organizations that can benefit students in the Theatre program, such as Student Experimental Theatre Club. Explore all Allegheny College clubs and organizations.

Program Contact

Jon Wiebel

Associate Professor of Communication & Media; Director of Speaking

Email(814) 332-4787