Theater Arts, B.A.
Capstone
Every theatre arts major completes the shared Visual and Performing Arts Capstone course (Visual and Performing Arts 290) in the fall of their senior year. The capstone brings together seniors from across all six programs for a semester of focused independent and collaborative work — but for Theatre Arts students, the specific form of the solo project is shaped by your concentration and developed in close consultation with your faculty advisor.
What the capstone can look like
The capstone is deliberately flexible, because the range of work theatre arts students do is wide. Depending on your concentration and your goals, a capstone project might take the form of:
- A set or sound design for a mainstage production (technical theater and design concentration)
- A full-length play developed to a stage-ready draft (playwriting concentration)
- A performance project developed under faculty mentorship (acting and directing concentration)
- Other forms proposed by the student and approved by the faculty advisor
Planning should begin in the spring of junior year. Students are expected to meet with their faculty advisor to define the scope, form, and goals of the capstone before the senior year begins.
Honors
Students with distinguished academic records who wish to pursue honors in theatre arts should consult the program director early in their junior year. The honors project is an independent work that displays skills and capabilities in the student’s chosen field at a professional standard. It may take the form of writing a play, performing a role, directing a production, or another form proposed by the student. The completed work must be performed and presented as a senior and reviewed by a faculty panel.
Students interested in honors are encouraged to identify a project and an honors advisor as early as possible in their junior year.
