Academics
The UMass Amherst Department of Theater offers a broad-based training program that emphasizes collaboration and mentoring.
Broad-based training teaches students a shared vocabulary and instills a mutual respect, better enabling them to collaborate and to create exciting theater. Our commitment to mentoring fosters many productive relationships between students and faculty, between graduates and undergrads, between accomplished alumni and students, and between those at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and artists from the community and beyond.
The course of study in the Department of Theater is grounded in the belief that the performing arts draw on a unique combination of intellectual and artistic skills and talents, which are most fully developed when theory and practice are integrated into the learning experience. On the undergraduate level, the Department offers a B.A. in Theater. Students pursue a multi-faceted course of study divided into dramaturgy, performance (acting and directing), design and production.
Learn more about Undergraduate studies in Theater »
The 16-credit Minor in Theater offers students who cannot commit to the full major an opportunity to engage with theater. Because we think approaching theater-making from multiple perspectives makes for stronger artists and scholars, students choose two areas of study from Performance, Dramaturgy, or Design for greater exploration. The minor includes classroom learning and hands-on involvement with our mainstage season.
Learn more about the Minor in Theater »
The Department of Theater at UMass Amherst offers professional training MFA programs with specializations in Directing, Dramaturgy, Costume Design, Costume Design, Lighting Design and Scenic Design. Graduates of our program receive the Master of Fine Arts degree and are prepared to work in resident professional theaters, in colleges and universities, and in many other areas of performance. Applications for admission in Fall 2023 are due January 15, 2023.
Learn more about Graduate studies in Theater »
The Multicultural Theater Certificate blends the teaching of history and theory with the practical aspects of theater-making by offering students throughout the university an opportunity to deepen their studies in this important and growing area of arts and academic study.
Learn more about our Multicultural Theater Certificate »
Our alumni find work in theater and related fields.
