Performing Arts Brochure 2020-21

PERFORMING ARTS AT EMERSON

MASTER MORE

THAN A CRAFT Theatre is more than a craft; it’s a way of connecting with others, approaching challenges, and engaging the world. Whether you aspire to be an actor, designer, stage manager, teacher, director, dramaturg, playwright, or are searching for your place in the arts, Emerson’s BFA programs will give you the necessary tools to focus your creative talents toward a fulfilling career—and life—in the theatre.

Individuality and collaboration are the touchstones of the Emerson experience. As a student in the Department of Performing Arts, your education will encompass studio work, classroom engagement, and the opportunity to apply these lessons to experiences within Emerson’s creative atmosphere and Boston’s thriving Theatre District located steps from our campus. Here, we believe the development of an artist requires more than just skill—it requires you to have a deep understanding of the world around you. That’s why we combine conservatory-style training with the enriching academic experience of a liberal arts education. Our BFA programs encourage you to recognize your own potential, explore your interests, and develop your craft so that your aspirations can become reality.

Theatre Emerson’s BFA in Theatre offers dynamic, comprehensive training grounded in the liberal arts. With a programmatic structure artfully balanced between study and practice, breadth and depth, and arts and academics, you will explore the world of theatre and theatre in the world. Whether you are a future producer, director, playwright, dramaturg, administrator, or wish to create your own interdisciplinary path in the theatre, our program will help you grow into a multifaceted practitioner of your craft.

Theatre and Performance This is the degree for today’s theatre professional who approaches work with a varied skill set: an actor/director, a solo performer, a fight choreographer— a theatre artist. Combining the rigor of sequential studio courses with the flexibility to explore a diverse world of possibilities, Emerson’s BFA in Theatre and Performance is an outstanding actor training program that allows you to study, grow, and explore. After completing the two-year Actor Training Core, students can decide whether to audition for admission into the BFA in Acting program or continue to develop a broad skill set in the world of theatre and performance, with subjects such as Playwriting, Directing, Action Theatre, Dialects, Stage Combat, Acting for the Camera, and more.

Get Involved Our campus is home to a vibrant student theatre scene with 29 student performance organizations, such as Acappellics Anonymous, Emerson Urban Dance Theater, Flawless Brown, Emerson Comedy Workshop, Shakespeare Society, ASLEmerson, Rareworks, and others.

More Than One Passion?

Emerson offers 44 undergraduate minors, including African American and Africana Studies, Dance, Entrepreneurial Studies, Hearing and Deafness, History, Poetry, Psychology, and more.

Acting Our BFA in Acting is an intensive program for Theatre and Performance or Theatre Education and Performance students who decide, after two years, that they crave a more singular focus on the craft of acting.

Collaboration, versatility, and presence are the hallmarks of our audition-only program designed to help you develop a clear process that sustains your professional work as an actor. If accepted, you will spend your junior and senior years in 14 hours a week of structured training. You will expand on the foundational work of the Actor Training Core, build more trust and connection through ensemble work, and develop a strong individual focus on the craft of acting itself.

Theatre Education and Theatre Education and Performance For those who believe in the transformative power of theatre to shape society and change lives, our BFA in Theatre Education invites you to explore innovative uses of theatre in a variety of educational settings. In this major, you will receive a strong grounding in the liberal arts; explore the fundamentals of the dramatic arts; and gain a broad array of pedagogical tools that can be applied to a variety of potential careers, including work in professional theatres, community outreach, and, of course, the classroom. With dozens of student teaching placements in and around Boston, you can work toward initial licensure in Massachusetts as a K–12 Teacher of Theatre. For students interested in a truly versatile degree, the Theatre Education and Performance program includes our two-year Actor Training Core and access to specialized acting classes.

SPACE TO CREATE Emerson College produces and presents in five professional-quality theatre spaces in the heart of Boston’s Theatre District:

Cutler Majestic Theatre A 1,200-seat classic Beaux-Arts style proscenium and one of Boston’s 19th-century historic landmarks

Robert J. Orchard Stage

(Formerly Paramount Mainstage)

A completely renovated 590-seat art deco proscenium in the Paramount Center equipped with a removable orchestra pit, trap room, 27 single purchase counterweight line sets, and 15 motorized Vortek line sets

Our theatres are supported by rehearsal studios, practice rooms, and a design studio, light lab, costume shop, scenic shop, and makeup suite.

Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theatre A modern multifunctional black box in the Paramount Center with movable seating for 125

Semel Theater A 216-seat thrust stage in the Tufte Performance and Production Center featuring a tension-wire grid overhead and a trapped stage underfoot

Greene Theater A 108-seat “theatre row� end-stage located in the Tufte Performance and Production Center

Stage and Production Management Classroom learning and hands-on experience come together in our BFA in Stage and Production Management program, enabling you to discover and develop skills in collaboration, process, and leadership within the art of theatre.

Practical application of your coursework will begin from day one of your first year, through varied stage management and production supervision projects during the Emerson Stage season and with professional internships at Boston’s leading theatres. In addition to stage and production management, course topics will include design/technology, directing, arts management, and related areas, giving you everything you need to thoroughly prepare for a career as a stage or production manager.

Musical Theatre Our BFA in Musical Theatre is one of the most unique pre-professional performance programs in the country, offering a dynamic cross between scholarship and rigorous studio work that nurtures important foundations such as teamwork, preparation, managing the business, and seeking conclusions about the nature of the creative process. Our holistic approach is designed to educate musical theatre students who can both embrace and transcend the tradition of the form, able to apply their training to all mediums of non-musical theatre.

In addition to regular study in singing, music analysis, and dance, we support a vigorous sequential curriculum in acting and scene study.

ArtsEmerson As the professional presenting and producing organization of the Office of the Arts at Emerson College, ArtsEmerson brings industry-leading theatre and film from all over the world to the heart of downtown Boston including the historic Cutler Majestic Theatre and Paramount Center. Through master classes, brown bag lunches, networking events, discounted tickets, and free student rush, ArtsEmerson allows students the chance to learn from these cutting-edge artists.

Emerson Stage Emerson Stage is the producing organization within the Department of Performing Arts.

Its nine-show season offers more than 120 opportunities for actors, 100 positions for design staff, 70 for production staff and another 70 for theatre management staff, and 30 artistic staff—all reserved exclusively for Performing Arts students.

Theatre Design/Technology Emerson’s BFA in Theatre Design/Technology prepares you to enter the theatre industry as a professional in your craft: fluent in the language of design and technology, conversant in the tools you will encounter at theatres throughout the country, and with a strong understanding of the essentials of design. This program is based on a hands-on apprenticeship model of teaching, where you will learn from and work with highly skilled faculty to develop a program of study tailored to your skills and interests. Coursework in scenic, lighting, sound, costume, prop, and technical design is quickly applied to work done at professional internships or in the College’s producing laboratory, Emerson Stage. Your studies will culminate in a senior-year portfolio review by members of the industry, designed to introduce you to a wider circle of potential colleagues and help jumpstart your career.

Stage and Screen Design/Technology The BFA in Stage and Screen Design/ Technology will provide you with the tools to work across the mediums of theatre, television, and film. Taught collaboratively with Emerson’s Department of Visual and Media Arts, one of the premier film schools in the United States, it is one of the first undergraduate programs in the country to offer a complete degree in design for both stage and screen. After the first year in foundational courses as a BFA Theatre Design/Technology student, you can opt into Stage and Screen Design/Technology, gaining firm grounding in theatrical design as well as exploring special topics in designing for film and television. You will work with renowned faculty in both Visual and Media Arts and Performing Arts, building your professional network from peers in both disciplines. Production projects and internship opportunities at our Boston and Los Angeles campuses will round out your experience and further prepare you for the professional world of production design in a wide range of entertainment fields.

Applications and Artistic Review Applicants to the Department of Performing Arts must complete an Artistic Review specific to their major. Artistic Reviews are completed (essays) or scheduled (auditions, portfolios/ interviews) online in the Emerson College Application Portal. For more information on how to apply to your specific program, visit emerson.edu.

Getting the Most Out of Your Visit Want to get a behindthe-scenes look at life at Emerson? View majorspecific webinars, take virtual tours, hear from students, attend virtual events, and more at emerson.edu/ picture-yourself.

Due to COVID19 guidelines and restrictions, and in the interest of the health of our community, in-person visitation options are currently suspended and auditions will be held virtually for for the 2020-21 admission cycle. For more information or to get an overview of the Performing Arts application process, please contact Undergraduate Admission.

Emerson College is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution.

Office of Communications and Marketing Š 2020 Emerson College

Undergraduate Admission

Department of Performing Arts

General Correspondence 120 Boylston Street Boston, MA 02116-4624

Telephone 617-824-8780

Application Materials Emerson College Undergraduate Admission Processing Center PO Box 880 Randolph, MA 02368-0880 Telephone 617-824-8600 Fax 617-824-8609 Email admission@emerson.edu Web emerson.edu

Email pa_artisticreview@emerson.edu Web emerson.edu/performing-arts