DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE ARTS (THEA)
Bloodroot: The Ballad of Clinch Mountain
Bedford Boys
THE WRITING PROJECT The Department of Theatre Arts' Writing Project is a program in which students create original plays based on Virginia history. The Women’s Project, a playwriting opportunity for 25 Liberty University Theatre Arts students, started as a research practicum during the Fall 2017 semester in response to student observations regarding the lack of gender parity in performance opportunities. Faculty decided to make the project created by The Women's Project a production for the 2018-19 season. The final rehearsal draft was titled BLOODROOT: THE BALLAD OF CLINCH MOUNTAIN. The rehearsal period commenced with 20 of the 25 playwrights taking on new roles in leadership and performance. BLOODROOT: THE BALLAD OF CLINCH MOUNTAIN was recognized by Liberty's Center for Research & Scholarship (CRS) for the high level of creative student research and the quality of its outcome, despite not being the more traditional form of faculty/student collaboration. CRS decided to underwrite all production costs. The production continued to regionals in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in South Carolina and then was granted the national award from the Kennedy Center for excellence in student production and dramaturgy. Since that time, the department has continued with 3 more collaborations — BEDFORD BOYS (2019), DECIPHER: AN UNPENNED STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR (2021), and THE DARKEST EVENING (2022) — (all supported and funded by CRS).
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