Theatre

Bachelor of Arts

Specialize in skills such as acting, costume design or directing

Overview

At BJU, you’ll study the theatre not merely for the sake of art, but for the sake of God’s glory. You’ll learn of the great need for communication characterized both by artistic excellence and timeless truths.

As an artist, you’ll imitate God’s role as creator as you unveil stories of truth and beauty that point your audience to the fulfillment of all beauty and truth—Jesus Christ. You’ll study the power of drama to plant seeds of biblical truth in people’s hearts. And more than that, you’ll develop biblical discernment and the skills to find and produce pieces that are appropriate for your audience.

Matchmaker

Program

At BJU, the theatre program is about more than classroom knowledge; it’s about hands-on experience in theatre. You’ll build a solid foundation in the essentials of theatre, including acting and stagecraft, and you’ll get involved in univerity productions. In addition, you’ll have opportunities every year to get involved in special events like Bake Off!, a competition where you have only 24 hours to practice and perform original student-written plays.

For your capstone experience you’ll play a part in staging an actual production for an audience as a director, actor, designer or stage manager. You’ll also work closely with a faculty member and receive guidance throughout the play’s production. Your teamwork will allow you to soar to greater heights in a short period of time as you produce your work. Recent productions have included William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker.

BJU Core

You’ll complement your theatre classes with the BJU Core. English, history, economics, philosophy and other subjects will broaden your horizons and help you relate to more diverse audiences. Liberal arts also develop essential life skills—critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity and effective communication—that will help you adapt to any situation.

Electives

In the theatre program at BJU electives are offered in the many disciplines of the field. If you enjoy writing, you can develop your own scripts, from monologues to one-acts and full-length plays. For actors you can increase your sensitivity and imagination through improvisation, theatre games, scene work and vocal and physical exercises. Rehearsing scenes with your fellow acting students will stretch you as a performer and help you to act and react as a believable character in dramatic circumstances. If backstage work interests you, you can familiarize yourself with every behind-the-scenes activity in theatre with classes in lighting, costume design, scene design and directing.

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Success

Anne Cleland, ’10

I look back on my training as a theatre major with great respect and thankfulness.

Since graduating, I have had remarkable opportunities to direct productions, stage-manage for conferences, volunteer for play festivals, and currently intern for a contemporary non-profit theatre company. And these opportunities were made accessible to me because of excellent training and professionalism at BJU.

My teachers dedicated their artistry to the highest level of professionalism, for which I am truly grateful. I have benefited from their dedication and work ethic that now reflects on my own values and work as a theatre artist. My career goal to become an arts administrator has been shaped not only by the theatre training and experience I received at BJU, but also inspired by the work of my fellow artists in the academic world.

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Your Future

Job Types

Arts management
Theatre management
Professional actor
Theatre educator
Event planner
Technical director
Retail display designer
Stage director
Applied theatre in hospitals, schools, prisons, etc.
Marketing and sales
Entrepreneur

Graduate Schools

University of Texas
Bowling Green University
Hollins University
Texas Tech University
Illinois State University
Southern Illinois University
Shakespeare Institute, Stratford, UK
University of South Carolina

Graduate Experience

Our graduates work in various locations across the United States and internationally, including the following:

High School Drama Teacher, Oahu, Hawaii
Professional Actor, Utah Shakespeare Festival
College Theatre Professor, Dunbar, Wis.
Tech Theatre Teacher and Costume Designer, Tampa, Fla.
Artistic Intern, Canadian Stage, Ontario, Canada
Free-lance Writer, Greenville, S.C.
Arts Management, New York, N.Y.

Career Assistance

BJU offers students a variety of ways to network with employers and organizations. A multitude of job opportunities are posted each year on Career Central, our online job board. In addition, more than 60 businesses and 150 Christian schools/mission boards/Christian organizations come on campus to recruit students through on-campus interviews and job/ministry fairs.

Career Services also helps students by holding seminars on resume preparation and interview techniques.

Learning Experience

Both onstage and behind-the-scenes opportunities abound at BJU. Every semester, you’ll have the chance to participate in the biannual Shakespearean productions that are a part of the Concert, Opera & Drama Series. You’ll also have numerous opportunities to collaborate with fellow theatre majors on smaller productions, similar to the recent productions of The Mousetrap and Sherlock Holmes.

Richard III

Shakespeare Productions: Nearly every semester students get involved in the Shakespeare production. There are usually many acting roles open to students, including understudy positions for the lead roles so you can learn from your faculty members on the job.

Living Gallery: A team of talented artists and technicians spends hundreds of hours putting together the sets, costumes, makeup and lighting needed to create larger-than-life artwork. In addition, an original drama ties in contemporary spiritual struggles to the overarching theme of the artwork.

Faculty

Ron Pyle
Division of Communication

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Your faculty bring to their classes many years of teaching experience as well as experience in the theatre and communication fields. They are actively involved in BJU’s operas, plays and other productions.

They’ll give you plenty of feedback so you can get an honest appraisal of your work to help you achieve your greatest potential.