Theatre and Dance ❘ Performance, Production, and Community Major

At Hamline, performance, production and community majors participate in research and community engagement with faculty as early as their first year, something usually reserved for graduate students at other institutions. You'll design and conduct your own research or performance project based on your individual interests and goals.

The list of possible engagement projects is as varied as our students. For example, picture yourself:

• Researching the barriers and prejudices the disabled community have confronted when attending and/or participating in theatrical productions, and exploring efforts by artists and producers to create a more inclusive theatre experience
• Examining how movements for social change have invented communication methods that integrate journalism and performance to engage contemporary audiences
• Filming, editing, and designing visual and auditory effects for an experimental dance video
• Compiling ethnographies on body image and cultural beauty standards to create a performance exploring bodily liberation from oppressive regimes of influence
• Interrogating the intersection between video games and performance theory
• Researching the intersections between and gender and queer theories and developing a company-created work of original theatre
• Conducting dramaturgical analysis and directing a theatre production in our program's mainstage performance season

During your research process, you’ll collaborate with professionals at major institutions, publish your research in academic journals, and present your work at local, regional, and national venues.
 

Learn more about undergraduate research at Hamline 

We make sure you leave Hamline with theatre work experience on your resume, and the opportunities are boundless. Whether you want to explore set design, directing, education, acting, dance, or more, we have internship opportunities for you.

Examples of past student internships include:

• Mixed Blood Theatre, community outreach intern
• Penumbra Theatre, art for social change intern
• Yellow Tree Theatre, marketing and box office assistant
• Minnesota Fringe Festival, front of house coordinator
• Children’s Theatre Company, educational apprentice

Explore internships

Our innovative courses and one-on-one mentoring by faculty will give you the tools to succeed in a variety of jobs, such as:

• Scenic and lighting designer
• K-12 educator
• Performer
• Event planning and management
• Stage director
• Museum designer
• Filmmaker and producer
• Production stage manager
• Librarian
• Clergy
• Box office coordinator
• Technical director

You can put your degree to work in any number of fields, including:

• Entertainment
• Service industry
• K-12 and higher education
• Law
• Finance and banking
• Business administration

Our scholars have gone on to graduate schools across the country in the pursuit of further education. Examples of programs and schools include:

• MFA in integrated media, University of Texas at Austin
• MFA in directing, University of Washington
• MFA in media design, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• MFA in costume design, University of Missouri at Kansas City
• MFA in technical direction, California Institute for the Arts
• MFA in costume design, Ohio State University
• MFA in design and technology, University of Minnesota