Wake Forest University | College of Arts and Sciences | Directories | Help

Welcome!

"The Department of Theatre and Dance at Wake offers endless opportunities for personal exploration and growth. As a student, the faculty and staff challenged me to reach my full potential in all of my endeavors. I always had the support and guidance I needed to overcome any obstacle I faced. I still do".
-- Amber Chapel ('08)

The Department of Theatre and Dance offers students an exceptional education in theatre and dance, and plays an integral role in the Wake Forest community. We are a creative and collegial department that values close working relationships between students and faculty, that sees the arts as integral to a liberal arts education, and that prizes intellectual discipline as well as free thinking and expression.  We aspire to create exceptional artist/scholars, exploring through classes and productions intersections of theatre and dance with other realms of study, and giving expression to humanity's foremost social and intellectual concerns.  We promote  inclusivity, intellectual curiosity, innovation, dialogue, and problem-solving skills. And we believe that artistic commitment, personal development, responsibility to one's community, and academic rigor can all coexist.

Into the Woods

Each season, the department mounts four mainstage theatre productions, two dance concerts, and numerous student-directed and designed pieces. Students learn through work on productions---whether in the rehearsal hall or shop--as well as through classwork in acting and directing, dance, design, playwriting, voice and movement, history, dramatic literature, performance art, theatre education, and technical theatre.

Dancer

Students with both academic and artistic ability will find a comfortable home at Wake Forest University. Our students work closely with a vigorous faculty on a wide variety of projects. They enjoy the benefits of a nationally ranked university with small classes, impressive facilities, and an active theatre and dance program, and they grow as both scholars and artists. College is for learning—through books and lectures, certainly, but also through self-exploration and creative expression. We at Wake Forest believe that excellence in both arts and academics is not only possible but also desirable. Myriad student theatre, dance, and performance groups on campus contribute to a vital educational environment for the study of performance.

Students in shop



vertical rule

Facebook   Twitter  YouTube

EVENTS

SEASON 2011 -12

University Theatre Presents

Wake Forest University Dance Company
2012 Spring Concert

Featuring Student Choreography

spring dance

April 26-28 at 7:30 pm
April 29 at 2:00 pm

buy tickets

"Liz Lerman’s aesthetic of inquiry"
Enabling dancers and scientists to perfect the art of the question

Liz Lerman
Liz Lerman

GUEST LECTURE
"Creativity: A Bridge Between Art and Science"
Liz Lerman, choreographer, performer, writer, educator and speaker

Wednesday, April 11, 4:00 pm, ZSR Library Auditorium (Room 404)

EMILIE PRE-SHOW PRESENTATION
Friday, April 13 - 4:45
Main Stage Theatre

THE WORLD OF THE PLAY
with playwright Lauren Gunderson and WFU faculty presenters

WOMEN IN SCIENCE:
A WFU faculty panel discussion

Saturday, April 14
following the performance of Emilie, Ring Theatre


 


First-year students take
the stage

Almost Maine cast

Wake Forest University Theatre recently completed a production of John Cariani’s “Almost, Maine.” What made the fall performance surprising? Of the 23 roles available, 11 of them were filled by first-year students.
(Read full article)

speaker David Ford of WFDD interviews Euridyce director, Brook Davis, and student actors Danielle Thorsen and Wesley Longacre

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Two theatre students, Ryan McCarthy and Sarah Wheeler, spent their summer in Peru working in an orphange teaching theatre and literacy as their Summer Research Project. Read their blogs: Ryan, Sarah.

Sounds like imagination: Stowe Nelson ('08) has an ear for what theatregoers hear.

Stowe Nelson

"The Prop's the Thing for stage shows" - Professor J.K. Curry discusses the importance of props to theatre

J.K. Curry

Alumna Kate Roberts stars in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson on Broadway

Theatre professor Gendrich receives NEH grant to study humor

Cindy Gendrich
Cindy Gendrich, Professor of Theatre

STUDENT PROFILE

Brittni Shambaugh
Brittni Shambaugh

Theatre student, Brittni Shambaugh