The Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of Colorado Boulder welcomes applications to our graduate programs in Theatre & Performance Studies. Applications are due January 3, 2022 for international applicants and January 15, 2022 for US applicants.
The Department of Theatre & Dance offers an MA, combined MA/MBA, and PhD in Theatre & Performance Studies. Our graduate programs are committed to Performance as Research as integral to the study of the history, theory, and practice of theatre and performance from around the world. We approach performance simultaneously as an object of study, a way of knowing, and a methodological tool, and are invested in the ways in which it can help us better understand—and challenge—the complicated legacies of our own academic disciplines and artistic practices. Our courses place dramatic texts, performance traditions, and applied performance from throughout history in conversation with contemporary performance. We ask: How might this performance work today? What challenges does it present to the contemporary scholar, maker, or facilitator? What role do gender, race, and/or coloniality play in this work?
We encourage our graduate students to engage in the practice of theatre and performance, broadly construed. The department produces a robust season of theatrical shows every year, and students can apply to serve as directors, assistant directors, designers, choreographers, and dramaturgs for these productions. The Department shares a close relationship with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and many of our students have worked with this professional theatre company as actors, interns, dramaturgs, and technical staff. Students working on applied theatre and theatre for social change can participate in Performers Without Borders, a student group dedicated to using performance to illuminate social issues and ignite positive social change. The department also produces PARtake: The Journal of Performance as Research, dedicated to exploring the theory and application of performance in practice.
We offer multiple tracks in our two-year MA in Theatre & Performance Studies. In the Thesis Track, students write a substantial research document in preparation to apply to doctoral programs; the MA Non-Thesis Track provides for a wider expanse of career preparation, a chance for students to develop their own path. Those interested in theatre management and entrepreneurship can pursue a three year combined MA/MBA in Theatre and Performance Studies in partnership with the Leeds School of Business. Our PhD in Theatre & Performance Studies is designed to be completed in four years, and we offer all PhD students a four-year teaching-based full funding package.
For more details and information on how to apply, please visit the Theatre & Performance Studies Graduate Program page on our website. We encourage you to reach out to us with questions.
If you are planning a visit we are happy to help coordinate a visit to meet the faculty, staff and students, see a production, sit in on classes, and see our facilities and beautiful Boulder.
Theatre & Performance Studies Faculty include:
Bud Coleman
Musical Theatre | American Theatre | LGBTQ Performance | Representations of Gender | Directing | New Works
Oliver Gerland
Disability Studies | Copyright | Dramatic Theory and Criticism | Modern Drama
Beth Osnes
Applied Theatre | Climate Change Communication | Women in Development & Young Women’s Empowerment | Youth and Resilience
Kevin Rich
Shakespeare and Community | Civic Engagement | Theatre for Young Audiences | Adaptations and New Works
Marcos Davi Silva Steuernagel
Performance Studies | Performance and Politics | Brazilian and Latin American Studies | Digital Humanities
Marcos Steuernagel