Theatre & Dance

Theatre and Dance at UW-La Crosse offers an invigorating and fresh approach to undergraduate theatrical training. Our degree programs allow a wide range of opportunity while creating a focused and individual area of study for each student. We strive to balance vigorous classroom learning with practical production experience allowing for a well-rounded college experience with an emphasis on the collaborative and creative process. The theatre and dance curriculum allows concentrations in seven distinct areas of study:

• general theatre studies,
• design/ technical,
• performance,
• music theatre,
• stage management,
• arts administration
• dance (minor only)

Students at UW-La Crosse can choose to major in one theatre emphasis area while minoring in another thus enhancing their educational opportunities and professional marketability.

One-on-one contact with our teaching faculty is emphasized and students are guaranteed a degree of personal attention rarely available in programs that accept higher numbers of students. In addition to its full-time faculty, the department frequently brings guest artists to campus from professional and educational theatre. The atmosphere within the Department of Theatre and Dance is supportive, positive, collaborative and artistically stimulating. Students are involved in theatre productions each year as backstage crew, technicians, designers, stage managers, performers, and front of house staff. Participation in theatre and dance productions is open to all UW-La Crosse students regardless of their major.

The performance stage is the natural extension of the classroom experience. Students receive a tremendous amount of hands-on experience through classroom projects and realized productions. The UW-La Crosse Department of Theatre and Dance produces six performances each academic year allowing students to demonstrate, refine and expand the skills they've learned in the classroom. Additional production work is available through classroom projects, senior recitals and designs, undergraduate research grant-funded productions, and other student laboratory productions.