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Hampshire theatre is a process-oriented program that demands strong initiative and motivation from each student. The Theatre Program centers on active participation and production from the first year of study onward, rather than limiting it to third and fourth year students.

Collaboration is strongly emphasized, and students from other concentrations are welcome to participate in productions. Theatre concentrators are responsible for all facets of the production process at Hampshire, from play selection to strike.

Yearly, Theatre Board (the program’s student-run governance body) produces an official season of five shows in addition to two play festivals and over 30 student workshops.

In addition to these performance opportunities, students can choose to participate in a variety of production-oriented classes both at Hampshire and with the other four members of the Five College consortium.

Affiliated Faculty
Student Project Titles
  • » Understanding Violence: Studying Titus Andronicus on the Page and in Performance
  • » Aesthetic Awesomeness: An Exploration in Designing Sets and Lights in a Theatrical and Installation Context
  • » The Fashions of Imaginary People: Creating Culture Through Costume
  • » The Typewriter and the Bank Account: A Div III in Playwriting and Arts Management
  • » Imagination: The Art of Creating Situations and Story via Theatre and Moving Image
  • » Making Fantasy Fit: Theatre and Creative Writing For Children
  • » Slim to None: Raising Awareness of Eating Disorders Through Theatre
Sample First-Year Course

Dramatic Play to Creative Drama

Creative drama is an integrative process that develops imaginative thought, critical thinking, and creative expression in children. Using the natural tendencies of children to engage in dramatic play as a springboard, students in this course will explore philosophies, theories, and practices of the dynamic experiential learning and teaching methodology that is creative drama.

Creative drama will be examined as a form of applied theatre; as a process for enhancing and developing language and communication skills, social awareness, problem solving abilities, self-concept, and an understanding of theatre; and as a tool for teaching abstract concepts and core curricular subjects such as math and science. We will work together to build a vocabulary of creative drama activities, techniques, and strategies spanning a wide variety of forms including movement, puppetry, improvisation, story dramatization, and process drama.

Sample Courses at Hampshire
  • » Advanced Sound Design Theatre
  • » Advanced Studies in Theatre Design
  • » Designing with Light
  • » Directing Contemporary American Drama
  • » Documentary Drama
  • » From Dramatic Play to Creative Drama
  • » Lightworks
  • » Little Course of Horrors: the Psychology of Terror and Humor in Theatre
  • » Opening the Instrument
  • » Playwriting
  • » Race, Empire, and the Renaissance Stage
  • » Rave Reviews
  • » Setting the Stage for Social Action
  • » Staging Original Drama
  • » Storytelling as Performance: Voice, Body, Narrative
  • » Theatre of the Ear
  • » Theatre of the Eye
  • » Theatre of the Opressed
  • » Using Theatre in Education for Social Change
  • » Where Are the Dressing Rooms? 
  • » Exploring Performance Space
  • » Word Play
  • » Writing a Child’s Voice for Theatre
Through the Consortium
  • » Brecht in America (MHC)
  • » Chekov and His Theatre (AC)
  • » Contemporary Canadian Drama (SC)
  • » Costume Design I and II (SC)
  • » Directing I and II (SC)
  • » Performance in Detonated Language (UMass)
  • » Sound Design I (MHC)
  • » Stage Movement (UMass)
Facilities and Resources
 

Theaters
Hampshire’s two black-box theaters are managed by the annually-elected student Theatre Board, which schedules shows and workshops, oversees all aspects of production, and allocates funding.

The Mainstage and Studio theatres are versatile performance spaces with significant lighting and sound capabilities, costume and scene shops, and dressing rooms. Our stock collections of props, costumes, and set pieces are augmented by the open borrowing system among the Five College theatre departments.

Five College Theatre Program
The Five College Theatre Program offers a multitude of theatre resources to Hampshire students. Four proscenium stages are supplemented by eight studio/black box theatres, where approximately thirty-five shows are produced each year. Students are welcome to audition for shows at other schools. About forty theatre faculty members, including several professional visiting artists, offer more than one hundred classes relating to theatre each year. Course offerings, special guest artists, and all auditions are published in a Five College Theatre Newsletter, which is available to all students on the five campuses.

Five College Multicultural Theater Committee
The Five College Multicultural Theater Committee is charged with furthering a multicultural perspective in theater. It does so by supporting productions, visits from guest artists, and workshops that promote an appreciation of diversity and difference. It also sponsers WORD!, an annual student play-reading festival featuring ten student writers from the Consortium who are engaging multicultural themes.
 

Contact Us

Office of the Dean of Faculty
Hampshire College
893 West Street
Amherst, MA 01002
413.559.5378
Fax 413.559.6081
dof@hampshire.edu
 

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