Live for the stage? Our theatre department is the place for you.
Click here for course listings and details (Major 425).
Be part of the cast of a big musical, build sets for a classic play or assist the technical director with lighting and sound design. Whatever your interest, you can get hands-on experience doing what you love. Northwest’s Fine Arts Auditorium features updated seating, lighting and sound enhancements and stage improvements. The department also sponsors the Northwest Players, a campus group dedicated to promoting interest in theatre and developing dramatic talents.
Scholarships will be awarded in the area of speech and theatre on the basis of audition or work submitted to the speech and theatre faculty. Students may enter the competition as performers and/or technicians. Actors will perform two monologues, one comic and one serious. Each should be no more than one and one-half minutes in length. Technicians may submit any examples of scene or set design or scene painting (photographs, models or drawings), clothing and/or costume design (photographs or actual clothing constructed by the applicant) or examples of writing that would show an aptitude for publicity work (yearbook, school newspaper, etc.). Academic Scholarships are for theatre majors, only. There are a limited number of Foundation Scholarships for non-majors who are interested in participating in theatre. Contact Sadie Shannon for more information.
Education
Most people studying for a bachelor's degree take courses in radio and television broadcasting, communications, film, theater, drama or dramatic literature. Many stage actors continue their academic training and receive a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree. Advanced curricula may include courses in stage speech and movement, directing, playwriting and design, as well as intensive acting workshops.
What can I expect from a career in theatre?
Although many actors, producers, and directors work in New York or Los Angeles, far more work in other places. They perform, direct, and produce in local or regional television studios, theaters, or film production companies, often creating advertising or training films or small-scale independent movies. Careers in the production side of theatre or performance art incude lighting, set management, sound production and sales and marketing.
How much can I earn?
Many of the most successful actors, producers, and directors have extraordinarily high earnings, but many more of these professionals, faced with erratic earnings, supplement their income by holding jobs in other fields. Median hourly wages of actors were $16.59 in May 2008. The middle 50 percent earned between $9.81 and $29.57. Median hourly wages were $14.48 in performing arts companies and $28.72 in the motion picture and video industry. Annual wage data for actors were not available because of the wide variation in the number of hours worked by actors and the short-term nature of many jobs, which may last for 1 day or 1 week; it is extremely rare for actors to have guaranteed employment that exceeds 3 to 6 months.
Median annual wages of producers and directors were $64,430 in 2008. The middle 50 percent earned between $41,890 and $105,070. Median annual wages were $85,940 in the motion picture and video industry and $55,380 in radio and television broadcasting.
Reference:
Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition
Bureau of Labor Statistics
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