Theatre Minor
Add theatre training to your major through hands-on study in acting, design, storytelling, and production. Open to non-Theatre majors, MCLA’s Theatre Minor gives students the chance to audition for the department production season.
Make and Perform theatre. Build creative skills. Add performance and production experience to your degree.
Program Type: Minor
Total Credit Hours: 21 Credits
Open to: All MCLA Undergraduates Except Theatre Majors
Why Add a Theatre Minor?
The Theatre Minor gives students hands-on training in performance, design, production, and dramatic storytelling. Students build creative confidence, collaborate across theatre-making roles, and gain practical experience through coursework, practicums, and opportunities to participate in MCLA’s production season.
Open Auditions — Any Student Can Join the Production Season
Any MCLA student may audition for the Theatre production season. Students who are cast participate as actors, while students who interview are assigned backstage crew or production roles. Actors in the season enroll in THEA 379 for 3 credits.
Training in the Berkshires
Located in one of the nation’s most active cultural regions, MCLA gives Theatre Minor students access to theatres, museums, music venues, galleries, artists, and creative networks across the Berkshires.
MOSAIC Summer Artist Immersion Residency
MOSAIC’s Summer Artist Immersion Residency gives selected MCLA students the chance to work as artists in residence, build creative projects, and gain summer professional development experience connected to the arts.
Theatre Minor Requirements
The Theatre Minor requires 21 credits.
Required Courses
- THEA 120: Acting, Culture, and the Creative Self
- THEA 130: Theatre, Society, and Transformational Justice
- THEA 140: Dramatic Imagination
Choose two:
- THEA 262: Production Practicum
- THEA 263: Performance Practicum
- THEA 372: Production Practicum
- THEA 373: Performance Practicum
- THEA 375: Set/Lighting Design Practicum
- THEA 376: Costume Design Practicum
Choose one:
- THEA 220: Solo Performance
- THEA 260: Voice and Movement
- THEA 311: Set Design
- THEA 312: Costume Design
- THEA 313: Lighting Design
How to Add the Theatre Minor
Enrolled MCLA students can add the Theatre Minor by meeting with their academic advisor and selecting courses that fulfill the 21-credit minor requirements.
Who Can Add the Theatre Minor?
The Theatre Minor is open to all MCLA undergraduates except Theatre majors.
Music, Industry & Production
Music students can strengthen performance, stage presence, collaboration, and production
skills through theatre coursework and practicum experience.
Arts Management
Arts Management students gain firsthand understanding of the creative and production
process they may later support, organize, or administer professionally.
English
English students can extend their study of narrative, character, and language into
live performance and dramatic storytelling.
Psychology
Psychology students interested in behavior, emotion, empathy, and communication can
use theatre training to deepen observation, expression, and interpersonal awareness.
Sociology & History
Students studying society, culture, and history can use theatre to explore how communities
and historical narratives are represented through performance.
Skills You Will Develop
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Faculty
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FAQs
No. The Department of Fine and Performing Arts does not allow students to combine
the Theatre major with the Theatre Minor because of overlapping requirements.
Yes. Any MCLA student may audition for the Theatre production season. Students who
are cast participate as actors, while students who interview may be assigned backstage
or production roles.
The minor pairs well with Music, Industry & Production, Arts Management, English,
Psychology, Sociology, History, Communications, and other creative or human-centered
fields.
No. The minor includes foundational theatre courses and practical production opportunities
designed to help students build skills through coursework and experience.
Related Programs
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