Theatre Major

Do you love the idea of telling stories in the most visceral, theatrical, contemporary way you can?

At a glance

Passion. Innovation. Creative expression. When you major in Theatre at CSU, these words are much more than aspirations; you’ll live in them every single day. CSU theatre students and staff believe in telling the stories of our world, speaking truth to power, and rehearsing new possibilities. You’ll practice theatrical storytelling as a powerful force for social change and community engagement while gaining fundamental skills in theatre within a liberal arts context.

Degree type	Bachelor of Arts
Format	On campus
Part of	College of Liberal Arts
Audition required?	Yes
Accelerated option?	No

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Concentrations

A concentration allows you to specialize in a certain area within your major, offering a depth of information and hands-on experiences that you may not otherwise get. Many students in this major will concentrate in one area to work in a specific field after college, as well as find mentors and internships before they even graduate.

Musical Theatre

Practice singing, dancing, and acting, along with learning musical-theatre history, theory, and repertoire. You’ll train to analyze and perform scripts as actors, to effectively deliver highly physical staging or dance, and practice healthy habits that support a lifetime of vocal production for the stage, screen, and/or recording.

Performance

Study and practice performance in multiple acting styles, and approaches to acting. You’ll use your personal experience as a basis for storytelling, and cultivate cross-disciplinary skills in directing, playwriting, global theatre traditions, musical theatre, and/or theatre for social change to expand sophistication in performance.

Costume Design and Technology

You’ll develop a unique artistic vision as a costume, makeup, and hair designer and technician. You’ll practice the research, technical, and conceptual skills necessary to design and build costumes for the stage, dance, or film. Students develop an understanding of the costume designer and technician-artisan as a collaborative artist, creative visionary, and working professional.

Lighting Design and Technology

You’ll explore drafting, computerized/virtual reality pre-visualization, automated lighting programming, the application of emerging technologies, and other fields of design to better understand the collaborative effort of creating a world onstage. You’ll use your skills to work on departmental productions and event-design teams while building a portfolio of creative design and technical work.

Projection Design and Technology

Explore techniques including drafting, virtual reality, content creation, video, and application of emerging technologies to develop and communicate your ideas. Students develop an understanding of the Projection Designer as a collaborative artist, creative visionary, technician, and working professional.

Set Design

You’ll explore creative concepts of set design for theatre, musicals, opera, dance, and industry, as well as production design and art direction for film and television while reinforcing your classroom/studio training in main-stage productions of music, theatre, and dance. You’ll also have the opportunity to work as an assistant and production designer.

Sound Design and Technology

You’ll explore the techniques sound designers use to develop and communicate their ideas, including recording, mixing, audio engineering, sound control programming, content creation, and application of emerging technologies with a robust understanding of how the sound designer supports, collaborates, and interacts with the creative team.

Some Career Options

As a theatre graduate, you’ll be well rounded academically and artistically with a wide range of career performance opportunities on stage, behind the scenes, in direction, in script writing, costumes and makeup, travel performance, education, and so much more.

Stage Performer 
Stage/Musical Theatre Director 
Lighting/Sound/Projection Designer

Production Stage Manager 
Set Designer 
Costume Designer/Makeup Artist

Artistic Director
Script Writer/Adapter 
Teacher/Professor

Related CSU majors

Music, B.A.

Tour and info session options

Tours may be available as part of Admissions tours and info sessions, offered throughout the year.

For additional opportunities, please reach out to:

School of Music, Theatre, and Dance recruiter at SMTD@colostate.edu or (970) 821-5276 (Text friendly. Please include your/the student’s full name in the message.)