Why minor in Theatre?

Minoring in theatre at UPIKE is not only fun but provides skills that employers seek out and highly value. Through hands-on learning and practical experience, you’ll achieve proficiency in communication, collaboration, empathy, creative problem solving, commitment, adaptability, and teamwork. You’ll learn about theatre from both sides of the curtain—performance and technology – through coursework and stage productions. A theatre minor perfectly complements almost any major, such as biology, business, or religion, and prepares students for careers not only as theatremakers, but as communicators, educators, and leaders.

Student practices pop-art makeup during a stage make-up course.

Program Distinctives

UPIKE’s theatre program focuses on developing each student’s unique potential as a theatre artist. Classes are experiential; students are on their feet working from the first day of classes until their studies are complete. UPIKE takes theatre education off-campus with opportunities to perform, volunteer and teach workshops in local schools and other arts agencies. UPIKE Theatre students have traveled to and performed in New York City and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. The theatre program has an exciting history of developing unique educational and theatrical experiences, including student-led and student-written work, Appalachian theatre initiatives, and workshops and other collaborations with industry professionals.

Student performs a song.

Interesting Courses

THR 254 -Voice for the Stage
Students will learn a full personal physical and vocal warm-up; develop internal and external awareness of the vocal apparatus; be able to release habitual tensions; discover the efficiency of alignment, breath and sound; increase awareness of vibrations in the body; develop resonance, range, and strength in the voice; and discover a personal connection to breath, voice, and ultimately to text.

THR 250 -Basics of Technical Theatre
This course provides a study of the technical aspects of stage production. The emphasis will be on gaining practical experience in the use of stage and shop facilities. Additionally, it will include consideration of the physical theatre and stage, construction, painting and rigging of scenery as applied to theatrical production.

THR 110 -Basics of Acting
This course is a study of basic acting as a performance experience. The emphasis is on fundamentals of performance, including concentration, transitions, interaction and the structuring of action.

Students perform as Bonnie & Clyde.

Student Learning Outcomes

Graduating with a minor in theatre from UPIKE will provide you with a broad, active, practical knowledge of both the performance and technical aspects of theatre. You’ll be prepared with the tools necessary to be confident and competitive in theatre auditions and interviews

Career paths in Theatre

Actor
Director
Stage Manager
Theatre Technical Crew Member

Where Recent Graduates have gone to work or study

Blue Gate Musicals Ohio Star Theater
Disney College Program

 

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

“At UPIKE I discovered my passion for theatre. While attending UPIKE, I helped start the theatre program. Being able to find my passion and practice my craft at the same time was a huge plus for me. It is what helped me start my acting career and land my first contract after graduation at Blue Gate Musicals. All of the faculty and staff truly care about the students; they stop feeling like professors and more like a family. Working with the theatre we are told to ‘be scared and do it anyway.’ That’s now what I live my life by, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that without the help of Kim Willard and the University of Pikeville.”

MATT CONN/CLASS OF 2018 /PROFESSIONAL ACTOR

Contact

Jennifer Steigerwalt, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of English
(606) 218-5117
JennaSteigerwalt@upike.edu