In this program, you will learn from an exceptional faculty who are professional artists in metro Atlanta and beyond, as well as published scholars. Our small classes provide individualized instruction and combine the breadth of a liberal arts education with the depth of professional training in the disciplines of theatre and performance studies. Our innovative production season includes classic and experimental material ranging from published plays to adaptations of literature, storytelling, performance art, performance ethnography, comedy improv, musical theatre, and spectacle performances. Every student enjoys multiple opportunities to perform, design, direct, and/or write material, depending upon his/her passion.
Other signature elements of the program include education abroad programs, global performance tours, internships with professional theatre and performance organizations in metro Atlanta, and the development of world premieres alongside faculty and professional theatre partners.
Theatre and Performance Studies majors take 15 credits of lower-division foundational courses in theatre, performance studies, acting, and stagecraft. At the 3000- and 4000-level, students take a core of classes including acting, visual imagination, performing literature, play analysis, performing culture or performance art, and theatre and performance history and theory. Additionally, students select a three-course concentration choosing from emphases in acting, performance (including storytelling, performance art, directing, adaptation of texts for the stage, and dramaturgy), design/technology, or musical theatre. An applied/professional sequence of six (6) credits, which is individually designed in cooperation with the student’s advisor, may include combinations of internships, performance credits, co-ops, directed studies, international study, practicum courses, and/or service learning components. The theatre and performance studies degree culminates in a senior seminar that focuses on planning for graduate studies or careers in theatre and related fields.
Welcome to the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies' Design and Technology concentration at Kennesaw State University, conveniently located near metro Atlanta. We are glad you are here!
As scholar artists, we embrace the study and creative practice of design and technology from an analytical and reflective perspective. Whether it is Design, Stage Management, or Theatre Technology, we are committed to helping you thrive and achieve your professional goals.
On this page, you will find essential information regarding our concentration, including course requirements, four-year roadmap, and faculty and staff credentials. This page will also connect you to important industry resources and our Alumni Club of TPS graduates who are working professionally in design/tech.
Choosing a Design and Technology concentration for your B.A. degree in Theatre and Performance Studies will afford you many exciting opportunities during--and beyond--your career here at Kennesaw State University.
Included below is a link to course requirements and faculty recommendations for students in Design-Tech Concentration. Please remember to consult your adviser before enrolling in any classes.
If you are a freshman and identify yourself as a student of design-tech concentration, the four-year roadmaps featured below are tailor-made for you! These roadmaps are different from the general Academic Program Maps offered on our website because they maximize your opportunities to design for TPS productions during your course of study at KSU.
Acting
NEW – SPRING 2023
In the acting concentration, students explore a range of performance techniques and styles by applying them to classical and contemporary texts, as well as creation of original work. Acting students will train to grow as performers, and as artists, thinkers, makers, viewers, and citizens of the whole theatrical arena. The concentration features holistic physical, intellectual, and aesthetic training to fulfill learning outcomes of professional preparation, academic rigor, and commitment to the liberal arts framework. The course offerings each semester strive to provide a balance between acting, voice, and physical training opportunities. The Department’s annual production season offers numerous and diverse opportunities for students to apply skills acquired in their classes to performances and productions. Students are encouraged to use their related studies to expand their knowledge in dance, singing, directing, writing, composing, dramaturgy, design, and various other topics to supplement their training in theatre.
Musical Theatre
Performance Studies
Thank you for your interest in the Performance Studies concentration in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at Kennesaw State University, conveniently located near metro Atlanta.
Performance studies examines and interrogates both conspicuously staged artistic performances and everyday cultural performances. Artistic performances are performances marked and understood as art: solo performance, performance art, performances of literature, theatrical storytelling, plays, and performance poetry are all examples of this sort of performance. This category considers performance as an art form.
Cultural performances include those events embedded in everyday life in which a culture's values are displayed for their perpetuation: rituals such as parades, religious ceremonies, and community festivals as well as conversational storytelling, performances of social and professional roles, and individual performances of race, gender, sexuality, and class. This category considers performance as a way of studying how people move through the world as individuals, construct identity, and build community together.
Performance Studies is also keenly interested in the intersection between these categories. For instance, one might study the performances of a particular culture and turn that study into a staged performance about that culture. Cultural performances influence the kinds of artistic performances that a culture creates and, in turn, those artistic performances influence cultural performances. Therefore, Performance Studies embraces the creative process of making art as well as the critical process of analyzing performances. Performance Studies first emerged as its own field of study in the last decades of the twentieth century informed by insights from anthropology, sociology, theatre, oral interpretation, communication studies, literary criticism, cultural studies, ethnography, folkloristics, mythological studies, and psychology.
Today, performance scholars contribute to these diverse fields of study. The program in Theatre and Performance Studies here at KSU features performance as an art form, as a field of study, and as a method of inquiry (or a way of knowing) in classes throughout the major. The entire program embraces the idea of performance praxis, embodying theory through performance.
The B.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies degree features several required courses in Performance Studies as well as courses that integrate the scholarship of Theatre Studies and Performance Studies, including:
Our program offers a Concentration in Performance Studies, which, in addition to some of the courses above, includes:
Four-Year Road Maps
If you are a freshman and identify yourself as a student of design-tech concentration, the four-year roadmaps featured below are tailor-made for you! These roadmaps are different from the general Academic Program Maps offered on our website, because they maximize your opportunities to design for TPS productions during your course of study at KSU.
Resources
Alumni Club
Industry Resources
Publications
Theatrical Supplies
Digital Drafting and Rendering Programs
Foundations:
History of lighting design in US theater with paperwork and plot examples
Consoles/Gear: Training Videos and info from the leader of theatrical consoles in the US. Also, what we use at KSU.
Programs/Virtual Light Labs: Play with color and angle of light in a 3D environment (web-based)