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"Tubuh Rumah"

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Laura Brinker

Daniel Cantor

Shavonne Coleman

Mark Colson

Scott Crandall

Antonio Disla

Patrick Drone

Jess Fialko

Jenna Gerdsen

Amy E. Hughes

Kevin Judge

Tzveta Kassabova

Halena Kays

Jeffrey Kuras

Richard Lindsay

Ashley E. Lucas

Christianne Myers

Mbala Nkanga

Sarah Oliver

Geoff Packard

Jay Pension

Rogério M. Pinto

Henry P. Reynolds

Alexis Riley

Emilio Rodriguez

Beth Sandmaier

Eli Sherlock

Jeremy Sortore

Christina Traister

Tiffany Trent

Malcolm Tulip

Karin Waidley

Undergraduate

Bachelor of fine arts.

• BFA in Theatre Design & Production
• BFA in Interarts Performance
• BFA in Theatre Performance: Acting
• BFA in Theatre Performance: Directing

Bachelor of Theatre Arts

• BTA in Theatre
• Minor in Performing Arts Management and Entrepreneurship (PAME)
• Minor in Playwriting
• Minor in Theatre Design & Production
• Minor in Global & Ethnic Performance Studies

Creativity Lives Here

Theatre & Drama students perform, study, rehearse, and collaborate in a wide array of places and spaces designed to support all facets of performing arts education. Among dozens of venues and facilities across campus where students study and perform, here are a few highlights of the buildings that play an important role in daily life at SMTD.

Walgreen Drama Center

The sleek and modern home for musical theatre and theatre & drama students features 100,000 square feet of space and includes the Arthur Miller Theatre, Stamps Auditorium, state-of-the-art classrooms, and studios for design, sound, screen acting, and performance, as well as extensive theatre shops.

Power Center for the Performing Arts

This 1,300-seat theatre is primarily used for our dance, musical theatre, theatre, and large-scale opera performances.

Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre

In this 600-seat theatre, many of our smaller, more intimate theatre, musical theatre, dance, and opera productions are held.

Arthur Miller Theatre

A flexible performance space used for theatre & drama and musical theatre, this venue can accommodate proscenium and thrust stage configurations and an audience of up to 280.

Performance Calendar

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Students in the Department of Theatre & Drama have a wide range of opportunities available to them outside of the classroom, both on and off the stage–depending on your major.

A Student’s Reflection: Exploring Historical Japanese Attire and Weaving in Tokyo and Kyoto

[Campus News] Teaching Stage Makeup and Hair for Every Skin Tone and Hair Texture

2024 Theatre Design & Production Portfolios Exhibition

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Any gift to SMTD helps launch the next generation of artists, scholars, educators, and entrepreneurs who challenge and inspire the world.

You can support the Department of Theatre & Drama with a contribution to the following funds:

• Friends of Theatre & Drama
• Friends of Theatre & Drama Endowment Fund
• Design & Production Professionalization Fund
• Theatre & Drama Department 100th Anniversary Endowed Scholarship Fund
• William and Claribel Baird Halstead Scholarship

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The 10 MAIN theaters in Moscow that you should go to (PHOTOS)

Bolshoi Theater

The country's best-known theater dates back to March 28, 1776, when Catherine the Great appointed Prince Urusov master of theatrical performances in Moscow. Although plays were initially performed on its stage, over time, they gave way to opera and ballet. Legendary choreographer Marius Petipa staged his only Moscow ballet – 'Don Quixote' – at the Bolshoi. 'Swan Lake' also premiered on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater.

At the beginning of the 20th century, composer Sergei Rachmaninoff was in charge of the Bolshoi Opera, while outstanding artists Konstantin Korovin and Aleksandr Golovin made set  designs for its productions. In different periods, singers Feodor Chaliapin, Elena Obraztsova, Galina Vishnevskaya and Zurab Sotkilava sang in the Bolshoi company. Ballet dancers like Olga Lepeshinskaya, Galina Ulanova, Maya Plisetskaya, Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maximova also dazzled audiences from its stage.

Today, the Bolshoi Theater repertoire includes classical and contemporary operas and ballets staged by Russian, as well as Western stars.

Maly Theater

One of the oldest Russian theaters, the Maly Theater (‘Small Theater’) has been in existence since 1756: Students were the first actors at the theater under the auspices of Moscow University. In 1824, the company moved into a building on Petrovskaya (now - Teatralnaya) Square: Because of its small size, the mansion was dubbed the ‘Maly’, compared with the ‘Bolshoi’ (‘large’) next door. During Pushkin's lifetime, three of his works – 'The Fountain of Bakhchisarai', 'The Gypsies' and 'Ruslan and Lyudmila' – were performed there and Nikolai Gogol himself suggested that 'The Government Inspector' should be staged there.

But, it was Alexander Ostrovsky who became the main author associated with the theater: All of his 48 plays were put on at the ‘Maly’, he wrote specially for it and personally read his plays to the troupe. The traditions of classical realist theater are preserved to this day with mostly classic costume dramas being performed.

Chekhov Moscow Art Theater

The historic meeting of theater director Konstantin Stanislavsky and playwright Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko in the ‘Slavyansky Bazar’ restaurant in the Summer of 1897 laid the foundations and principles of the Art Theater. Its first production was Aleksey Tolstoy's 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich'. In 1902, the theater moved into a building in Kamergersky Lane, where it remains to this day. Nicholas Roerich, Boris Kustodiev and Alexandre Benois made set designs for its performances and two of the theater's main authors were Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky.

Nowadays, the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater (Russian abbreviation: ‘MKhT’) is a flagship for new drama productions of plays by classic and contemporary authors and it is pretty much sold out every season. 

Mark Zakharov Moscow State Lenkom Theater

It grew out of the Theater for Working Youth founded in 1927. The Lenkom (Lenin Komsomol) Theater got second wind in the early 1960s, when Anatoly Efros became its artistic director: Young actors like Aleksandr Zbruyev, Valentin Gaft, Aleksandr Shirvindt and Olga Yakovleva performed in plays by Viktor Rozov, Edvard Radzinsky and Mikhail Bulgakov.

Theatrical costumes in the dressing room of actress Inna Churikova at the Lenkom Mark Zakharov Theater.

The era of Lenkom as its audiences know it today began in 1973, when Mark Zakharov took over at the theater. His productions of 'Till Eulenspiegel' and 'The Star and Death of Joaquin Murrieta' became hits, while the rock opera 'Juno and Avos' remains in its repertoire to this day.

Sovremennik

The theater was founded during the Khrushchev thaw by alumni of the Moscow Art Theater studio school – the likes of Oleg Yefremov, Galina Volchek, Igor Kvasha, Oleg Tabakov, Yevgeny Yevstigneyev and others. They wanted to develop the principles laid down by Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko and chose plays by contemporary dramatists.

Their first production was 'Forever Alive', a play by Viktor Rozov. The theater continues to adhere to the same principles today – some of the most experimental and avant-garde plays in Russia are put on there. 

Stanislavsky & Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater

The founders of the Moscow Art Theater believed that opera should not be a "costume concert", but, instead, have a strong dramatic impact and audiences should believe in, and empathize with, events on stage just as with a conventional play. Being one of the first director-led opera theaters in the world, the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater has been in existence since December 1918, when the Opera Studio headed by Stanislavsky was founded under the auspices of the Bolshoi Theater. In 1939, it was joined by a ballet company. Among those who have worked there were Vsevolod Meyerhold, Peter Stein, Vladimir Burmeister, Nacho Duato, John Neumeier and Angelin Preljocaj.

Alongside 'Norma', 'Aida', 'La Bayadère' and 'Giselle', the repertoire includes one-act ballets by contemporary choreographers, the operettas 'Winter Evening in Chamonix' and 'Robinson Crusoe' and also rarities like Luigi Cherubini's 'Medea'. Its stars include Hibla Gerzmava, Georgi Smilevsky, Natalia Somova and Oxana Kardash.

Theater of Nations

The red brick building in Petrovsky Lane is a real celebrity among theaters. Built in pseudo-Russian style, the mansion was where the private Korsh Theater opened in 1885. It hosted the first production of Chekhov's 'Ivanov'. In 2006, actor Yevgeny Mironov took over at the theater: Every play is staged as a separate production with invited directors and actors.

Experimental productions are put on at the theater's ‘Small Stage’ and its ‘New Space’. Its repertoire embraces contemporary readings of the classics from Shakespeare to Bulgakov, Tolstoy and Ostrovsky and also contemporary plays.

Stanislavsky Electrotheater

Everything in this theater is about experimentation. The theater is the successor to Moscow's Stanislavsky Drama Theater on Tverskaya Street. Director Boris Yukhananov took it over in 2015: He not only changed the name (which harks back to the ‘Ars [Lat. ‘Art’] electrotheater’, an early 20th century cinema in this location), but also the theater's approach. The Stanislavsky Electrotheater goes in for combinations of different art forms, in which performances, plays and concerts complement one another.

Well-known directors have collaborated with the theater – Theodoros Terzopoulos, Heiner Goebbels, Konstantin Bogomolov and Marfa Gorvits. Boris Yukhananov pays a lot of attention to music: almost two dozen operas have been staged at the theater, including experimental ones by contemporary composers.

Vakhtangov Theater

The theater's founder, Yevgeny Vakhtangov, was a pupil of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. In different periods, the theater was also headed by Ruben and Yevgeny Simonov and Mikhail Ulyanov, while, in the noughties, the chief director was the acclaimed Rimas Tuminas.

The members of the acting company include Sergei Makovetsky, Yuliya Rutberg, Maksim Sukhanov and other stars of theater and cinema. The repertoire is a combination of the classics and modern drama, while its longest-running production was 'Princess Turandot'. It was staged in 1922 by Vakhtangov himself and was staged until 2006. In 1997, a commemorative fountain was installed next to the theater in memory of the legendary play. 

Pyotr Fomenko Workshop theater

The alumni of director Pyotr Fomenko made one of the biggest splashes in the 1990s Moscow theater scene. They formed a new theatrical troupe that explored and built on the traditions of Russian repertory theater.

Today, the productions put on by the so-called "Fomenki" (followers of Fomenko) include works by Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Pirandello, Gumilev, Volodin and Vampilov. Yevgeny Tsyganov, Polina Agureeva, sisters Ksenia and Polina Kutepova and Galina Tyunina, meanwhile, are among the actors who can be seen in productions staged by the theater.

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Thaw (1953-1964): Taganka Theatre and the Experimental Russian Arts Scene

Taganka Theatre Nowadays

Taganka Theatre Around its Opening in 1964

Where Manezhnaya Square and Seven Sisters personify Stalin's desire to portray Communism to the rest of the world, Taganka Theatre represents Khrushchev's attempt to show the rest of the world to Russians after the death of Stalin. After over 20 years of Stalin's rigid communist idealogy (1929-1953), a new Red Party Liuetenant, Nikita Khrushchev (1953-1964) wanted to intorduce the USSR to the intelectual revolution that they had missed (1). Where the buildings that defined Stalin's reign are known for outward granduer, the Taganka Theatre is defined by what took place inside. Although the theatre was built in the last year of Khrushchev's reign, it represents the years of hard-fought reforms he put in place to counteract Stalin's effort to eclipse Russia from the world community (1). In 1956 Khrushchev gave his famous speech, denouncing Stalin's repression of the Russian people and after the speech Khrushchev put into place "rehabillitations" that started with freeing untried prisoners and continued with laws protecting freedom of speech and expression. Russia, a country so well known for its cultural contributions to the world during the 19th century, was put under a freeze during Stalin's version of isolationism, thus it is unsurprising that they call the era of Khrushchev's rule a 'thaw' for its revival of Russian individuality and artistic expression. By the end of Khrushchev's reign, iconic places of performance art like the Taganka Theatre were starting to pop up (2). 

"I think art education, especially in this country, where government pretty much ignores it, is so important for young people." -   Mikhail Baryshnikov, Dancer from the Soviet Union

Despite the success of Khrushchev's thaw in allowing for individuality and a reintroduction of the USSR into the world community, he was still constantly being attacked by the extremes of the communist party for his lack of control and, more so, his dissmisal of Stalin (1). During Khrushchev's time in power many of the occupied terretories of USSR, like Georgie, Hungary and Poland, revolted (3). While many of Khrushchev's critics liked his attempt to introduce places like Taganka Theatre, it seems that Khrushchev made the same mistake as Stalin in the sense that he was overzeloused and rushed to show results. As Khrushchev isolated himself from his communist party members, he simply got more brazen and extreme, like with his removal of Stalin from Lenin's Mausoleum (3). This extremity is what lead to the possibility of Taganka Theatre and the fellow experimental artists of the time. If one can imagine Soviet Russia's timeline as a pendiulum of freedom and tyranny, then one would say Taganka Theatre and Khrushchev's rule in general are at the extreme end of freedom. Thus, with the anger that Khrushchev stirred up in his own party and with his inevitable removal that finally took place in 1964, like a penduilum, Russia rapidly went back to the opposite extreme (1).

Yuri Lyubimov Prior to his Exile

Fun Fact:  Taganka Theatre continued to run even during some of the harshest eras of Soviet artistic oppression. In fact, in 1984, the head director Yuri Lyubimov got in trouble for his creative work and was stripped of his Soviet citizenships. Despite the theatre's trouble with the Soviet government, the theatre survived and is now one of Moscow's few artistic landmarks that was founded during the Soviet area and still exists today (2).

1. Richardson, Dan, and Jonathon Reynolds.  The Rough Guide to Moscow . New York: Rough Guides, 2009. Print.

2. Beumers, Birgit.  Yury Lyubimov at the Taganka Theatre, 1964-1994 . Amsterdam: Harwood Academic, 1997. Print.

3.   "The Thaw | Soviet Cultural History | Britannica.com." The Khrushchev Era, 2016. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.