The Theater Arts Department combines drama, dance, critical studies, and theater design/technology to offer students an intensive, unified undergraduate program. The lower-division curriculum requires a range of practical work in the various subdisciplines and a rigorous exposure to the history of drama, design, and dance. At the upper-division level, students are given the opportunity to focus on an area of interest within the discipline in limited-enrollment studios and through direct interaction with faculty.

Study and Research Opportunities

• B.A. with concentrations in Dance, Design and Technology, and Drama; Undergraduate Minor; graduate certificate programs in Asian Theater, Dance, Design and Technology, Drama, Dramatic Literature, Playwriting
• A wealth of production opportunities are offered to students.
• UC Santa Cruz is home to the nationally acclaimed theater company Shakespeare Santa Cruz.
  

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High School Preparation
High school students who plan to major in theater arts need no special preparation other than the courses required for UC admission.

Transfer Preparation
During the first quarter on campus, transfer students who have not satisfied the prerequisites for the theater arts major may declare the major after completing a study plan during an advising session. Transfer students may petition to have equivalent courses taken at other schools count toward the major requirements.

Petition forms and information on courses and major requirements can be obtained at the department office, J106 Theater Arts Center. The following lower-division courses must be taken by all theater arts majors:   

• Theater Arts 50, Fundamentals of Theater Production (two-credit course; must take a total of six credits)
• Theater Arts 61, Issues & Methods
• Theater Arts 10, Introduction to Theater Design and Technology
• Theater Arts 20, Introductory Studies in Acting
• Theater Arts 30, Introduction to Modern Dance Theory and Technique
• One Theater Arts elective

Theater arts majors must also take two lower- or upper-division elective theater arts courses, one diversity course, and six upper-division theater arts courses, and they must satisfy the senior seminar requirement (course 185, Senior Seminar).

Exceptions to the major requirements, through the UC Education Abroad Program or transfer credits, are considered on a case-by-case basis by the department chair.

While it is not a condition of admission, students from California community colleges may complete the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) in preparation for transfer to UC Santa Cruz.

Transfer course agreements and articulation between the University of California and California community colleges can be accessed on the ASSIST web site.

Recognition
A well known actor, professor and chair of theater arts Danny Scheie recently performed in Private Lives, by Noel Coward, at the Pasadena Playhouse. Professor of theater arts Kathy Foley recently received a Fulbright Grant to travel to Indonesia as a Senior Research Scholar.

Careers

Acting
Choreography
Costume design
Dance
Directing
Playwriting
Producing
Stage design
Stage management
Teaching
Television
 

These are only samples of the field’s many possibilities.

Alum Focus
Camryn Manheim (B.A., theater arts, ’84) is a writer and actor whose role in the television series The Practice earned her an Emmy and a Golden Globe award.

Facilities
The Theater Arts Center contains a 500-seat thrust stage, a state-of-the-art experimental theater, and a 200-seat proscenium theater; acting, directing, and dance studios; costume, scene, and properties shops; a sound recording room; a computer lab; and a metal shop. Elsewhere on campus are additional dance studios, the open-air Quarry Theater seating 3,000, the Shakespeare Santa Cruz Festival Glen, and the 150-seat Barn Theater.