Department of Theatre & Dance

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Some Highlights from the 2012-2013 Academic Year in Theatre & Dance

 

In 2012 / 2013 we gave 76 individual performances of 31 different productions to an audience of over 13,000 people, including:

• 2 main stage plays and 3 studio shows
• 1 main stage musical and 6 mini-musicals
• 8 dance concerts
• 3 children's theatre productions, one of which toured Southern Kentucky
• 1 staged reading of a new Broadway musical
• 1 community service project, produced by our Theatre in Diversion class
• 1 opera in collaboration with the WKU Department of Music
• 1 play festival with 6 new works by WKU students
• WKU's improv troupe, Happy Gas, toured across the state

409 roles were filled by WKU actors, singers, and dancers.

Theatre, dance, and tech and design students fulfilled 684 crew positions.

The costume shop created over 379 individual costumes.

Students traveled abroad to Ghana, England, Italy, Turkey, Greece and throughout Europe.

WKU Theatre & Dance students hosted over 30 workshops for area school children.

In the summer of 2013, over 45 students worked across the country at various jobs, internships, and apprenticeships, at places such as Berkshire Theatre Group, McLeod Playhouse, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playhouse on the Square, Prairie Fire Children's Theatre, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Adirondack Theatre Festival, and Hershey Park. Dance students honed their skills at summer intensives in places such as North Carolina, Los Angeles, The American Dance Festival, The Joffrey Ballet School, and Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre.

The department studied with multiple guests artists, including principal New York City Ballet dancer Sara Mearns, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, WKU alum Donnie Mather, and TV/Film dynamic duo Rob and Deb Spera.

The WKU Department of Theatre & Dance hosted the annual Kentucky Thespian Festival, where high school thespians from across the state convened, performed, and participated in a multiplicity of workshops led by faculty and students.

Theatre & Dance students participated in the Southeastern Theatre Conference, the United States Institute of Technical Theatre, the Unified Professional Theatre Auditions, the Tennessee Association of Dance, the WKU Student Research Conference, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the WKU Film Festival, and the National Dance Education Organization.