Department of Theater and Dance

Extracurricular Theater Program

• Carleton Players: The main student organization that selects and produces the three faculty-directed major productions each year.
• Experimental Theater Board: A student organization that selects and subsidized student-originated theater projects, including SMut (Student Musical Theater) one small and one major musical theater production each year.
• UnCo (Uninvited Company): A student organization that operates the summer theater at Carleton.
• Alternative Cannon Theater Resource
• Lenny Dee

Faculty

• Ruth Weiner, Professor and Director of the Department of Theater and Dance (Wisconsin, MA). She directs and teaches acting, directing, and contemporary drama and theater.
• Mary Moore Easter, Rae Schupack Nathan Professor of Dance and the Performing Arts. Information regarding the dance program in the Department of Theater and Dance, can be requested separately.
• Past Dayton-Hudson Distinguished Visiting Artists and Benedict Visiting Professors:
  • Nagle Jackson, Playwright, Princeton Junction, NJ
  • Edward Berkeley, Julliard School Opera Theater, NY, NY, Alum
  • Michael Bigelow Dixon, Literary Manager, Guthrie Theater, Mpls., MN
  • Virginia Anderson, Director, Mpls., MN, Alum
  • Joan Ackerman, Playwright, Mill River, MS
  • Carlyle Brown, Director, Mpls., MN
  • Oskar Eustis, Trinity Rep Conservatory, Providence, RI
  • Barbara Field, Playwright, Mpls., MN
  • Steve Hendrickson, Actor/Artist, Mpls., MN
• David Wiles, Associate Professor in Theater and Dance (Yale School of Drama, MFA). He directs and teaches acting, voice, contemporary drama and theater.
• Walter Wojciechowski, Designer and Technical Director of the Theater; (Washington, MFA). He designs and supervises major productions and teaches stage design.
• Mary Ann Kelling, Costumer (California State - Long Beach, MFA). She designs and constructs costumes for major productions, teaches costume design and theater makeup.
• Ed Sostek, Emeritus Professor (Iowa, PhD). Fifteen years in professional theater as actor, stage manager, and director. He teaches literature and directing courses.
• Theater Intern: Production Assistant to Mr. Wojciechowski.

Facilities

Two active theaters are located on the Carleton campus, including the 450-seat Arena theater, which can be adjusted to a modified thrust stage or used for theater-in-the-round productions, and the 100 seat Nourse Little Theater, an experimental theater with traditional seating.

Courses

Theater Department

• Beginning Acting (2 sections)
• Intermediate Acting
• Introduction to Design and Technical Theater
• Carleton Players Production
• Directing (cross-listed)
• Movement for the Performer
• Voice for the Actor
• Contemporary American Playwrights of Color
• Modern British and European Drama
• Ancient Drama: Truth in Performance
• E - Shakespeare I
• Shakespeare: Problem Plays, Tragedies and Romances
• Shakespeare: The Histories and Comedies
• Scenic and Lighting Design for the Theater
• Twentieth-Century American Drama
• The Performer and the Text
• Playwrighting
• Theater and Society in 20th Century American - The Cradle Will Rock
• Introduction to Costume Design an Construction
• Application of CAD to the Design Process
• Drama/Theater/Text
• Women Playwrights/Women's Roles

English Department

• American Theater
• Renaissance and Restoration Drama
• Shakespeare I
• Shakespeare II
• Shakespeare: Histories and Comedies
• London Program
• Independent Study
• Aristophanes to Shakespeare (cross-listed)

Dance Department

• Movement for the Performer (cross-listed)

Classics Department

• Greek Tragedy
• Greek: Greek Literature in Translation
• Greek: Aeschylus
• Greek: Sophocles
• Greek: Euripides
• Latin: Roman Drama

Modern Languages and Literatures (recent offerings)

• French: Corneille, Moliere, Racine
• French: Theater of Derision
• German: Topics in Modern German Drama: Twentieth Century Theatrical Experiments
• Russian: Russian Drama
• Spanish: Morelia Program: Drama and Performance in Latin America
• Spanish: Drama and Performance in Latin America

Non-Carleton OCSA Programs

• British American Drama Academy (BADA) (practical theater)
• National Theater Institue (NTI)