Meet Your Major

As a theatre arts major, you’ll study performance, directing, playwriting and technical production.

Based on a liberal arts foundation, the theatre arts major at Merrimack College will provide you with a variety of core courses in the theatrical arts including history and criticism, literature, performance, directing, design, management and technical production. You will gain a well-rounded and broad understanding of the field of theatre studies. 

What You’ll Learn

In the theatre arts program, you will:

  • Learn how to analyze plays perceptively and evaluate scripts and theatre productions critically.
  • Enhance your ability to think critically, speak eloquently, write effectively and work collaboratively.
  • Gain a greater awareness of the role, function and value of theatre in society.
  • Apply your experience, research and skills, under faculty direction, to conceive and/or execute a final project in acting, directing, criticism, playwriting or design.

Hands-On Learning

Stage time, either in the front or back of the house, is a must. Chances are, you’ll find yourself participating in departmental productions as well as those put on by the student-run OnStagers Dramatic Society.

You’ll have the opportunity to learn by doing. Work at the Rogers Center for the Arts, Merrimack’s own modern theater that brings some of the country’s best productions, musicians and films to campus.

Recent theatre arts internships include work in the Stoneham Theatre marketing department and the Merrimack Repertory Theatre’s box office.

Career Options

Our major will help prepare you for a career in live theater production, arts management and/or performance. You will be well-equipped to pursue a range of opportunities, such as actor, director, writer, technician, and designer, in a number of arts-related fields including theatre, television, film, corporate communications, advertising and more. The degree also provides you with the necessary foundation for further graduate school training.

A theatre arts degree is also valuable in other careers that require collaborative skills, creative imagination, and discipline, such as education/training, management and the law. If you are an entrepreneur you can sharpen your creative abilities, especially when paired with a co-major or minor in business.

Recent graduates are now working in Merrimack Repertory Theatre: Box Office and Group Sales Dept. New England Center for Homeless Veterans: Counselor, Disney World: Costume Designer, Company Manager: Geva Theatre, Rochester NY, 

Some of our graduates have worked in the following positions:

  • Costume designer, Disney World
  • Company manager, Geva Theatre (Rochester, NY)
  • Box Office/Group Sales, Merrimack Repertory Theatre

What You’ll Take

The theatre arts major requires the completion of a minimum of 46 credits and a minimum of 12 courses, as specified below. 

Required Courses

FAA 1510 Acting I
FAA 1515 Theatre Practicum: Rehearsal and Performance
FAA 2520 Theatre History I: Origins to the Renaissance
FAA 2530 Theatre History II: Restoration to the Present
FAA 2550W American Musical Theatre
FAA 2565 Politics of Performance: Theatre, Government and Social Change
FAA 2570 Technical Production for the Theatre
FAA 2580 Design for the Theater
FAA 2586 Script Analysis
FAA 4550 Senior Capstone Seminar 

Elective Courses (choose two)

FAA 1520 Voice for the Stage
FAA 2500 Women in Theatre
FAA 2510 Acting II
FAA 2540 Introduction to Playwriting
FAA 2560 London Theatre
FAA 2585 Improvisation
FAA 2590 Arts Management
FAA 3510 Directing I
FAA 3520 Acting III: Special Topics in Acting 

One elective may be fulfilled by one of the following English courses:

ENG 3220

Revenge and Romance: Renaissance Drama
ENG 3250 Shakespearean Drama
ENG 3680 World Drama: The Theatrical Impulse Then and Now
ENG 3820 Twentieth-Century Drama and Performance by Women

Online Course Catalog