The Theatre Department provides many resources to help current students succeed in their studies. Theatre students can find assistance with internships, scholarships, recommended plays, and department policies.
Internships
Theatre internships will provide students with unique professional exposure that can't be found in the classroom. The experiences gained during a theatre internship will help students make decisions about future careers in the dance world.
It may take some time to find an internship that fits with a student's schedule, interests, and career goals. Students should be aware of the requirements and possible required preparation time in order to plan accordingly.
Getting Approved
All theatre internships must be pre-approved and registered for before a student begins their internship experience.
To be approved, students need to complete necessary prerequisites and complete an internship approval form on I-Plan.
After approval, a master agreement will be emailed to the internship provider. It is then the student's responsibility to ensure that their internship provider submits the master agreement.
Interested in earning tuition money? Academic theatre scholarships and the Theatre Talent Award are awarded to eligible students, regardless of major. To be considered, students must have high scholastic achievement and participate in plays or take at least one theatre class per semester.
The following lists are suggested plays that students are encouraged to become familiar with throughout their time of study at BYU-Idaho. Study of these suggested authors and plays will provide a basis for further reading and learning.
Lorraine Hansberry: A Raisin in the Sun
Henrik Ibsen: A Doll's House
Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman
Shakespeare: Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet
Sophocles: Oedipus Rex
Thornton Wilder: Our Town
Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie
DRAMA OF GREECE AND ROME
Sophocles: Antigone
Euripedes: Medea,The Bacchae
Aeschylus: The Oresteia
Aristophanes: Lysistrata,The Birds
Plautus Terence: The Menaechmi, The Self-Tormentor
Seneca: Thyestes
DRAMA FROM EASTERN CULTURES
Guan Hanqing: Snow in Midsummer
Namiki Gohei III: Kanjincho
Kan'ami Kiyotsugu: Matsukaze
MEDIEVAL EUROPE
Anonymous: Everyman, The Second Shepherd's Play
ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE
Niccolo Machiavelli: The Mandrake
ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN DRAMA
Christopher Marlowe: Dr. Faustus
Ben Jonson: Volpone,The Alchemist
John Webster: The Duchess of Malfi
Shakespeare: King Lear,Julius Caesar,Othello, The Taming of the Shrew,Much Ado About Nothing,Twelfth Night
SPANISH GOLDEN AGE DRAMA
Lope de Vega: Fuente Ovejuna
Pedro Calderon de le Barca: Life is a Dream
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (Mexico): El Divino Narciso
FRENCH NEO-CLASSICAL DRAMA
Moliere: The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, The Imaginary Invalid
Racine: Phaedra
RESTORATION AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ANGLO/EUROPEAN DRAMA
John Dryden: All for Love
Aphra Behn: The Rover
William Congreve: The Way of the World
Carlo Goldoni: Servant of Two Masters
Pierre de Beaumarchais: The Marriage of Figaro
Richard Brinsley Sheridan: The School for Scandal, The Rivals
Oliver Goldsmith: She Stoops to Conquer
MODERN EUROPEAN DRAMA
Georg Buchner: Woyzeck
Frederich Schiller: Mary Stuart
Henrik Ibsen: A Doll's House, Hedda, Gabler Ghosts
August Strindberg: Miss Julie
Anton Chekhov: The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters
Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband
Noel Coward: Blithe Spirit
G.B. Shaw: Pygmalion Major Barbara
Georges Feydeau: A Flea in Her Ear
Edmond Rostand: Cyrano de Bergerac
Luigi Pirandello: Six Characters in Search of an Author
Frederico Garcia Lorca: Blood Wedding, The House of Bernarda Alba
J.M. Synge: The Playboy of the Western World, Riders to the Sea
Harold Pinter: The Caretaker, The Birthday Party
Alfred Jarry: Ubu Roi
Bertholt Brecht: The Good Woman of Setzuan, The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot
Jean-Paul Sartre: No Exit
Peter Schaffer: Equus Amadeus
MODERN DRAMA OF AFRICAN CULTURES
Athol Fugard: Master Harold and the Boys, The Road to Mecca
Wole Soyinka: Death and the King's Horseman
MODERN DRAMA OF AMERICAN CULTURES
Susan Glaspell: Trifles
Clifford Odets: Waiting for Lefty
Eugene O'Neill: Long Day's Journey Into Night, Hairy Ape, Ah, Wilderness!
Lillian Hellman: The Children's Hour, Little Foxes
Thornton Wilder: The Skin of Our Teeth
Susan-Lori Parks: Top dog / Underdog
Luis Valdez: Zoot Suit
Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire
Henry David Hwang: M. Butterfly
Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman, The Crucible
Neil Simon: Barefoot in the Park, Lost in Yonkers
Marsha Norman: 'night Mother
August Wilson: The Piano Lesson, Fences
Robert Bolt: A Man For All Seasons
Tony Kushner: Angels in America
Tracey Letts: August: Osage County
Brian Friel: Dancing at Lughnasa
Edward Albee: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Paula Vogel: How I Learned to Drive
David Mamet: American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen, Ross Oleanna
Sam Shepard: Curse of the Starving Class, Buried Child, True West
Eugene Ionesco: Rhinoceros, The Bald Soprano
John Osborne: Look Back in Anger
Dario Fo: Accidental Death of an Anarchist
Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Arcadia
Caryl Churchill: Top Girls
Yazmina Reza: Art God of Carnage
MUSICALS AND OPERETTAS
Stephen Sondheim: West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George
Gilbert and Sullivan: The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado
Arthur Laurents: Gypsy
Rodgers and Hammerstein: South Pacific, Oklahoma!
George and Ira Gershwin: Porgy & Bess
CRITICAL/THEORETICAL TEXTS
Aristotle: Poetics
Plato: The Cave
Robert Edmond Jones: The Dramatic Imagination
Jersy Grotowski: Towards a Poor Theatre
Bertolt Brecht (Willet ed.): Brecht on Theatre
Augusto Boal: Theater of the Oppressed
Konstantin Stanislavski: An Actor Prepares
Peter Brook: The Empty Space
Policies
Casting
Policies for the Department of Theatre and Dance maintains an open audition policy for theatre productions. Students of all majors may enroll in Theatre courses. Students of all majors, staff, faculty, and friends may audition for productions, although casting preference is always given to qualified, on-track Theatre students.
Theatre production participants who are current students are required to take 1-2 credits of TA260R, 360R, or 460R. The syllabi for these courses define the production expectations to the students.
Dress and Grooming
While involved in the production, all participants - even non-students and off-track students - will commit to adhere to BYU-Idaho standards, including dress and grooming standards. The spirit of the Honor Code encourages neatness, cleanliness, and modesty. In some theatre classes and for rehearsals and performances you are asked to wear clothing or costumes that facilitate the movement required or are suited to the character. Students are not allowed to wear costumes or rehearsal attire outside of the rehearsal or performance area. Any questions regarding appropriate attire should be directed to the instructor.
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