About
the Department
Created
in 1977, IUP's Department of Theater and Dance began
with three faculty and twenty majors and has grown to
a full-time faculty of ten with approximately one hundred
and fifteen majors. In 1993, dance was added into the
curriculum with the  addition
of two new dance faculty members. The Department of
Theater and Dance is dedicated to theater and dance
as collaborative and highly disciplined fine arts which
demands a broad based undergraduate education. There
is a Bachelor of Arts
degree, a theater minor,
and a dance minor. In addition,
Interdisciplinary Fine Arts degrees in
Music-Theater and
Dance
Arts have been recently added to the department and
college curriculums. Graduates
have gone on to distinguish themselves in theater, television,
film, real estate, advertising, business, law, and education.
Approximately one third of our graduates have pursued
graduate work. Our department provides academic service
to the departments of English, Communications
Media, Elementary
Education, Consumer Services and the Robert E. Cook
Honors College.. Introduction to
Theater and Introduction to Dance are an integral part
of the university's Liberal Studies curriculum.
The
department has presented over 150 productions under
the auspices of Theater- by-the-Grove,
numerous student directed and designed ten-minute, one-act and full-length
plays presented under the auspices of the "Acorn Project, touring production's to regional high
schools, children's theater productions toured to
area elementary schools, and dance productions with the
Dance Theater Company.
The department also offers a summer theater program for
young people called Footlight Players and will be offering
at least one musical in Keystone Repertory Theater, a summer
professional company, slated to start in 2007.
Waller
Hall, which was completely renovated in 1988-89, is
the primary home to the Department of Theater and Dance.
In addition to a main flexible "black box"
 performance
space, Waller houses a studio theater, classrooms, costume
studio, scenery studio, dressing rooms and offices.
Productions are also performed in adjacent Fisher Auditorium, which has a seating
capacity of 1,600. These performances are usually musicals
produced in conjunction with the Department of Music. (When a major
renovation of Fisher Auditorium begins in early spring 2007,
both Waller Hall and Fisher Auditorium will be joined with a
new two-story construction that will better serve both
facilities.) Dance classes and
performances are held in the dance studio in Zink Hall,
which has an approximate seating capacity of 270.
In
spring of 1995, the Department of Theater and Dance
was granted Membership with the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST). The
department joins a select group of schools nationally
with accredited programs in theater.
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