Two major theater productions are produced each year, along with other smaller, student-directed efforts. Theater and English students also produce the Shakespearean Festival each spring. Each production draws actors from across the campus with as many as sixty students participating in productions each year.
Most productions are held in Aven Little Theater, a black box-style theater which provides for an excellent workshop-style atmosphere. The theater seats between 80 and 110 people, depending on audience configuration. Productions are well supported by the students, faculty, staff and the community. Empty seats are a rarity for most plays with most shows selling out.Open auditions are held at the beginning of each semester for the department's major production. They are generally cold-reading auditions and all students are welcome. Production crew members, including set crew, advertising director, costume designer, business manager, house manager, properties manager, technical director and assistant director are also needed.
SCENES FROM THE SPRING 2009 PRODUCTION OF "ON THE VERGE" Photos by MC Theater Students
THEATER WITH A PURPOSE
We are CHRISTIAN. We know full well that theater was created by God to be used in service to God. To that end, we dedicate ourselves and our art to His service. We realize that theater involves challenging, provoking, inspiring, even maddening as a matter of course. We vow to attempt the ends of theater using means that are honorable to our Father.
We are PROFESSIONAL. We hold that academic theater can and should be theater at its highest level. To that end, we will conduct ourselves and our program in the most professional manner possible. Our shows will be of high quality in every element and facet: from performance to technicals to backstage to advertising. Individually, we will do our part to conduct ourselves as professionals in the field.
We are DISCIPLINED. We acknowledge that theater is hard work. To that end, we will dedicate ourselves to fulfilling our utmost potential in it. We will put in the hours necessary to memorize lines, construct sets, find props, and organize productions. We will arrive on time, be willing to stay late, and remain focused during the interval.
We are DILIGENT. We realize that theater is a personal, passionate, enervated art form. To that end, we commit ourselves to bringing the level of energy necessary to match the demand of every exigence. Whether the setting be backstage or crew work, classroom exercises, rehearsals or performances, theater requires an excess of energy, and we hereby commit to bringing just that.
We are COURTEOUS. We realize that theater is a person-oriented field. To that end, we will treat each other with respect and courtesy. We will dress in accordance with the standards of the greater community of which we are a part. We will be polite, kind, forgiving and gracious. We will do our best to treat others how we would wish to be treated.
We are ACADEMIC. We recognize that theater is an academic field and hereby commit to its mastery. To that end, we will learn its history and practice, the intellectual exercises associated with its craft, and the theory which informs it. We know that theater is part art, part history, part skill, part innate ability, part creative writing, and part literary theory. We will learn it all.
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