Production & Performance

Mainstage Participation:  Practicum Requirements

All BA Theatre Arts majors are required to work on fully-supported productions in house as part of their hands-on education at the University.  This allows everyone to gain a full appreciation for the work that occurs in all areas of production, while learning to work within production constraints as imagined and experienced by University Theater.  Our practicum experiences are registered as one of 4 courses:

  • TH 3100 Theatre Lab Practicum
  • TH 3300 Performance & Production Practicum 
  • TH 3500 Design Practicum
  • TH 3700 Directing & Dramaturgy Practicum

A certain number of Practicum experiences are required for all students, outlined below.  Additional practicum experiences outside of the required number must also be registered for, and would count as elective credit.

Outside work is not eligible for Practicum credit.  Presuming that it is unpaid, might be worth an internship credit or something similar, but cannot be counted as practicum.  Contact Katie Willer at will0962@umn.edu to pursue this option.

Required Theatre Arts Practicum Experiences – all BA tracks

All Theatre Arts majors declaring their major or changing their track in Fall 2022 and beyond must have three Mainstage production experiences.   The practicum requirement is as follows:

  • 2x TH 3100 Theatre Lab Practicum 
  • 1x TH 3300 Performance & Production Practicum or TH 3700 Directing Dramaturgy Practicum

TH 3300 includes performing on the mainstage, running crew, board operators, and marketing.  TH 3700 includes assistant directing and dramaturgy for mainstage productions.  Stage Managers can substitute their TH 3300/TH 3700 requirement with SM or ASM with Christine’s permission.

Additional Required Theatre Arts Practicum Experiences – Design/Tech track only 

All Design/Tech students have one additional practicum requirement under TH 3500.  Mainstage design is a 2 credit experience; assistant design is 1 credit.  Either number of credits will fulfill the requirement.  Alternatives to this requirement may be made by the head of Design Tech.  

TH 4380 BA Studio Production:  Creative Collaboration

The BA Theater Program offers diverse creation processes in our cornerstone class, TH 4380 BA Studio Production:  Creative Collaboration. This course, offered four times per academic year, immerses BA students in a creation process that is guided by professional companies and artists to generate original productions. Each course begins experimenting with performance by using inspirational sources such as classic novels, historical events, existing plays, musical scores, and much more. Some of these explorations evolve into fully supported new works.  This unique training process teaches the latest approaches to creating new plays and performances, and builds bridges for our students to enter into the world of professional theater. Past collaborations have been led by The Workhaus Collective, Nautilus Theater Company, Joel Sass, Bob Rosen, Barbra Berlovitz, Luverne Seifert, Lisa Channer, Gulgun Kayim, and Michael Sommers.

Performance Creation Track students are required to complete two Studio Productions during their time at the University.  Participation is elective credit for all other specialist tracks.  Auditions are required for three of the four every year; one will be non-audition open registration.