WMU’s nationally award-winning Department of Theatre offers extensive onstage, offstage, and behind the curtain training. The range of experiences to which you will be exposed is vast, creating the kind of well-rounded theatre artist necessary in today’s field. Opportunities for participation in the production program begin in the freshman year. The department presents nine faculty-directed productions each season in three different theatres, which feature student designs in set, costumes, lighting, and sound. Additional plays are presented in the laboratory theatre program and in the directing classes, allowing even more opportunities for onstage experience and student directing through our Footlight productions.

The department offers a course of study that emphasizes the inter-dependency of academic and production experiences. With degrees in Performance, Design and Technical Theatre, Stage Management, Music Theatre Performance, and Theater Studies, we are committed to providing a broad theatre background and the mastery of theatre fundamentals. Following their time at WMU, our students move on to graduate schools, internship/apprentice programs or head straight into the professional theatre.

The Western theatre experience includes master classes with nationally recognized guest artists and one-on-one training with faculty. We offer national and international travel opportunities and participation in conferences and regional competitions. All of these experiences are designed to complement the core program by taking academics far beyond the classroom.

Choose your area of interest to the right and read more about the individual programs offered.