Expert Faculty
Our faculty aren’t just theatre professionals with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. They are also masters at the craft of teaching.
With a low faculty-to-student ratio, you will get to know your teachers and receive personalized guidance and career planning from professionals who know your name.
BFA Theatre Performance Opportunities
At Chapman, first-year students can audition for and perform in any production, including lead roles in:
- Four or five main season productions a year, usually including a musical. These shows include professional directors and production designers.
- Student-led theatrical productions across campus.
- Film and television student productions at Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.
We hope you can see a production for yourself!Visit our event calendar to view and get tickets to upcoming theatre productions.
Learn and Perform in Professional-Grade Spaces
You’ll have the opportunity to perform in front of large and intimate audiences in our on-campus venues.
- Musco Center for the Arts: This 88,000-square-foot center is a state-of-the-art venue to help foster your education in the arts. Musco Center boasts 1,044 seats on three levels and has been named one of the finest performance venues on the west coast.
- Waltmar Theatre: A 244-seat performance and classroom space for students to hone their skills as professional artists.
- O.L. Halsell Foundation Studio Theatre: This black box theatre is a flexible space used for both classes and performances and can seat up to 50 patrons.
Study Abroad
We encourage you to study abroad in one of our many study-abroad programs. Our Theatre Academy London program (TAL) is especially popular for Theatre Performance majors. You will study with some of London's leading theatre artists and earn academic major credit towards your degree.
Our London Theatre Tour is a popular interterm course. You will attend British theatrical productions in London and Stratford, England, while developing visual literacy and critical analysis skills.
There are several other options, and we will work with you to find the right program to match your interests and goals.
Student Clubs and Organizations
Chapman has hundreds of student clubs and organizations. These range from academic to spiritual to cultural to just having fun. Some performance and production related clubs that are popular with Theatre majors include:
- C.A.S.T.: Coalition of Artistic Students of Theatre is a student group affiliated with the Department of Theatre committed to igniting professionalism, unity, and collaboration within the theatre community. The group organizes student-run productions open to all students, and organizes other activities, including workshops and guest artists. They sponsor events such as the 24-Hour Play Festival, From the Ground Up (produces original student works), and Beyond Stage (focuses on musical productions).
- Chapman on Broadway: Brings the magic of Broadway to campus with student-produced musicals and theater productions. Chapman on Broadway provides performance opportunities in fully staged musicals, plays, revue shows, and cabaret nights, and is open to all majors, especially those who have a lifelong passion for theatre but chose another path as their official major.
- C.S.O.P.: Chapman Student Organized Productions is a collaborative theatre club which serves to unite all performing arts related student organizations to collaboratively create high production-value musicals each spring and offer students the opportunity to perform, direct, design, and tech at the industry-level. Open to all majors!
- Chapman Student Playwrights: provides students with the opportunity to write and develop their own original plays through a series of student led playwriting workshops and peer reviews during the fall semester, and produce the work they generate in an original, professional and all student-produced one-act festival during the spring semester. Chapman Student Playwrights seeks to give students a platform to develop their written works and refine their playwriting skills with the assistance of other student playwrights, as well as a team of actors, directors, and designers.
- Guerrilla Shakespeare: Members produce a full production of a Shakespeare play every fall and a selection of scenes for a scene review every spring. Members also participate in monthly play readings and events focused on expanding knowledge of Shakespeare’s works and classical acting. Productions are staged in various locations across campus.
- Improv Inc: Chapman University's longest-running student improvised comedy troupe, Improv Incorporated typically performs two live shows a month.
- The Player’s Society: The Players’ Society is open to students of all majors with interests spanning theater, film, visual art, music, dance, literature, and more. This club aims to produce high-quality creative events for the Chapman community that are 100% student driven.
- U.S.I.T.T.: The United States Institute for Theatre Technology connects performing arts design and technology communities to ensure a vibrant dialog among practitioners, educators, and students. The Chapman chapter of USITT organizes training and professional development events and activities in technical theatre.
Where This Degree Will Take You
Most graduates pursue acting careers in theatrical productions or film and television.
In addition to acting, you can use the skills you develop in the program (including collaboration, time management and creative thinking) to go on to a variety of meaningful careers such as:
- Casting director
- Theatre director
- Screenwriter
- Artistic management
- Artistic director
- Literary agent and manager
- Lawyer
- Business leader
- Designer (lighting, sceni, costume, sound, makeup/hair
Admission and Tours
With a cohort size of about 14 students, admission to the THeatre Performance program is very competitive. You can find more details on our page about applying to the Theatre Performance program or check out the curriculum on our catalog page.
Want to learn more about Chapman We are always available for tours and information sessions. We'd love to meet you!
