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About the Major

Theatre at Hamilton is a dynamic, challenging community that aims to awaken and cultivate every student’s creative potential and presence. Students learn, create, and perform in the new Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts, and faculty help them develop their own identity through classes, workshops, projects, and productions that are innovative — and often provocative. Students may major in theatre or minor in theatre or design and production. Majors maintain high academic and artistic standards as they work on individual and collaborative projects. 

Students Will Learn To:

  • Exhibit competence in production/design of theatre
  • Exhibit competence in acting/directing of theatrical performances
  • Analyze plays/productions as aesthetic/cultural productions related to institutional and social hierarchies

A Sampling of Courses

Olivia Batal '23 mixes sound for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, April 2021

Lighting Design

An in-depth exploration of lighting and projection design for live performance. The course will cover the process, techniques, equipment and methodologies of these theatre design disciplines. These include; composition, color theory, projection mapping, CAD drafting, as well as lighting for the camera.

Explore these select courses:

This studio-type course serves as an introduction to the theory and practice of costume design for theater, film and television. Through a series of lectures, demonstrations and projects students will explore various aspects of costume history and the costume design process. Specific attention will be given to fashion silhouettes and historical periods, as they relate to the assigned texts. Areas covered in the course will include, costume history, script analysis, textiles, life drawing and watercolor rendering.

How does avant-garde theatre utilize shock as a strategy to lead us to see ourselves from new and unexpected perspectives? How are issues of colonialism and appropriation embedded in the evolution of the avant-garde? How does it simultaneously reflect and rebel against the social hierarchies from which it sprang? Through research and performance we will examine the historical, cultural and philosophical origins and influences of avant-garde theatre, as well as exemplary works from the early avant-garde movements (1890-1940) and more contemporary theatre and performance art (1950-1990), including Surrealism, Symbolism, Expressionism, Dada, Futurism, Constructivism, and Epic, as well as The Living Theatre, Grotowski, Monk, Wilson, Foreman, and The Wooster Group.

Classical texts and contemporary performance. Focus on Shakespeare, language and character. May include other classical dramatists Scene and monologue work, textual analysis, vocal and speaking preparedness, verse and heightened speech, characterization, improvisation and rehearsals.

Fundamentals of play direction and script analysis. Study of selected directors and directorial problems; the direction of exercise scenes; and direction of a final scene or one-act for public presentation.

Meet Our Faculty

Mark Cryer

Chair and Professor of Theatre

mcryer@hamilton.edu

acting; Shakespeare; African-American theatre; Sanford Meisner; Uta Hagen; August Wilson

Margarita Blush

Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre

mblush@hamilton.edu

Directing, movement-based performance, devised theatre, physical theatre, visual and puppet theatre, Lecoq-based pedagogy

Jess Buttery

Assistant Professor of Instruction in Theatre

jabutter@hamilton.edu

technical theatre education, lighting design, stage management, production management

Emily K. Harrison

Assistant Professor of Theatre

ekharris@hamilton.edu

acting, directing, devising, playwriting, feminist theatre and performance, queer theatre and performance, performance theory, American theatre and performance, experimental theatre and performance

Craig Latrell

Upson Chair for Public Discourse and Professor of Theatre, Chair of Dance and Movement Studies

clatrell@hamilton.edu

Asian and intercultural performance, performance studies, and directing

Tobin Ost

Assistant Professor of Theatre

tost@hamilton.edu

scenic design, costume design, period costume, architecture and décor, hand drafting and rendering, and scenic model construction

Tom Marhenke

Director of Technical Theatre

tmarhenk@hamilton.edu

technical direction, crew management, teaching tool craft, welding

Careers After Hamilton

Hamilton graduates who concentrated in theatre are pursuing careers in a variety of fields, including:

  • General Manager, Actors Theatre of Phoenix
  • Actor, Donna on USA Network’s Suits
  • Master Electrician, South Coast Repertory Theatre
  • Chief of Strategy and Planning, Goldman Sachs
  • Producer, NBC Universal Media LLC
  • Foreign Service Officer, U.S. Department of State
  • Physical Therapist, Rhode Island Rehab Institute
  • Teacher/Theatre & English, NYC Board of Education
  • Public Relations Director, Dallas Children’s Theater
  • Features Producer, Entertainment Tonight

Explore Hamilton Stories

2024 Spring Theatre Production of Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches.

Cast Reflects on Performing in Angels in America

Hamilton’s Theatre Department is presenting Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches, as its spring mainstage production. Communications Office student writer and Angels understudy Alejandro Sosa Hernandez ’26 asked the cast, ‘What did you learn about theatre or yourself from participating in this production?’

Emily K. Harrison

Harrison Interviewed for “Teaching Theatre” Podcast

Assistant Professor of Theatre Emily K. Harrison recently discussed teaching devised theatre techniques on the HowlRound Teaching Commons podcast “Teaching Theatre.”

Eric Seeley ’26

Meet Eric Seeley ’26: “The Lighting Guy”

Thirty-two productions. Four semesters. A performance every eight days on average. This is the life of Eric Seeley ’26, one of three Hamilton students who has the knowledge to run lighting for all kinds of shows on campus.

Contact

Department Name

Theatre Department

Contact Name

Mark Cryer

Office Location
198 College Hill Road
Clinton, NY 13323

Help us provide an accessible education, offer innovative resources and programs, and foster intellectual exploration.

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