Your involvement in theatrical activity is immediate. During the first year you participate in the department's foundation program and study the Stanislavski System and the Strasburg Method of actors’ training, stressing psychological, emotional, and sensory development. You participate in classes in emotional recall, physical action, creative improvisation, and voice training. Although first-year students are not permitted to perform on stage for the public, you work on productions behind the scenes in a wide variety of jobs, ranging from running crews to assistant stage managing.

From the second year on, acting students may audition for roles in faculty-directed plays and musicals as well as films produced by undergraduate and graduate film students. Advanced acting students may audition for and perform in Syracuse Stage productions in appropriate roles. Students may also understudy the professional actors. Equity points may be earned through work with Syracuse Stage.

Courses in theater history, directing, voice/verse, playwriting, and technical theater broaden your studies. In the B.F.A. program, you may also select courses in design, stage lighting, costume history, dramatic literature, and stage management. We encourage you to prepare yourself to earn a living in more than one area of the theater and to take courses in theater management and stagecraft, some of which are taught by Syracuse Stage professionals.

At the end of the second year of study, each student presents a scene for the entire performance faculty. This evaluation (known as “sophomore evaluation”) determines if the student is allowed to move into the upper-level performance courses and continue in the B.F.A. degree track. All second-year students must present a scene for the faculty in order to remain in the program. The decision of which degree to pursue is made in consultation with the advisor at the end of the second year. This decision is often based on the results of the sophomore evaluation. Continuation in a B.F.A. program is based on faculty evaluation of the student’s class work and personal commitment, as well as on the content of the proposed curriculum. However, this is not the only evaluation; all students in the department are evaluated periodically to see whether their commitment and development warrant continuation in the program they have selected.