Department of Drama

The Department of Drama offers a learning environment that nurtures and challenges students who are seriously interested in a career in the theater and the entertainment industry. Rigorous, conservatory-style training in a university setting, in collaboration with a resident professional theater, presents an unparalleled combination of teaching professionals, diverse performance and staging opportunities, and excellent facilities.

The department offers four-year, undergraduate degree programs in acting, musical theater, design/technical theater, and stage management. In addition to theater classes, drama students take courses in the arts and sciences, thus giving you a broad liberal background that enriches your life and increases your understanding of the world around you.

You experience and observe the collaborative process through all four years. We have a unique affiliation with Syracuse Stage, an outstanding Equity theater company that shares our theater complex as well as the knowledge and experience of its working professionals. Students may work on Stage productions as performers, understudies, production assistants, in directing, or on production crews. We also offer:

  • The camaraderie of the department: a creative and collaborative community with supportive students, faculty, staff, and guest artists
  • A dedicated faculty of working professionals who annually present four to five major productions with all-student casts, stage managers, and designers
  • The chance to see (and work on) between 120 and 160 artistically and educationally challenging productions in four years of study
  • An opportunity to spend a semester in London, including regular classes for actors at the Globe Theatre or training at the London College of Fashion for costume designers, or in Florence, Italy
  • A theater complex of four performance spaces and appropriately designed acting and dance classrooms and rehearsal spaces, CAD lab, and designer studios
  • The possibility of a technical internship in one of the Syracuse Stage production shops or a stage management internship with the production department during the senior year
  • Access to the Tepper Center for Careers in Theatre, which offers a program to facilitate the transition into "the real world," and the opportunity to participate in the Tepper Semester, our New York City immersion program
  • An active alumni network, including the Syracuse University Drama Organization (SUDO)

Most of all, expect to benefit from being part of an exciting professional involvement in drama that fosters creative growth and prepares you to accept the challenges of a demanding but immensely rewarding profession.

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