Illinois Wesleyan University


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The School of Theatre Arts at Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU) offers Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music Theatre, and Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Design and Technology programs as well as minors in theater arts, theater dance, and arts management (offered with the Department of Business Administration).

Students in the Theatre Arts programs enjoy the low faculty-student ratio, which ensures close mentoring relationships with faculty members. Furthermore, because IWU is strictly an undergraduate institution, courses are never taught by graduate students.

Theater students are challenged to stretch themselves through opportunities to explore all aspects of theater—through course work and hands-on experiences, both on campus and off.

In addition to obtaining solid training in theater arts, the students are strengthened by the University’s liberal arts curriculum, which ensures that they receive a broad education in a variety of disciplines across campus. Students graduate from these programs ready to succeed, having begun to develop their own network of contacts through alumni, internships, summer-stock job opportunities, and visitors who come to campus to deliver master classes or to serve as guest designers, directors, or choreographers. Students begin their careers with excellent resumes, a game plan in place, and a superior educational foundation.

The Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts program allows students a broad range of exploration and study of the theater, giving them the opportunity to become theater artists and scholars whose expertise spans more than one facet of the discipline. This degree track is especially well suited to the student who wants a broad education in theater and students who aspire to a professional career in directing, playwriting, dramaturgy, theater management, or other subdiscipline; students who intend to pursue graduate training as a theater scholar or who aspire to teach at the university level; students who wish to double-major; and students who intend to teach on the high school level.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting program and the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music Theatre program are for students who aspire to acting careers or performance careers in musical theater, respectively. These well-rounded preprofessional curricula include applied training in acting, movement, voice, and dance as well as academically oriented courses like dramatic theory, history, and literature. All students are also exposed to the technical and design areas through course work and production experiences. In addition to intensive course work, B.F.A. actors and music theater students often apply their craft on stage in the School’s active production season.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Design and Technology program is for students who aspire to careers as designers or technicians. The curriculum includes applied training in drawing, rendering, stagecraft, construction, drafting, and painting as well as such academically oriented courses as dramatic theory, history, and literature. All design/tech students also receive some performance training and have the opportunity to audition for roles and to apply their crafts behind the scenes in the School’s active production season.

Campus and Surroundings

Illinois Wesleyan University is located on a parklike campus in Bloomington’s historic Northside residential district. The twin cities of Bloomington and Normal, with a combined population of more than 110,000, offer all the amenities and cultural activities one would expect in a major metropolitan area, including a wide variety of shopping venues and restaurants, museums, art galleries, and a ballet company. The cities are located midway between Chicago and St. Louis, which are easily accessed by car, train, or bus within 2 to 3 hours.

The campus atmosphere is relaxed and friendly. More than 80 percent of the students live on campus. Thirty-five states and twenty nations are represented. On-campus activities and organizations include an International Society, Model U.N., a student senate, professional and honorary societies, intramural and intercollegiate sports, national social fraternities and sororities, political and religious groups, service groups, activities in the arts, a radio station, and several publications.

Program Facilities

The main facilities of the School of Theatre Arts are the McPherson Theatre; the E. Melba Johnson Kirkpatrick Lab Theater; dance studios; the Carriage House, which is a classroom and rehearsal space; the Theatre Annex, which provides classrooms and office space; the Phoenix, a student-run black-box theater; the Light Lab (a lighting classroom); and a complete costume shop and a fully operational scene shop.

Student Performance Opportunities

The School of Theatre Arts produces one main-stage musical and two main-stage nonmusicals annually. In addition, one faculty-directed lab show and one faculty-choreographed dance concert are produced on alternate years. On the alternating year, one Shakespeare main-stage and one lab musical are produced. Three student-directed, 50-minute lab productions are also added to the calendar—one in either the spring or fall semester and two during the May Term.

Special Programs

In recent years, many students in the School of Theatre Arts have participated in preprofessional internship programs during their careers at Illinois Wesleyan. Some result from the School’s affiliation with the Great Lakes College Association (GLCA), which places interns with professional theaters, television studios, casting agencies, and the like in New York City. Internships are available in design, performance, and management. Internships can also be arranged in such theatrical centers as Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Internships can be taken for academic credit during the academic year.

The AMC Chicago Arts Program is a semester that students spend immersed in the art scene of Chicago instead of at IWU. Students live with a roommate in a studio apartment in downtown Chicago, work at an arts-related internship, take a couple of courses, and explore an area of the arts in an independent-study project. Students attend openings, plays, readings, concerts, screenings, rehearsals, recording sessions, installations, performances, and more. They meet the people who are making and presenting art in Chicago and learn about what they do, how they do it, and how they got where they are today.

In some years a Travel Seminar is arranged during Illinois Wesleyan’s unique May Term. Under the guidance of a faculty member in the School of Theatre Arts, students attend as many as fifteen plays in New York City or London. Discussions with many prominent actors, directors, designers, producers, and playwrights form an integral part of each Travel Seminar.

Application Procedures

Deadline--freshmen and transfers: continuous. Required: essay, high school transcript, college transcript(s) for transfer students, minimum 3.0 high school GPA, SAT I or ACT test scores, portfolio for design applicants, audition for acting and music theater applicants, on-campus interview for BA applicants. Recommended: interview. Auditions held 4 times on campus; videotaped performances are permissible as a substitute for live auditions with special permission from School of Theatre Arts. Portfolio reviews held 4 times on campus; the submission of slides may be substituted for portfolios with special permission from School of Theatre Arts.

Undergraduate Contact

Ms. Bernadette Brennan, Recruitment Coordinator, Theatre Admission Office, Illinois Wesleyan University, PO Box 2900, Bloomington, Illinois 61702-2900; 309-556-3944, fax: 309-556-3558.