Facts
| Administration | Linda Essig, director, School of Theatre & Film, artistic director, MainStage Season
Stephani Woodson, associate director, School of Theatre & Film, director of undergraduate studies |
| Academic Disciplines | BA in Film with a concentration in Film and Media Production BA in Theatre BA in Theatre with a concentration in Acting BA in Theatre with a concentration in Design & Production MA in Theatre MFA in Theatre
MFA in Creative Writing with playwriting emphasis
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| Faculty | 28 full-time and 5 part-time faculty members across all sub-disciplines are drawn from distinguished professional careers as well as from the ranks of academia. The faculty work closely with students on the undergraduate as well as graduate levels. |
| Students | 515 undergraduate majors for the 2007-2008 academic year of which 247 are Film and 268 are Theatre majors (or preparing to major in those disciplines.) There are 49 graduate students pursuing the PhD or MFA in Theatre. The 2007 freshman retention rate was 82.5 percent. |
| Scholarships | Scholarships are available by application. Each spring the School of Theatre and Film awards more than $125,000 in scholarships to students in all of its programs. |
| Rankings | With a distinguished faculty drawn from the top ranks of universities and professional arts organizations nationwide, programs in Theatre for Youth are considered to be in the top three nationally. The program in playwriting is 15th among public universities, while other programs are quickly moving to top rank status. |
| Performances & Events | The MainStage Season offers students opportunities to act, design and manage a selection of new and established works each year, working in collaboration with nationally-renown faculty and guest artists across disciplines.
Prism Theatre is operated by students for students. Student Film Festival is a highlight among film and media production majors. It premieres the best short work of the season and features a monetary prize for the best film. |
| Community Connections | Performance in the Borderlands is a public programming and research initiative. This project includes a series of lectures, workshops, performances, and public discussions with artists, critics, scholars, and community members interested in the performing arts along the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.
Place: Vision and Voice is a program that is dedicated to opening dialogue between youth and the adults in their communities through the performing arts, including the use of digital media. |
| Facilities | The Nelson Fine Arts Center houses the 480-seat Paul V. Galvin Playhouse and includes a large scene shop, professionally staffed costume shop, five rehearsal studio classrooms and a design studio.
The Lyceum Theatre, a 162-seat modified proscenium, also is used for MainStage Theatre productions. The Student Production Board produces in the flexible Prism Theatre. Students in the film and media production program have access to high-definition digital video cameras and to lighting and sound equipment in the Cornerstone Film Production studio. A 24-station editing facility completes the all-digital environment that supports student filmmakers |
| External Grant Funding | The School of Theatre and Film receives grant support from The Kauffman Foundation to support education in arts entrepreneurship. The school is also the recipient of funding from the Arizona Commission on the Arts for new play development, the Department of Education through the Phoenix Unified HS District to support arts education, Hospice of the Valley to support a collaborative project with the Mayo Clinic, and the Federal Department of Housing and Economic Development to support a residency by Place: Vision and Voice in the Community. |
| History | The Department of Theatre was established in 1977 and added film studies and film production classes by 1980. In 2005, the film production program was formalized and the Department was reorganized as the Herberger Institute School of Theatre and Film. Read More |