Theater and Performance

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Our Mission

The Department of Theater and Performance offers the creative and inquisitive candidate an opportunity to explore performance, writing and design through experimentation and exploration. This interdisciplinary approach to performance offers a gateway to multifaceted opportunities in performance, theater studies and the creative industries. Students are encouraged to experiment with performance modalities featuring text, film, songs and site-specific areas to develop and create original stories.

Along with performing the classic and contemporary theater texts, students will experience a well-rounded interdisciplinary performance training. African American cultural forms along with a rich sprinkling of diverse creative methodologies from around the world expose students to an up-to-date contemporary performance practice. On offer is the opportunity to develop a critical and practical analysis of performance, art, social activism and politics to comprehend how these elements sync together to shape and form bold and exciting artists/citizens.

 

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Contact Info

Theater and Performance

350 Spelman Lane, SW, Rockefeller Arts Building, Suite 143
Atlanta, GA 30314

404-270-5471 | 404-270-5471 (Patricia Shipp)
patriciashipp@spelman.edu

Mon. - Fri. | 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Meet Our Director: Natalie Sowell


Natalie Sowell has been named the new chair of the Department of Theater and Performance. Sowell is an artist, educator, arts administrator, and activist who most recently served as the director of the School of Theatre at the University of North Carolina Greensboro for four and a half years. Before that, she taught and served in administrative roles at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, for 16 years. 
 

Read More About Sowell
Natalie Sowell Chair of Spelman College Department of Theater and Performance

Change Happens

In August 2016, the Department of Drama and Dance was separated into two departments. In fall 2016, the name of the drama department was officially changed to the Department of Theater and Performance and the dance department was established as the Department of Dance Performance and Choreography.

The theater and performance curriculum is designed to offer a challenging theater arts program that encourages discovery, creativity and scholarship for those students whose special interests and talents lead them to the theater and performance; to impart to all majors the formal preparation necessary for advanced academic or professional study; to offer Spelman students experiences in theater arts, by giving her broad-based exposure to the various aspects of theater and performance; and to contribute to the cultural enrichment of Spelman College, the Atlanta University Center and the community at large.

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