History

Theater at Bates has had an important place in the college's life. Early in the College's history, annual productions of Shakespearean or Greek drama by students, faculty, and townspeople provided a major cultural experience for the community. In the late nineteenth century, students ventured off campus to present plays in Lewiston's Empire Theater and Music Hall.

In 1896 Grosvenor May Robinson (1867-1953) joined the faculty to teach Elocution. "Prof. Rob" oversaw the annual Greek plays staged in front of Coram Hall at Commencement, founded the 4-A Players in 1921, and directed the college's Little Theatre. A nation-wide phenomenon, the Little Theatre Movement was, according to the 1923 Bates Student, "a direct answer to an urgent demand for artistic and worthwhile drama. At first a mere protest against commercialism in the theatre, it has become a dominant educational factor in our cultural life." Professor Robinson organized tours by the College's theater productions to distant Maine communities.

The Spoffard Literary Club and the Phil-Hellenic Club supported the arts and sponsored the production of plays written in Professor A. Craig Baird's English 4A. The course was modeled on George Pierce Baker's pioneering class in playwriting at Harvard, English 47A (1913). Professor "Birdie" Baird (1883-1979), was a student of Brander Matthews, the first professor of drama in America at Columbia (1902).

In the fall of 1932 Owen Dodson (1914-1983) entered Bates college as a first-year student assigned to Roger Williams Hall. Encouraged by Prof. Rob, Owen Dodson directed one-act plays, wrote others, acted, and, as a senior, staged the annual Greek play, The Trojan Women. He graduated from Bates in the class of '36, attended the Yale School of Drama, and went on to become one of Bates' most famous contributors to the world theater as playwright, director, poet, and educator.

In 1938 Professor Robinson retired and the 4-A Players honored him by renaming the group The Robinson Players. The year also marked the establishment of the new Department of Speech which housed the College's theater and drama curriculum. Paradoxically, the 1930s -- the Depression years -- marked a national surge in creating university and college theatre courses. During this period university and college theater programs were largely extensions of one dominant personality -- Baker at Harvard and Yale, A.C. Drummond at Cornell, Thomas Wood Stevens at Carnegie Tech, Frederick Koch at North Carolina, and Lavinia Schaeffer (1903-1978), a graduate of Northwestern University, at Bates College. Until the opening of the Schaeffer Theater in 1960, plays were staged in the Little Theater located on the second floor of Hathorn Hall.

In the fall of 1936, Ms. Margaret Fahrenholz, Bates' assistant athletic director, gathered 15 -20 young women to form the Bates College Dance Club to study and practice the theories and techniques of Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm. Beside performing, the club sponsored films of modern dance performances. In 1949 the club added men. Dance at Bates moved into the curriculum with the arrival of Marcy Plavin, a student of Hanya Holm, in 1965. In 1971 she was officially listed as an Instructor of Dance. In 1973 courses in dance were listed in the Bates catalog for the first time.

In 1979 the department was renamed the Department of Theater and Rhetoric. In 1997, the department began offering Secondary Concentrations with Theater and Dance. Today the department offers a wide variety of courses in acting, directing, dance, performance, and design, and in the history, literature, and theory of the world's stages. Participation in the department's activities continues to be open to all members of the Bates community, regardless of major, position (faculty, staff, student, townsperson), or previous experience.

Mission Statement

The Faculty will teach and create theater as a liberal art in the context of a traditional liberal arts institution. This means that students will learn how to think critically and creatively about an important body of material, and how to give those thoughts scholarly and artistic expression. Instruction in theater will be both theoretical and practical; it will combine knowledge and skill. Students will be required to test theory in creative practice and to demonstrate skill in imaginative performance. Courses in theater will provide a comprehensive introductory training in all areas of theater, giving equal emphasis to artistic training and the study of the literature and history of the world stage. Training will be augmented by departmental productions of the most demanding and challenging works of both classical and contemporary artists.

Thesis

A. Requirements for Performance/Production/Playwriting Theses

GENERAL REMINDER: Thesis work in these areas is by invitation of the departmental faculty only. Meeting the following requirements does not guarantee invitation. They are the minimum expectations which must be fulfilled to be eligible for a thesis in these fields.

Students who are invited to work on a thesis in acting, directing, or design will be invited to complete a specific project designated by the department. For example, a student will not be invited to do an "acting thesis." Instead, the student will be asked to play a specific role in a specific production. For directing, a student will be invited to direct a specific play. For design, the student will be invited to accomplish the design for a specific production. Students who decline these specific invitations may be ineligible to complete a thesis in these fields.

Acting Thesis Requirements:
Course work: THEA 261 plus one additional course in acting or performance; THEA 263
Production work: One major role in a faculty-directed production at Bates.

Design Thesis Requirements:
Course work: THEA 130 plus one additional course in design.
Production work: Major production responsibility for one faculty-directed production at Bates; stage management of one faculty-directed production.

Directing Thesis Requirements:
Course work: THEA 370
Production work: One production directed at Bates for credit as a THEA 360 in Theater after successfully completing THEA 370; stage management of one faculty-directed production.

Playwriting Thesis Requirements:
Course work: THEA 240 plus one additional course in playwriting.
Additional work: One completed script.

Performance Art Thesis Requirements:
Course work: THEA 227, one THEA 360 in performance art, and one of the following: THEA 261, THEA 370, THEA 240.

Dance Thesis Requirements:
Course work: DANC 250, DANC 251, DANC 252, DANC 253, and DANC s29, plus a minimum of three years of dance technique and performance.
Additional work: Choreograph, a minimum of one piece for performance after successful completion of DANC 251.

History, Literature, Criticism
Course work: THEA 101, THEA 200, 2 additional courses in Dramatic Literature or Theory.
Production work: completion of production credits.

B. Honors Theses

Honors requires a two semester project through Theater 457 and 458, and an oral examination by faculty members and an outside evaluator. Participation in the honors program is by invitation of the theater faculty. The fact that a student meets minimum standards is no guarantee that he or she will be invited to pursue honors. The faculty reserves the right to exercise its judgment in each case. The following are minimum objective criteria for such an invitation.

Overall grade-point average: 3.30 — Departmental average: 3.50

For Honors in Acting Thesis:
Major roles in at least two Bates productions (exclusive of directing-class shows), at least one of which must have been faculty-directed; distinguished work in at least one acting course beyond Beginning Acting.

For Honors in Directing Thesis:
Distinguished work in THEA 370, and at least one additional production directed under departmental auspices.

For Honors in Design Thesis:
Distinguished work in the relevant design courses, and design work on at least two productions at Bates, at least one of which must have been faculty-directed.

For Honors in History, Literature, And Criticism:
Distinguished work in the relevant courses at Bates, including a demonstrated ability to write vivid, coherent English.

For Honors in Playwriting:
Successful completion of at least two one-act plays, or one full-length play before senior year.

For Honors in Performance Art:
Distinguished work in THEA 227, at least one additional production directed under departmental auspices, and a substantial document on the work created.

For All Honors Theses:
A substantial section (i.e., 25-50 pages) of the written portion must address scholarly, historical, and theoretical questions.