Theatre

Theatre brings people together, building community through the process of collaborative artmaking. Theatre helps you learn how to express yourself, tell stories, empathize with others, and explore the world from diverse perspectives.

Studying theatre enables students to combine rigorous academics with something they love. Students develop artistic skills and expand their capacities for collaboration, critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and effective communication. They can challenge themselves and push themselves outside their comfort zones, all while learning skills that are transferable to a diverse array of professional fields.

Theatre students learn how to do close readings of text, work well in a team, and deliver a product in a high-pressure environment under a strict deadline. Studying theatre also helps further develop empathy, interpersonal skills, communication skills, self-confidence, time-management skills, and creativity.

The Theatre Program offers a range of degree options, which allows students to create a path of study that best aligns with their interests and aspirations. Students can obtain a Bachelor of Arts while majoring in performing arts with a concentration in theatre or a comprehensive concentration that combines coursework in music and theatre. Students can also pursue an interdisciplinary major combining theatre with another area of study. A minor in theatre is also available.

The Theatre Program offers a wide range of courses that help students develop vital skills for their adult lives and future careers. This includes courses in acting, directing, improvisation, voice, movement, dance, theatre design, stagecraft, theatre history, and queer theatre and film.

The Theatre Program at Loyola is unique for many reasons and offers valuable opportunities for its students. Something that sets this program apart from other theatre programs and conservatories is that there is guaranteed involvement in every production, with no barriers to entry, allowing anyone to audition and/or join stage crew, regardless of class year or major. The student to faculty ratio means that students get to know their instructors and receive valuable mentorship. The program mounts five productions each academic year—including plays, musicals, and one acts—providing many performance opportunities for Loyola students.

The Theatre Program at Loyola builds on the long-standing tradition of Jesuit involvement in the theatre. In the contemporary sense, this means a dedication to cura personalis, or care for the whole person. Through the teaching of theatre, Loyola seeks to produce well-rounded students able to synthesize theory and practice, body and mind, and interpretation and action.

The Theatre Program at Loyola boasts two theatre spaces, McManus Theatre—a 300-seat proscenium—and the Black Box Theatre—a flexible performance space that seats up to 100. The program also features a fully equipped scene shop, a hybrid rehearsal room and teaching space, as well as costume, prop, and scenery storage.

There are many renowned and unique theatres in the Baltimore/DMV area. Students can take field trips to Baltimore Center Stage, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Everyman Theatre, the Hippodrome, and Iron Crow Theatre, all here in Baltimore. Theatres in Washington, D.C.—such as Arena Stage and Shakespeare Theatre Company—are easily accessible via a train ride or hour-long drive.

Loyola maintains a robust study abroad program, with over 60% of undergraduates participating in the program by graduation. Because the theatre major has room for many free electives, students can easily accommodate study abroad in their schedules. In spring 2025, the Theatre Program introduced a new international summer program in London, England, which explores William Shakespeare’s work in the context in which it was birthed, as well as his legacy and connection to contemporary theatre. The course includes visits to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the British Museum, London’s West End (the U.K. equivalent of Broadway), St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, and a daytrip to Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

The Theatre Program offers a Theatre Production Internship (DR 374), which allows students to engage in a sustained, semester-long internship for academic credit. The internship can be completed either on-campus (by being the master carpenter or head stage manager for an Evergreen Players production, for example) or off-campus working with a local theatre company.

Alumni of the Theatre Program have a wide range of careers, from professional acting and stage managing, to working as teachers, guidance counselors, non-profit administrators, lawyers, and more.

Students with a B.A. or minor in theatre can pursue an MFA in acting, directing, playwriting, technical direction/production management, or design (including lighting, sound, costume, and scenic design). Students can also get an M.A. in theatre, an M.A. in theatre education, or a Ph.D. in theatre and performance studies.