Welcome/Mission

The Department of Theatre and Dance at Wake offers endless opportunities for personal exploration and growth. As a student, the faculty and staff challenged me to reach my full potential in all of my endeavors. I always had the support and guidance I needed to overcome any obstacle I faced. I still do.

Amber Chapel (’08)

The Department of Theatre and Dance offers students an exceptional education in theatre and dance, and plays an integral role in the Wake Forest community. We are a creative and collegial department that values close working relationships between students and faculty, that sees the arts as integral to a liberal arts education, and that prizes intellectual discipline as well as free thinking and expression.  We aspire to create exceptional artist/scholars, exploring through classes and productions intersections of theatre and dance with other realms of study, and giving expression to humanity’s foremost social and intellectual concerns.  We promote inclusivity, intellectual curiosity, innovation, dialogue, and problem-solving skills. And we believe that artistic commitment, personal development, responsibility to one’s community, and academic rigor can all coexist.

Each season, the department mounts four subscription series productions, two dance concerts, and numerous student-directed and designed pieces. Students learn through work on productions—whether in the rehearsal hall or shop–as well as through classwork in acting and directing, dance technique, choreography, design, playwriting, voice and movement, history, dramatic literature, performance art, theatre education, and technical theatre.

Students with both academic and artistic ability will find a comfortable home at Wake Forest University. Our students work closely with a vigorous faculty on a wide variety of projects. They enjoy the benefits of a nationally ranked university with small classes, impressive facilities, and an active theatre and dance program, and they grow as both scholars and artists. College is for learning—through books and lectures, certainly, but also through self-exploration and creative expression. We at Wake Forest believe that excellence in both arts and academics is not only possible but also desirable. Myriad student theatre, dance, and performance groups on campus contribute to a vital educational environment for the study of performance.