The Barnard College Theatre major, a joint program with the Columbia College major in Drama and Theatre Arts, teaches students to create and interpret drama and theatre in the context of a liberal arts curriculum. Early in the major, students are given a foundation in theatre history and world theatre traditions as well as in performance and production. As students continue to move through the program, they acquire a comprehensive knowledge of dramatic literature, theatre history, and theories of the theatre, which they learn to integrate with their growing expertise in acting, directing, design, and playwriting. Committed to situating theatre within cultural and historical contexts, the program examines different traditions around the world and the ways in which they interact. Course offerings cover diverse traditions and forms of theatre, ranging from Shakespeare, modern drama, and commedia dell'arte to stage realism, expressionism, and the avant-garde, in lectures, seminars, acting labs, design studios, and performances at the Minor Latham Playhouse. The major culminates in an individually designed senior project, which approaches theatre performance by means of creative interpretation as well as literary, historical, and theoretical analysis. The senior project results in either a theatre production or a written thesis grounded in historical and scholarly research.
 

Plays participate in literary traditions, but they, along with other kinds of performances, are also part of social life. Theatre thus emerges as a site of cultural innovation, transmission, and contestation involving a variety of languages including verbal, scenic, musical, and physical. Fostering both creative and analytic thought, the theatre major is valuable not only to undergraduates who aim to pursue advanced degrees or careers in the field but also to those interested in the study of languages, literatures, and the arts. For this reason, students are encouraged to supplement their course work in drama and theatre with courses in other departments such as Anthropology, Architecture, Art History, Classics, Dance, Film, Literature, Music, and Philosophy.