Highly personal theatre training on Florida’s Gulf coast
Love the magic of live theatre? So do we. Eckerd’s Bachelor of Arts in Theatre introduces students to acting, directing, design and technical theatre, while our 2+2 Bachelor of Fine Arts focuses on performance.
Regardless of the program, you’ll have the chance to intern at dozens of area theatres, network with professionals — even produce your own work.
Only@Eckerd
A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree
Eckerd offers a 2+2 BFA program with Circle in the Square Theatre School, located in the Broadway district of New York City. You’ll spend two years at each location, taking part in showcases with professional producers and agents in NYC at the end.
The right place
Our location in the Tampa Bay area means you’ll have a shot at internships, apprenticeships and jobs with Norwegian Cruise Lines, Disney, American Stage Theatre Company, freeFall Theatre and other area professional theatres.
A history of success
Graduates of our program go on to work in professional theatre, enroll in graduate school or start their own companies.
In Their Own Words
“[T]he four professors who make up the faculty are incredible. Eckerd [makes it] clear that we’re more than just the student of our major/focus and often drives the point that we should be interdisciplinary…and make connections to the actual outside world. A lot of what I learned while in the theatre or studio I’ve used in my professional life.”
— Lemuel H. Thornton III, Class of 2008
Beyond the Classroom
Theatre and Musical Theatre majors get to work with the pros before they graduate. You could be a:
- Costuming, marketing or acting intern at Disney
- Lighting intern for Spoleto International Festival
- Performance intern with Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota
- Costuming intern at Norwegian Cruise Lines
- Marketing, stagehand or lighting intern with American Stage
- Stagehand intern for freeFall Theatre
Under the direction of faculty and staff, students produce one mainstage production in the fall and one in the spring. A few recent productions:
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Failure: A Love Story
- Scenes from Metamorphoses
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
- Heathers: The Musical
You could find yourself volunteering backstage for Studio@620, Arts Conservatory for Teens and multiple area schools where they perform shows and engage students.
Service Pics on FlickrIn addition to 3-week Winter Terms in NYC studying how Broadway works, theatre majors have left campus to study at:
Other acting majors have done exchange programs in Scotland and Australia; a few who were focused on theatre design and tech have studied in Italy.
Popular classes
Human Instrument
Explore the potential for use of the body, mind, voice, movement, energy and sensory awareness through a wide range of creative exercises.
Theatre Production
An intense laboratory experience in play production in which you work in a single area, such as assistant directing, stage management, costuming, lighting or another specialty.
Facilities
Eckerd has two theatre spaces: Bininger Center for Performing Arts, a large proscenium theatre with a steeply pitched auditorium, flexible systems for lighting and staging and lobby/gallery space, and an intimate black box theatre adaptable to thrust, arena or round staging.
Outcomes
What can I do with a theatre degree?
- Actor
- Artistic director
- Costume designer
- House manage
- Lighting designer
- Stage manager
- Director
- Playwright
- Puppeteer
- Scene designer
- Stagehand
- Theatrical agent
- Technical director
Where our theatre majors go to work
- American Stage (FL)
- Busch Gardens (FL)
- Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (IL)
- Disney (FL)
- Greenbrier Valley Theatre (WV)
- Florida Studio Theatre (FL)
- freeFall Theatre (FL)
- Jobsite Theater (FL)
- Macha Theatre Works (WA)
- New York Musical Festival (NY)
- Norwegian Cruise Lines (FL)
- Second City (IL)
- Spoleto Festival USA (SC)
- Stageworks (FL)
- The Tank (NY)