Academic Accelerator - Bachelor of Arts - Theatre and Performance

Program Description

As a student in the Academic Accelerator, you’ll receive:

• The right amount of support for your academic and English-speaking needs
• A full year’s worth of college credits
• Access to courses exclusively for international students
• English-language help with words you need to know for your classes
• A mix of classes with international and U.S. students

Our curriculum balances history, theory and practice, integrating traditional performance forms with contemporary interdisciplinary practices. Courses in Acting, Voice, Movement, Directing, Playwriting, and Design help you to develop practical knowledge, cultural sensitivity, intellectual resourcefulness, and imaginative daring.

Our theatre faculty are working professionals and prominent theatre artists. The theatre department is led critically acclaimed award-winning actor, director, and Steppenwolf Ensemble member, Yasen Peyankov. Our faculty includes members of four of Chicago’s Tony Award winning theatre companies.

You will work in small classes with personalized attention from faculty.

• Develop your individual voice
  
• Engage in ensemble-based learning with fellow students
• Participate in coursework based on exploration - focus on process and discovery
• Learn through doing - participate in the UIC’s Mainstage Season performances and student-generated projects under the direction and coaching of the theatre faculty and guest artists
• Learn about the past and the present - integrate traditional performance theories and forms with contemporary interdisciplinary performance practices
• Get real world experience - take advantage of internships available at major Chicago theatres including Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Lookingglass Theatre Company

Performance facilities include a flexible mainstage "black box" theatre, a studio theatre, and other experimental performance spaces.

Many of the program’s graduates are employed professionally in theatre and film, or successfully pursue advanced study in prestigious graduate theatre programs.