Theatre - Acting
FEATURED SPOTLIGHT
As an intern at SH Entertainment in New York City, Jennifer Kratzer helped set up auditions, callbacks, and work sessions, and gained first-hand knowledge about the casting process. Read more here.
Majoring in Theatre - Acting
The acting program at Purdue University seeks to expand the young actor’s range of knowledge and expression through the performance of drama. The acting program consists of acting core classes, specialized training, and related required courses. Two theatres in the Yue-Kong Pao Hall of Visual and Performing Arts opened in fall 2005. The Nancy T. Hansen Theatre is a 300 seat proscenium house, while the Gordon and Carole Mallett Theatre can be configured to adapt to various staging options and seats 105-155. Theatre majors will be prepared for successful careers across the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry.
Upon completion of the program, Theatre-Acting majors may choose to enter a field directly or indirectly-related to acting. Student experiences have included:
- Actor
- Public speaker/presenter
- Sales
- Business/management
- Non-profit management
- Graduate or professional school
Average Starting Salary: $42,041
All Purdue University College of Liberal Arts majors prepare students with the skills identified as contributing to professional success: communicating and listening well, an understanding and appreciation of diverse points of view, creative thinking and problem solving, a collaborative mindset, the ability to synthesize complex ideas and communicate them clearly, and a Boilermaker work ethic.
Theatre-Acting majors develop skills that are applicable to many different careers as a result of training in this highly-collaborative art form. These skills may include, but are not limited to:
- Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills.
- Ability to work effectively on multi-disciplinary teams.
- Time management/deadline-oriented with a “the show must go on” mentality.
- Engaging communicator able to entertain, inform, or instruct via radio, film, television, or with live audiences.
- Social media savvy having cultivated an online presence using platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.
Theatre-Acting majors may choose to enter into the workforce using the skills they have acquired at Purdue or to attend graduate school upon completion of their degree. Past graduates have gone on to:
Companies
- The Book of Mormon, National Tour
- Indiana Repertory Theatre
- Chicago Marketing Inc.
- Crown Point Community School Corporation
Graduate School
- Stanford University
- University of Connecticut
- University of Missouri - KC
- University of California, Irvine