THTR - THEATER

Mission

The mission of the Theater Department at Lake Forest College is to develop scholars, artists, and audiences of the performing arts, by integrating traditional undergraduate coursework with experiential learning in productions and internships. We are experienced teachers, practicing artists, engaged scholars, and promising students who express ourselves through both scholarship and performance.  We offer classroom instruction that is both theoretical and practical. We mount productions of classical and contemporary drama that complement the academic curriculum. We use the theater of Chicago as a resource. We encourage serious students of theater to develop skills in multiple areas, styles, and techniques. We support students in their efforts to realize their own creative vision. We provide opportunities for all members of the campus community to develop as scholars, artists, and audiences.

Philosophy

We believe that artistic expression can be taught and should be joined with scholarship and criticism, and that the products of artistic expression are necessary to a vibrant culture.

• We believe that making and experiencing performance offers opportunities to reflect on what it means to be human.

• We believe that the history of theater is a mirror of culture and society throughout the ages.

• We believe that theater is always socially and politically relevant, because it speaks of the world that made it and speaks to the world that sees it.

• We believe that making performance requires vision, knowledge, and discipline, and that practicing our art is an ideal model of experiential learning in the context of a liberal arts education.

• We believe that theater as an academic field is interdisciplinary, and that as an artistic practice, it is collaborative.  We believe that all who engage with theater as scholars, artists, or audiences learn to appreciate the coexistence of multiple ways of knowing and the complexities of bringing different perspectives together into productive collaboration.