About

Created in the 1930s by English professor and designer Ralph Pendleton, Wesleyan's Department of Theater embraces a broad definition of performance. Grounded in an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach, students explore acting, directing, playwriting, design, technical theater, performance studies, and scholarship while developing the creative and critical skills needed to become theater makers. Rather than specializing in a single discipline, students gain experience across interconnected practices—including production design, theater history, critical and performative writing, voice and movement, and stage management—that prepare them to create, collaborate, and think across the field.

Faculty are active artists and scholars whose teaching connects rehearsal rooms, classrooms, and performance spaces to broader conversations about culture, history, identity, and civic life. Productions range from adaptations of classical works to contemporary plays, original student creations, movement-based performances, and visually driven installations staged in theaters and alternative spaces across campus.

Students also benefit from workshops, guest artists, and visiting practitioners who bring new perspectives and professional experience into the department each year.

Guest Artists and Visiting Professionals

Throughout the academic year, the Theater Department welcomes acclaimed artists, performers, directors, playwrights, and scholars to campus for lectures, workshops, performances, and special courses. These visits give students the opportunity to learn directly from leading voices in contemporary theater.

Recent visitors include: 

• Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes
• Broadway performer Crystal Dickinson
• Broadway performer Brandon J. Dirden
• Performance company Elevator Repair Service
• Artist and costume designer Machine Dazzle, 2022 USA Artist Fellow
• Choreographer and Wesleyan Theater alum Kaneza Schaal, 2021 Guggenheim Fellow

Our Alumni

Theater at Wesleyan prepares students for creative lives on stage, behind the scenes, and beyond. Our alumni are actors, directors, designers, playwrights, educators, scholars, and arts leaders who perform on international and national stages, on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in theaters around the world. Others have founded innovative theater companies, become acclaimed solo performers and community activists, or pursued graduate study in acting, directing, design, arts management, theater history, education, and performance studies.

The department's alumni and faculty continue to shape the field through award-winning creative and scholarly work. Alumni have earned Tony, Emmy, and Bessie Awards, while faculty have received Creative Capital and Obie Awards, National Endowment for the Arts support, and recognition as internationally respected artists, scholars, performers, and directors.

Notable alumni include Tony Award winners Lin-Manuel Miranda and Frank Wood, Emmy Award recipients Dana Delany and Bradley Whitford, and Bessie Award-winning designers Chloe Brown and Roderick Murray.