Seattle
Pacific University THEATRE
STUDENT HANDBOOK Toward
a sense of Purpose, History, and Order General Introduction
Gathered
together here you will find an eclectic collection of information, policies, musings,
and forms which will hopefully both answer your questions and help structure your
experience as student and artist in the Department of Theatre.
Any theatre community is
a highly complex entity due mostly to the very nature of the art: all
those people pursuing
their own creativity, working toward a seamless, integrated final product to present
to another
group of people, a group pursuing its own agenda of entertainment. Theatre is
a highly social art. To this inherent complexity we add the merely difficult:
education. This addition is not only an abstract version of education, but a rounded
program seeking to invigorate viable theatre artists, providing them with a broad
background in several areas of theatre practice. Additionally, we seek to infuse
the process with the perspective of our Christianity. Thus, combining the social
nature of the art and our educational desires, we strive toward a deliberate and
active interplay of ideas and the varying skills of our entire community—students,
faculty, audience—purposing thereby to create a dynamic social tension and
a heightened creative curiosity which will both drive the artistic and educational
process. Therefore,
we pursue a learning attitude which distinguishes the theatre program from most
other disciplines represented on the Seattle Pacific University campus: ensemble.
By ensemble is meant an attitude of purposeful exploring and learning
by students and faculty as an unit, learning with
each other and from
each other. We are fellow scholars,
yes, but as importantly, fellow
creators and artists
in our studios and as we prepare our productions together.
Ensemble can provide us
with unusual educational and personal development.
Still, the goal is worth
the risk. And because our life experiences are highly diverse, because our level
of skill development in theatre is greatly disparate, and because our operations
are calendar and facility driven, some guiding principles and rules have emerged
to help coordinate our ensemble efforts. Let’s hope this handbook helps
to clarify them. Next
Section: A.1.a
Perspectives: The Impact of the Art |