What is the drama program like? Please and thanks!
Disclaimer: I’m don’t study drama at Bennington (though I was in The Actor’s Instrument class) but I have plenty of friends who do!
Image above: Students perform Wall of Water in Margot Tenney Theater. The play was written by faculty member Sherry Kramer and directed by faculty member Dina Janis.
Our website actually distills the essence of the drama program quite succinctly:
“As a Bennington student, you are encouraged to take a broad range of courses within the larger drama discipline, including acting, directing, playwriting, theatre history, dramatic literature, design, and stage management, and classes often come together to create collaborative work. Collaboration is essential to the study of drama at Bennington.
For each term that you take a class in drama, you also complete a technical lab, working in the scene shop, costume shop, or technical crew—learning the nuts and bolts of what it takes to produce theatre. Between labs, Drama Forum, and your classes, you engage immediately and directly in the drama community at Bennington. Through Field Work Term you may choose to apply your skills in professional theater settings, or in internships that complement your studies in other ways.
During the weekly Drama Forum, students and faculty present work in progress, and guest speakers lead workshops and lectures. Several productions are staged each term.
The Princeton Review ranks Bennington College in the top five for Best College Theater.”
Like every discipline at Bennington, there is no one way to study drama. Instead of students following a one-size-fits-all program, we are asked to craft our own plan of study, in consultation with our professors. Thus, the direction students decide to take their work in drama really varies.
For instance, Farhad Mirza has explored theater in addition to literature and architecture (among other things). His approach to studies has been influenced by looking at how subjects inform each other. As an example, he cites a theatre course whose reading list consisted of plays about math and physics, such as Arcadia by Tom Stoppard or Copenhagen by Michael Frayn. “Two or three people would be assigned the research for the play,” he says, which involved diving into the science, and then that research would be married to the writing and acting the class conducted.
Emily Thomas discovered her love of technical theater as well as her interest in theater as a tool for conflict resolution through her classes at Bennington. She designed this set for a production of Strindberg’s Miss Julie.
Jama McMahon also explored theater production at Bennington. She said, “Even though my plan revolves around production, I really enjoy every aspect of drama, so I’m trying to branch out and learn as much as possible. I’m really excited about my Playwrights Festival class. I get to act as a festival manager and will be assisting Sherry Kramer in the full production of student plays.”
Brittany Olinkiewicz combined her loves of Spanish and theater to investigate the question: “If you’re performing in a language that isn’t your audience’s primary language, how does that affect the acting?” Among other things, she worked in theaters in Hawaii and Los Angeles and studied abroad in Madrid.
Do you have more questions about studying drama at Bennington? Let us know and an intern with better knowledge will give you another perspective!
-Ellie
