<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone knows much about the theater programs at Berkeley? I'm interested in getting a theater minor.</p>
<p>Are there a lot of drama/theater/improv productions/groups on/off campus and are they readily available to undergrads?</p>
<p>Also, I am wondering, how possible is it to handle a bioengineering major with a theater minor at Berkeley?</p>
<p>Is it very difficult because of the workload of bioengineering?</p>
<p>As an engineering major, I don't know much about the Theater courses at Berkeley.</p>
<p>That said, I act in a group called Theater for Charity, a 5th year student organization that produces 1 or 2 (typically comedic) student-written, student-directed, and student-acted shows every semester. All proceeds go to charity.</p>
<p>There are plenty of theater/improv groups on campus. I'll name the ones I'm familiar with:</p>
<p>(A lot of the descriptions are taken from their websites, because I'm not very good at summarizing. I am actually familiar with these groups, though.)</p>
<p>Theatre Rice: Theatre Rice is a modern Asian American Theatre Group, established in 1998. The group performs sketch comedy, drama, improvisational comedy, plays, music, song, dance, spoken word, poetry, monologues, etc. Theatre Rice prides itself in being completely self-produced. This means that everything in a Theatre Rice show is either written by Theatre Rice cast members or is submitted by other Asian American or non-Asian American writers to Theatre Rice. I've seen 400 or 500 people go to their shows each night; the group is very popular among students, especially Asian Americans.</p>
<p>jericho!: jericho! Improv is a long-form improv, sketch comedy and guerrilla theatre group. It was founded in 2005, and regularly performs on the UC Berkeley campus and around the San Francisco Bay Area.</p>
<p>Theater for Charity: As I said, it is a 5th year student organization that produces 1 or 2 (typically comedic) student-written, student-directed, and student-acted shows every semester. All proceeds go to charity. We normally get around 150 to 200 audience members a night for our shows (and we normally perform a show for three nights). From experience, I can tell you that the time commitment for Theater for Charity is very reasonable (but, of course, there is always crunch time). The commitment is no where near that of Theater department productions or, from what I've heard, Barestage productions (see below).</p>
<p>Barestage: BareStage is committed to the development of student creativity through the performing arts by initiating and activating student participation in productions throughout the school year. Devoted to the cultivation of original work and new, rarely performed musicals, BareStage provides a place for student actors, directors, writers, producers, technical designers, and musicians to practice and develop their craft in the context of a student supported environment. BareStage is a member of University of California Choral Ensembles, a division of Student Musical Activities, under Cal Performances.</p>
<p>Main Stage: This consists of UC Berkeley Theater Department productions.</p>
<p>I don't think there are too many other large groups that regularly perform comedic shows aside from jericho!, Theatre Rice, and Theater for Charity, but I could be wrong. Nevertheless, there are a <em>ton</em> of performance groups on campus that I haven't mentioned.</p>
<p>You'll be sure to find a performance group that you like. That's one of the reason's Berkeley is so great: it's size allows for an immense amount of diversity in terms of student groups.</p>