Hi! I’ve been accepted to MHC, among others, and want to study Theatre Arts, focusing on performance.
However, despite doing lots of research on the program, I am unable to tell how well regarded the program is, and if it has a good reputation in the theatre industry. In addition, I’m wondering how many graduates are actually able to get jobs in theatre after graduating.
If anyone could answer my questions that would be fantastic.
Thanks 
Of course your experience may differ but I am friends with a Mount Holyoke graduate who, following her MHC experience, started her own theater in Rhode Island. Also, two Mount Holyoke alumnae, Suzan Lori-Parks and Wendy Wasserstein, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Wendy attended Yale Drama School after MHC and wrote her first play, “Uncommon Women and Others,” about her friends at Mount Holyoke while she was a graduate student. The MHC Theater Arts Department draws students from all of the Five Colleges so there are lots of performance opportunities all over the valley. I hope this helps.
I hope this adds to the thread and doesn’t hijack it! My D is also interested in theatre at MHC. Can anyone share their experience with student created theater (as opposed to department productions)? In particular, D is interested in writing plays (and musicals) and wonders how hard it is to book venues and find students who are interested in participating. She has the sense that this might be easier to do at Smith or Amherst than at MHC, but isn’t sure where she got that impression. Thanks.
@PNWedwonk -My D (graduated a couple of years ago) was a Theatre major at MHC and had a wonderful experience. She chose it over other schools where she was admitted that are well known for Theatre (Skidmore, Brandeis, Emerson, Muhlenberg). She got a fantastic Theatre education with wonderful, talented professors, and also was able to double major in another subject that interested her. She acted in many wonderful MHC shows. There is also the five college consortium, so she had opportunities to be in shows at all five schools, and had students from them in her MHC shows. She was not involved in the student created productions, but I don’t think your D will have trouble attaining her goals to write and produce plays, especially if she is majoring, minoring, or even just taking Theatre classes. Some of my D’s classes required that sort of thing. It is not more difficult than at the other schools. MHC is a wonderful school full of opportunities. The student-professor ratio is amazing. My D would do it again in a minute. Congratulations to your D!
I just read that a senior Theater Arts major at Mount Holyoke is directing Macbeth. on the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death at the Rooke Theater at Mount Holyoke from April 14h to April 16th at 7:30 pm and April 17th at 2 pm. Sounds like a not to be missed opportunity.
Does anyone know if it’s hard to get involved with the theatre program if you aren’t a theatre major? My daughter doesn’t want to major in theatre hit would like to still be involved in theatre in college.
It’s definitely possible, but the feasibility depends on what you want to do and what kind of time commitment you’re willing to agree to. I did theatre tech in high school and loved it, but the time commitment for running crew at MHC is simply not feasible for me. On the other hand, I know several people who don’t do mainstage productions but are involved in Project Theatre, which are smaller student-driven productions. There are options.