About the Department
OFFICE INFORMATION
Emily Lowe Hall
Room 102
Office Hours: Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
CHAIR
Professor Jean Dobie Giebel
100 Emily Lowe Hall
Phone: (516) 463-6681
Fax: (516) 463-4001
E-mail
DEPARTMENT SECRETARY
Sherrie Basile
Phone: (516) 463-5444
Drama at Hofstra
The Hofstra Drama Faculty support the idea that theatre artists should approach their craft with the broad understanding that can be acquired in a liberal arts setting. In this way, we differ from conservatory programs which concentrate mainly on the skills of the vocation. Therefore, the Hofstra Drama and Dance Department has embedded its performance and production programs in a curriculum that requires a full complement of general education courses including English composition, math and natural sciences, social sciences, languages and literature.
All students in the drama program begin as BA candidates. Unlike conservatory schools no audition is required to be involved drama. In the first year the BA and BFA programs are the same and courses are applicable to either degree. These include Introduction to the Theatre, Play Analysis, Technical Theatre Production, and Acting or Theatre Design Fundamentals.
OUR PRODUCTIONS
The Department of Drama and Dance presents six plays and two dance concerts per year. One play is always the main offering of our Annual Shakespeare Festival, which has been celebrating the works of Shakespeare for over 50 years. One play, usually a comedy, is presented as a companion piece during the Festival to compliment the Shakespeare piece. One play is usually a musical. These three works were presented in a large proscenium theatre that seats over 1,100.
Three of the plays are presented in our new black box theatre that seats approximately 250. These plays range from recent off-Broadway works to period plays that profit from a more intimate setting. Further departmental productions are initiated by senior majors who mount plays in which they act with or direct other undergraduates. Casting is open to the entire university and directors do not discriminate between BA and BFA candidates, minors or non-majors.
Past productions include:
A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM
THE ADDING MACHINE
AH, WILDERNESS
ANYTHING GOES
BABY WITH THE BATHWATER
THE BALD SOPRANO/THE LESSON
THE BIRDS
CENSORED: ON FINAL APPROACH (World Premiere)
HEARTBREAK HOUSE
HEDDA GABLER
HENRY V
JULIUS CAESAR
KING LEAR (50th Annual Shakespeare Festival with Robert Stattel and Ben Hammer)
THE LARAMIE PROJECT
MOTHER COURAGE (with Lainie Kazan)
NO MERCY
PEER GYNT
RECKLESS
ROMEO AND JULIET
THE ROSE TATTOO
ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD
RASHOMON (inaugurated the first American College Theatre Festival)
THE SAINT PLAYS
THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH
STAGE DOOR
STRIKE UP THE BAND
SWEET CHARITY
TARTUFFE
THE THREE SISTERS
TWELFTH NIGHT
UNDER MILK WOOD
WAITING FOR GODOT
OUR STUDENTS
At present about 200 students majoring in Drama with about 50 minors. Our students come from all over the United States, including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. Our department has also welcomed international students from Barbados, Brazil, Greek Cyprus, and Japan.
STUDENT DRAMA CLUBS
Two extracurricular drama clubs with drama faculty advisers offer additional production opportunities. Directed and designed by students, Spectrum presents a children's play, an evening of experimental works and a full-length work every semester, and Masquerade Players mounts two musicals each year.
NATIONAL DRAMA HONOR FRATERNITY
The department hosts Alpha Psi Omega, Mu Psi chapter, a National Dramatic Honor Fraternity, which raises student scholarship funds, maintains a script library and conducts a free-form cabaret evening every week.
DANCE AT HOFSTRA
The undergraduate major in dance at Hofstra leads to a bachelor of arts with an emphasis in performance.
Although no audition is required for admission to the program, students must audition for placement. Since its inception in 1984, the Hofstra Dance Program, part of the Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has been and continues to be committed to offering the prospective dancer and the student of dance a professional-level dance education while integrating a rich experience in the liberal arts through Hofstra's core curriculum program. Students who wish to broaden their knowledge in the allied performing arts may elect to attend classes in music, film, and drama. A minor in one of these or other fields is also a possibility. In some cases, a student with clear focus and motivation may choose to double major in dance and some other discipline. The Dance Program encompasses both the practical and the theoretical, embracing the basic traditional foundations of dance while exploring contemporary ideas and forms as well. The curriculum emphasizes the development of a well-rounded artist with the possibility of pursuing careers in dance performance and choreography. In, addition the program provides a basis for advanced studies in areas such as dance therapy, dance research, arts management and exercise/sport sciences. Dance courses and the University's dedication to general education provide the opportunity for learning about the following careers in the field:
Choreographer - for dancers or companies.
Teacher - in public schools and private studios.
Dance Therapist - member of a creative arts team in a hospital setting.
Movement Notator and/or Reconstructor - of notated dance works.
Dance Critic - for newspapers and/or magazines.
Researcher - for television or film as an independent writer.
Archivist - for a library with an extensive dance collection.
Stage and Theater Designer or Technician - for dance companies.
Business Administrator - for a dance company, arts agency or individual performer.
Costume Designer - for dance companies, television or film. Physical Therapist. Basic skills and academic requirements prepare students for advanced training in these and other areas.
PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITIES
In addition to concerts presented by the Dance Program, students may audition for and perform in the full season of plays by the Drama Program, including a major musical at least once every two years, the annual opera or operetta by the Music Department, productions for television in the state-of-the-art studios at the School of Communication, and productions by the Hofstra Cultural Center, Hofstra USA and The Gray Wig.
MOVOM, a student-administered Hofstra Dance Program performance group, as well as the extracurricular groups DanceWorks, Imani, Spectrum, Fusion and Masquerade Players present further opportunities for performing on campus. The University's three major epartmental performance facilities include the 1,134-seat John Cranford Adams Playhouse, a new 240-seat flexible theater and the 99-seat Emily and Jerry Spiegel Theater. Performances are occasionally mounted in the 360-seat Hofstra USA space and the 320-seat Student Center Theater.