Undergraduate Programs

The Centrality of the Performing Act
 Focusing in the Centrality of the Performing Act

Interpretation/Performance Studies at Eastern Michigan University is grounded in the belief that the performing act is the center from which all other expressions evolve. Coursework and co-curricular in creative and scholarly exploration of performers, texts and contexts.

Our mission is to provide courses and co-curricular activities that will engage students in a comprehensive, meaningful and rich process, one that initiates and culminates in creative and scholarly explorations of performers, texts, and contexts. This specialized concentration allows students within MA programs to pursue advanced study of the nature and interaction of performance, performance acts, texts, and contexts situated in the human experience. Through performance and scholarship, Interpretation /Performance Studies (I/PS) addresses questions related to literary study and aesthetics, cultural diversity, and postmodern performance acts and critical perspectives.

The full program for the MA is 30 hours of coursework which includes the completion of one of the following options: thesis, creative project, or exams.

I/PS Course Work Opportunities

Interpretation Courses:

  • Interpretation of Poetry*
  • Studies in Performing Drama
  • Interpretation of Shakespeare*
  • Adapting & Directing Narrative Theatre

Performance Studies Courses:

  • Interactive Theatre and Performance (Peformance & Social Change)
  • Personal Narratives/Oral History in Performance
  • Text, and Context (Topics vary and have included: Performing the Self, Performance Art, Performing Advocacy, and Performance and Women’s Plays and Theatre)
  • Seminar in Interpretation: Critical Theory and Performance

Voice Courses:

  • Voice Development*
  • Dynamic Speaking Skills*
  • Voice and Dialects*

* Denotes Undergraduate courses approved for Graduate credit.

I/PS Co-Curricular Opportunities

  • Productions on the Mainstage Theatre Bill
  • Student/Faculty “Spotlight Series” Productions
  • Monthly Performance Hours
  • Specialized Workshops
  • Participation in National Performance Festivals
  • Performance Studies “Read-a-thon” - a celebration of performance and fund raiser for student events Guest Artists such as W.D. Snodgrass, Sara Daniels, Elyse Pineau, Barbara Neri, and Maxine Hong Kingston
  • Six Figures Playback Theatre Company-A student troupe exploring social issues through performance
  • Project YES Players - A Student Performance Group in collaboration with the LGBT Resource Center on campus who focus on the goals of inclusion and reduction of homophobia and heterosexism

RECENT M.A. THESES/PROJECTS

  • Consuming Presence: Exploring "Mindfulness" through Participatory Food Ritual.
  • Re-"Vamping" Performance: Utilizing Striptease Research and Literature to Explore Tension between Communication, Sexuality, and Performance.
  • "Suntrails: Stories of the People," An Original Script and Production of the Experiences Michigan Native Americans
  • Ourstories: A handbook onCollecting, Scripting and Performing Oral Histories
  • An Adaptation for GroupPerformance of Anne Tyler's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
  • "Boys Will Be Boys: The Experience of Mothering Sons" An Original Script
  • "Lifestories/Changes in the Making,"
    A Script and Production from Oral
    Histories Exploring AIDS and the University
  • An Adaptation and One-Person Performance of Joyce Carol Oates'Expensive People

Meet MA Graduates:

  • Interpretation/Performance Studies students pursue a host of professional and personal agendas after completing their graduate programs with us including:
  • Entering Ph.D. programs to continue training in higher education
  • Teaching at the secondary level as well as at Community Colleges and Universities
  • Performing: actors, performance artists, professional story tellers, dancers/choreographers, stand-up comedians
  • Creative writing & writing for performance
  • Coaching forensics
  • Working in community outreach with non-profit agencies
  • Adapting and directing for the stage
  • Serving as artistic director for professional theatre development
  • Community activists

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Undergraduate Programs