Drama Program: Graduate Program

About the Program

The Graduate Program in Drama concentrates on particular areas of theatre history, theory and criticism, and dramatic literature, with an emphasis on original research. Our goal is to train theatre historians and scholar-artists who will be capable both of contributing to the field and of injecting their expertise and knowledge into the living theatre. Students graduating from the Doctoral program are frequently offered tenure-track positions at a variety of colleges across the country. Current alumni are teaching at Yale University (head of undergraduate drama), Virginia Commonwealth University (head of graduate studies), University of Maryland at College Park, University of California at Irvine, Southern Illinois University, University of Washington (Seattle), University of Massachusetts at Boston, University of New Hampshire (department chair), Santa Clara University, Ohio Wesleyan, Illinois College, Suffolk University (director of theatre), amongst others.

Course Offerings
While each faculty member has mastered specific areas of specialization, course offerings remain diverse, encompassing a wide range of theatre history, performance, and theory. Recent graduate seminars include: Nineteenth-Century American Theatre, Early Twentieth-Century American Theatre, Domestic Tragedy, Post-Colonial Performance, Ibsen and Strindberg, Shakespeare Production Histories, Performance Theory, Molière, History of Popular Entertainment, Pre- and Post-Revolutionary Russian Theatre, Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Theatre Iconography, and History of Directing. The department offers three graduate seminars every semester, and also allows students to pursue other advanced courses or independent study, as well as related courses in other departments such as History, English, Classics, Romance Languages, German, Russian, and Asian Languages, Art History, Philosophy, and Anthropology, or by special arrangement (with no extra cost) at Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, Northeastern, Radcliffe Women’s Studies Consortium, and the Tufts University Summer School.

Research Facilities
As one of the only Ph. D. programs in drama in New England, we are ideally situated to take advantage of the many outstanding area research libraries, special collections, and unique programs available at a number of neighboring institutions. Access to the Harvard Theatre Collection allows students to get hands-on experience in the study of documents and primary sources. The Harvard Theatre Collection is the oldest collection of its kind in the country, and one of the largest anywhere in the world. We are in proximity to such renowned collections as the Shubert Archive, the Boston Athenaeum, the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, and the American Antiquarian Society. Recent renovations to the Tisch Library at Tufts increased its holdings to over a million volumes. Tufts also participates in a regional library consortium, so that students have access to materials at other institutions, such as Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, Brown, MIT, Northeastern, UMass Amherst, Wellesley, and the Boston Public Library.

Student Publications and Presentations
In addition to our strong commitment to academic growth within the Department, the faculty realizes that presentation and publication are significant concerns for graduate students. With that in mind, we actively encourage and help to advise student work for conferences and journal submissions. Partial or full funding is available for conference and research travel. Recent presentations and publications by graduate students include:

• Kyna Hamill presented papers on stage combat at the University of Hull, the Association of Canadian Theatre Research, Dalhousie University and the Theatre Iconography Conference at University of Toronto. She also published The Fight: Classical to Contemporary Stage Fight Scenes (Smith and Kraus).
• Jacqueline Romeo delivered a paper on the play The Yellow Jacket and Mei Lanfang at the Comparative Drama Conference, Ohio State University.
• Chris Scully spoke on filming Shakespeare at the Midwest Modern Language Association conference in Minneapolis. He also published "Taunton's H.M.S. Pinafore Craze" in The Old Colony Historical Society Newsletter.
• Valerie Smith launched a cross-cultural studies course on theatre and politics in the Czech Republic, which visited the Quadrennial of Stage and Design and Theatre Architecture in Prague. She also published an entry on Lee Breuer in Facts on File Companion to American Drama.
• Susan Thompson spoke on movement theatre at the ATHE conference in New York.
• Olivia Turnbull and Sunil Swaroop presented joint papers on The Laramie Project and docudrama at the Far West Popular Culture Association, Las Vegas, and with Brian Cronin the Popular Culture Association, New Orleans.

Recent student awards include: Kyna Hamill, The Kalman A. Burnim Award for service to the graduate program in Drama, and a student research travel grant from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; other travel grants were awarded to Jacqueline Romeo and Laurence Tocci. Sunil Swaroop received an award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education from the Graduate School. Chris Scully and Laurence Tocci were awarded Research grants-in-aid from the Graduate School for their respective projects, "Reconstructing Shakespeare's American Stage" and "The Proscenium Cage: Comparative Case Studies in American Prison Theatre Programs."

Performance Opportunities
Though most of our graduate students bring to Tufts a strong background in theatre production, the emphasis of our program is on scholarship rather than performance work. Graduate students are encouraged to be dramaturges for faculty-directed productions and may receive one credit for doing so if they complete a research paper as part of their work. The Department offers three major productions per year, so students have ample opportunity to work as a dramaturge or assistant director at least once during their time at Tufts. In recent years, graduate students have also been involved with mask work, design, choreography and stage combat in departmental productions. There are many extra-curricular chances to act, direct, or design both on and off campus, but students are recommended to balance such activities with their scholarly pursuits.

Teaching Opportunities
Since Tufts recognizes that preparation for academic employment is a significant part of the education it provides, graduate students in the program are offered a variety of ways to achieve teaching and lecturing experience. In general, first-year students are exempt from teaching responsibilities, but by the second or third year of the program, most students will have served as a Teaching Assistant. Assignments are based on prior experience, areas of interest, and academic performance. Some graduate students with substantial acting or directing credits and/or prior teaching experience serve as instructors for the Introduction to Acting classes. Others serve as teaching assistants for classes such as Comedy and Tragedy: Introduction to Drama, Twentieth-Century Drama, Asian Performance, Theatre and Society, Shakespeare on Film, African-American Theatre and Film, Asian-American Theatre and Film, Film in India, Gay and Lesbian Theatre and Film, The American Musical, Hollywood Comedy or Screenwriting. While responsibilities for each course vary, teaching assistants gain experience grading undergraduate work, helping to prepare assignments or tests, leading discussion, and lecturing on designated topics. Students at the dissertation level frequently find part-time faculty positions at the area’s many institutions, including Boston College, Boston University, Emerson College, Pine Manor College, Regis College, Quincy College, Suffolk University, and Northeastern University. Many students have also found summer employment with the Tufts Children’s Theatre program.

Graduate Colloquium
The Department augments education in the classroom with a graduate colloquium held in the Spring. These meetings provide students and faculty with the opportunity to present work and to receive comments and suggestions. The colloquium series also allows students to discuss various items of interest or concern, such as structuring of syllabi, drafting grant proposals, writing effective resumes and cover letters, or preparing work for presentation and/or publication. Other recent topics have included satirical comedy, national identity and performance, cross-gendered performance, and movement theatre.

In addition, each semester there is a round-table at which students engaged on Masters theses and doctoral dissertations discuss their problems and progress.