Assessment

I. Mission Statement

Theatre and Dance, as studied at the College of Wooster, emphasizes the relationship between scholarship and artistry, investigating both the range and depth of the human experience. The Theatre and Dance Major and Minor curriculums offer a broad range of knowledge designed to examine acting, directing, dance, design and technology, history, literature, playwriting, and theory, focusing in each area on the importance of analyzing texts in their various modes: the written text, the visual text, and the physical text. While the Theatre and Dance student may choose to specialize in one of these particular areas of the discipline for their Senior Independent Study, the departmental philosophy remains dedicated to the liberal arts belief in developing, through its interdisciplinary curricular structure, a combination of historical and critical analysis in relationship to the study of various performance texts, resulting in the creation of the artist/scholar. The artist/scholar model also informs the departmental production season, and contributes to the diversity of traditional and non-canonical performance and course offerings.

II. Student Learning Goals:

1. Developing the Artist/Scholar:

Students are expected to be proficient in the methodologies of creating artistic works and scholarly documents, and acquire the ability to integrate both methods as ways of knowing.

2. Establishing a Knowledge Base:

Students are expected to establish a disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge base that they can apply toward their individual creative and scholarly work.

3. Communication:

Based on a common performance vocabulary drawn from written, visual and physical texts, students are expected to acquire proficiency in the artistic and scholarly processes, as well as the ability to reflect upon their work in an engaging, artistic and constructive way.

4. Application and Reflection:

Students are expected to critically, creatively and objectively apply concepts, theories, and methodologies to a variety of issues encountered in current and future academic, personal and professional contexts.