Theater, Film, and Media Studies
Tesfaye Negussie (as Henry Antrobus) and Liz O'Sullivan (as Gladys Antrobus) in Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth (2002). Every year, TFMS mounts 3-4 main stage productions in the Bruce Davis Theater, including classical, experimental, and original plays, dance concerts, musicals, and plays from various cultures and periods of history. A recent season (2005-2006) included the musical Hair, the Spanish Golden Age classic Fuente Ovejuna, and an original play, The Cocoonery, written by professor of theater and dance, Merideth Taylor. Click here for a gallery of photos.
"When I graduated from St. Mary's as a theater major, I realized I had received not just a degree, but a true education. The department not only gave me a foundation in the theory and practice of my craft, but most importantly an opportunity to ignite as an artist and to develop a style and interest in challenging theatrical material, which led me on fascinating journeys after I left the school."
--A. Lorraine Robinson '92
Theater, Film, and Media Studies (TFMS) houses a variety of opportunities for students to study and practice the arts of stage and screen. Majors, minors, and non-majors alike enroll in a wide array of courses, including acting, directing, movement, dance, filmmaking, stage design, costume design, lighting design, stagecraft, writing for stage and screen, Japanese film and performance traditions, and the study of subjects in theater, film, and media. Students also participate energetically in our continuous series of theatrical productions, dance concerts, film productions, workshops, and guest performances and residencies. TFMS prides itself on having one of the most complete and current all-around programs available in a liberal arts college.
Students may major or minor in either theater studies or film and media studies. Both focuses are fundamentally collaborative and multidisciplinary -- they thrive in a liberal arts context that promotes breadth and integration of learning. Additionally, we provide opportunities for students to produce their own works and to collaborate on projects with faculty members and other students.
St. Mary's Project (SMP)
Students majoring in TFMS have a variety of ways to culminate their studies through a senior experience, including opportunities for various capstone projects, advanced courses in specialized areas of study and practice, or a St. Mary’s Project. Examples of recent TFMS St. Mary’s Projects by majors and non-majors include:
- Documentary and experimental filmmaking
- Screenwriting and storyboarding for film
- Signs of Life (stage directing)
- The Miser (costume design)
- The Road to Kyoto!, kabuki theater in translation (set design)
- My Soul Has Grown Deep, student-conceived original performance piece (playwriting and stage directing)
- Field work teaching theater to middle-school students
- Undergraduate theses on Third World Cinema; Slash Culture in Internet Fandom; Environmentalism in Postmodern Performance; Representations of Lesbianism in Teen Films; Gender, Sexuality, and Cyberspace
Travel Abroad
In addition to regular opportunities to study abroad with our annual London tour and our study tour featuring aesthetics and performance in Japan, students in TFMS have studied abroad in Great Britain, The Netherlands, Italy, The Gambia, Thailand, India, Australia, and Latin America. TFMS students have incorporated their research and/or independent study into their travel abroad experiences.
Life After St. Mary's
Theater, Film, and Media Studies prepares its students for success in a variety of graduate fields and professional opportunities. In recent years, students majoring and minoring in TFMS have attended such graduate schools as:
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Students have entered a number of career fields, including:
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Special Opportunities
Theater, Film, and Media Studies sponsors a rich variety of co-curricular opportunities, both on- and off-campus. Some of these include:
- An active guest residency program, including visits by Nobel Prize-winning playwright Wole Soyinka; Peter Schumann and the Bread and Puppet Theater; experimental filmmakers Yvonne Rainer and Laura Kipnis; documentary filmmakers John Wilhelm and Sally Squires; performance artists Peggy Shaw, Robbie McCauley, and John O’Neal; and workshops and performances by award-winning Teatro Luna (Chicago-based all-Latina performance ensemble co-founded by SMCM theater alum, Coya Paz, ’97)
- Unique curriculum in Japanese theater, film, and media studies, including animé and manga and classical Japanese performance traditions
- Theater seasons on the main stage and in the student-run black box performance space. Faculty-student dance concerts as part of the main stage season every three years.
- Field trips to museums and theaters in Washington, D.C., including the Folger Shakespeare Library and its Elizabethan Theater
- Open access to state-of-the-art digital filmmaking labs and studios
- Annual film festivals on various topics, genres, and forms
For more information, visit the Theater, Film, and Media Studies Web site at
http://www.smcm.edu/tfms/