The Vassar Drama Department provides our students with a strong multidisciplinary approach to the practice of Theater-Making, the study of Theater History, Dramatic Literatures, Performance Studies, and Global Theatrical practices.
From the Chair
Well, y’all—we’ve done it. We’ve made it through (or at least reached the home stretch of) a very successful, very diverse, and very robust season of shows, along with an equally full academic year of classes.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on this website, you may have noticed a change in leadership—at least temporarily. I’ve stepped in as Chair for the remainder of the semester, just in time to tell you: Get to the Steerman New Play Festival next weekend! Order your tickets now! You’ll be glad you did. And I have to say—our new season is on fire. We’ve got it all: a classic play, a musical, work from alumni, and pieces written by both students and faculty.
For the 2026–27 season—Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome!—we’ll present the Tony, Olivier, and Oscar Award-winning Cabaret this fall, following our season opener: Jayne Deely’s funny, awkward comedy I Never Asked for a GoFundMe. In the spring, we’ll produce the dark comedy Are the Bennet Girls OK? by alumna Emily Breeze; a two-week workshop of The Exiled President by our beloved colleague and visiting artist Achiro Olwoch; and, of course, fresh new works from our student playwrights in the Steerman New Play Festival 2027. Phew—I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
We’re also expanding in exciting ways: new courses in design; a new self-tape studio made possible by generous donors; and a new fund that allows a student to shadow an artist in a Broadway house.
This program’s on fire. (Cue Alicia Keys—just swap “girl” for “program.”)
Shona Tucker
Professor of Drama on the Mary Riepma Ross '32 Chair and Chair of Drama
Why Vassar Drama?
Featuring Chair and Professor of Drama; Shona Tucker (the first African American female to chair the Drama Department)
Our study of theater engages theory and practice as inseparable, dynamically interrelated elements, and considers our Experimental Theater as a laboratory for the bold exploration of form incorporating the study of history, Historiography, and the intersection of race, gender, class, and queerness.
We assume that there is no one truth or correct methodology, but rather multiple solutions to the questions we pose. In addition, we work in tandem with other disciplines and departments on campus. We understand that our methods of inquiry, pedagogies, and practices are constantly evolving. Similarly, we strive to maintain the strongest possible ethics of equity and inclusion both in our educational goals, and hiring protocols.
The requirements for concentration allow each student a good deal of agency and individual choice, allowing students to take classes which explore Theater-Making, Dramatic Literature and the History/Theory of Theater, Scenography, Dramaturgy, Production methods, as well as courses in Acting, Movement for Actors, Extreme Performance, Directing, Playwriting, Stage Management, and Technical Theater.
The Drama curriculum reflects our mission for both non-majors and majors: to encourage students to read deeply and to understand the basics of literary-critical analysis through phenomenological and practical means. Drama 102, “Introduction to Theater-Making,” reflects our teaching philosophy and our collaborative process. It is designed to engage students as critical audience members, helping them to move beyond purely emotional reactions to critical judgment and analysis and to become effective and generous collaborators. In these ways, the course fulfills the college’s mission of helping students to develop their powers of reason and imagination through processes of embodied analysis and synthesis. Our culminating course, “Drama 390. Senior Project in Drama,” is an intensive and collaborative thesis that explores a particular text, or practice and can also consist of original work in Playwriting. Alternatively, we also strongly encourage scholarly research and critical writing as the basis for a thesis.
By the time drama majors leave Vassar, we expect students to have developed the ability to think critically about literature and production, text and performance, and to be able to express original critical and analytical thought through clear prose. Finally, we expect students to have gained an understanding of and practical ability in the various elements of theatrical production: acting, directing, playwriting, design, dramaturgy, and technical theater.
