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Faculty & Student Scholarship

Scholarship in the arts takes many forms. In the theatre, it is usually very public in nature, from performing a role to designing the set, lights or costumes for a production. The theatre department at Birmingham-Southern College not only emphasizes this public type of scholarship, but it also highly values the traditional style of academic scholarship, from publishing articles and even new scripts to the senior paper which articulates the individual student's capstone experience in the major.

In this section of our web site you will find scholarship in a variety of forms, all based on the verycollaborative, ensemble nature of the theatre program at BSC.

Professionalism within the Theatre Rehearsal Process

Senior Anna Rose MacArthur examines the meaning of professionalism within the context of her four years at Birmingham-Southern College. Anna Rose’s diverse challenges at BSC include: actor, dramaturg, assistant and co-director, and assistant stage manager.

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The Cornerstone by John McGinnis

Senior John McGinnis reflects on the development of his process as an actor. He writes in detail of his work on the challenging characters of Captain Keller in The Miracle Worker and Hamlet in Shakespeare's great play.

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Elisabeth Tutwiler was the light designer for the BSC Theatre production of You Can't Take It With You.

It was staged on the BSC Mainstage in April 2009. Here is a copy of her light plot. She drafted it in Vectorworks 12.5 CADD software. Click here for photos.

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Singing and Staging the Songs of Stephen Sondheim: A Journey into the Mind of America's Greatest Musical Theatre Composer and Lyricist

A sabbatical presentation by BSC Professor Michael Flowers. A VodCast of the presentation is available in both .WMV or .MP4 format.

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Study guide for Dead Man Walking
Compiled by Musical Theatre Major Skyler Vallo

During the 2009 interim the Birmingham-Southern Department of Theatre and Dance produced the play Dead Man Walking. The play was adapted by Tim Robbins from the book with the same title written by Sister Helen Prejean. The play focuses on the relationship between a nun, Sister Helen, and the death row inmate Matt Poncelet. As part of her senior interim project, Musical Theatre Major Skyler Vallo compiled a study guide to be used for area high schools who came to see two special morning performances of the production.

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From the Deep South to the Far North

How to Take a Show to the Fringe in Edinburgh
by the Miss Julie Company

Faculty, students and staff collaborated on an article about the process of taking productions to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in Scotland. The article was published in Southern Theatre, a publication of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, the largest regional theatre conference in the country. Our collaboration, The Miss Julie Project, was supported by an Undergraduate Collaborative Research and Engagement Grant from the Associated Colleges of the South and the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation. Reprinted with permission from Southern Theatre, quarterly magazine of the Southeastern Theatre Conference (www.setc.org)

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Study Guide for Miss Julie
written by the Miss Julie Company

The Theatre Program presented the world premiere an updated telling of August Strindberg's classic play Miss Julie at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. The Miss Julie Project was supported by an Undergraduate Collaborative Research and Engagement Grant from the Associated Colleges of the South and the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation. The study guide was developed by the Company.

 

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Study Guide for Dollhouse
compiled by Senior Theatre Major Sarah Jones

1987 BSC graduate Rebecca Gilman has written an exciting and contemporary adaptation of the classic A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. Thanks to the generosity of Ms. Gilman and Chicago's Goodman Theatre, where the play was originally produced, the Birmingham-Southern Theatre Department was granted permission to perform the play during Interim, 2006. Senior theatre major Sarah Jones, as a part of her senior project, complied a study guide for use by four area high school theatre programs, all of whom came to see a special morning performance of the show.

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Student set design for The Diary of Anne Frank

Faculty and student collaboration is at the heart of senior theatre major Brie Quinn's set design for The Diary of Anne Frank. Mentored by BSC theatre faculty members Alan Litsey and Matthew Mielke, the culmination of many months of work is seen here in photos of her set model and the paper she wrote as a part of her senior project in theatre.

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All I Really Need to Know I Learned in…Agnes of God
A Senior Paper by Kathryn Holmes

As her theatre senior project, Katie Holmes writes about her four years at Birmingham-Southern, focusing on her experience playing Mother Miriam Ruth in the Interim 2005 production of Agnes of God. Her paper is another example of the kind of scholarship produced by students in the BSC theatre department.

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What Century is it, Anyway?
An article by Professor Nira Pulllin and Dr. Alan Litsey

Dr. Alan Litsey, Associate Professor of Theatre and Chair of the Division of Fine and Performing Arts, has collaborated with a colleague at Wayne State University on an article about period movement in the theatre. The article was recently published in Southern Theatre, a publication of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, the largest regional theatre conference in the country. The photographs, taken by BSC theatre professor Matthew Mielke, are from previous theatre department productions. 

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Student Spotlight:

They're going places

Members of the Class of 2013 have made big plans for the summer and beyond.

Campus Spotlight:

Commencement festivities

View a video of the graduation ceremonies held during the weeklong celebration of the BSC Class of 2013.