Theatre Third Year Review Report - May 2008

Evaluation Rubric

Program: Theatre and Dance
Report Prepared By: Ernie Nolan
Current Assessment Contact: Ernie Nolan
Additional Faculty Contacts if Desired: None

Assessment Plan

• What are the program’s educational goals?

Mission.  The Theatre & Dance Area of the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts offers undergraduate students the educational experiences and environments that promote their complete development as artists/scholars.

We value theatre as a rich, exciting and demanding collaborative art. Achieving artistic excellence in a liberal arts setting and preparing students for a lifetime of continuous learning in studio and production work is our focus.   

Our Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree offers unique programs of specialized study within a liberal arts context. Specialization occurs in the professional areas of acting or design. Our Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree offers comprehensive theatrical programs designed to incorporate specific disciplines in a broader educational context.

At the completion of their major programs:

            1.         Students will be able to comprehend and articulate, in both oral and written forms, the history, theories and factual information concerning their area of concentration.  They will be well-informed with a global view of their field while analyzing, comparing and contrasting the similarities of many cultures and historical periods.
            2.         Students will be able to comprehend and practice the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in their areas of concentration.
            3.         Students will be able to demonstrate, through some form of performance or presentation, their mastery of learned skills.
           4.         Students will emerge as curious, objective and critical thinkers with the necessary skills to succeed in an audition and/or professional interview situation.

• What assessment techniques did the program use?

The faculty of the Theatre Area used a variety of formal and informal assessment techniques during the 2007-2008 academic year. These included the following as delineated in our assessment plan.

• Portfolio Reviews of Class and Production work
• Academic Advising
• Production Auditions
• Annual Student Reviews (Freshman, Midcourse, Exit)
• Review of BFA Students
• Scholarship Auditions/Portfolios
• Faculty Assessment of Student Progress in Each Course
• Course Assessments by Students

An outside guest in the Acting I and III classes also brought valuable insight to the performance faculty. A visiting Chicago Casting Director delivered wonderful feedback about the work of the acting students as well as some needed areas of improvement.

• What has your program done with assessment information this year?

Information collected from assessment techniques informed many decisions for the area throughout the academic year, most importantly season selection. For example, work presented in auditions and portfolios reviews was then taken into consideration. Both the scholarly and creative work of the students helped the faculty to select material to be produced as well as casting. Scholarships were also awarded based on production and classroom work.

Assessment data also significantly contributed to and guided curricula revisions. The design tech faculty continued to offer workshops to prepare students for their reviews, Acting III was added to the Fall 2007 semester schedule, Acting IV/V was also added for the Spring 2008 schedule, in addition to these classes Stage Management was also offered. Because of the large number of continuing performance students, plans were made to offer Voice and Movement in the Fall of 2009. Plans for performance students to have workshops for reviews were also made.

• After reflecting on assessment activities in your unit, as a result of assessment what are two issues you would like to address?

Due to the number of relatively new Theatre faculty, we plan on continuing to examine and refine our assessment plan. Secondly, we intend to work on communication in regards to additional curricula revisions based on assessment data.