Theatre at Aquinas College

Where does theatre happen? Who is it for? What is its purpose? We believe that theatre is and has always been a place where communities come together to discuss and embrace who they are. We want our shows to engage with real community issues whenever possible, and to connect with our community directly. Theatre should inspire conversations that persist long after the house lights come up at the end of the show, and we take our role in those conversations seriously.

As a program dedicated to Theatre for Social Change, we also embrace the work of practitioners and theorists like Bertolt Brecht, Dorothy Heathcote, and Augusto Boal, who all felt that the skills we use to make theatre can be brought to bear outside of the traditional theatre space in order to effect change. How does pretend play help children learn other subjects? How can communities use improvisation to really explore problems and solutions in their own lives? This vast and important area of theatre drives how we think about both our traditional protections and other education projects.