Performance opportunities
If you have a passion for musical theatre, you can find success on stage or behind the scenes. Our program produces a diverse season of productions, involving students throughout the School of Fine Arts and across campus. These productions include fully produced musicals and operatic projects.
Exciting and Responsive Curriculum
We offer three minors in theatre:
- Theatre
- Musical Theatre
- Movie, Animation, and Stage Performance (MASA)
Our tight-knit faculty will work with you to tailor your studies to your goals and interests.
NSU Opera/Theatre
Combining a rich history of ambitious musical theatre and imaginative opera projects, Northern State University’s Opera-Theatre program offers a dynamic environment where students refine their craft with nurturing faculty, gain extensive performance experience, and collaborate with talented musicians in fully staged productions. Our program has proven to be an excellent place for emerging singers, many of whom have gone on to further study at some of the nation's finest graduate schools, and then on to accomplished careers with prominent companies around the world.
Direction by a world-class faculty focused on student success and artistic improvement provides unique expertise that few university programs of our size and scope can match. Guest directors are also brought in from across the country to provide students with authentic, industry-standard production experience, preparing them for future success as singing actors or teachers.
Recent musical theatre highlights include The Sound of Music, Les Misérables, Mary Poppins, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Man of La Mancha. Opera-specific productions have featured engaging works of varied types, including Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, and the world-premiere of Michael Ching’s Hazel Miner: Opera in One Act.
Production facilities
Productions are staged annually in the recently renovated Johnson Fine Arts Center. This beautiful, state-of-the-art facility now boasts a shared 1,011-seat proscenium mainstage theater (Harvey and Cynthia Jewett Theater), as well as a purpose built/flexible seating 150-seat Black Box Theater for performance and instruction. Take a virtual tour of the Johnson Fine Arts Center.
Masquers
Northern's club for theatre enthusiasts has remained active and vibrant since its inception in 1923.