Students on stage in Commedie of Errors

Launch a career in the arts with our Theatre major.

As of August 31, 2023, we are no longer accepting applications for the Bachelor of Arts in Theatre.

Our Theatre program develops future artists, educators, scholars and audience members who are imaginative, knowledgeable, skilled and socially responsible. Through critical research of the literature, history and theory of drama, and by developing practical skills in performance and production, working collaboratively and honing individual artistic passions, Theatre majors train to become self-sufficient actors, directors, playwrights, administrators, or theatrical technicians.

Mission Statement

The Theatre department develops future artists, educators, scholars and audience members who are imaginative, knowledgeable, skilled and socially responsible. Through critical research of the literature, history and theory of drama, and by developing practical skills in performance and production, working collaboratively and honing individual artistic passions, Theatre students train to become self-sufficient actors, directors, playwrights, administrators, or theatrical technicians.

Career Opportunities

Student Activities

Students majoring and minoring in theatre are encouraged to join Alpha Psi Omega, a national theatre honor society and volunteer organization.

Faculty

Here is a quick snapshot of a few of our faculty members. Read profiles of all of our distinguished faculty.

Megan Burnett

Megan Burnett, B.S., M.F.A., Associate Professor
Megan holds a Bachelor of Science in Radio-TV-Film Production from Texas Christian University, and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre from the University of Louisville. She received graduate theatre training at Oklahoma City University, working under famed opera and music theatre director Carveth Osterhaus before moving to Louisville and receiving her MFA in 1991. Megan was an English Speaking Union Teacher Scholar, taking the “Teaching Shakespeare through Performance” course at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London in 2004. She served as a Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund participant 2005, studying Kabuki, Noh and Bunraku as well as Japanese education practices in Tokyo and Hiroshima. Megan co-founded a theatre training school for adults: StageLab: Ongoing Training for Theatre Artists, and she was a co-founder and board member of The Pleiades Theatre Company. Ms Burnett received the Alice Lloyd College Campus Leadership and Excellence in Teaching Award in 2012. She is a 2014 recipient of a Post-Doctoral Faculty Fellowship from the Appalachian College Association.

Megan has worked in all aspects of radio, video production, film and theatre. She produced three radio drama productions for WMMT, a division of Appalshop and WWJD, Alice Lloyd College’s radio station. She directs for Jenny Wiley Theatre and serves on their board of directors. She works as a Voice and Text coach for area Shakespeare companies. She was a Narrator at the American Printing House for the Blind for several years. She has acted for professional theatre companies in Kentucky, Indiana, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma, and she also performs in her nationally touring production of a one-woman show, Shame the Devil! An Audience with Fanny Kemble.

Megan’s research interests include women in theatre, children’s theatre, Teaching Shakespeare through Performance, Kabuki theatre, and researching women to create plays about them. Right now she is researching Mattie Griffith Browne, a Kentucky Abolitionist and Suffragist with the goal of presenting a one-woman play about her in 2016. Megan is on the Speaker’s Bureau for the Kentucky Humanities Council and has given talks about Mattie Griffith Browne, as well as the Women of the Settlement Schools of Eastern Kentucky. Megan has presented papers and panels at the Southeastern Theatre Conference, Ohio Valley History Conference: Mattie Griffith Browne, Kentucky Abolitionist, Women of the Settlement Schools of Eastern Kentucky, JFK and the Power of Speech, Kentucky Theatre Association, and the Shakespeare in Contemporary Performance Symposium at Appalachian State University: 2014 ALC’s Caudill Players: A Model for Performing Shakespeare in Appalachia.

Most recently Megan published, produced and directed the play Alice Lloyd College: A Light Unto the Mountains. This was a devised script based on oral archives at ALC. National premiere in Washington, D.C. in 2013. Performed there and in Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina.

Dr. Zackary Ross

Dr. Zackary Ross, Fine Arts & Communication Division Chair / Associate Professor of Theatre
Dr. Zackary Ross has a Ph.D. in Theatre from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a master’s degree in Educational Theatre from New York University, and is an honors graduate of Lewis and Clark College’s theatre department in Portland, Oregon.

In addition to his experience as an educator, Zack is an active theatre artist. As a director, his most recent productions include Unrehearsed ShakespeareThe 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Blithe Spirit, 44 Plays for 44 Presidents, Tony Kushner's adaptation of The Good Person of Szechwan, Tennessee Williams' short play Adam and Eve on a Ferry, John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain, and Charles L. Mee's Orestes 2.0. As a Fight Director, he has recently staged Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Naomi Iizuka's Anon(ymous), Fancy Me Mad by Michelle Salerno & Juan Ramiez, House of Desires by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, and Dying City by Christopher Shinn. As and actor, he has appeared most recently in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark, The Neo-futurists Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, Christopher Durang's The Actor’s Nightmare, and Wendy Kesselman's adaptation of The Dairy of Anne Frank. His dramaturgy credits include The Illusion freely adapted from Pierre Corneille’s L’Illusion Comique by Tony Kushner, Iphigenia and Other Daughters by Ellen McLaughlin, and Buried Child by Sam Shepard.

Zack's research interests include theatrical adaptation, contemporary drama, theatre and social change, early modern drama, and trauma studies.

Accreditation

Bellarmine University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award baccalaureate, masters, and doctorate degrees.

Contact Information

  • Mark Kano, Ph.D.
  • Fine Arts & Communication Division Chair
  • Phone: 502.272.8345

Learn more about Bellarmine University.
Provide your information below and we will be in touch.

Loading...