Alpha Psi Omega

Waldorf University Theatre is home to the Alpha Epsilon Omega cast of Alpha Psi Omega National Theatre Honor Society (APO). APO is a society for highly involved theatre students  (both majors and non-majors) that serves the theatre program by sponsoring events and fund raisers, assisting in workshops and career development programs for the department, and working to develop future theatre trips to Minneapolis, Chicago, New York and London.

Black Box/Loose Change Program

Waldorf theatre students operate their own theatre space, the Waldorf University Black Box. The Black Box can be used as a rehearsal and performance space and is operated exclusively by and for students. Any student can propose a “Loose Change” production for the Black Box. A Loose Change production is a student-directed production of a full-length play or one-act.

Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival

Waldorf University is an active member in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. We invite KCACTF members to view our season shows and to deliver a response. Certain productions may be selected to travel to KCACTF regional festivals. KCACTF respondents also select student actors for the Irene Ryan Acting Competition. Each winter, our student and faculty travel to the regional festival for workshops, competition and a fine series of plays from our region.

Original Practices at Waldorf University

Each fall, Waldorf Theatre presents a work of Shakespeare as part of its season. While Shakespeare can be intimidating to a lot of people, we try to approach Shakespeare as he would have: an engaging experience that seeks out actor-audience interaction. In order to approach this interactive experience, we use several of Shakespeare’s “original staging practices” including universal lighting, live acoustic music and many others. We equip our actors with everything they need to speak Shakespeare’s words clearly with precise understandings of the line and a sense of play. Each May, students work with theatre faculty to form a production company that performs work using the original practices model.

The 24-Hour Theatre Project

Each year, Waldorf University Theatre produces the 24-hour Theatre Project (24HTP), in which members of the Waldorf community write, rehearse, memorize, costume, design the set/lights/sound and perform a production within one 24-hour period.

Theatre Camp

Required for all theatre scholarship recipients, theatre camp occurs in late August and serves as a “warm up” for the year. We engage in workshops, improvisation, theatre work calls, scholarship meetings, movies, and more.

Theatre Leadership

Each year, students can interview to be a theatre leader. These hired positions for those eligible for federal or institutional work study allow students to take a significant role in the management or operation of the Waldorf University theatre season. Positions include assistant technical director, box office manager, costume shop manager, head of house operations, lighting designer, set designer and more.

Theatre Scholarships

We award scholarships to majors and non-majors. Students under scholarship usually maintain weekly work hours in the theatre shops and box office and also audition (actors) or interview (technicians) for our season shows.