Theatre
General InformationIn an increasingly global environment where information courses instantaneously around the world, the disciplines devoted to the human word, to human communication, to the world's languages and literatures, its philosophies and religions and cultures remain vital. It is the mission of the Department of English and Humanities to prepare its students to participate in this global, information society by providing them with the critical, questioning, imaginative, and interpretive abilities they will need to succeed in college, in their careers, and in life. Majors in the Department of English and Humanities accept the invitation to intellectual adventure and self-exploration, and in so doing develop the skills and acquire the knowledge essential for understanding tomorrow's challenges.
The Theatre Major
If you love theatre and want to be part of a vital performance program where you will get chances, even as a freshman, to work on and off stage, then a theatre major at York College may be what you want. With a major in theatre you will learn how to write and analyze texts and documents, solve problems quickly and effectively, speak energetically and dramatically to audiences of all kinds and sizes, and contribute significantly to any group or team.
A background in theatre will prepare you for careers in education, management, marketing, advertising, law, and public policy, as well as professional and graduate theatre programs. You will offer to prospective employers the valuable skills of creativity, imagination, independence of thought and action, patience, self-discipline, flexibility, initiative, teamwork, and dedication. Your energy, enthusiasm, strong work ethic, self-confidence, versatility, responsibility, and commitment will identify you as a well-rounded liberal arts graduate who can speak articulately, give confident presentations, and thrive under pressure.
So even if a career in professional theatre turns out to be a dream, you will have prepared yourself to compete happily for a wide variety of opportunities. And you will have had a college experience full of fun, great friends, excitements, challenges, and satisfactions.
Special Opportunities
Students interested in the dramatic arts have a number of opportunities to become involved in the theatre at York College. The department's theatre troupe, Players, mounts numerous productions annually, many of them directed by students. From set-design and construction, lighting, costume, and direction, students play a large role in the department's theatre productions. The annual Student One-Acts gives students an opportunity to submit their own scripts and direct one-act productions. In addition to its main stage in the DeMeester Theatre, an experimental theatre space has been developed for small performances and student theatrical efforts called "The Perko Playpen Theatre." The Department also supports an active Film Society, a student-run organization dedicated to the serious examination and discussion of movies-particularly classic films, independent films, documentaries, and foreign films. The Film Society serves students at York College interested in viewing and discussing films by providing regular opportunities for members to attend movie screenings held at on- or off-campus venues and gather together for conversation afterward.
Students in the department enjoy many opportunities to work closely with one another, with departmental faculty, and with visiting lecturers. The department publishes an annual student literary journal, The York Review, which includes poetry, fiction, essays, photography, and art. The department sponsors an annual creative writing contest, funded by the Bob Hoffman Foundation, providing awards for poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. The department organizes the annual "Humanities Lecture and Film Series," which brings noted scholars, writers, and performers to campus to meet with students, conduct special lectures and discussions in the classroom, and speak to the campus community. The department also regularly sponsors student socials, poetry readings, panel discussions, and workshops on careers for liberal arts majors and for students interested in graduate school.
Career Opportunities
While the widespread assumption is that majors in the traditional liberal arts are unemployable, in fact they enjoy great success in the job market. Especially in today's world, with its ever-accelerating rate of change, graduates need a set of broad-based abilities that will enable them to take advantage of a variety of professional challenges. Graduates of the English and Humanities Department have excelled in a variety of fields, including publishing, governmental and non-governmental agencies, insurance, the law, and public relations. Representative career paths for majors from the English and Humanities Department include: Pre-Professional
- Law
- Medicine
- Ministry
- Administrative Assistant
- CIA staff member
- Congressional staff member
- Policy Analyst
- Teaching
- College Professor
- Admissions Officer
- Alumni Relations
- Educational Tester
- Development Officer
- Student Life
- Acting
- Stage Manager
- Arts Administrator
- Museum Administrator
- Advertising
- Corporate Communications
- Publishing
- Executive/Management trainee
- Market analyst
- Technical Writing
- Medical Writing
- Freelance Writer
- Magazine Editor
- Web Design
- Web Content Development
Theatre Performance and Production
- THE205-Text Performance
- THE254-Introduction to Theatre
- THE258-Stagecraft
- THE262-Acting
- THE355-Advanced Acting
- THE350-3-Theatre Practicum
- THE499-Independent Study: Directing
- LIT210-Studies in Criticism and Theory
- THE360-History of Theatre I
- THE361-History of Theatre II
- LIT323-Shakespeare I or LIT324-Shakespeare II or THE380-Special Topics in Theatre
- LIT416-Modern Drama
In Text Performance students examine short poetry, prose, and drama cuttings and read them (with text) to the class audience who write critiques and evaluate the performances. As in Acting, students concentrate on the Alexander Technique and voice production as elementary essentials of successful performance of any kind. In Advanced Acting students have an opportunity to develop their skills and apply them to stylized performances of plays from earlier times and conventions. Stagecraft might also be called Stage Design because students create not only models for projected shows but also lighting plots and costume plates, covering in one class the essentials of stage design. Students in Theatre Practicum use saws, hammers, paint, brushes, and rollers to create the sets used for the plays performed by the department's theatre troupe, Players. It's a hands-on class and can also be used as credit for involvement in play performance. The Independent Study in Directing is the major project for a senior Theatre major or minor. The students, with the guidance and agreement of the Theatre Director, select the show they plan to direct, design sets, costumes, and lighting, cast the show, rehearse it, plan for promotion and publicity, strike the set after the last performance, keep a daily journal of their progress, and write a final analysis of all that was involved in the production. In our Special Topics courses we may read a particular author (Beckett, Nigro, Ibsen, Chekhov, Shepard), look at a particular time and place in theatre history (the off-off-Broadway scene in the 1960's, English Restoration Drama), or a genre not covered in the History of Theatre courses (melodrama, detective plays, experimental theatre). In History of Theatre I students read and perform scenes from Greek, Roman, Medieval, and early Elizabethan plays; in History of Theatre II the focus is on English Renaissance, Restoration, 18th, and 19th century dramas. Modern Drama picks up with Ibsen in the late 19th century and covers major plays of the 20th century.
Faculty Highlights
The faculty of the English and Humanities Department work collaboratively to provide students with an opportunity to develop an awareness of foreign language and culture, an understanding of the rhetorical dimension of language use and text production, hands-on experience in dramatic performance and directing, and a strong intellectual background in the form of literary, philosophical, and religious analysis of a wide variety of texts.
Gabriel Abudu, B.A., University of Ghana; Ph.D., Temple University, an authority on twentieth-century Afro-Cuban poetry, frequently publishes on Nancy Morejon, a major literary figure of our time.
Julie S. Amberg, B.A., Boston University, Ph.D., Tulane University, has research interests in early American literature, women's literature, and linguistics. She is currently completing work on a textbook under contract on language and linguistics.
Mary Boldt, B.A., Wilson College, M.A., Ph.D. Brown University, teaches French and German and has interests in foreign language across the curriculum, second language acquisition, and international studies.
Dominic DelliCarpini, B.A., University of Pennsylvania; Ph.D., Penn State University, is a frequent presenter at national conferences on composition pedagogy and civic participation. He also does work on early modern literature, focusing especially upon Shakespeare, Milton, and Spenser.
James McGhee, B.A., Montclair University, Ph.D.; Bowling Green State University, recently published a critical study of the American playwright Sam Shepard, Labryrinth: The Plays of Don Nigro, and Sonnets From the Surd. He is the theatre director.
Cindy Doutrich, B.A. and Ph.D., Penn State University, is coordinator for Foreign Languages and author of the McGraw-Hill text, Nuevos Destinos (New Destinations), now in its second edition.
Rory Kraft, B.A., Arizona State University, M.A., American University, Ph.D., Michigan State University, specializes in ethical theory and applied ethics and is interested in aesthetics and the history of western philosophy.
William R. Miller, B.A., Eckerd College; Ph.D., State University of New York (Binghamton), is a nationally known poet and award-winning author of multicultural children's books.
Alexander Ian Olney, B.A., Rhodes College; Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is a film studies scholar who is interested in European cinema, horror cinema, film and literature, and dramatic literature.
Colbey Reid, B.A., University of Florida, M.A. and Ph.D., University of Washington, takes an interdisciplinary approach to American and British modern literature, exploring the connections in modernist literature between glamour, style, and the notion of "mistake."
Gerald Siegel, B.A. Western Maryland College; M.A. Texas Christian University; M.Phil, Ph.D., George Washington University. His research interests include American and popular literature, especially horror literature, about which he has written.
Victor Taylor, B.A., Lemoyne College; Ph.D., Syracuse University, is widely published in post modernism. He is the author of (Para) Inquiry: Postmodern Literature, Culture, and Theology (Routledge 1999).
Deborah Vause, B.A., North Carolina State University; Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a medievalist with wide-ranging interests in Arthurian and fantasy literature, as well as in the study of the English language.
Dennis Weiss, B.A., Emory University; Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, has done major research in metaphysics, the philosophy of human nature, and the digital culture. He is the editor of Interpreting Man and has authored essays on science fiction, philosophical anthropology, and philosophy of technology. He is department chair.
Janet Zepernick, B.A., Bowling Green State University; Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, is a rhetoric and composition specialist with an interest in the discourse of public policy-making.
Michael J. Zerbe, B.S., James Madison University; Ph.D., Purdue University, is a specialist in rhetoric and composition and has a research interest in the application of rhetorical theory to medical and scientific writing.
Alumni Record
Erin Weber, '04, Editorial Coordinator TechBooks/GTS, York, PA
Angela Newman, '00, Membership Specialist Girl Scouts of America
Wade Holden, '98, Analyst, Kagan Research, Carmel, CA
Steven Barnhart, '96, Intelligence Communications Senior Airman, U.S. Air Force
Debra Noel, '96, President, Easter Seals, South-Central Pennsylvania
Heath Mensher, '95, Filmaker, Candiru Films. Made his acting debut in YCP's world-premiere production of Don Nigro's "Ardy Fafirsin"; is a member of the New York City based improv comedy group, Static; and has co-written a play produced in New York during the summer of 1997.
Margaret Staunton, '94, A humanities graduate with a publishing position at Routledge in NY.
Amy Danielle Price, '93, Director of Public Relations, Invista, Inc.
Caryl M. Clarke, '88, Reporter and feature writer, The York Daily Record, York, PA
Todd V. Oakley, '88, Associate professor of English, Case-Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
Todd Aikens, '86, Full-time Actor appearing regionally and nationally on stage, television, and film, Rainbow Production.
Sandra Pacholok Moyer, '81, English Department Chair, Teacher and award-winning advisor of student newspaper Dallastown Area High School, Dallastown, PA.
James J. McIntyre, '79, Attorney, District Attorney's Office Portland, OR
Sharon Pavlosky Mitzel, '79, Vice President
Human Resources
York Graphic Services York, PA
William J. Balmer, '75, Director of Marketing & Development Community First Banking Co.
George R. Rhodes, '73, Vice President Corporate Communications, Dentsply International, York, PA
Players at York College
Players produces plays and occasionally musicals from the classic and modern repertories for the York college community. Funded through the English and Humanities department, Players is open to all York students with a GPA of 2.0 or better. Those wishing to serve should contact Dr. Jim McGhee or a member of the 2007-08 team at 1-815-1401 and 1-815-1349
2007-08 Shows and Directors
The Playboy of the Western World
Bryan R. Caine
The Merchant of Venice
Jim McGhee
A Christmas Carol
Emily Wilson
The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr
(abridged)
Monkey Soup
Sarah Houghton
Guys and Dolls
Patrick Casey
12th Annual Student One-Acts
Steve Valente
