Abstract
This article reports findings from a national survey of theatre departments in the United States and Canada, analyzing patterns in faculty composition, student enrollment, course offerings, and production activity across institutional types. It documents correlations between the highest degree awarded by a department and factors such as undergraduate and graduate theatre major populations, availability of faculty release time, and the number and variety of staged productions. The analysis reveals that departments offering terminal degrees—particularly the PhD and MFA—tend to have more students, fuller curricula, greater faculty resources, and expanded opportunities for creative or scholarly reassignment. In contrast, associate and bachelor's level programs typically operate with smaller faculty, fewer productions, and limited structural support for nonteaching responsibilities. The article concludes by identifying key questions for future research, particularly around faculty workload, class size, and institutional dependency on part time labor, offering a data driven foundation for strategic planning in theatre education.
Recommended Citation
Brown, Mary Helen; Barker, Deborah Roach; and Barker, Larry L.
(1989)
"A Survey of Theatre Programs, Part Two: Analysis of Graduate and Undergraduate Populations, Faculty Compositions/Activities and Theatre Courses/Productions,"
Association for Communication Administration Bulletin: Vol. 69, Article 6.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/aca/vol69/iss1/6
