At the heart of the department is our commitment to putting learning into practice.
We do so through our performance companies:
A professionally modeled, resident theater producing a main season of plays and musicals for the university and community.
A professionally modeled, touring company based on a modern style producing dance concerts.
The Acorn Project
An incubator for production development, usually student-directed, and often short works minimally produced.
A summer theater-for-youth program directed by theater faculty, IUP alumni, and upper-division majors.
Through these companies the department has presented:
- Over 150 main season productions under the auspices of Theater-by-the-Grove
- Over thirty major dance productions by the IUP Dance Theater Company
- Hundreds of student-written, -directed, and -designed one-act and full-length plays, including many experimental and original products, presented under the auspices of the “Acorn Projects”
- Children’s theater productions presented to the community through the summer company, Footlight Players
- Touring productions in both theater and dance to regional schools
