Why Iowa?

We're known for producing original work—created by students, guided by professors, and performed in state-of-the-art spaces. You'll get the hands-on experience and training you need for success.

Build a foundation

Expand your horizons

Learn from experts

Student performances & events

Iowa Theatre students have the opportunity to participate in 25-30 diverse productions each academic year--from classic to brand-new works, and from fully-staged productions on a big stage to workshops and readings in intimate settings. You'll be able to share your growing artistry with receptive, warm audiences in a variety of settings! 

Now playing...

Mainstage Production

Dance Nation promotional image

Dance Nation

Friday, February 2, 2024 8:00pm
Theatre Building
Dance Nation By Clare Barron Directed by Sarah Gazdowicz Pre-teen competitive dancers prepare for Nationals, and their number’s coveted solo has yet to be assigned. As the pressure of the looming competition builds, the dancers must navigate shifting ground–changing bodies and bursting ambitions–together. Clare Barron’s Dance Nation presents the euphoric highs and devastating lows of dawning adolescence alongside a shared devotion to art that can bring a group together and bring you back to...
View more events

Graduate Gallery Series

West Illinois Glass House promotional image

West Illinois Glass House

Friday, February 16, 2024 8:00pm
Theatre Building
While the economy burns around her, an attorney in need of good publicity volunteers to pick up the pieces of a manslaughter suspect and her underreacting children. Set in Dallas over March 2008
View more events

Undergrad Workshop Series

Home Is Where the TV Is promotional image

Home Is Where the TV Is

Friday, January 26, 2024 8:00pm
Theatre Building
"Home Is Where the TV Is," a play about the connections between theatre and certain kinds of television, and the way television affects our lives, through a parody lens of two classic shows: Star Trek and Cheers. "Space Jaunt" showrunner Leah Jottenby finds out her budget is being cut into by her rival, "Beers" showrunner George Barrows, and they clash at a production meeting. When George makes a snide remark about a crossover episode between the two shows, their boss Eric Grantham demands the crossover be produced. Leah and George are forced to put their differences aside and work together to combine their passion projects together, and the casts of both shows are caught in the crossfire.
View more events

Enter our Virtual Lobby

Visit our Virtual Lobby to view online playbills for the 2023-24 season and recent productions!

Virtual Lobby is where you can find play synopses; cast, crew, and creative team member lists and bios; and notes from directors and dramaturgs.

Virtual lobby

See yourself here

As a Theatre Arts student, you'll be part of a welcoming and supportive community that is constantly producing. Be a part of building every production from ground up.

64 %

Theatre Arts students with a double major

undergraduate student Virginia Muturi on the stage during a performance of Something Rotten!

25-30

Student-led productions of original work each year

Faculty member Eric Stone instructs an undergraduate student wearing an Iowa Hawkeyes T-shirt, in his scenery design classroom

2:1

Student-to-faculty ratio in MFA program

sound design MFA student at the soundboard

Choose Your Path

You'll help to create, develop, and present brand-new plays—and learn the creative, technical, and interpersonal skills you'll need for professional success in theatre.

Study with nationally respected faculty mentors. Join a successful alumni network.

Faculty

Our professors are active and well-connected in the professional theatre world. You'll get to job-shadow working theatre professionals and intern at theatre companies, and Iowa alumni form a supportive network of professional contacts.

view faculty profiles

Alumni

Iowa playwrights have worked on and off Broadway and in TV and film. They have won MacArthur Genuis Awards, Obie Awards, Emmy Awards, have been nominated for Tony Awards, and have written Oscar-nominated films.

see where alumni are now