PERFORMING ARTS

Program Advisors: S.M., Dr. Timothy Carney, Bro. Gary Morris, M.S.

Mission

The Minor in Performing Arts encourages life-long participation in the arts, development of amateur performers and good audience members who are cognizant of the elements of the performing arts.

Vision

The program’s mission to develop skills and knowledge is best realized through participation in a systematic program of knowledge and skill acquisition found in the curriculum of the minor in performing arts. The minor is one of the ways that we participate in the wider Marianist educational tradition by educating the whole person, with its special emphasis on the aesthetic dimension of our experience. Through the development of intimate learning communities engaged in production of music and theatre, students develop relationships to their fellow students and instructor, and the scores and play themselves that are rare in any educational experience. As it has been said, the real focus of the program is informed experience not simply conceptual understanding. The program seeks to develop the imagination of the students through their participation. Improvisation and interpretation of scores requires research, preparation, and discipline in application. Performance is a unique environment within which self-confidence develops as the students face the challenges of the piece to be performed in public. Finally the program seeks to engage the attention of the student over the years of university attendance, with the result that disciplined attention is learned that will be characteristic of the student’s life-long engagement and support of the performing arts.