The Department of Theatre Arts offers a comprehensive program of both practical and theoretical courses for undergraduate and graduate students whose interests center on various aspects of educational and professional theatre.

The curriculum provides the student with a foundation for advanced study in the dramatic arts, for teaching, or for a career in professional theatre. As a center for the training of future theatre artists, the department is committed to introducing a diversity of theatrical traditions and cultures to students. To this end, the department employs its three dedicated theatre spaces and it's one shared theatre space as learning laboratories, in which students collaborate with faculty and guest professionals.  Studio workshops and advanced stage productions in those theatres are the culmination of the educational experience.

The department actively seeks and facilitates interdisciplinary programs of study and production with other members of the College of Creative Arts, as well as with Departments and Programs from across the campus.  The department also encourages and facilitates collaboration with off-campus area theatres.  In these ways we enlarge students experiences, and open new connections between students, the college, the campus as a whole, and the community, offering students an education grounded in practical professional stage practices as well as diverse on-campus academic and production experiences.

The diverse backgrounds of both faculty and students in the program provide our campus and community with a wealth of theatrical experiences and attractions. Graduates of the program are prominent in professional theatre throughout the nation, with positions of leadership in theatre, television, film, and theatre education.
Fundamental to the major program is a core of required courses designed to develop a foundation upon which to elect, upon advisement, one of the following areas of emphasis: performance, technical theatre and design, play development (playwriting) and dramaturgy, or popular theatre.

This department is the leading program of its kind in Northern California, public or private, as well as a highly regarded program nationally, ranking as one of the top 20 public university Theatre Arts programs in the country.  With an average of 400 majors it is one of the largest such programs in the country, and graduates are found at work at all levels throughout the Bay Area professional and academic communities.

In recent years the department has reinvigorated a number of programs, such as Asian Theatre program; Music Theatre/Opera in collaboration with the School of Music and Dance; the Play Development/Playwriting program in collaboration with Creative Writing; and the entire stage production program.  This renewal has led to increasingly prestigious notice for our department across the campus, the professional community, and the regional and national academic community.