For Prospective Students
You don’t need a theater background to study theater at MIT. All you need is curiosity, scrappiness, and some interest in what it means to be alive. The rest we will build together.
Theater at MIT approaches performance as a contemporary artistic practice rooted in a rich continuum of global traditions; we are trained on the present moment. Our courses span acting, design, directing, dramaturgy, dance, movement, and dramatic writing. Our studios and stages are spaces for meticulous study, informed risk-taking, and ardent experimentation. The work made here aligns with the same restless questioning of the world around us that drives enterprise across the Institute.
Whether you’re drawn to performance, design, writing, or simply want to find out how theater aligns with your personal interests, you can pursue full majors, joint degrees, minors, and concentrations — or simply take a course because something caught your attention. The MIT Theater program has been passionately built to offer multiple entries for engagement—from an utter novice or seasoned professional, there is a place for you here in our program.
Discover Theater at MIT
MIT Theater approaches performance as a vital lens for questioning, understanding, and creatively responding to the forces that shape our world. We view theater as a contemporary artistic practice within a rich continuum of global performance traditions that challenges conventions, cultivates curiosity, models collaboration, and inspires new ways of investigating the civic and cultural role of live performance.
There are a host of opportunities for students to collaborate as performers, technicians, and designers for course credit in productions in Building W97, the home of Theater at MIT. Our curriculum provides students with artistic, technical, and intellectual skills along with unique opportunities to apply their knowledge.
The artistic research and creative output of our faculty are represent world-class contributions to innovative and transformative approaches to the field—reaching stages and screens across the globe—browse bios, get in touch, and learn who’s who…
The MIT Theater curriculum invites students to explore a wide range of creative practices including acting, dance, immersive and experiential design, directing, playwriting, voice, movement, script analysis, performance studies, and an array of courses in design.
Theater at MIT invites students to engage with theater as an inherently interdisciplinary practice through its subjects, collaborations, and production opportunities that bridge artistic, scholarly, and technological inquiry. Explore the requirements for the Bachelor of Science in Theater Arts, the Minor, and the Concentration.
Independent of the program in Theater Arts, extracurricular theater and dance abound at MIT. The Shakespeare Ensemble is devoted almost exclusively to the production of Shakespeare’s plays, presenting two full productions during the school year as well as scene nights and masterclasses. Other important extracurricular organizations include the Musical Theater Guild (the oldest and largest student-run theater organization at MIT), the MIT Asian Dance Team, the Ballroom Dance Team, Dance Troupe, E33, and comedy group Roadkill Buffet, among others. The contributions of each are vital components of the diverse theatrical life of the MIT community.
Fall 2026 Event Highlights
