Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts - Acting

The Theatre Program delivers rigorous training in the performing arts within the liberal arts setting of Seaver College. With high production values onstage and frequent master classes taught by professional guest artists, our students experience firsthand the excitement of becoming theatre professionals.

Our theatre arts majors become intellectually and artistically prepared for careers in acting, directing, screen arts, musical theatre, and production design by teaching students the professional skills needed for real-world application. Our students help enrich the cultural environment at Seaver College by participating in University productions in our state-of-the-art facilities.

Our core curriculum is guided by the reasoning that, before theatre students are actors, designers, directors, singers, or dancers, they are theatre artists who will benefit from developing their appreciation and understanding of the art form. Through core classes in design, dramaturgy, stagecraft, history, and art as social justice, our theatre students learn about fundamental principles that will become a bedrock of understanding whether they intend to stay in theatre or to navigate to other fields within the entertainment arts such as film or television. At Pepperdine, we believe that a strong theatre core builds grit within our theatre students and prepares them to become well-rounded, resilient theatre makers once they graduate from our program.

Theatre acting majors at Pepperdine receive training in acting, voice, movement, and text. Our acting curriculum gives our majors the opportunity to work on foundational skills such as relaxation, storytelling, creative risk, and listening, intermediate skills such as building characters through research and study, personalizations, exploration of actions and objectives, and advanced skills such as the application of foundational and intermediate skills to classical text and verse. Through movement and voice study, which is grounded in the Linklater Voice technique, actors in our program learn to release physical and vocal restrictions that block creative impulses and to engage in whole-body communication. Our theatre-acting majors are encouraged to practice professionalism by engaging in deep study of their text, by rehearsing regularly outside of class, by warming up their voices and bodies before rehearsals and performances, and by conducting themselves in a manner that encourages productive and inspiring collaboration with others. Acting majors have regular interactions with working actors, directors, writers, and producers, and they conclude their time at Pepperdine with a masterclass series that draws industry professionals from the greater Los Angeles area.

Pepperdine is committed to ensuring all students are evaluated fairly, therefore transcripts from each high school attended must be sent directly to Pepperdine University for evaluation. Grades transferred or translated from a previous school onto a current transcript are not accepted. If your current high school is within the United States, the U.S. high school may submit a copy of the original official transcript they received from a previous school. Students who have completed an IB certificate of diploma, must request the official exam results from the IB organization (IBO) to finalize their high school transcript requirement and be considered for advanced standing credit.

SAT I Evidence-Based Reading and Writing of 600 and above
ACT Reading score of 24 and above

IELTS - overall score of 6.5 and above, TOEFL IBT - 85, Duolingo English - 120 and above