Catawba Valley Community College

The Theatre department offers a strong foundational instruction in theatre with emphasis on performance, technical skills, critical thinking, and career development.

The Associate in Fine Arts (AFA) degree program prepares students to move towards professional practice or the pursuit of a bachelor’s degree at a four-year college or university. The AFA curriculum helps students strengthen and expand their creativity, as well as their technical knowledge of the history and practice of creating theater. The coursework and production experiences build students’ skills in concept development, personal expression, critical thinking and problem solving – skills essential for prospering in the professional practice of theater. The program is grounded in the Hanson practice of both performance and technical theater. Students may choose between an acting track and a technical theater track. There is also the possibility of fitting both tracks into a two-year plan.

The program brings together the strengths that CVCC has to offer with small class sizes, instruction led by theater artists, and hands-on training. The Associate in Fine Arts in Theater gives artists a broad base to practice their skills and hone their talents.

Students learn problem-solving skills applicable to both theater and everyday life. We foster lifelong learning, career development, appreciation of diverse points of view and the recognition of theater as a fundamental form of human expression.