E komo mai!

Earn your degree in Theatre & Dance in a department like no other. Immerse yourself in a space that values diversity, creativity, performance, and scholarship and offers immersion in the traditions, practices, and innovations of the Hawaii-Pacific region alongside opportunities to engage with the performance forms of Asia, Europe, and North America. With Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate degree programs with concentrations in Theatre or Dance in specialized focus areas, our department gathers students from all walks of life and from around the globe.

The faculty and staff acknowledge Hawaiʻi as an Indigenous space where the descendants of the original people are today identified as Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian). We recognize that it was through coercion, force, and the breaking of formal treaties that this land was illegally seized. In 1893, Queen Liliʻuokalani temporarily yielded the Hawaiian Kingdom under duress and protest to the United States to avoid the bloodshed of her people. We also recognize and express gratitude for the generations of Aboriginal Hawaiians and their knowledge systems that have shaped and continue to shape Hawaiʻi in a sustainable way that allows our department to provide instruction and learning today. We acknowledge the history of settler colonialism in Hawaiʻi and support our university’s goal and core principles of becoming a Native Hawaiian place of learning. Click here to view our Action Plan (June 2020) and implementation progress.

Our commitment to becoming a Native Hawaiian place of learning aligns with our support of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities. We endorse the values of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and reject any form of hate, bias, and discrimination. We value every student, staff member, instructor, and audience member, and we aim to cultivate an academic and artistic environment where all community members feel protected, valued, and empowered.

The Department of Theatre & Dance offers dedicated and experienced full-time faculty, staff, and lecturers who teach a wide variety of subjects each semester. Our curriculum covers a broad international range of performance traditions. What distinguishes us from other Theatre and Dance departments in the United States is our focus on Asia, Hawaiʻi, and the Pacific. Opportunities to train and perform in classes and productions with faculty and master artists across the region in a context of diverse cultural and aesthetic values make our department unique globally. Our dance courses range from ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, queer dance, and screendance, to a multitude of Asian, Hawaiian, and Pacific dance forms (Hula, Tahitian, Okinawan, and more). We are well known for our specialization in Asian theatre traditions (including Kabuki, Jingju, and Wayang), and we are also the only department in North America with a focus on Hawaiian theatre (Hana Keaka) and Indigenous performance. Our Theatre for Young Audiences curriculum is one of the oldest and best in the country, and our offerings in Performance Studies (across different degree concentrations) are highly popular. Our Design courses interact holistically within the department, offering students a diverse range of design approaches. All of our degree programs aim to combine theory and practice, theatre and dance, are centered around core requirements including Hawaiian performance, and empower students to perform and create dance choreography and theatre stories of Hawaiʻi, the Pacific, and Asia. Whatever degree program and concentration students choose, we encourage them to also explore our other offerings to get the broadest possible academic education, artistic training, and cultural experience. 

In our department, coursework goes hand in hand with productions staged at our venue, John F. Kennedy Theatre. Opened in 1963, the building was designed by I.M. Pei and features a 619-seat mainstage theatre and a 147-seat flexible “black box” space, the Earle Ernst Lab Theatre. Productions at Kennedy Theatre aim to represent the wide spectrum of degree programs of the Department of Theatre & Dance and to serve the needs of our undergraduate and graduate students in those programs. They also provide opportunities and support for the artistic and intellectual expression and growth of our students who endeavor to explore ideas, challenge expectations, promote diversity and inclusion, and contribute to and engage our community. The planning of departmental productions purposefully elevates Hawaiian-Pacific and BIPOC artists and traditions.