From the Nominator

The University of Rhode Island homepage series “Playbill: URI Theatre” answers that dreaded question asked by parents of theater students likely since that first drama was staged at the Theatre of Dionysus: So what are you going to do with a theater degree? The answer: anything you want. The "Playbill: URI Theatre" series offers a view into URI's approach to the collaborative art of making theatre—and the particular opportunities URI's theatre program offers students. The series starts with a profile of working actor Andrew Burnap ’13, a theatre alumnus currently on Broadway in "The Inheritance," offering an inside look into his success and challenges. It then goes backstage, exploring what it takes to make a play come to life, and introducing faculty and alumni teaching and performing across the state and the country. Finally it features a successful young alumna costume designer, demonstrating the breadth of options available to a URI theatre graduate. The series highlights the program's unique aspects, such as our BFA-conservatory approach to theatre education and the opportunities available to our students to work directly with URI teaching alumni who run community and regional theatre. Perhaps most important, it features current URI theatre students, who are developing skills essential to working in the theatre, such as flexibility, creativity, agility, leadership, cooperation, and resilience—the very same skills that are suited to and valued in any workplace.

From the Judges

This university homepage series, clearly designed for prospective students and their families (but an appealing read for the general reader, too) successfully answers the question, “So what are you going to do with a theater degree?” One judge joked that, after reading these Vanity Fair-esque stories, they were ready to apply to URI. Strengths include immersive scene-setting and writing (especially for the alumni profile that kicks off the series, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”). One judge remarked that the “Playbill” approach demonstrates respect for prospective young readers’ maturity and intelligence. Another called the series “creative, playful and fun,” with “good integration of writing with photography and video.”