Meadville Connections Playshop Theatre International Experiences Student Organizations Research Internships
Meadville Connections
Experiential Learning Through Meadville Connections
Over the last decade, all three areas of CommArts have created unique experiential learning opportunities for cross-collaboration between students and the Meadville community at large. These projects have helped to foster deeper learning, relationships, and possibilities for both communities together.
Read about experiential learning through Meadville connections
Meadville ConnectionsPlayshop Theatre
The Playshop Theatre was inaugurated by Alice Huntington Spalding in 1929 with her production of Dear Brutus in Arter Hall. In the intervening 85 years, the Playshop has produced more than 500 plays including classic works by Shakespeare, Molière, Shaw, Williams, O’Neill, Miller, Wilder, and Coward, contemporary playwrights such as Sam Shepard, Tom Stoppard, Suzan-Lori Parks, Wendy Wasserstein, Tina Howe, Tony Kushner, Caryl Churchill, and Paula Vogel, and musicals including The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Pirates of Penzance, and Carousel, as well as original works by faculty, students, and visiting artists. The Playshop Theatre produces four shows each year.
Playshop Theatre Upcoming Plays and Information
Facility: Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre
International Experiences
“Experiential Learning (EL) seminars are pretty special opportunities to travel with Allegheny College faculty and explore host countries that may be outside your comfort zone. Students learn how to explore a culture even if they don’t know the language or the initial differences seemed overwhelming. Each seminar provides an interdisciplinary lens through which students from any discipline and year of study can experience first-hand what a liberal arts exploration of global issues means. Students research the host country and the seminar topic in the spring semester preceding their summer travels. They also produce portfolio work, from their EL experiences, that showcases their intercultural learning. Just as important, they form lasting bonds with the group they travel with. So, earn four course credits, spread your wings, and discover the world, one EL at a time.”
Faculty members partner with colleagues from other departments and lead summer Experiential Learning Study Seminars (ELs) abroad, taking students on interdisciplinary explorations of global issues. Components of the ELs include on-site language courses, community outreach projects, meetings with alumni and industry professionals, cross-cultural exercises, a strong focus on the performing and fine arts, and grant-funded student research assignments. Some of the EL destinations led by the department faculty have been Great Britain, India, Italy, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and South Africa.
Study Abroad Examples:
Post-Modern Kaizen: The Continual Improvement of Japanese Aesthetics and Culture through Appropriation and Recontextualization
Faculty: Ishita Sinha Roy
Theatre in Britain
Faculty: Beth Watkins
From Magna Graecia to Mezzogiorno
Faculty: Mark Cosdon
3-D India: Democracy, Diversity, & Development
Faculty: Ishita Sinha Roy
Sri Lanka & the Politics of Re-Presentation
Faculty: Ishita Sinha Roy
Student Organizations
- Honorary/Greek Programs
- Media-related Clubs
- Performing Arts
- Community-based Clubs & Projects:
Official Communication Studies honor society of the National Communication Association (NCA). As a member of the Association of Honor Societies (ACHS), Lambda Pi Eta has over 400 active chapters at four-year colleges and universities worldwide. Allegheny College is home to the Tau Eta chapter of Lambda Pi Eta.
A club with mission is to bridge the gap between the college and Meadville communities by sponsoring events and advocating as many students as possible partake in events occurring in Meadville. The organization emphasizes relationship building and investing in the community which is our home for a period of time.
Allegheny Film and Television (AFTV) is a student run organization that aims to provide students with a creative output through the medium of film. AFTV holds meetings, runs various workshops, goes to film festivals and runs student film festivals, and holds events like the 48 Hour Film Festival.
The USITT Student Chapter of Allegheny College exists to serve the community and better support technical theater artists on campus and off campus through informational workshops, weekly meetings, and conference trips.
Theatre — Allegheny College’s premiere (and sole) improvisational troupe. Utilizing short and long-form practices Comedy Council attempts to provide Allegheny’s student body with the funniest made-up content they could possibly imagine. In addition to shows in both GFC and the Campus Center Lobby, Comedy Council hosts weekly Open Improv sessions, every Friday at 5 in room 107 of the Vukovich, where anyone and everyone is invited to improvise with the troupe. For more information please contact Mark Shimkets (shimketsm) or Simon Brown (browns3).
Theatre — student-run and student-directed and produces a varied number of shows each year (one-acts, annual musical, variety shows, and full-length plays).
Student newspaper — nonprofit newspaper made for and by the students of Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. The Campus was founded 1876 and continues to work to improve and expand its offerings to better serve the Allegheny community.
a student published literary magazine where students can submit pieces in all mediums be it art, poetry, prose, music, videography, podcasts, or photography.
WARC (radio) – WARC 90.3FM is a non-commercial, student-run college station, an alternative in an overwhelmingly for-profit, corporate media system. WARC has a regular programming schedule with shows hosted by Allegheny College students, faculty, and staff from around the college.
Internships
Allegheny’s partnership with a variety of businesses and organizations allows students to gain hands-on skills that help prepare them for the world. Internships are conducted at a wide variety of sites including theatres, broadcast stations, cable television companies, advertising agencies, public relations firms, hospitals, museums, and government agencies.
Research & Creative Activity
Communication, Film, and Theatre at Allegheny College has a long history of supporting undergraduate research in the humanities. Thanks to the Andrew W. Mellon Collaborative Undergraduate Research in the Humanities grant, and new Richard Cook and Teresa Lahti Scholars Symposium, students have the opportunity to work on research projects with faculty under school-wide, department-specific, or project-specific grants.