Five Sophomores Declare Theater, Dance, and Media

Five members of the Class of 2018 declared the College’s newest concentration, Theater, Dance, and Media, as their primary academic focus by Thursday night’s deadline to submit plans of study, according to Deborah D. Foster, the program’s director of undergraduate studies.

As the department’s inaugural class, the five sophomores will help determine the future of the program and offer feedback on its structure and ability to offer a fulfilling academic experience to students interested in the performing arts, according to both faculty and newly declared concentrators.

With faculty such as Dean of Arts and Humanities Diana Sorensen in the audience, University President Drew G. Faust addresses an auditorium in Farkas Hall in October about the significance of Theater, Dance, and Media in the context of undergraduate education. By Y. Kit Wu

The committee will also welcome three sophomore joint concentrators, though a malfunction in the my.harvard student information system prevented students from declaring joint concentrations in Theater, Dance, and Media until late on Thursday evening, according to Foster. Two juniors were already declared concentrators after changing their plans of study earlier this year.

First announced last October, Theater, Dance, and Media rolled out with fanfare over the course of this semester after years of planning. It ultimately came to fruition when University President Drew G. Faust granted the program $5 million in seed funding from her discretionary budget.

Foster said members of the Theater, Dance, and Media standing committee are satisfied with their share of the 1,389 sophomores who had declared concentrations by Thursday night.

“It’s about what we anticipated, and we’re delighted with the number,” she said.

And many of the students now entering the program said they see its small size as an asset.

“Since there are so few concentrators and such a tight-knit faculty, we basically get one-on-one attention from everyone in the department,” said Sam A. Hagen ’18, a newly declared joint concentrator in Theater, Dance, and Media and the History of Art and Architecture.

Sarah K. Grammar ’18, who also declared a concentration in Theater, Dance, and Media, said she feels the small community of concentrators will be one of the most rewarding aspects of the new program. They will take a departmental sophomore tutorial together next semester.

“We have a really wide range of people in all different performing arts forms, and I know a lot of them personally,” she said. “Having these wonderfully talented, wonderfully focused students who are my age, who are just as passionate about theater as I am but in different ways, is always fun because then we can learn from each other.”

Most of the declared concentrators are currently involved in the performing arts on campus, and Grammar and Hagen said they intend to pursue careers in theater after graduation.

“I know what I do after Harvard will be somehow related to theater, but I’m still trying to find my niche within theater,” Hagen said. “If I’m leaning toward anything, it’s the academic study of theater, so pursuing performance studies or theater studies and maybe going into academia, which is why a theater concentration is so exciting, as opposed to a performing arts program somewhere else.”

Foster suggested that this year’s sophomore class will help shape the concentration.

“We think that the students who are coming in as concentrators...will play a real role in the concentration, in developing it and working out where it will go, and then determining what works and what doesn’t,” she said.

Grammar said she feels a sense of responsibility as one of the first Theater, Dance, and Media concentrators.

“I feel like this inaugural class...is really going to define what it is, and I want to make sure that the work we do really sets it apart and makes it something unique for students to study here at Harvard,” she said. “I feel like there’s a lot that rests on this first year, and I just want to make sure that we do it justice for the students that come after us.”