The URI Theatre program provides a conservatory experience within a pre-professional liberal arts setting. The distinguished faculty, guest artists and staff place an equal emphasis on the theoretical and practical understanding of theatre. Artistically vibrant, relevant and rooted in collaboration, our unique production program enriches all students and serves the educational and cultural needs of the university and the greater community.

Theatre is comprised of many areas of interest beyond the highly visible profession of acting. The area of technology and design includes set and property design and construction, lighting and sound design and execution, costume design and construction, and a variety of allied specialties ranging from scenic painting to portfolio preparation. The area of theatre management includes production, stage management, front-of-house, box office management, and public relations. The study of theatre aesthetics, criticism, playwriting, and history translates into work as a dramaturgy, critic, or literary manager. There is also the artistic area of directing and, in relation to the other performing arts - music and dance, musical direction and choreography. All of these areas are applicable to the allied media arts of film, television, and video. And each of these allied areas requires personnel with theatrical training to serve as theatrical agents, business managers casting directors, producers, or arts administrators.

In addition to these purely professional performance or production applications, there is the area of theatre education. More and more, theatre is being creatively applied to non-arts disciplines in the development of new fields, e.g., psychotherapy, rehabilitation, tourism. A number of disciplines, especially those in which public image and presentation skills are essential, are recommending theatre training, e.g., law, executive training, medicine, and marketing.