Consistently ranked among the Princeton Review’s top 10 best colleges for its theater program, Stephens College has attracted a number of STA students in the past few years. According to STA theater director and Stephens alumna Shana Prentiss, students who have taken part in STA’s theater program must be willing to apply themselves and dedicate their time to Stephens’ intense course.
‘[Stephens runs] a very intense program,’Â Prentiss said. ‘It’s not for people who think, ‘ËœOh, theater would be fun.’ You really have to be committed to theater. It’s time-intensive.’Â
Senior Katie Pautler will attend Stephens next fall to pursue a major in technical theater. She discussed her options with Prentiss before making the final decision.
‘When deciding between Stephens and William Jewell [College], I talked it through with Prentiss,’Â Pautler said. ‘She told me it was a really great theater program, and if I went there, I would be really busy but really happy.’Â
Stephens was established in 1833 in downtown Columbia. In 2005, Stephens also established a School of Performing Arts out of the existing majors of theater, dance, film, television and radio programs. The theater program alone puts on 10 shows a year.
‘You are constantly working, if not on stage, then on crew or on scenes,’Â Prentiss said. ‘[Stephens] is not something I recommend to someone if they’re not totally sure this is something they want to do with their life.’Â
While many know Stephens for its all-girl environment, a number of male apprentices usually participate in the theater program. However, the dorms still house girls only.
‘I loved the all-girls environment,’Â Prentiss said. ‘There were guys around, but I loved living in dorms with girls only. It was a fun atmosphere.’Â
In addition to experiencing an all-girls environment at STA similar to the one in Stephens’ dorms, Pautler also believes that STA’s theater program helped her make her final college decision and gave her an idea of what to expect at Stephens.
‘Just being in the [STA] musical this year made me want to [do theater in college],’Â Pautler said. ‘And Stephens was the best theater program I could find.’Â
Current Stephens student and STA alumna Kathleen Bryant also believes that STA’s theater program encouraged her to apply for Stephens.
“Theater was a very big part of my life at STA,” Bryant said in an e-mail interview. “When I think of high school, I think of after school rehearsals and numerous weekends, free periods and activity periods working on the sets and running lines with girls and Mrs. Prentiss. I was also very lucky to be surrounded by extremely talented and creative girls who not only were excellent actors but set designers as well.”
Like Prentiss, Bryant, who plans to graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in performing arts and/or costume design, describes the program as extremely rigorous and time-consuming.
“If our teachers tell us we will be released at 7:43 p.m., we will be released at 7:43, not a minute later or sooner,” Bryant said. “Sometimes girls go almost an entire year without seeing their home or families. We are often told here, ‘sleep when you are unemployed.’ But when working on something that interests you and that you love, the sacrifices you make are not always that big of a deal.”
Because of this intensity, Prentiss hopes that girls will take careful consideration before choosing Stephens, but she highly recommends it to girls who know they want theater to be a major part of their lives.
‘I loved [Stephens],’Â Prentiss said. ‘It was a wonderful program, and I want everyone to go there.’Â
Bryant also loves Stephens, not only for its program, but for the dedicated people she works with.
“The creativity that circulates this campus is out of this world,” Bryant said. “There are some pretty radical people here who have an amazing sense of individuality. I love being able to exist around these people to feed my creativity. To this school and my friends, I am important, and that is truly a remarkable thing to be.”
