Student Organizations
Our department, faculty, students, and guest artists are affiliated with the following organizations. Students have the opportunity to work with artists and crafts people form a wide range of backgrounds, with a wide range of affiliations.
ACT
The Department of Theatre gives strong support to All Campus Theatre, a campus-wide, student-based organization that produces between three and four student productions each year, around the campus. Visit ACT on their website, or social media pages on Facebook or Instagram.
USITT
The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) is a place to network, exchange ideas, and grow. We have been serving professionals and pre-professionals in design, production, and technology for the performing arts since 1960. USITT provides benefits, learning opportunities, and networking for over 3,700 members worldwide. For architects who design the spaces and those who create and manage the productions, our Annual Conference & Stage Expo as well as regional and local events, are where the performing arts community gathers.
SETC
The Southeastern Theatre Conference is a dynamic membership organization, serving a diverse constituency and reaching out across ten states in the southeast region of the United States and beyond. Connect to opportunity in theatre – professional, academic and community – in this gathering for many purposes: to audition or seek off-stage jobs; to offer jobs in theatre; compete in theatre festivals; perform; participate in design competitions and critiques; attend keynotes, play readings and choose from over 350 workshops; exhibit; look for undergraduate and graduate study opportunities; find students for academic programs; and explore Teachers Institute – a pre-convention seminar.
TTA
The Tennessee Theatre Association was founded to promote the highest standards of theatre throughout the State of Tennessee. To accomplish that purpose, the Association serves as a vehicle for communication through its newsletters and through its annual convention. It provides members with workshops, programs and seminars and with the opportunity to meet, work with and learn from each other as well as from invited theatre professionals from other states. TTA also serves as a liaison between Tennessee, regional, and national theatre organizations.
LORT
The Clarence Brown Theatre is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT). With 72 member theatres, 12 of those being academic theatres, located in every major market in the U.S., LORT is the largest professional theatre association of its kind in the United States. LORT administers collective bargaining agreements with Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), and United Scenic Artists (USA) which enables us to bring the best professional talent here to the Clarence Brown Theatre.
NAST
Founded in 1965, the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST) is an organization of schools, conservatories, colleges, and universities with approximately 189 accredited institutional members. It establishes national standards for undergraduate and graduate degrees and other credentials for theatre and theatre-related disciplines, and provides assistance to institutions and individuals engaged in artistic, scholarly, educational, and other theatre-related endeavors.
URTA
Together, the Clarence Brown Theatre and the Department of Theatre, are a member of the University / Resident Theatre Association (URTA)—a select group of training programs with direct professional affiliations. URTA advances theatre by connecting theatre training programs with the professional performing arts industry, promoting professional practices and artistic excellence in higher education, and assisting students with their transition into the profession. Established in 1969, URTA is the nation’s oldest and largest consortium of professional, graduate (MFA) theatre training programs and partnered professional theatre companies.
Local USA 829
United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, is a labor union and professional association of Designers, Artists and Craftspeople, many who are world famous, organized to protect craft standards, working conditions and wages for the entertainment and decorative arts industries. The members of Local USA 829 are Artists and Designers working in film, theatre, opera, ballet, television, industrial shows, commercials and exhibitions.
SDC
The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society is the theatrical union that unites, empowers and protects professional stage Directors and Choreographers throughout the United States. Our mission is to foster a national community of professional stage Directors and Choreographers by protecting the rights, health and livelihoods of all our Members. To facilitate the exchange of ideas, information and opportunities, while educating the current and future generations about the role of Directors and Choreographers and providing effective administration, negotiations and contractual support.
AEA
Actors’ Equity Association (“AEA” or “Equity”), founded in 1913, is the labor union that represents more than 49,000 Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions and provides a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans, for its members. Actors’ Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO, and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions.
OISTAT
International Organisation of Scenographers Theatre Architects and Technicians (OISTAT). The mission of OISTAT to stimulate the exchange of ideas and innovations, and to promote international collaboration in professions which support live performance; To promote the formation of centres in each country in order to achieve these aims; To encourage life-long learning among live performance practitioners; To respect the integrity of all cultures and celebrate the diversity as well as the similarities of those who work in support of live performance.
“I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theatre is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture”
—Sir Laurence Olivier
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