Train for the career you dream about – right here at our beautiful River Campus facilities!
Get hands-on training while earning your degree from professionals who know the industry. At Dobbins Conservatory, you’ll turn your passion into a profession.
Shows and Performances
Each year, Dobbins Conservatory produces a wide variety of live performances that give students hands-on experience in theatre, dance, film, and television. These include full-scale musicals and plays, dance concerts, improv comedy shows, cabarets, student films, staged readings, and showcases. Students take part in main stage productions, smaller workshop performances, and original student work. These opportunities help sharpen professional skills and prepare students for future success in the entertainment industry.
BFA Showcase and Industry Job Fairs
The BFA Showcase is the final, standout event for seniors earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts. It’s designed to help them start their careers in the entertainment industry.
For Design and Technology majors, the showcase highlights their work on major productions and helps cover costs for attending job fairs like the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) and the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC).
Acting and Musical Theatre students take part in special master classes focused on the entertainment business, led by leaders from The CRY HAVOC Company. They also prepare to perform for agents and casting directors in New York City.
CRY HAVOC is a nonprofit company that helps develop new plays, musicals, and screenplays. Since 1997, they’ve helped create hundreds of new works, many of which have gone on to be published, made into films, or performed in top venues across the U.S. and around the world.
Guest Artist Master Classes and Residencies
All year long, Dobbins Conservatory brings in experienced professionals to lead workshops and master classes for students. These sessions give students the chance to get expert feedback and connect with well-known artists from across the country—and even around the world. Master classes are held regularly, including during the summer, and cover a wide range of skills in theatre, dance, and production.
Each year, more than a dozen guest artists visit campus. Past guests have included Molly Smith, artistic director of the Tony Award-winning Arena Stage; Adam Szymkowicz, playwright and literary manager at Juilliard; Lonny Price, Emmy-winning and Tony-nominated director; Robert Barry Fleming of Actors’ Theatre of Louisville; Mika Eubanks, costume designer; Garrett Anderson from Concord Theatricals; David Lansky of American Ballet Theatre; Tony-nominated actor Alex Brightman; fight choreographer Kevin McCurdy of the Royal Shakespeare Company; and many others. These visits give students valuable insight into the professional world and help prepare them for careers in the entertainment industry.
Conferences and Internships
At Dobbins Conservatory, attending conferences and working with professional companies during the summer is an important part of your training. Each year, students go to events like USITT, SETC, Strawhat, Midwest Theatre Auditions, UPTA, URTA, ACDA, and more. These conferences give students the chance to take part in master classes and look for summer jobs in the industry. BFA students are expected to spend at least one summer working as an intern with a professional company. These jobs can include performing, backstage work, costume or set building, front-of-house roles, or helping with design. This hands-on experience is a great way to learn new skills, meet people in the industry, and see what it’s really like to work in entertainment.
- Broadway (NY)
- Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway (NY)
- The Julliard School (NY)
- Royal Caribbean International (FL)
- Cirque du Soleil (NV & Mexico)
- Troika Entertainment (NY)
- The Second City (IL)
- The Orlando Shakespeare Festival (FL)
- Black Hills Playhouse (SD)
- Steppenwolf Theatre (Chicago, IL)
- The Metropolitan Opera (NY)
- Upright Citizens Brigade (NY)
- Alabama Shakespeare Festival (AL)
- Paul Taylor Dance Company (NY)
- The Santa Fe Opera (NM)
- New York University/Tisch School of the Arts (NY)
- The MUNY (MO)
- Olney Theatre Center (DC)
- The American Dance Festival (CT)
- Temple University (PA)
- Jacob’s Pillow Dance Company (MA)
- Disney World (FL)
- Berkshire Theatre Festival (MA)
- University of Maryland (MD)
- North Shore Music Theatre (MA)
- Carnegie Melon University (PA)
- Improv Olympics (IL)
- Broadway Dance Center (NY)
- Brown University (RI)
- The Lost Colony (NC)
- Heritage Repertory Theatre (VA)
- Notre Dame Summer Shakespeare Festival (IN)
- Williamstown Theatre Festival (MA)
- Syncor Entertainment & Shoji Entertainment (MO)
- STAGES St. Louis (MO)
- Florida Dance Festival (FL)
- Northwestern University (IL)
- Lincoln Center (NY)
- Southern Association of Dance Masters (TN)
- New Hamstead Players (NH)
- Georgia Shakespeare Festival (GA)
- Busch Gardens (FL)
- Backstage One Dance Studio (NV)
- St. Louis Shakespeare Festival (MO)
The Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival
Dobbins Conservatory is home to the respected Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival.
Lanford Wilson, born and raised in southern Missouri, is considered one of the most important American playwrights. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Talley’s Folly, was nominated for three Tony Awards, and received many other honors, including a Drama Desk Award and five Obie Awards. He played a big role in shaping the Off-Off-Broadway movement and was one of the first playwrights to move successfully from small theatres to Broadway.
The festival works closely with the Lanford Wilson estate and Concord Theatricals, the world’s largest publisher of plays. Each year, the festival looks for new full-length plays that are a good fit for college productions. The plays must include:
- Mostly (or all) characters in their teens or twenties
- A medium to large cast
- Strong roles for female-identifying actors
- Characters that challenge and inspire student performers
- Themes that connect with college-aged artists and audiences
After the national call for scripts, about 700–900 professional playwrights send in their work. A team made up of theatre professionals and Dobbins faculty selects five finalists for full-length plays and 10–12 short plays. These writers are invited to SEMO’s River Campus to develop their scripts during a weeklong summer festival.
Each play is presented as a public staged reading, followed by a talk with the audience and playwright, led by a professional dramaturg (a specialist in play development). Playwrights also receive one-on-one feedback to help improve their scripts. During the week, students and guests take part in workshops on acting, directing, design, and how to work on new plays in a professional setting.
Dobbins Conservatory has partnered with Concord Theatricals, which includes the catalogs of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Samuel French, Tams-Witmark, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The winning full-length play from the festival is considered for publication, and the Conservatory produces the world premieres: the short plays in the fall, and the winning full-length play in the spring.
Fault Line Film Festival
Each year, Dobbins Conservatory teams up with the Departments of Mass Media and Art and Design to host the Fault Line Film Festival, a national film competition for student filmmakers. The festival awards cash prizes and trophies in several categories, including a $1,000 grand prize for Best of Festival. The selected films are shown on campus, and the winning filmmakers are recognized in an awards ceremony after the screenings.
Guests walk the red carpet into the theater, where a packed audience watches the films and votes for their favorite to win the Audience Choice Award.
Performance majors from Dobbins Conservatory act in most Southeast student films, and many also work behind the scenes—writing, directing, filming, and editing. The festival has become a favorite event for students and faculty and continues to grow each year.
Dueling Arts International
Dobbins Conservatory is an academic partner with Dueling Arts International (DAI), a nonprofit group that trains actors, teachers, and directors in stage combat. DAI focuses on keeping performers safe while teaching them how to create realistic and powerful fight scenes for stage, film, and television. Their training helps build self-confidence, teaches respect between performers, encourages physical fitness, and blends in other types of movement.
As a partner, Dobbins Conservatory gives students the chance to earn certifications in three levels of actor combat training, with several skill levels within each.
Students train in six main types of theatrical combat:
- Unarmed combat
- Medieval broadsword
- Rapier and dagger (Renaissance style)
- Transitional single rapier
- Smallsword (Restoration era)
- Quarterstaff
Students may also study additional styles, including:
- Sword and buckler
- Sword and shield
- Sword and cloak
- Case of rapiers
- Knife fighting
- Theatrical martial arts
- Contemporary violence
- Camera fighting techniques
Dobbins students develop their skills in Stage Combat I, II, and III classes and can also attend special workshops at other schools during the winter and spring. These experiences help prepare students for professional acting careers that may include fight scenes on stage or screen.
Study Abroad
Students at Southeast Missouri State University have exciting opportunities to study abroad and experience the world beyond the classroom. SEMO offers a variety of programs that allow students to live and learn in different countries, gaining new perspectives and cultural understanding. Whether it’s a short-term faculty-led trip, a semester exchange, or a summer program, these experiences help students grow personally and academically. By studying abroad, SEMO students develop global skills, build their resumes, and make connections that can benefit their future careers.
Dobbins Conservatory is the official academic exchange partner of NSKI, a well-known performing arts school in Oslo, Norway.
NSKI was founded in 2009 and is a small, highly selective school located in the capital city of Norway. It offers a three-year bachelor’s degree in acting, musical theatre, screenwriting, and directing. It’s also the only college in Scandinavia where all teaching is based on Method Acting. Through a special exchange program, Southeast Missouri State University and Dobbins Conservatory welcome students from NSKI each year to study in the U.S. for one semester. At the same time, selected Dobbins students get the chance to study at NSKI in Norway and train in their programs.
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Cape Girardeau, MO 63701