Program Recognition
•Department of Theatre accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST) since 1997
•Theatre instruction at NCCU dates to 1935-36; the department marked its 75th-anniversary season in 2025-26
•Listed among the top ten theatre programs at a Historically Black College or University
Training
•General Theatre track builds breadth across dramatic literature, performance, and management within a 120+ credit BA
•Coursework spans acting and voice/diction, directing and playwriting, technical theatre and design, stage management, and Theatre History I & II
•Distinctive courses in Afro-American Drama and Children's Drama reflect the department's HBCU focus and youth-theatre emphasis
Performance & Productions
•Department's production of Mules and Men, written and directed by Randolph Umberger, won the national Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (ACTF) competition in 1991 and was performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Notable Alumni
•Ivan Dixon — Sgt. Kinchloe on Hogan's Heroes; appeared in the film A Raisin in the Sun; four-time NAACP Image Award winner (drama degree, 1954) Facilities
•Productions staged in the University Theatre, built under chair Randolph Umberger to expand acting, construction, and classroom space
