Rhetoric and drama has had a traditionally firm place in Jesuit education as a tool for teaching confidence, comportment, and elocution. The first Boston College examination and exhibition in 1865 featured a production of the play “Joseph and His Brethren.” Dramatic productions were a staple of commencement ceremonies until 1897, and theater has been performed by Boston College students almost every year since (with a short hiatus during World War II). In 1890, students founded the first formal drama organization, the Boston College Athenaeum, whose aim was to “promote the study of Dramatic Art and conduct the college plays.” The Athenaeum became the Dramatic Association in 1921, and the Dramatics Society in 1941. The study of rhetoric and theater continued in the classroom through the English and Rhetoric Departments until the establishment of the Department of Speech, Communication and Theater in the 1950s. In 1993, the Theater Department was established as an independent department. Productions by these academic departments complemented those by the Dramatics Society and other student organizations, including the French Academy and students of the Evening College. In the 1940s, Boston College hosted a summer school of dramatics, which allowed for intensive study of theater by Boston College and other students.

When Boston College celebrated its centennial in 1963, the University’s theatrical tradition again played a prominent role with a Drama Festival climaxed by the premier of a play, Seven Scenes for Yeni by James Forsyth, which was commissioned by the University for the celebration. Nearly two decades later, Theaterfest ‘81 celebrated the opening of the University’s first Theater Arts Center, later renamed the Robsham Theater Arts Center, with an inaugural performance of Camelot, starring Gordon MacRae. The Theater includes a large main stage, as well as a smaller studio theater named after John Louis Bonn, SJ, director of the Boston College theater in the 1930s and 1940s, who was instrumental in building the theater program to a new level of professionalism. Other influential directors were Joseph M. Larkin, SJ (1950s-1970s), and J. Paul Marcoux (1960s-1990s).

Sources:

Amadeus, Box 1, Folder 4, Boston College student theater collection, BC.1991.081, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

"A Programmed History of Boston College’s Theater," John J. Burns Library's Blog, May 1, 2017. https://johnjburnslibrary.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/a-programmed-history-of-boston-colleges-theater.

Histories of Dramatics at Boston College, Box 8, Folder 7, Boston College student theater collection, BC.1991.081, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.