Facilities & Spaces
Two theatres, a costume shop, design labs and rehearsal studios. The spaces where students build, rehearse and perform.
Sidebar
Theatre lives in its spaces – and ours are built for training, not just performing.
Belknap Playhouse
Our historic 308-seat proscenium mainstage – built as a chapel in 1874 and marking 100 years as the department’s home stage in 2025.
Thrust Theatre
A 172-seat thrust stage that puts the audience close enough to feel the scene change the room – an intimacy most theatre artists never get to train in.
Costume Shop
Progress from instructional to industrial machines, with professional sergers, finishing equipment and an adjacent dye facility where you’ll mix color and craft your own samples.
Scene Shop
A fully functional technical theatre space behind the Playhouse stage – carpentry with SawStop safety technology, MIG and stick welding, central dust collection and paint and prop areas.
Paint Booth
The first OSHA-grade paint facility in Kentuckiana open to students – spray-paint sizable furniture and fabric drops in a safe breathing environment, with prep and drying areas.
Sound Recording Booth
A sound-paneled space with a RODECaster and RODE mics – record voice-overs for productions and projects for the sound design class.
Acting & Rehearsal Studios (Thrust 131 & 133)
More than 2,300 square feet of sprung-floor studio space for acting, movement, dance and voice – used for classes, Mainstage and Studio Theatre rehearsals and individual work.
Design Lab & Department Library (Thrust 115)
A design and computer lab that doubles as the department library – research, drafting and rendering in one spot.
From Stage to Streaming Success
Ready to turn your commitment to performance, collaboration, and creative vision into professional impact? Explore Theatre Arts at the University of Louisville — home to the first and only accredited African American Theatre MFA program in the nation, where training in live performance launches careers on stage, on screen, in education, and across every industry that needs people who can communicate and connect.