Farmington Faculty


Andrea Southard, Ph.D.

Professor - Theater

Ph.D, University of Kansas
M.A., University of Kansas
B.A., University of Kansas

In the Classroom: Engaging Students — Setting High Academic Expectations
In her Arts Administration classes Andrea Southard (known to everyone here as "Andy") primarily focuses on teaching students how the theater works. She stresses that in Arts Administration – Theater it is not enough to know just about acting and directing, students also need to know the intense business demands of the field and how to apply business insight to their theater courses.

Andy explains that the business core set of courses is the same for each of the Arts Administration concentrations: Arts Administration – Art, Arts Administration – Music, Arts Administration – Theater, and that the arts courses are carefully tailored to each different arts specialty.

For example, a student taking Arts Administration – Theater will take a certain number of Theater/Arts classes: Fundamentals of Acting, Play Structure and Analysis, Introduction to Stagecraft and Scene Design, Stage Lighting, Costume Design, Play Production and Directing, etc. But they will also take rigorous business classes: Intro. to Financial Accounting, Intro to Managerial Accounting, Principles of Management, Principles of Marketing, Statistical Applications for Managerial Decisions, Human Resources Management, Consumer Behavior, Mathematics for Economics and Business, and more.

Andy also recommends Arts Administration students, no matter what their art specialty, take additional classes in art and computer science, keeping in mind they will need to learn do the actual hands-on work of creating event publicity professionally-produced posters, programs, playbills, advertising, and more.

Andy Southard and the other theater faculty at Farmington understand that Arts Administration is a growing field in the much publicized "Creative Economy," especially among nonprofit and community theater organizations. Having worked in the field, they also know that the various arts fields are crying out for talented people who possess not only fundamental art and performance skills, but also much-needed business skills.

The arts are actively seeking business managers — people who can do everything from manage production budgets and work with business leaders to secure funding, to handle marketing and advertising and more. In short, the Arts needs talented people who can handle the all-important business side of art.

Andy primarily teaches the theater aspects of the Arts Administration – Theater: Fundamentals of Acting, Play Structure and Analysis, Introduction to Stagecraft and Scene Design, Stage Lighting, Costume Design, Play Production and Directing, and more.


Outside the Classroom: Innovation and Excitement — Putting Theory into Practice
Andy Southard is a hands-on theater person, teaching theater and producing theater. In addition to the class work, she works with the on-campus theater group, Theatre UMF, to produce 4-5 productions each academic year. This experience gives students ample opportunity to participate in a wide range of on-the-scene and behind-the-scenes activities such as managing the theater box office; doing publicity and advertising; itemizing and tracking production budgets; researching, making and defending budget requests; as well as acting, directing, designing costumes, doing stagecraft and lighting, and more. This real-world, hands-on theater experience teaches Arts Administration students all aspects of theater.

Andy recently organized an exciting Winter Term trip to Japan, where she and Farmington Associate Professor of Art History Sarah Maline took a group of 23 Farmington students to study theater in Japan. The group participated in theater seminars and took theater tours in Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo. She is currently developing some theater/business summer internships with some Maine community theater groups


A True Academic — Areas of Special Interest
Andy Southard is interested in all aspects of theater, particularly directing and costume design. She also incorporates literature and history in her theater classes, and teaches many of the advanced acting classes at Farmington.

In addition, Andy is deeply interested in Russian theater and Japanese theater and techniques.


Respected in the Field — Noteworthy Accomplishments
Recently, Andy has been examining Arts Administration programs at larger universities across the U.S. (typically offered only as graduate-level programs at many institutions) to explore how their programs operate — what works and what doesn't — and more importantly how an undergraduate institution like Farmington can learn from their experiences.

She has visited institutions such as Indiana University, the University of Kansas, and Southern Methodist University in Texas to meet with faculty who have developed and implemented those schools’ arts administration programs.


Outside of Academia — Personal Interests and Activities
Outside of her busy academic life, Andy Southard is interested in jazz music and travel. She has traveled to Moscow and Syktyvkar to study theater in Russia, and to Oxford-Brookes University to study theater in England. And as everyone at Farmington knows, Andy Southard is an avid theater-goer and die-hard film buff.

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