Students drive Tabor’s theater program and, in very real ways, run all theatrical performances at Tabor. They direct and stage manage shows, perform in shows, design lighting and scenery for shows, build scenery and props for shows, and run the technical aspects of all shows during performances.  The most well-rounded Tabor theater students are those who experience both sides of theatrical productions, performing and technical. With each production, Tabor students focus on the process of putting on a show, of learning and growing, as well as on building a team with everyone involved in the show. Although scenes and plays at Tabor have been staged virtually everywhere, including the dining hall and the headmaster’s office, most are staged in two state-of-the-art performance spaces, The Will Parker Black Box Theater and the Fireman Auditorium.

Student Performances

Each fall Tabor stages two productions in the Will Parker Black Box Theater. Each winter Tabor stages two productions, a studio show in the Black Box and a large-scale musical in the Fireman Auditorium. Each spring Tabor stages a number of student-directed one act plays. Students in acting courses additionally perform in the Black Box, and all freshman participate in an annual Shakespeare monolog performance as part of the school's English curriculum. Each year, on average, one out of every four to five students at Tabor is involved in a theatre production.

Theatre Opportunities

Students may take one of three acting classes, a lighting design class, or a scene design class. Every other year, a Tabor tours England with the cast of a fall play. Theater program participants also have regular opportunities to attend theater performances, both college and professional shows, in neighboring Boston and Providence, and even in New York.

Because of Tabor's close proximity to teaching programs at institutions such as Boston University and Brown University, as well as regional theaters such as the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge and the Massachusetts' Shakespeare and Company ensemble, students have regular opportunity to meet and receive critique from directors, actors, and designers from area theatrical resources.

Behind the curtain, students can design the lighting or the scenery for the winter musical or another show,step into the role as stage manager for a show and, on the nights of performances, control all of the technical aspects and cues for a performance. In addition, students can direct and/or write a one act play and take that show to other area schools.  Students also have the opportunity to participate in off-campus programs such as the Greater Boston Area Shakespeare Monologue competition.