Welcome to the LMC Drama Department

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men (or women) to do nothing"  - Edmund Burke

Drama at Los Medanos College has reemerged in the last ten years as a creative, exciting and innovative way to learn. Our many and varied productions beginning with our first production of Christopher Durang’s “Baby With the Bathwater” to more recent productions of “The Laramie Project” and “The Vagina Monologues”  through our current participation in the National Endowments for the Arts Big Read Project with a production of "To Kill A Mockingbird" prove that LMC has a viable, controversial and exciting program.

Although still limited somewhat by our facilities, Drama at LMC has proven that necessity is the mother of invention.  We have staged many shows in the LMC Theatre, improved our sound and lighting facilities and even used the Outdoor Amphitheatre for a production of Twelfth Night. In the Fall of 2007 we received a mini face lift with brand new draperies and the creation of a proscenium style backstage.

We are also now collaborating on summer shows at the newly refurbished Campanile Theatre in downtown Antioch. Thanks to Artistic Director Sean ONeil and his recently formed professional troupe, Antioch Classical Theatre Company, many Los Medanos College students have the opportunity to appear in Shakespearean productions with professional actors.

The Drama Department believes strongly in the power of the Performing Arts to enhance a student’s self-esteem and confidence in ways that no other academic discipline can.  Many of our students either find paying careers in theatre or go on to prestigious drama schools. One of our students had never acted until he was in an LMC production, became inspired and moved to London to get a degree in acting! He even appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with his troupe and was interviewed on NPR!!!

LMC Drama gives every single student an opportunity to shine. We don't have favorites and we don't exclude. On occasion we bring in professional performance artists to act on the LMC stage. Last year, for example, Seattle actor, Frank Tabbita, was gracing our stage with his one man show, Tesla, based on the life of Nikolai Tesla, the genius inventor of alternating current, among other things. (And you thought it was Edison? Wrong!) The show later went on a national tour of Australia and Canada but we were the first to stage the production in California!  And in the Spring of 2008 we are negotiating for Brian Copeland to bring his show, "Not A Genuine Black Man" to our stage. But most of the time, our performers are home grown talent. Our LMC Players are dynamite actors and our distinguished group of Visiting and Resident Directors provide enough range and versatility to sustain and engage our audiences.

We also have some of the finest instructors in all of California with impressive credentials from The Actor's Studio in New York City, Ohio University's professional theatre program, NYU, SFSU and professional acting schools throughout the world. Take advantage of their talents. Enroll in their classes.

LMC Drama presents scholarships each year to outstanding students as well. The Marie Folino Performing Arts Scholarship and The Matthew Shepard Tolerance Scholarship are both part of our department. And our latest scholarship, The Casey Sheehan Scholarship for Courage and Duty, was first awarded in the Spring of 2007. If you think you might be eligible, please visit our scholarship page.

Last but no means least, we also have several award winning online film and theatre classes, exciting acting and improv classes and even a film production class where you can learn editing techniques and make your own documentary films. So what are you waiting for? Have an urge to act? Write? Produce? Direct? Run lights and sound? Build a set? Go for it!

To sum up: Theatre is fun. Very hard work. But sometimes even miraculous. Audiences, designers, actors, directors, and technicians: theatre creates a community, a true family. We think in this day and age that's a pretty phenomenal thing to do.
Journey throughout our Web Site to find out all you can about Theatre at Los Medanos College. And come to see a show. Register for a class. Or tell your friends. Be a part of it. We learn by doing because our staff of award-winning teachers truly believes that is the best way to learn.  See you on the stage! Or in our theatre!