The mission of the University of Northern Iowa's Interpreters Theatre program is to offer students opportunities to study and participate in the creation, direction, and performance of scripts based on social and cultural issues, oral histories, ethnographies and traditional performances of literature. In addition, our students are able to actively participate in the process of staging Interpreters Theatre productions. They work as Technical Directors, designers, carpenters and electricians, creating the environments in which we stage our productions.

One goal of the Performance Studies program at UNI is to make our courses and the Interpreters Theatre program viable options for all students regardless of their major areas of study. With that goal in mind, we develop courses and present performances that emphasize culture, oral history, and social change. Currently, we have two branches to our Interpreters Theatre program: traditional production work and an interactive performance group.

The on-campus Interpreters Theatre program began in 1976 when the former Words and Voices program was redirected into primary emphasis on group performance of literature. Today the emphasis is on exploration of contemporary and evolving forms of group performance, based on scripts from a variety of texts, including fiction, oral history, diaries, and folklore. The program is available for any qualified undergraduate or graduate student director who has successfully completed the Interpreters Theatre course, or an approved equivalent, and whose application for a production assignment is approved. Student directors are usually Communication and Theatre Arts majors, minors, or graduate students. Many of our graduate students in Performance Studies choose to script and direct thesis shows in completion of their Master's degree. We present four to six productions annually.