When Archabbot Boniface Wimmer founded the monastery in 1846, he encouraged an appreciation of drama as a means of building self-confidence and character. That appreciation has become a tradition at Saint Vincent.

The popularity and wide range of dramatic activities over the years have been evident in Saint Vincent Preparatory School Dramatic productions, the annual Passion Play, operettas with Saint Xavier’s Academy, college plays such as A Man for All Seasons, audience pleasing student musicals beginning with West Side Story and student drama organizations.

In 1969 the curtain rose for the first time on a unique dramatic adventure; the Saint Vincent Summer Theatre, founded by a Benedictine monk, Father Tom Devereux, O.S.B. The theatre has endured for more than forty-five years and has offered scores of college students the unique opportunity to work with theatre professionals in all aspects of the theater. Thousands of lives have been enhanced by Saint Vincent Theatre’s positive impact on the artistic life of the college and surrounding community.