Department of Theatre productions have been invited to perform six times at the finals of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. More than 1,200 colleges and universities nationwide vie for a spot in this highly regarded festival. UMBC's productions have reached the finals by being voted the outstanding theatre production of schools representing the mid-Atlantic region, besting festival participants from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.

UMBC's most recent appearance at the Kennedy Center was in 2004 with a performance of Colette Searls' Buried, an original puppet performance about the casualties of war.