MFA Performance

Introduction | Curriculum | Application and Audition | FAQ

The first cohort of the MFA in Performance has been chosen for Fall 2010. Read on for information about this innovative, new program!

The new Master's of Fine Arts in Performance program at the University of Maryland is a three-year course of study designed for the artist with professional theatre experience and artistic vision who wishes to build on his or her strengths and insights in a rigorous, creative and scholarly context. This program is for the artist who wishes to write, direct, compose, perform and produce his or her own work. It is for the performer who wishes to incorporate influences from cultures beyond the traditional western and European canon into his or her work. It embraces the global village of art and exposes how other cultural influences can mirror our specific humanity and heritage, our joys, sorrows, troubles and psyches. Such world performance styles range from a traditional Asian form of puppetry, to stilt-walking, to Kabuki, to African dance, to Middle Eastern styles of vocal expression. The MFA in Performance embraces the individual artist and focuses on training performers to become not only confident, skilled and original voices and innovators in the theatre, but also skilled teachers, capable of obtaining University, Conservatory, and Studio work. We offer an MFA program that holds up the mirror to the Global Village. It is a program pedagogically determined to train artist/scholars in World Performance and in the physical, vocal, imaginative skills and rigors of performance and practice. We wish to reflect the collage of humanity – not limited to that which is familiar, but steeped in the multicultural performance art of the world.

The MFA in Performance expands upon the professional actor-training model offered by the typical MFA in Acting through an approach to acting that offers a world-view of performance and its place in contemporary culture. It is designed to support the changing world of acting and theatre by creating a process that will sustain a variety of multicultural, traditional and contemporary performance demands -- with special attention paid to developing skills in artistic entrepreneurship. The MFA in Performance program teaches independent thinking, risk taking, innovation, and the ability to engage diverse audiences. Upon graduation, students will have acquired the technique to take their work into professional artistic, cultural, or community venues and excel with skill and integrity. Offering courses in pedagogy, critical theory, and theatre history in tandem with performance technique courses, the MFA in Performance is a program that meets the needs of developing “Actor-Scholars.”

The MFA program promises to be one of the most dynamic three-year graduate programs in America. Beginning in 2010, this program, with artistic excellence as its primary core value, distinguishes itself by offering a small, diverse group of gifted mid-career and/or emerging professionals the opportunity to;

explore individual potential and enhance technique, guided by a dedicated faculty of internationally acclaimed artists/master-teachers;
expand the possibilities of collaborative creativity in progressively challenging performance projects with equally-gifted peers;
perform in artistically excellent main stage productions that serve as learning opportunities and models of excellence for the community;
inspire and share artistic visions and experiences with undergraduate theatre majors through teaching assistantships;
realize, embrace and release the truth of their authentically unique, already powerful, and sometimes terrifyingly beautiful creative voices; and,
invigorate, illuminate and, possibly redesign the very fabric of the performance arts in the theatre

This unique world-class graduate program, with solid values of artistic and scholastic excellence at its core, offers an array of studies and opportunities designed to explore the broad spectrum of American and international performance traditions while laying the foundation for individual ground-breaking approaches to creativity and personalized expression.

Comprised of international artists and scholars, our first-rate faculty brings experiences amassed from their work in theatre ranging from performance art, Suzuki, voice and dialect work, western movement techniques, musicals, masks, tai chi, various acting techniques and solo work to sculpture, film, spoken word, aikido, chi-gong, and post-modern dance. The faculty has worked professionally at major venues in this country and in Africa, China, England, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Iran, Japan, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Turkey. World renowned guest artists and adjunct professors will round-out the richness of the program.

In January 2010, our Selection Committee chose eight artists from the world arena who form our first class. We looked for motivated visionaries with unique voices who would appreciate a performance-based graduate program designed to guide and support them on their journey from idea to revelation, from exploration to ownership.

If selected for this program, you will receive financial support including teaching assistantship opportunities. In addition to working on your own creative projects, the teaching assistantships will give you the valuable opportunity to pass your wealth of experience forward to undergraduates in a classroom or workshop setting. These students may, in fact, form performance ensembles that will showcase your creative work here at UMD. Upon the successful completion of the three-year program, you will graduate with the MFA degree in Performance. You will not only be armed with the experience and the degree, you will also be empowered by the enhanced and expanded skills you can use to further your artistic impact on the field. You will also be qualified to teach in your area of specialty at the college and university level.

Curriculum

Curricular work will be complemented by a Lab production each year (directed by Performance faculty or one of the Graduate cohort) and a Main stage production. In addition, as part of the Teaching Assistantship, students will follow one of the Performance Faculty as a TA for an undergraduate courses. After the first semester, or once a faculty mentor and the Directors of the MFA in Performance determine the graduate student ready, she/he will be invited to teach an undergraduate course. Look at this pdf for the three-year curriculum.

Application and Audition

Previous audition dates for the MFA in Performance were:
-January 16, 17, 2010 at the University of Maryland, College Park
-January 24, 25, 26, 27, 2010 in New York, New York
-February 1, 2, 3 2010 in Chicago, Illinois
-February 5, 6, 2010 in San Francisco, California
Callbacks were held at the University of Maryland, College Park on February 15th and 22nd.

A completed application is required to set up an audition date and time. You will be contacted once your completed application is received to arrange specifics. Please see the admissions and deadline page for more details.

Frequently Asked Questions
Read this pdf document to find answers to such questions as:
-Will I receive time off (and credit) if I am offered an AEA stage or film role while I am in the program?
-Are there some foundation classes I won't have to take since I've been a working professional for 10 years?
-I am a director. How will the program benefit me? It seems to focus on performing.
-Your program seems to be focused on solo performance. Will you be doing more traditional texts and productions as well?
...and more!