M.A. Theatre and Performance Studies

If you would like to visit the University of Maryland to learn more about our program, please contact: 

Carla Della Gatta, Ph.D.
TDPS Director, M.A. & Ph.D. Programs in Theatre and Performance Studies, School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
carla@umd.edu

Tuesday, December 17, 2024,  is the school's deadline for best consideration for all domestic and international M.A. and Ph.D. applications. Wednesday, January 15, 2025, is the final deadline for all M.A. and Ph.D. applications. Please see the information below to prepare for the Fall 2024 application. For additional information, please contact:

• Crystal Gaston, TDPS  Coordinator of Graduate Services: cgaston@umd.edu or
• Carla Della Gatta, TDPS director of the M.A. & Ph.D. programs in theatre and performance studies: carla@umd.edu

The University of Maryland’s Graduate School accepts applications through its online application system. Before completing the application, applicants are asked to check the Graduate School admissions requirements for specific instructions.

As required by the Graduate School, all application materials are to be submitted electronically:

• Graduate application
• Transcripts
• Statement of purpose
• Letters of recommendation
• Program/department supporting documents (as applicable)
• Non-refundable application fee ($75) for each program to which an applicant applies (fee eligibility waiver: https://gradschool.umd.edu/feewaiverinformation)

The electronic submission of application materials helps expedite the review of an application. Completed applications are reviewed by an admissions committee in each graduate degree program. The recommendations of the committees are submitted to the dean of the Graduate School, who will make the final admission decision. Students seeking to complete graduate work at the University of Maryland for degree purposes must be formally admitted to the Graduate School by the dean. To ensure the integrity of the application process, the University of Maryland authenticates submitted materials through TurnItIn for admissions.
 

M.A. in theatre and performance studies application requirements:

• You must have earned a four-year baccalaureate degree from a regionally-accredited U.S. institution, or an equivalent degree earned at a non-U.S. institution with at least a 3.0 GPA.
• All international students must show evidence of acceptable scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). See information on the International Educational Services website for specific admissions requirements, including minimum TOEFL score.

Please be sure to include the following in your application:

• Three recommenders and their email addresses for the electronic recommendation forms to be sent to them.
• Your statement of goals, research interests and experience. Please have this in a Word or PDF file that can be easily uploaded.
  • Please consider that we are a program of theatre and performance Studies and that our students study both areas, not one or the other. Include information on what attracts you to scholarship (as opposed to the professional training you might receive in an M.F.A. program), what attracts you to our program (which faculty member or members would you most want to work with, for example) and your primary research interests. Consider too that we are dedicated to developing scholar/artists, so indicate what practical areas your skills are in or how you hope to develop such skills while engaged in rigorous scholarly work. How might you use this degree in the future if it does not lead directly to a job in higher education?
• A writing sample that shows your ability to conduct research.

Official transcripts from all universities attended will need to be sent to:

University of Maryland College Park
Enrollment Services Operation – Attn: Graduate Admissions
Room 0130 Mitchell Building
College Park, MD 20742

Be sure to indicate the concentration you are applying to. THPF is the program code for both the M.A. and Ph.D. programs in theatre and performance studies.
 

The graduate faculty are committed to nurturing MA and PhD scholar-artists in theatre, dance, and performance studies who “think and act” towards intellectual and social transformation.  We want our students to enter the world fearlessly, equipped to leverage performing arts practice, historicism, and critique in the service of human good. The MA/PhD program believes in the intrinsic value of an interdisciplinary education, and empowers students to work within and beyond the School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies to tailor a degree program that best suits their professional aspirations and trajectory, in or outside of academia. We also prize the application of intellectual rigor beyond the Ivory Tower, and look to cultivate public humanists, social justice advocates, and community engaged scholar-artists. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and access are core values for our pedagogy and practice as scholar-artists, and we privilege anti-racism and historically marginalized knowledges, including global knowledges that challenge US and western hegemony.

The M.A./Ph.D is committed to the following foundational values: 

1. Innovative Scholarship: The MA/PhD is inherently interdisciplinary and emphasizes multiple methodologies, theories, disciplines, critical lenses, and modes of critical expression. We attend closely to emergent theories and aesthetics, such as the digital turn. We take a broad approach to theatre and performance to emphasize intertwined global histories, traditions, and contexts, questioning monolithic knowledge formations and centering aesthetic and intellectual traditions from global majority communities. We validate performance practice as a rigorous mode of knowledge production and emphasize performance-based research as a hallmark of the program. These commitments mean our programs reimagine learning by embracing cutting-edge pedagogy that empowers students to engage deeply, think critically, and innovate across artistry and scholarship. 

2. Civic and Cultural Engagement: Theatre and performance function beyond pure aesthetics. Rather, they have functioned as public-interfacing practices across histories and cultures. Our program investigates the civic functions of theatre and performance, exploring how the performing arts contribute to the public good and asks students to explore these forms as agents of social transformation in service of  underserved, underrepresented, and historically oppressed communities. Our program actively encourages civic engagement, social justice, and community outreach through theatre and performance, research-based arts practice, dramaturgy, public-facing scholarship, and/or social activism. 

3. Collaboration as Key to the Arts: Collaboration is central to the performing arts, and also ties our program to a broader network that includes working artists, local communities, regional theatres, educational and cultural institutions, non-profits, and established and emerging technologies. Understanding the performing arts as investments in people and communities, our program trains engaged citizens who cultivate belonging and inclusion. By centering relationships of reciprocity across live and digital platforms, we make space for diverse voices and perspectives, make our program more accessible and civically engaged,  enable broader participation across geography and expertise, and foster shared experience across communities. 

4. Critical Historical Reflection: We track shifts in theatre and performance across history to chart changing cultures and emerging political landscapes. Through coursework, independent research, pedagogical training, and performance practice, students garner a long view of history, preparing them to serve as critics of political and cultural processes while developing creative solutions to the grand challenges of our times. 

5. Professional Integrity: TDPS faculty provide leadership and mentorship on adherence to the highest standards of research and citational ethics in all aspects of theatre and performance-making, scholarly writing, interlocution with broad audiences, accountability to community stakeholders, and engagement with art and artistry.

The University of Maryland is dedicated to maintaining a vibrant international graduate student community. The office of International Students and Scholars Services (ISSS) is a valuable source of information and assistance for prospective and current international students. International applicants are encouraged to explore the services they offer and contact them with related questions.

The University of Maryland Graduate School offers admission to international students based on academic information; it is not a guarantee of attendance. Admitted international students will then receive instructions about obtaining the appropriate visa to study at the University of Maryland which will require submission of additional documents. Please see the Graduate Admissions Process for International applicants for more information.

The M.A. in theatre and performance studies requires a minimum of 34 credit hours of coursework at the 400, 600 or 700 level.

View the one-page course description and credit requirements for the M.A. in theatre and performance studies program.
For details about coursework requirements, please see the M.A. in theatre and performance studies handbook. 

The M.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies program has both a thesis and a non-thesis option. The thesis option is recommended for those who intend to go on for the Ph.D. or teach at the college level. The non-thesis option is recommended for those who intend to teach K-12 or to pursue a career outside of academia.

For both options, students should carefully review the Master's Degree Policies section of the Graduate Catalog located under the Policies tab on the left-hand side of the front page menu.
Students should also familiarize themselves with the academic deadlines page on the Graduate School website.

Thesis Option:
For the thesis option, 6 credit hours must be in THET 799, "Master’s Thesis Research." The thesis should be completed during the fourth semester of the student's coursework. The thesis must be approved by the Thesis Examining Committee, which consists of three members of the graduate faculty. The chair of the committee should be the student’s thesis advisor.

Non-Thesis Option:
For the non-thesis option, a minimum of 6 credit hours must be from courses numbered 600 and above. Instead of a thesis, students should submit one article-length essay to the Non-Thesis Review Committee, which consists of three members of the graduate faculty. The chair of the committee should be the student’s advisor.

For details about thesis and non-thesis track requirements, please see the M.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies handbook.

• Marsten, Medha. "From You I Get the Story: Tracking Spirtuality through the Three Iterations of The Who’s Tommy." 2020. Chair: James Harding.
• Brann, Olivia. "From Über-Marionettes To Muppets: Finding Ancient Joy In The Modern-Day World." 2019. Chair: James Harding.
• Ealey, Jordan. "Theorizing The Brave: Black Girlhood, Affect, and Performance in Kirsten Childs’s The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin." 2019. Chair: Faedra Chatard Carpenter.
• Hammond, Jacqueline. "Poetic Defiance: Amiri Baraka’s 'Somebody Blew Up America”'and 'One Garvey: The Unifying Elements of the Garveyite Movement in Edgar Nkosi White’s 'I, Marcus Garvey.'" (Non-Thesis Option.) 2018. Chair: Faedra Chatard Carpenter.
• Cyr, Renee. "Staging Sacred Space: a Ritual Performance History of the UMD Memorial
  Chapel." 2017. Chair: Laurie Frederik.
• Ridley, Leticia. "I, Too, Am America: Hamilton, An American Musical." 2017. Chair: Faedra Chatard Carpenter.
• Walker, Jonelle. "The Irreconcilable Volatility of Bloody Betty and the Internet Archive." 2017. Chair: James Harding.
• Dilliplane, Daniel. "Interplay, Autonomy, and Social Movements." 2016. Chair: Laurie Frederik.
• Selim, Samy.  Non-thesis option, research on Molière. 2016. Chair: Franklin J. Hildy.
• Young, Patrick. "Looking for Dionysus: Hedwig Raabe and the Haunting of the Birth of Tragedy." 2016. Chair: James Harding.
• Houshyar, Maryam. "De-Monopolizing Theatre: Formation Of A Space Of An Individual Expression In Iran." 2015. Chair: James Harding.
• Barker, Andrew. "The Dramaturgy Of A Maritime Metaphor: Marcus Rediker’s Influence On Naomi Wallace’s One Flea Spare." 2013. Chair: Faedra Chatard Carpenter.
• Warheit, Emily. "Theatre Production as Experiential Learning: Drama Programs at the Sitar Center for the Arts." 2011. Chair: Laurie Frederik.
• Lin, Li-Min. "Bridging Two Cultures: Chinese Theatre Works and 'The Legend of Whitesnake.'" 2010. Chair: Faedra Chatard Carpenter.
• Townsend, Emily Catherine. "The Brave New World of the American Shakespeare Center: Original Practices and the Actors’ Renaissance Season in Staunton, VA." 2010. Chair: Franklin J. Hildy.
• Hanson, Sarah. "Marks of Identity: The Performance of Tattoos Among Women in Contemporary American Society." 2009. Chair: Laurie Frederik.
• Thompson, Robert. "Entertaining Ghosts: Gettysburg Ghost Tours and the Performance of Belief." 2009. Chair: Laurie Frederik.
• Steele, Erin Bone. "Murder and Melodrama: The Red Barn Story on Stage." 2008. Chair: Franklin J. Hildy.
• Dawn, Karalee. "Searching for Home: The Establishment of the National Theatre of Scotland.. 2007. Chair: Franklin J. Hildy.
• Granshaw, Michelle. “What do ye allow a baboon like that on the stage for?”: Protest, Irish-American Identity, and the works of Harrigan, Hart, and Braham." 2007. Chair: Heather Nathans.
• Jones, Douglas. "Thinking, Scripting, and Performing: Constructing and Playing the Racial Synecdoche in the Antebellum North." 2007.
• Tobiason, Aaron. Non-thesis option, research on antebellum theatre and politics. 2006. Chair: Heather Nathans.
• Dail, Chrystyna. Non-thesis option. 2004.
• Kaleba, Casey. "Violent Delights: A Cultural History Of Media Violence Debates." 2004.