MFA Acting
A Master of Fine Arts in Acting Degree (MFA Acting) will usually involve a rigorous training program that involves voice, movement, and acting. In most cases, the purpose of such a program is to prepare the student for work as an actor or an educator.
Most programs are three years of advanced actor training. You may be required to perform in regular advisor-approved projects, with a performance based role or project in your final year. You may very well find the educational experience to be as difficult as actually making a living as a professional actor.
The typical admissions process can be difficult. Candidates may be required to prepare monologues and travel to an audition to perform live in front of an admissions committee. They may also be required to have headshots taken, provide updated resumes, and complete application forms.
You'll often find that the classroom is a place where you'll explore your imagination by storytelling, playing games, and practicing sensory and word exercises. You'll do scene work, develop awareness of your body in movement classes, develop your vocal use, and more. You'll likely explore material by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen, O’Neill, Miller, and recent American playwrights.
As you advance in your MFA Acting, you'll likely work on dialects and accents, dance and masks and stage combat. You'll begin bring everything together in full theatrical productions and original full-length plays. And then you'll begin to prepare for the life of an acting professional by meeting casting directors, agents, producers, writers, directors and others.
Sound exciting?
Here are some MFA Acting Programs:
Mason Gross School of The Arts
The M.F.A. Acting program offers an integrated and challenging course of study for serious students who aspire to careers as professional actors. The program is dedicated to the proposition that acting is a creative art, and true excellence in its practice may be obtained only through mastry of technical craft. A three-year, full-time residency is required. Personal attention is assured, as classes are limited in size; each student’s progress is tracked by a faculty of outstanding master teachers and professional artists with extensive professional reputations. Acting, voice, speech and movement constitute the program’s integrated core, and these disciplines are interwoven each semester to form the foundation of the course of study.
The Shakespeare Theatre
The Shakespeare Theatre in the Nation's Capital, in conjunction with The George Washington University, offers a Master of Fine Arts degree to develop actors for the classical theatre. Under the guidance of Michael Kahn, Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Theatre and one of this country's most respected acting teachers, The Shakespeare Theatre Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University (ACA) trains up to 20 students each year. ACA's one-year intensive graduate program focuses on the specific craft of acting Shakespeare and other classical texts. Training includes acting, voice and speech—in particular the challenges of speaking verse—movement, mask, the Alexander Technique, text, combat, as well as dramatic literature and theatre history.
Indiana University Theater & Drama
The goal of the M.F.A. programs in acting and directing is to train artists to enter the profession equipped with skills to prepare them for major genres in theatre. The faculty believes in an eclectic teaching approach to hone creative and technical skills for the performance and interpretation of realism, non-realism and the classics. Guest artist seminars on Acting for the Camera and Professional Development are also offered periodically. Casting opportunities begin upon entering the program. The Department of Theatre and Drama produces a season of 8 main stage productions. Additional summer casting opportunities are available at the Brown County Playhouse.
USC School of Theatre's Master of Fine Arts in Acting
USC School of Theatre's Master of Fine Arts in Acting is an intensive three-year program that fully trains actors as both artists and professionals. The program helps prepare the voice, body and intellect to meet the demands of text and performance - no matter what the medium. The MFA's first two years are devoted to working together in classrooms, workshops and performances, while the third year is devoted to preparation for the profession. The third year also features creation of a three-play repertoire to be publicly performed.
UC Irving Drama Department
UCI is devoted to the development of working professional actors: actors who can make for themselves a successful professional life in an extraordinarily competitive field and who possess the skills, insight, intelligence, creativity, and vision to create the theatre of the future. UCI has proven itself notably successful in training working professionals: virtually all of our MFA graduates in the past fifteen years now perform on stages around the country, on and off Broadway, in regional theatres, or in feature films and television series.
Michigan State University Department of The Theater
The MFA acting program at Michigan State University offers individualized and challenging advanced actor training. Intensive scene study and studio work cover a wide range of theatrical materials from the classics to modern to contemporary. Training in voice and movement is an integral part of the program with an emphasis on preparing the MFA graduate for a career in academia All MFA students must complete at least six required advisor approved performance credits (one per role) in order to receive the degree.
The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance
The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance is a department where we pride ourselves in producing the finest of artist/scholars. Our graduates are not only among the most talented actors in their cohort, but are also among the brightest. We accept only highly motivated, talented individuals wishing to pursue acting as a career, who are intellectually curious. Actors are trained for stage, film, television and voice-overs. We encourage all to apply regardless of "type."
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