Introduction | Curriculum | Application and Audition
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 a 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 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;
Scheduled to debut in August, 2010 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 will choose eight artists from the world arena who will form our first class. We are looking 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.
Year One: Foundation
First Semester
THEATRE 606: TEACHING THEATRE (1 credit)
This course (required of all graduate students on a teaching assistantship in the Department of Theatre) introduces students to basic pedagogical theory specifically related to the teaching of theatre.
THEATRE 604: HISTORY AND THEORY OF PERFORMANCE (3 credits)
The notion of performance as trope, as practice, and now as interdisciplinary field of study—is everywhere in critical discourse today. This seminar invites students to explore histories and theories of performance from Aristotle to present day.
THEATRE 620: PERFORMANCE STUDIO: BASIC PERFORMANCE CRAFT: REALISM AND NATURALISM (6 credits)
In Performance Studio I, students will develop a common performance vocabulary examining the basic elements of the craft of acting. The first semester’s performance practice focuses on works of realism and naturalism by playwrights such as Anton Chekhov and Tennessee Williams. Voice training begins with Kristin Linklater’s Freeing the Natural Voice and the application of the technique to text. Movement training will focus on the Suzuki practice.
Second Semester
THEATRE 698D: SPECIAL TOPICS IN DRAMATURGY (3 credits)
This course focuses on research, play analysis, and production. The students will be exposed to a myriad of dramaturgical principles in a theatrical text. The class will culminate in a written project that synthesizes the research, play analysis, critical thinking and critical writing skills developed during the semester.
THEATRE 621: PERFORMANCE STUDIO: CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMANCE STYLES (6 credits)
This course focuses on plays by contemporary playwrights, and movement training based on the theories of F.M. Alexander, Michael Chekhov, Jerzy Grotowski and Jacques Lecoq. The work will include jeu, neutral mask, and “psychological gesture.” Voice practice will focus on training the ear for one’s own speech patterns, learning the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and transcription, and the ability to acquire other accents/dialects.
THEATRE 628: PERFORMANCE LAB (1 credit)
Performance Lab is a weekly seminar to explore and share creative process and progress, critique work and will also serve as a space for guest artist collaboration with the cohort of students.
Year Two: Application
In Year Two (Semester Three and Four), students will begin, under the guidance of their mentor, to formulate the structure and focus of a proposed final project for Year Three. Each graduate student proposal will be discussed with the Performance Graduate Faculty prior to being accepted or revised by the end of the Fourth Semester.
Third Semester
THEATRE 622: PERFORMANCE STUDIO: CLASSICAL TECHNIQUE (6 credits)
(Continuing the work of semester two). Students will learn how to perform heightened language texts of global literature, including the Greeks, Moliere, the Jacobeans, Shakespeare, and works of African, Asian, or Hispanic origin.
THEATRE 639: SPECIAL TOPICS IN PERFORMANCE: SAMPLE TOPIC: SOLO PERFORMANCE (3 credits)
Students will study both the history and contemporary practice of creating solo performances. A guest artist -- a theatre professional drawn from the Department’s professional network, will teach this course. In the past, our guest artists have included nationally and internationally known artists such as Ping Chong, Anne Bogart, Mary Zimmerman and Walter Dallas.
THEATRE 628: PERFORMANCE LAB (1 credit)
In this class, students will develop a performance project based on the training they receive in their Solo Performance/Guest Artist course. This class will offer students the opportunity to create a performance piece under the guidance of our artist-in residence. Students’ final Solo performances will be videotaped and used for a year-end evaluation of their progress in the program.
Fourth Semester
THEATRE 623: PERFORMANCE STUDIO: PERIOD MOVEMENT AND VERSE ANALYSIS (6 credits)
(Continuing the work of semester three). This course emphasizes movement skills related to specific theatrical styles (such as the movement of a Greek chorus in classical drama), and will include period movement, commedia dell’arte, clown, and buffoon. The voice training in this course will focus on developing singing technique, as well as accents, dialects, and dialect research.
THEATRE 639: SPECIAL TOPICS IN PERFORMANCE: SAMPLE TOPIC -- POLITICAL PERFORMANCE (3 credits)
This course examines the use of performance by the State, by oppositional groups, and by theatre and performance practitioners—to solidify or challenge structures of power. Students will study the history, theory and practice of political performance groups such as El Teatro Campesino and the “NEA Four.”
THEATRE 628: PERFORMANCE LAB (1 credit)
In this class, students will develop a performance project based on the training they receive in their Political Performance course. This class will offer students the opportunity to create a Political performance piece under the guidance of our artist-in-residence. Students’ final performances will be videotaped and used for a year-end evaluation of their progress in the program.
Year Three: Integration
Fifth Semester
THEATRE 639: SPECIAL TOPICS IN PERFORMANCE: SAMPLE TOPIC -- EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE (3 credits)
(Continuing the work of semester four) Students will study presentational and abstract styles of performance as well as contemporary and experimental works of the twenty-first century. They will also explore the history and practice of site-specific theater, political theater, performance art and spectacle.
THEATRE 643: PUPPETRY AND PERFORMANCE (6 credits)
Students will learn the history and techniques of puppetry. A guest artist drawn from the Department’s professional network will teach this course. Past guest artists have been Blair Thomas, Ralph Lee and The Chinese Theatre Works. Discussions are being held for future residency with Basil Twist, Heather Henson and Ron Binion.
THEATRE 629: PERFORMANCE LAB (1 credit)
(Continuing the work of semester four) In this class, students will develop a performance project based on the training they receive in their Puppetry/Guest Artist course. This class will offer students the opportunity to create a performance piece under the guidance of our artist-in residence. Students’ final Puppetry performances will be videotaped and used for a year-end evaluation of their progress in the program.
Sixth Semester
THEATRE 697: THESIS PROJECT (3 credits)
The thesis project will incorporate both a performance and an oral examination. Students will select a performance project based on their area of expertise/interest (for example, an adaptation of Antigone that comments on contemporary secular beliefs in the Sunni and Shiite provinces of Iraq). Performances will be videotaped and the students will review the performances with their thesis committees, assessing each student’s mastery of the craft of performance, vocal and movement technique, textual analysis, and research.
THEATRE 687: PROFESSIONAL INTERNSHIP (3 credits)
Students will design a one-semester internship in an area of interest (literary management, artistic direction, community outreach, etc.). The internship will be in collaboration with one of the Department’s partner companies, or with another regional professional theatre (approved by the student’s advisor). As part of the internship, students will complete a written assignment/self-assessment based on their work. They will also complete an exit interview with their on site supervisor who will submit a written evaluation of the student’s performance to his/her advisor
THEATRE 629: PERFORMANCE LAB (1 credit)
Thesis update. Students will meet periodically to discuss progress in research of thesis role and preparation of oral presentation.
Application and Audition
Audition dates for the MFA in Performance will be:
-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 will be 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.
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