MFA Directing
The MFA in Directing is designed to prepare the student, through academic and real world opportunities, to work and compete in the professional arena. The director will be trained to be a leader and shaper who is always the mediator working with the production team as the head of the collaborative process.
Striking a Balance
The program is crafted to balance the academic and literary with professional internships to help ready the MFA candidate for placement in the working market today. The program is hands-on training in the craft of directing working directly with the M.F.A. programs in performance and playwriting. The student begins with play analysis and dramaturgy and basic elements in the first year; design elements and collaborative process in the second year; and professional preparation and internship in their third year. The student will have a chance to work on a fully realized play each of their three years in the program.
Admission
In addition to Graduate College admission requirements and departmental admission requirements (PDF), applicants to the MFA program in directing are required to choose a play from the list below and submit a detailed analysis. This analysis should not exceed five double-spaced typewritten pages and should include:
- A brief statement of the director's reason for selecting this play.
- A single sentence summary of the plot.
- A single sentence expressing the essence of the play in a metaphor.
- A simple description of the theatrical style the director is contemplating. (This may best be achieved by comparing the production to other well-known works.)
- A selected, annotated bibliography of historical, social, political or aesthetic research.
- A brief discussion of time and location of the action. If the director intends to reset the action to a locale or time not indicated in the script, there must be a clear description and justification of that choice.
- Three color copies of visual images you would submit to your designers as a point of departure for your collaboration.
Othello (Shakespeare)
Tartuffe (Moliere)
She Stoops to Conquer (Goldsmith)
A Doll's House (Ibsen)
Long Day's Journey Into Night (O'Neill)
A Streetcar Named Desire (Williams)
All My Sons (Miller)
Glengarry Glen Ross (Mamet)
Take Me Out (Greenberg)
The Heidi Chronicles (Wasserstein)
Fences (Wilson)
Lips Together Teeth Apart (McNally)
Wit (Edson)
The Goat (Albee)
All directing students are required to interview with members of the directing faculty. Interviews will be arranged after required materials have been received.