-3 yr M.F.A Acting
- Admissions: Acting (M.F.A.)
An applicant to the Acting department submits a resumé, statement of purpose, three professional letters of recommendation, an official undergraduate transcript, and a current photograph. The required photograph is used only to relate the applicant’s application to the applicant’s audition. At least one of the professional letters of recommendation should be from a director with whom the candidate has worked. The two other letters may come from current or former teachers or theatre professionals who are familiar with the applicant’s history and achievements. All acting applicants, including those living abroad, who meet the M.F.A. or Certificate requirements must audition in person according to the schedule. Each candidate must choose and present two memorized audition pieces — a verse selection from one of Shakespeare’s plays (no sonnets) and a modern or contemporary prose piece. The total time of this presentation should not exceed four minutes. A candidate should be prepared to present a third audition piece if requested. Sixteen actors are selected to become members of the first-year class, once the final callbacks have ended. The Acting department provides funds for travel and accommodations in New Haven for those who are called back. - About: The Acting department admits talented and committed individuals who possess an active intelligence, a strong imagination, and a physical and vocal instrument capable of development, and prepares them for work as professional actors. The program of study combines in-depth classroom training with extensive production work. At the conclusion of their training, individuals are prepared to work on a wide range of material and in a variety of venues.
- Production Opportunities: Yale Repertory Theatre serves as an advanced training center for the department. All acting students work at Yale Rep as understudies, observing and working alongside professional actors and directors. Many students have the opportunity to perform in roles on the Yale Rep stage, depending on their appropriateness to the parts available. Through work at the professional theatre, those eligible students who are not members of Actors’ Equity Association will attain membership upon graduation.
- Faculty: Members of the acting faculty, as well as those of the other departments in Yale School of Drama, are all working professionals and maintain active careers at Yale Repertory Theatre and in theatres in New York and around the country and the world.
- Training Includes: Acting, Text Analysis, Voice, Stage Combat, Alexander Technique, Acting for the Camera, Speech, Movement, Singing, Commedia, Dance, Clown, Yoga, Audition Preparation
2.National Theatre Conservatory - Denver, CO
-3 yr M.F.A Acting
- The National Theatre Conservatory is a three-year Master of Fine Arts program that accepts eight students from across the country each year. Auditions for the class of 2013 will begin in Jan of 2010.
- Mission Statement: The National Theatre Conservatory's (NTC) mission is to provide gifted students from across the nation the opportunity to develop their talents and skills within the challenging environment of a performing arts center and to prepare them for active careers in the American theatre and in the film and television industries. The National Theatre Conservatory's MFA training program is designed to bring all students closer to the realization of their potential while steadily developing insights, attitudes, standards and disciplines that will nourish them for the rest of their creative lives. After three years graduates emerge not only with the skills required for a professional career, but also with the vision, heart and ethical standards needed for full artistic expression.
- Our program offers:
Full three-year tuition scholarship
Weekly living stipend
Theatre apprenticeship with the Denver Center Theatre Company
Feature performances in annual repertory productions
Intense study in a wide-array of acting disciplines
Equity contract upon completion of the program
An audition showcase for agents and directors in New York City - Admissions: Applicants are required to submit: completed application form, current resumé, one current 8x10 photo, official transcripts from previously attended colleges and universities, two letters of recommendation, non-refundable application fee of $60 payable by money order or credit card to the National Theatre Conservatory.
- Audition: You should prepare two contrasting monologues that are each a maximum of two minutes in length. One monologue should feature verse taken from a Shakespearean play or one of his contemporaries and the second should be taken from a contemporary play. Finalists will be invited to attend a Callback Weekend in Denver. This weekend consists of classes, further interviews and auditions before an enlarged audition panel from the National Theatre Conservatory faculty and members of the Denver Center Theatre Company.
- Cirruculum Includes: Standard classes plus Yoga, Health and Fitness, Low Flying Trapeze, Voice Over, and Solo Shakespeare.
- Tuition/Stipend Students receive a full-tuition scholarship valued at $26,100 per year and a living stipend.
First-Year Stipend: $240 per week
Second-Year Stipend: $240 per week
Third-Year Stipend: $280 per week
3.The New School For Drama - New York, NY
-3 yr M.F.A Acting
- The goals are: To insure your understanding of the intellectual, emotional, physical, vocal, and psychological demands of individual performance in the current professional world.
To build your individual voice as a performer and as a co-worker with others in the program and in the profession. To prepare you with the skills you need for the acting profession. - An applicant to The New School for Drama must hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. A completed application, application fee, statement of purpose, artistic résumé and headshot, official transcripts of all undergraduate and graduate studies, two letters of recommendation. Applicants are invited to audition based on application submissions.
- Auditions: Among these principles are the ability to truly listen to one’s partner, and to be alive and “in the moment” on-stage. It is difficult to tell from a monologue whether an actor possesses these qualities; therefore, we prefer to see the actor in both a contemporary scene and a classical monologue.
- Year One: Discovery: Integral to the acting track is a step-by-step understanding and development of basic skills in acting and text discovery. The classroom is treated as a laboratory—you explore your imaginary process via games, story-telling, and sensory and word exercises. In the second semester, you probe accessible texts in scene work. You also plumb your vocal and physical self. Vocally, you open your instrument using non-text exercises, poems, classical verse, and music. In movement classes, you learn a basic awareness of your physical self.
- Year Two: Structure
Acting - The demands of monologue and scene work are introduced by exploring character in a performance context. Since the program's emphasis is on structure, the goal of the acting training is to help the student synthesize the soul, the mind, and the body by utilizing a wide range of material including Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen, O’Neill, Miller, and recent American playwrights.
Voice - Shakespearean sonnets, speeches, and other classical materials are used to develop a further understanding of the connection between vocal work and acting power. Work on dialects/accents is begun, and musical theater is introduced.
Movement - You work with period style and dance, masks, stage combat, and more exotic forms. - Year Three: ProductionThe final year focuses on productions and professional preparation. In the first half of the year, personal and collaborative skills developed in the first two years culminate in an explosion of full theatrical productions, including experimental pieces, cabarets, exotic musicals, classics with an edge, and original full-length plays. The second half of the year is devoted mainly to the practical aspects of entering the acting profession; you attend sessions with producers, directors, writers, actors, casting directors, and agents. In addition, you rehearse the industrial showcase—a realization of your three years of work and a presentation of your skills to the professional world.
