Master of Fine Arts Program - Acting
The M.F.A. Acting curriculum at Penn State is a three-year, year-round program that features process oriented actor training, extensive work in Shakespeare, and exciting preparation for the profession. The program incorporates an acting residency in London, an intense film/television residency in Toronto, an audition tour of LORT theatres, and a showcase for theatrical agents and casting directors in New York City.
Your Trip Through the Three Years of M.F.A. Acting at Penn State
We come in contact with you for the first time when you arrange for an audition/interview with us, either through the University/Resident Theatre Association (info@urta.com) or by personal audition at one of the three U/RTA sites (New York, Chicago, Las Vegas) or by coming to our national audition day at Penn State in February.
When auditioning through U/RTA, an actor pays one fee and is seen by up to 35 programs that attend the unified auditions. If we are interested in meeting with you after your audition, these sessions are scheduled by U/RTA in the hotel that is hosting the auditions in each site. Although we strongly recommend auditioning through U/RTA, some students wish to arrange an individual audition with us. These 15-minute private auditions require a fee of $25.00 and can be scheduled for the New York and Chicago sites and in State College by contacting Jane Ridley at jmr19@psu.edu.
From all of the actors we have auditioned and interviewed in the four sites, we make a "finalist list" of about 25 actors. These actors are invited to Penn State in mid February for callback auditions that also allow the student to meet the faculty and current students, tour the facilities, see a performance, and get to know the campus and the area. From this group, we choose a class of ten actors to whom we make offers of admission. Most often a class consists of five men and three women. Our class is usually complete by the beginning of March.
From March until classes begin in late August, the actors contact each other via e-mail and telephone and most visit State College to arrange housing and just walk around picturing themselves as part of the Penn State School of Theatre for the next three years.
So, now imagine yourself walking onto the campus of Penn State University for your very first day as you begin your three-year course of study as a member of the M.F.A. Acting Company. As you enter the Arts Building you greet the nine other members of your class with whom you have become acquainted by e-mail since you were chosen from hundreds of other auditions. Congratulations, you made it!!
The Fall Semester begins with the three core performance classes that will constitute the foundation of your training. All your teachers share the same acting methodology and although the classes are identified separately as Voice, Movement, and Acting, they are, in fact, all acting classes and they reinforce each other. We cannot overstate the importance of this continuity in the training because it is the key to giving our actors a "way of working." Being given a useful way of approaching your work as an actor, one that enables you to "take care of yourself" in the professional world is the single most important aspect of the Penn State M.F.A. in Acting.
The Acting Company moves together through a sequential progression of skills in each class for three full years.
Fall: Semester One
1. Thea 820A Acting I: This class introduces the actor to the "reality of doing." Through structured improvisations, the actor learns how to talk and listen truthfully onstage, work off behavior, personalize the imaginary circumstances, and make strong active choices. Special exercises are incorporated throughout the semester to develop and strengthen the dramatic imagination. In addition, a specific approach to script analysis is explored that prepares the actor for scene work that will be presented at the end of the semester.
2. Thea 820B Movement for Actors: This class provides the foundation work for the entire movement training sequence. Concentration is on conditioning, breath and stretch, effort-shaping, ensemble awareness, coordination, mind-body connection, and fine-tuning the actor's instrument.
3. Thea 820C Voice and Speech: This class covers the basics of voice production and forms the foundation of all the work. Relaxation, breath release and support, resonance, range and articulation are covered and related to text. Exploration of the vocal demands of text and language are experienced with connection always to the practical voice work.
4. Thea 500: This is the first of four courses that introduce the actor to the dramatic canon, and provides a methodology for play analysis, and the skills necessary to research and perform a role.
5. Thea 597C: A course exploring the principles of the Alexander technique in theory and in practice.
6. Thea 597A: Singing. The focus of the MFA Actors' Singing class is to provide an introduction to singing which includes vocal technique, vocal health and musical theatre repertoire. There will be class voice and individual appointments
Assistantship Assignment: The actors serve the School of Theatre in various capacities such as working in the script library; overseeing an on-line Integrative Arts study section, serving as an assistant to one of the program heads, etc.
Spring: Semester Two
1. Thea 821A Acting II: This class extends the process-oriented actor training into further work on scene study from American Realism, with a special emphasis on Point of View and Introductory character work.
2. Thea 821B Movement for Actors II: The work in this studio is directed towards simplicity in movement; towards using a minimum of effort for maximum effect, and begins the journey into fully supported physical transformation. The focus is on techniques such as neutral/universal mask and the expressive/character mask.
3. Thea 821C Voice and Speech II: This class is an extension of the voice foundations work of the last semester focusing on a comprehensive integration of voice and speech awareness through the Lessac method of training.
4. Thea 505: This is the second of the four dramatic literature classes, concentrating on the plays of Ancient Greece and Shakespeare.
Assistantship Assignments continue.
Also during the Spring semester, the actors are eligible for casting in one of the M.F.A. productions or the URTC season. **
Summer: Semester Three
In this intense summer of the First Year, the actors spend six weeks at Penn State and five weeks in London. The Acting Faculty feels strongly that a sound grounding in Shakespeare allows the actor to perform successfully in any pre-modern style. The summer experience begins this groundwork.
During the six weeks at Penn State the actors will undertake a theatrical combat intensive in order to gain a basic command of vocabulary and technique. Also, actors are eligible for casting in Pennsylvania Centre Stage and may collect EMC points.
During the London portion of the training the following courses are the core of the Summer training:
1. Thea 510 Experiential Analysis of Period and Style: While in London, the M.F.A. actors, and M.F.A. designers visit cultural and historical sites such as the British Museum, The National Portrait Gallery, Stratford, numerous cathedrals etc. This course unifies these visits by focusing on the relationship between these places and the work of theatre artists.
2. Thea 811 Shakespeare Intensive: The Shakespeare course now moves to London. Taught by our London based faculty member, Charmian Hoare, this part of the course concentrates on the relationship between voice and text, continuing with work on the sonnets and monologues. Included in this studio will be the study of period movement and dance.
3. Thea 590 Colloquium: Actors, directors, designers, critics and other working British professionals are brought into the classroom to meet and talk with our students.
Year Two
Fall: Semester Four
1. Thea 822A Acting III: This course is devoted entirely to analyzing and performing scenes from Shakespeare.
2. Thea 822B Movement for Actors III: The Creative Actor. Extending beyond interpretation into devised theater, the actor uses the elements of sound, silence, space, rhythm, imagery, text and essential objects to create original theatrical work. The techniques of Jacques Lecoq, Anne Bogart, and other generative artists inspire the creation of solo and ensemble-generated work.
3. Thea 822C Voice and Speech III: This class continues the work on voice and classical text established in past semesters as well as focusing on the vocal demands facing the professional actor. Exploration of speaking in various theatre spaces, health and welfare of the voice and the recorded narrative voice are all covered. Continued work on Shakespeare monologues.
4. Thea 506: This is the third of four dramatic literature courses, concentrating on the Restoration, Neo-classical, Romantic, and early Realistic plays (1660-1900)
Actors continue to be eligible for casting in the M.F.A. productions and the School of Theatre season (URTC).
Assistantships continue. The actors are now eligible for Theatre 100, * teaching beginning acting for non-majors (Theatre 102) and other new opportunities.
Spring: Semester Five
1. Thea 823A Acting IV: Advanced work in the classics, Restoration playwrights, and the moderns – Shaw, Coward, Wilson, Chekhov, and others.
2. Thea 823 B Movement for Actors IV: This course is in two parts. The first part engages the actor in comedic styles such as clown, commedia, farce, satire, and character invention. The second part incorporates these techniques into scenes from plays with comedic and highly specialized physical demands.
3. Thea 823C Voice and Speech IV: This course consists of a semester's study of stage dialects and accents with attention to integration of these skills with the demands of acting roles
4. Thea 507: This is the fourth and last dramatic literature course concentrating on plays and playwrights of the 20th Century.
Actors are also eligible for casting in the URTC season and/or an M.F.A. Directing Program production. Assistantship duties continue. Actors are eligible for casting in Pennsylvania Centre Stage and may continue to collect EMC points.
Year Three
In this year of study, the expectation is that the actor becomes more self-sufficient. Acting studios continue while the skills and processes learned in the first two years are put to the test in production with guest directors from the profession. Preparation begins for the transition into the profession incorporating the building of a network of contacts through the LORT tour and showcase.
Fall: Semester Six
1. Thea 597: Acting V: Advanced work in Character and its application to the Modern Classics is explored in this class.
2. Thea 825B: Acting Professionally: Orientation to the professional theatre: development of audition repertoire, unions, rounds, interviews, and survey of the acting profession
3. Thea 825C: Professional Performance
Spring: Semester Seven
1. Thea 825A: Showcase and LORT tour preparation and performance.
2. Thea 602: Supervised teaching
3. Thea 825C: Professional Performance
4. Elective course: An opportunity for personal enrichment. Take more singing, dance, martial arts, literature, language, you name it - if the University offers it, it is yours to choose.
Early Summer
1. Thea 824: Acting for film and television intensive in Toronto, Canada.
Additional opportunity: Third year students are invited to propose an international study experience which, if approved, is partially funded by the School of Theatre.
Actors are again eligible for casting in Pennsylvania Centre Stage and may collect EMC points.
* Theatre 100 is regularly voted by students as “the best course on campus” at Penn State. The M.F.A. actors in the Theatre 100 company rehearse and perform scenes from the plays read and studied by the students in this introduction to theatre course.
** Students in the M.F.A. Acting program at Penn State have three kinds of performance experiences. Beginning in the Spring semester of the First Year, the Acting faculty chooses plays specifically to reinforce training. These we call the M.F.A. productions and they are directed by teachers from within the actor training program. This is a critically important opportunity to tie the curriculum to production and is one of the most important parts of the M.F.A. Acting program at Penn State.
The second kind of performance opportunity is being cast in the School of Theatre production season. We call this the University Resident Theatre Company (URTC). These productions allow the M.F.A. actor to work with other faculty directors, and undergraduate actors.
The third kind of performance opportunity is twofold:
1) Pennsylvania Centre Stage, the professional arm of the school, is a theatre operating under a contract with Actors Equity Association. Actors are eligible for casting in each summer of the three-year program and will accrue EMC points when cast.
2) Bridging into the profession is facilitated by bringing in Professional Guest directors to work with the graduate actors during the third year of their training.
For more information contact:
Jane Ridley, Head
M.F.A. Acting and Directing Programs
School of Theatre / The Pennsylvania State University
110 Arts Building
University Park PA 16802-2900
(814) 863-1452
e-mail: theatre-mfa@psu.edu