The Towson University Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Arts is dedicated to creating a fluid, alternative environment for the training of the total theatre maker. The program is designed as an experimental, self-directed process that will challenge, expand and develop each participant's artistic vision. The program is for artists who cannot be content working in a single discipline or in the traditional conservatory model.
Students accepted into this program have already begun to articulate a creative vision, but have decided to return to graduate school to both expand and refine that vision. Whether directing, designing, performing, producing, constructing or writing, the student must be willing to work both independently and collaboratively. The Towson MFA program requires that its participants create their own opportunities, work in a variety of disciplines and serve as self-producing artists.
Seminars and workshops with distinguished visiting artists play a major role in the foundation of the curriculum. Guest artists expose the student to a wide range of theatrical styles and methods. Guests may facilitate a master class for one or more days, lecture or demonstrate as part of a required class or work in extended residency with the students of the program.
All graduate students approach projects from an interdisciplinary perspective. New work may be created in a variety of forms, such as interdisciplinary constructions or installations, ensemble creation, performance art, movement-theatre or productions of new scripts. Transformations of existing literature may involve reconstructing classic text or design elements, historical reinterpretation or the integration of intercultural aesthetics. In directing and design, special attention is given to the collaborative creation of style.
It’s important to note that Towson's graduate students may not have been trained in theatre as their first art form. They may have had past careers as sculptors, filmmakers, choreographers or poets. Conversely, they may have been trained in theatre but are dissatisfied with what the industry offers and are looking for new questions to ask of themselves and their audiences.
Towson's MFA Program in Theatre Arts is a laboratory for testing these questions and exploring the possibilities they generate.
Stephen Nunns,
Director
MFA Program in Theatre Arts
Center for the Arts, Room 3025 (map)
8000 York Road | Towson, MD 21252 | 410-704-2000
