Theatre Performance - Master of Fine Arts

Take center stage through our Master of Fine Arts with an emphasis in performance, representing a unique blend of conservatory-style focus on the craft and the artistry essential for a flourishing professional career in the arts. It goes beyond, encompassing the breadth and depth of scholarship required for sustaining an academic journey at the university level.

Rather than a “cookie-cutter” approach, we guide you towards individual growth within the craft of acting, nurturing strengths while shedding the cumbersome and unnecessary.

Our focus extends to the integration of breath, body, voice, and acting, with classes designed to cross-pollinate, reinforcing connections across all facets of your process. We prioritize the dual facets of the actor – the Artist and the Professional – providing training based on foundational principles that can and must be developed.

As you step into this program, you bring with you a diverse range of skills and challenges. We are here to guide you through, fostering not just academic excellence but a holistic growth in your journey towards mastery in acting.

What Will I Learn?

You'll learn sound foundations and intensives in acting, voice, and movement each year while leaving significant room for you to explore new methodologies, creative process, and their own artistic vision.

Meet our faculty, a remarkable blend of seasoned educators and dynamic professionals deeply rooted in the professional theater industry. Our faculty includes 9 Professors and 3 Adjunct Professors (including Acting for the Camera/The Business of Acting) and professional staff. The faculty work together to shape all development with integration between breath, body, voice, and action.

• The Head of Performance, Professor Monica Hayes, is a member of Actors Equity and former member of British Actors Equity.
• Voice Specialist, Robin Aronson, is a member of Actors Equity and certified Lessac Voice and Body Trainer with specializations in Musical Theatre, Suzuki Movement Training for the Actor, Lessac Voice and Body Work and Stage Dialects.
• Movement Specialist, Caitlyn Herzlinger, is a certified yoga instructor. She is also a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors and Dueling Arts International.

We have guest artists every year in every area of performance. Recent guests include:

• Robert Icke (London and Broadway director and playwright) for our Playwright Series (worked with students over 4 days on an excerpt of Oresteia for performance),
• Angela N. Sullen, Voice candidate from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Australia, and Master Lessac Teacher and Professor Emeritus from Penn State University, Barry Kur.
• Freddie Ashley, Artistic Director of Actors’ Express in Atlanta and award-winning actor, comes to campus every spring for intern auditions, talks, and interviews. At least a dozen other guest artists connect by conference calls.
  

A laboratory for risk-taking, a creative and safe place to stretch limits, experiment with new methods, and hone areas of strength. Fall Explorations combine open structure and detailed contracts that give you inspiration and passion to flourish in a Studio environment. The Head of Performance guides development of each performer’s distinct artistic point-of-view over the three-year residency.

As a student, you will choose to explore such performance areas as physical theatre, clowning, aerial acting, stillness, comic timing, and gender issues. First year students work as an ensemble for the first month with the professor as coach/director in a diagnostic performance project The studio uses honest and supportive observations on strengths and weaknesses in craft, process, and articulation of ideas. Spring Intensives dive deeply into specific methodologies under the specialties of the Performance faculty, most recently in Shakespeare, Suzuki, and High-stakes Realism.

Classes focus on technique, expression as well as character study integration. Subjects that are covered include an in-depth exploration of the Lessac voice and bodywork, stage dialects, International Phonetic Alphabet, musical theatre, voiceover acting, and spoken word. Students also have opportunities for leadership in voice and speech as vocal captains and assistant voice and dialect coaches for mainstage productions. For more information about the Lessac Voice and Body Practitioner program, please see our theatre website under “Lessac Kinesensic Training.”

All graduate students take a minimum of three seminars. Script Analysis, Theatre Production Research, Contemporary Trends in Theatre, Period Styles in Design, Dramatic Theory, and Seminar in Acting and Directing are on regular rotations. Students inspire each other across disciplines within theatre. Faculty and students with professional experience contribute with ideas from around the globe.

• Conferences: Students from USM have won Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival RIV awards in Performance more than any other school in the state and many in the 9-state Southeastern US region. Our actors have advanced in Acting to National finals three times and to Regional Finals more than three dozen times. Our students won 4 awards for Excellence in Voice work from VASTA. USM students have won many additional awards for Best Classical Acting, Best Comedic Acting, and Best Partner in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition in addition to winning the MTI Musical Theatre Award and the Open Jar Musical Theatre Scholarship.
• Certifications: Most Performance graduate students leave USM with advanced training and certification in one or more voice and movement specialties. Nearly every student in the last three years has earned SAFD and Dueling Arts International Stage Combat certifications.

• British Studies in Theatre
• The London Stage: This course gives the student an exciting hands-on opportunity to experience theatre in London. The class will have the opportunity to watch theatrical performances, go on behind the scenes backstage tours, visit high end conservatories, and take master classes from respected professionals in the business. This energizing program includes seeing and experiencing all of what London theatre has to offer: award winning musicals, classical and contemporary productions as well as new and innovative work. Students will gain a deeper understanding about roots of theatre in London as well as the contemporary theatrical trends moving into the future. Participants will also get the opportunity to visit the Royal National Theatre, The West End, The Royal Opera House and The Globe Theatre.

All aspects of our work in class and production include integration with movement training. Intensives in Graduate Movement Lab include Stage Combat, Yoga, Neutral Mask Work, Laban, Movement Improvisation, Actorbatics, Physical Comedy, and Commedia dell'arte. Guests have included Mike Yahn, Stunt Coordinator, and Jason Ament, Stunt Performer.

Our state-of-the-art facilities provide an unparalleled environment for artistic exploration and practical skill development.

With three distinctive in-house performance spaces, including

• The Martha R. Tatum Theatre: a 275-seat thrust stage
• The Gilbert F. Hartwig Theatre: a versatile 3400 sq. ft. black-box space
• The intimate Woods Theatre: a 70-seat proscenium layout, students have diverse platforms to showcase their creativity

Application

MFA candidates in Performance come in with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. All candidates are required to audition and interview with a headshot and resume providing evidence of experience/aptitude in their specialty area. Students may audition at SETC or other unified audition, via recorded audition and skype interview, or (our favorite) on campus.

Some deficiencies in background may require conditional admission while the student works with the faculty to develop competencies. We welcome diversity of experience and unique voices in the Theatre. The University’s Graduate School facilitates the admission process. They will collect an application, three letters of recommendation, and transcripts. The Graduate School process is entirely online.

The School of Visual and Performing Arts at USM invites dedicated individuals to apply for Graduate Assistantships.

• Currently, compensation is set at $11,700 for a nine-month contract.
• Graduate students work an average of 20 hours per week, taking on theatre jobs such as teaching, front of house duties, and event management.
• Semesters are 15 weeks long, with an additional week prior to the start of classes for orientations, preparatory meetings, and school -wide gatherings.
• MFA candidates hired for the Southern Arena Stage (SAT), a summer repertory company, receive a stipend.

Faculty Spotlight

Theatre Performance professor Robin Aronson performs in the USM Theatre Season along with undergraduate and graduate students. Recent performances include "You Can't Take it With You" and "Cabaret."

Professor takes the stage in several productions, including the musical "Cabaret"