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Our Professional Actor Training Program

The Professional Actor Training Program (PATP) prepares advanced students for careers as professional actors, with the expectation that students will take responsibility for the depth and development of their own artistic practices.

The Acting program, a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree, is a rigorous three-year training program, led by a faculty of working theater practitioners. A class of 10 is admitted once every three years, and each student is closely mentored by a faculty committed to individual student growth.

The training is dedicated to producing process-driven, skillful, and creative actor/artists with a specific and personal approach to the craft of acting. To meet the demands of the 21st century, actors must have expertise in a range of styles and be adept at working in any medium. We offer a comprehensive progression in acting, voice and speech, and movement. Additional coursework includes on-camera technique, stage combat, devised and solo work, text analysis, specialized areas of voice and movement, audition techniques and business practices.

Acting M.F.A. Courses & Curriculum

Graduating M.F.A. actors from the Professional Acting Training Program (PATP) are well-rounded, skillful and creative actor/artists with a distinct, specific and personal approach to the craft of acting. To achieve that end, the performance area faculty delivers acting, movement, and voice and speech classes in a sequential progression. This progression is built on the belief that any artist or craftsperson must begin with a foundation that is consistent, clear, and cohesive. This foundation work ensures that every student has a strong knowledge of self, a developing system of values and ideals regarding process, practice and performance, and an awareness of their weaknesses and strengths.

First Year: Foundation: The first year acting studio utilizes Meisner Technique and puts rigorous emphasis on the authentic use of self, the reality of doing, the awakening of the emotional life, and the collaborative process. Movement work correspondingly focuses on foundation, and develops strength, alignment, body/mind connection and physical expressivity. The first year of voice and speech is an in depth exploration of Fitzmaurice voice work, and Knight-Thompson speech work.

Second Year: Application: Training focuses on creating complex characters through the application of the foundation work to scenes, exercises, personal exploration and performance. Heightened language/style texts and Michael Chekhov Technique are introduced. The movement studio explores the psychophysical connection and the embodiment of text. In stage combat, students take Skills Proficiency Tests with a Certified Teacher in the Society of American Fight Directors.  

Third Year: Special Studies and Thesis: The third year deepens and broadens with specialized areas of acting, movement and voice. Acting for the camera constitutes a large component of the year’s acting technique. The interconnection with the School of Film ensures experience in the development of new work in other media. Students continue to work with a wide range of industry professionals and hone their audition technique and business acumen in classroom and professional settings. The creation of ensemble devised work and as well as solo work is central to the movement curriculum. Specialized areas of speech are introduced, including (but not limited to) continued work with heightened language and texts, dialects and voice over techniques.  

Interconnection with the School of Film ensures experience in the development of new work in other media.