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Theater Arts Graduate Academic
Programs Choose one of the following concentrations to learn more information about it:
Master of Fine Arts Program in Directing Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, offers a Master of Fine Arts in Directing. The MFA Directing Program is an intense closely mentored program requiring a three year, full-time residency with a minimum of 70 credits, and administered on a one-to-one basis with the director. Two to three individuals who have clearly demonstrated the potential to be professional directors are admitted each year. The candidate directs plays by established writers as well as new plays by MFA playwrighting candidates. The directing candidate works with MFA and BFA scenic, lighting and costume designers for the full three years and casts from a pool of MFA and BFA actors, all of whom are undergoing training in a thorough conservatory program with artistic aims consistent with those of the directing program. The professional director must be a visionary, an artist, a craftsman and a leader. The goal is to teach a craft to talented individuals who have the potential be professional directors. The program consists of classroom theory and classroom directing, as well as directing at least one production each semester for the general public. Year I - Emphasis in the first year of work is on working with actors and designers, staging, story telling, and theory. Students take a two semester directing sequence that includes blocking and playwright/director relationship issues. In addition, directors take acting and movement classes with the MFA I acting candidates to assure a thorough understanding of the acting process. All first year MFA students take The Theatrical Genome, a two-semester theater history, theory and script analysis sequence. In addition to extensive classroom directing experience, candidates direct simple one act plays for the public in the fall and spring semesters as part of The Jameson Project. Year II - Second year work includes detailed text analysis and conceptualization, advanced scene study for directors, practice in recognizing and directing different styles and voices, working with playwrights on new scripts, and continued acting and movement with emphasis on character work and period style. All second year MFA students study one play per week in a two- semester dramatic literature course. Candidates direct increasingly complex full length plays for The Jameson Project in the fall and spring semesters as well as an original one act play by an MFA playwright in the spring. Year III - The third year is devoted primarily to the thesis production with additional classes in theater management. See Directing for the Rutgers Theater Company below. Directing for The Jameson Project The Jameson Project presents a series of plays directed by the MFA directing candidates. The work is intimate, provocative, and relevant. In each of the first four semesters, the candidate directs a public production for The Jameson Project at the Jameson Studio Theater, an eighty seat black box. Beginning with simple one-acts, these assignments mount in complexity and include directing an original one-act play by an MFA playwright during the second year. Directing for the Rutgers Theater Company The candidate's work culminates in qualified students being asked to participate in the Emerging Artist Series presented by the Rutgers Theater Company for the general public. The Rutgers Theater Company is a resident company of student actors, designers, directors, playwrights, stage managers, and technicians whose work is guided by master teachers and accomplished professionals. Third-year directing and playwriting candidates are usually included in the Rutgers Theater Company's Emerging Artist Series and mount their thesis productions in Levin Theater, a 335-seat thrust house or in The New Theater, a 335-seat proscenium house. Mentors and teachers are professional artists with national reputations who are also outstanding teachers. Classroom work is also enriched by guest master teachers and artists. Recent guests of the theater program include Lloyd Richards, Kevin Klein, F. Murray Abraham, Neal Bell, Adam Rapp and William Cardin. Taking advantage of Rutgers' proximity to Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway and some of the nation's major regional theatres, (the McCarter Theater, George St. Playhouse and Crossroads Theater - among others - are all within 30 minutes of campus) candidates are exposed to world class productions directed by nationally and internationally acclaimed directors.
For further information please contact: Amy Saltz Email: ASCL594@aol.com | ||
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