Program Overview

The Towson University's Master of Fine Arts in Theatre is a two-year, cohort program. 

The MFA cultivates the self-generative artist through an interdisciplinary, process-oriented, collaborative experience. The program is dedicated to educating and invigorating world citizens of theatre who engage deeply in our local and global communities, and who wish to combine the life of an artist with the skills and sensibilities of entrepreneurs, educators and activists. It is for artists who cannot be content working in a single discipline or occupying a single "role" in the creative process.

The program emphasizes practice and community. Over the 24-month program students are constantly creating work which grows out of class exploration. Sometimes these are ensemble projects, but even on individual or solo projects, students work together to support each other. Learning and cultural exchange happens between students as fully as it does between students and faculty or guest artists.  

Every student will engage with a diverse range of practical approaches and theoretical perspectives in order to help develop an individual aesthetic that is expressed through the creation of new work. In support of this, students also pursue serious scholarship and develop a firm grounding in the history of experimental performance in the United States and internationally.

Students are encouraged to explore interests and techniques which reach beyond the curriculum, through self-directed research, independent study with faculty, or through off-campus experiences such as workshops or apprenticeships. Past student explorations have included: Bunraku puppetry; translation of contemporary European drama; object theatre; integration of video with live performance; experiments in autobiographical performance; and community art projects.