About the Design for Theater and Entertainment Media MFA

The Design for Theater and Entertainment Media MFA is a three year program offering advanced professional training in four artistic areas: Scenic Design, Costume Design, Lighting Design and Sound Design.

The faculty include internationally recognized theater artists with many years of design experience in theater, opera, and other dramatic forms. The diverse professional backgrounds, aesthetics, and teaching approaches of the faculty allow for a wide-ranging, flexible program that can be customized to address the talents, needs, and interests of each student. The program is highly selective and admits small numbers of students each year, permitting small classes and individualized attention not available in other professional training programs. While the development of specific design skills is important, the design faculty believe that a good overall design sense, heightened dramatic sensibilities, and critical thinking are the essential qualities a designer must cultivate in order to be prepared for any kind of future creative challenge. The program's goal is to produce artists who know how to think creatively, how to conceptualize, and how to find new ways of designing for the theater. Students frequently work as assistants to faculty members on their professional projects. There is a strong emphasis on helping the student build a professional portfolio that reflects the designer's unique individual style and approach as an artist in the theater.

The School offers designers outstanding production facilities which include four professionally equipped theaters, a professional design studio with superior computer-assisted design facilities, a professional model shop, a lighting laboratory, and professional shops for scenery, lighting, costumes, and sound. All major theater productions in the School are designed by students and there are classes and design opportunities in film and television as well.

The Master of Fine Arts degree is awarded on the basis of successful completion of the required courses and critical evaluation of student work. The Department expects consistent progress as well as attainment of professional skills. These and other factors will also influence the Department’s allocation of production resources including the number, scale, and scheduling of projects and productions.

Choose a specific design focus for course information

• Costume Design

• Lighting Design

• Scenic Design

• Sound Design