Our MFA programs are not recruiting for Fall 2024.

The Department of Drama offers advanced study leading to the Masters of Fine Arts degree in the following areas: Acting, Scenic Design and Technical Production, Lighting Design, and Costume Design & Technology. Training is led by a full-time professionally active faculty supplemented with visiting guest artists. In theory and practice, course work and production experiences are combined to create an integrated training curriculum. Diversity of experience is encouraged through a balanced focus in both traditional and innovative practices.

Our mission is to prepare advanced students to work in today’s theatre through providing excellent training and meaningful interaction with resident faculty and guest artists and fostering creative collaboration in course work and productions. Because our work is grounded in the idea that the arts are a vital component of society, we encourage artists and audiences to look to theatre as a means to engage, question, and seek truth. For inspiration in this endeavor, we remember one of Thomas Jefferson’s founding principles for the university: “This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

Photo by Jack Looney, Sense and Sensibility UVA Drama, Fall 2022.