Degrees

The Department of Theatre & Dance offers the following graduate degrees:

MFA in Design and Technology
This is a professional training program for scenic, lighting, costume, audio and media, design, and technology. Students benefit from a rigorous core curriculum, challenging production experiences, and the mentorship of our faculty of award-winning artists and technicians. We train students to be expert collaborators and thoughtful, original, inspired, and versatile artists. The University’s location in the Twin Cities’ vibrant theatre scene offers opportunities to work with a myriad of professional companies including the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company, Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Historical Society, and the Cowles Center for Dance.

PhD in Theatre Historiography
This a unique graduate program committed to the study of theatre and performance as practices of social, cultural, and political consequence. Our students’ work in theatre historiography and performance criticism examines the stakes of representational acts, movement, and meaning-production both within and outside the discipline of theatre. Our program teaches theatre and performance studies with a global perspective, specializing in historiographic and experimental ethnographic approaches. We train students to be field-shapers and innovative teachers, adept at translating between the diverse methodologies employed in our discipline. The close mentorship of faculty and our rigorous core curriculum helps our students develop theoretical fluency, ethical reflexivity, and the skills necessary for interdisciplinary inquiry.

For students in other University graduate programs, a minor in theatre arts is offered.