Masters of Fine Arts - Performance
The Terminal Degree
The Master of Fine Arts is the terminal degree for actors. It represents a combination of a conservatory-style focus on the craft and artistry needed for a professional career in the arts, along with the breadth and depth of scholarship necessary to sustain an academic career at the university level.
The degree requires a minimum of 60 hours of specialized training and graduate seminars. Most M.F.A. candidates acquire 72 to 90 hours over a three-year residency, including summer internships, British Studies or Southern Arena Theatre. Unlike the Master of Arts in theatre (which requires only 30 hours of general study and is not terminal), the M.F.A. is the final degree for professional artists. It is considered by most institutions nationally to be equal to the doctorate in faculty hiring and ranking and is often the specified degree sought in faculty searches for artists and teachers.
The Acting Emphasis
Students in the program are expected to fulfill the demands of the curriculum. Beyond that, graduate students serve as models of decorum for the undergraduate students. The specific requirements for artistic achievement are based on the standards of the National Association of Schools of Theatre and on observable professional standards. Students enter with a wide range of skills and challenges. The M.F.A. acting program at Southern Miss is designed to assist students diagnostically, to strengthen their foundations, and to build tools and skills that lead to artistry at the terminal degree level.
A Diagnostic Program
The performance faculty at The University of Southern Mississippi provides a sound foundation for acting and encourages each actor to adapt the details for his or her own unique process. Each student enters with a range of strengths and challenges that are evaluated by the acting faculty and the chair prior to registration. Students are assisted regularly in developing the selection and sequencing of coursework, including independent study in special areas of need or interest. Individual attention is the key to the success of our M.F.A. graduates.
A Diverse Curriculum
Acting at Southern Miss is Stanislavski-based, with a wide range of approaches and methodologies. Acting texts include the work of Hagen, Meisner, Cohen, Johnstone, Shurtleff, Linklater and Barton, along with newer and cutting edge works. Course offerings in acting include Audition Process, Advanced Scene Study, Improvisation, Period Acting Styles I, Period Acting Styles II and Graduate Acting Studio.
Graduate Acting Studio is a three-credit-hour laboratory that focuses on the individual needs of each actor. It is a safe, creative lab for taking risks, stretching limits and experimenting with methods. The studio supplements regular acting classes and may be taken every semester.
Voice training combines Linklater with more traditional work on vocal production and delivery (including IPA) for a relaxed and vital instrument. Regular course offerings include voice for the actor, stage dialects, and musical theatre performance.
Additionally, graduate students may register each semester for graduate voice and movement. This experiential class is devoted to the integration of voice and movement with character and to the exploration of cutting-edge methods. Projects change often and may be applied in further detail in graduate acting studio.
Movement coursework is taught in a two-semester sequence with major units on several widely used techniques. Work may include Corporal Mime, Alexander Technique, Neutral and Character Mask, T'ai Chi, Laban, Agoust and Lyric Clowning, Armed and Unarmed Stage Combat, Viewpoints, etc.
Students may also take classes in dance (Southern Miss has Mississippi's only nationally accredited dance program) and in physical education. The university’s Payne Center, an ironically named, state-of-the-art wellness facility, is available daily for weights, aerobics, yoga, step, swimming, racquetball, basketball and even a sauna or a massage.
Directing
Directing opportunities for graduate performance students are plentiful. Two directing classes provide basic and advanced training and tool-building, and approximately 32 showcase slots are available each year for hands-on directing. Click here for more information about directing.
Graduate Seminars
The graduate seminar series is designed to challenge the terminal degree student academically. The small-group discussion and presentation format demands intense involvement from each student. Graduate seminars include theatre production, theatre research, and script analysis, which are required, and selections such as contemporary trends. Also included are seminars in acting and directing, and dramatic and performance theory.
Travel Opportunities
Travel and exposure to the broader world of theatre are critical to the development of actors. Southern Miss is an active participant in our ten-state region in both the Southeastern Theatre Conference and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Our International Studies travel abroad programs rank among the best in the country, and its five-week British Studies program features internationally renowned guest artists in British theatre.
Two-week programs in London Theatre and in the Performing Arts at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland have been offered as well. Noncredit travel is also available. The New York Theatre Tour and the London Theatre Tour delight students and community members during spring break. Southern Miss theatre students who take advantage of these extraordinary learning opportunities may be better prepared to enter the professional world. Students who participate in overseas credit programs are eligible for financial aid.
Let's Talk About Admission ...
The size of our program allows for individualized attention and a real-world challenge, competition and variety. To offer the diversity and depth of course offerings that have earned Southern Miss its national accreditation, some courses are scheduled once every year or every other year. M.F.A. candidates are admitted to the Graduate School on the basis of undergraduate grades, recommendations, the GRE and an audition/interview. Students are evaluated each semester of the first year by the performance faculty.
When a student reaches the skills standards for full admission to M.F.A. candidacy, three faculty members are selected by the student to serve as the student's M.F.A. Committee, guiding the student through course selection, evaluation, creative projects and their written components, and career planning. The student must continue to meet expectations that will be discussed regularly within the M.F.A. Committee with special attention to the individual student's goals and needs. At the end of the third year of successful achievement, the committee will schedule an exit interview that concludes residency.
Performance graduate students at Southern Miss are encouraged to apply for financial assistance in the form of graduate assistantships and federal work-study programs.
Department of Theatre and Dance
http://www.usm.edu/theatre
601.266.4994 (Theatre) • theatre@usm.edu
601.266.4161 (Dance) • dance@usm.edu