The Professional Actor Training Program
The values of an artist
The craft of an actor
A bridge to the business
The Professional Actor Training Program at Ohio University prepares advanced students for careers as professional actors. Led by a faculty of working theater practitioners, the School of Theater recruits a class once every three years into an intense, rigorous, three-year M.F.A. conservatory program. Emphasis is placed on close mentoring and a commitment to collaborative training and individual student growth. The training is dedicated to producing well-rounded, skillful, and self-motivated creative actor/artists who are prepared with clear methods of approach to a working process for all styles or periods and flexibility to meet the varied demands of the contemporary theater. Intensive acting, voice, and movement are the essential components of the three years of training. Additional coursework may include text analysis, theater history, criticism and literature, special areas of voice and movement, singing, audition technique, and film and television technique. A total of 135 quarter-credit hours are required to earn the Master of Fine Arts degree in the Professional Actor Training Program.
The Acting Studio
With a strong foundation in the Meisner Technique, the first year of training puts rigorous emphasis on the authentic use of self, the reality of doing, the awakening of the emotional life, and the collaborative process. The second year of training focuses on creating complex characters through the application of the foundation work, to scenes, exercises and performance. The third year more fully integrates the classical repertoire, encompassing a wide range of period style work, from Shakespeare and the Greeks through Chekhov and Coward. Third year students will also be exposed to industry professionals and hone their audition technique and business acumen in classroom and professional settings.
Performance Opportunities
Following the first 10 weeks of diagnosing students’ individual needs, actors are cast in practicum roles as part of their course load. This can be in the School of Theater’s main stage offerings or in its studio or laboratory productions. Actors may also work in the development and production of new plays, both in workshop and in the yearly Seabury Quinn Jr., Playwright’s Festival in collaboration with the students in the MFA Playwriting Program. In all cases, special emphasis is placed on the student’s ability to synthesize the work of the studio with the practical realities of his or her casting.
Admission and Assessment
Admission to the program is by interview and audition, primarily in New York and Chicago at the annual U/RTA unified audition sites. The PATP is open to a limited number of talented, mature, and motivated students. We will admit a new class the Fall of 2009.
There is continual communication among the performance faculty members aimed at monitoring and advancing the training of each student. Quarterly evaluations inform students of their progress and outline specific strengths and weaknesses. Students demonstrating consistent growth are invited by the faculty to continue in the succeeding year of training.
Summer Opportunities
Most actors will be offered the opportunity to be involved in a full summer of performance activities at the Monomoy Theatre on Cape Cod. Operated in conjunction with the Ohio University School of Theater, Monomoy has been one of the most enduring and popular attractions on the Cape for more than 50 years.
To Apply
Instructions for onlne application can be found at www.ohio.edu/graduate, a resume, a statement of goals, and any other materials required by the program to which you are applying must be sent by March 15 to: Graduate Committee School of Theater Ohio University Kantner Hall 307 Athens, OH 45701-2979
For additional information contact Shelley Delaney, Head of the Professional Actor Training Program
Email:delaneys@ohio.edu