roguesenna

I am multiracial so when I wrote mine (for Columbia) I focused on the fact that I truly do have a "unique" (*actually* unique, I've never met someone with the same racial/ethnical/cultural mix as me) perspective to offer to my incoming class. I agree with 123, show how your diversity makes you unique and how that perspective will enrich your classmates.

I'd love to trade, but I'm in Theatre/Performance Studies. If you're interested, let me know.

Yeah, I'm aware of the background of codeified language and I actually don't have a problem with the Stanislavski method, what I have a problem with are actors who feel they need to spend six months in prison before playing a criminal. There's a difference between research and self-torture, IMHO. And for me, personally, I am big on using body and movement to enter the mind of a character. I am largely influenced by Commedia Del Arte and to a lesser extent by the reading I've done on Gratowski. But this is sort of tangential to what I was initially talking about...

So I asked my academic advisor from my MFA (who was also a member of my thesis committee) to write me a LOR and he asked me to write the letter so he could revise it. Now according to the googles, this is somewhat common, but I'm wondering how to approach it. I could discard this letter and ask someone else (perhaps my thesis advisor), but he is the professor that I had the closest relationship in grad school and he was also my academic advisor and the head of my department. should I buck up and write the letter or approach a different professor? also, I waived my rights to access my other rec letters, but I don't know if it's ethical to say I waived my rights to this one when I'll be the one drafting it. do you think that would hurt my app? finally, if anyone has any advice about writing your own rec letter, I'd love to hear it.

I find it interesting that you mention Brecht because I definitely see a strong relationship between verfremdungseffekt's ideal of distancing people from the what they're watching in order to allow them to process it and magical realism's tendency to romanticise or fantasize a series of events with the same ultimate end goal. I'm definitely interested in that distancing effect and I share your distaste for naturalism. I hate "method" acting. I was always taught that part of acting is knowing where the edge of the stage is.

So in my SOP I'm supposed to talk about what I want my dissertation to be. I have a few ideas, but no idea how to frame them into what the people reading my SOP are looking to see. What have you written? I'm a theatre major so I'm trying to decide between two topics, gender & sexuality in contemporary american theatre OR magical realism in contemporary performance. I have a few ideas for specific plays that I would discuss as well, but I'm not quite sure how to meld this all into what is essentially the baby form of a dissertation proposal. Help?

Hey all, it looks like this thread is a little stale, but I'm just trying to find others applying for PhDs. Right now I am applying to NYU and Colombia and maaaaaybe CUNY. How are everyone's applications going? Has anyone else taken the GREs?

I'm a PhD applicant with an MFA in Dramatic Writing and my advice kind of seconds what teethwax said: Apply for ALL the programs (if you can afford it). I only applied to one program (luckily I got in) because I had a low GPA and I wasn't convinced I could get in any where else. Nor was my academic advisor from undergrad particularly enthusiastic about my chances. I wish I had applied to some of my dream schools because now I never know if I could have gotten in. Futher more, though I got my MFA, my grad school's DWRI department was almost an afterthought and there were very few opportunities for me to take advantage of as far as career advancement. Nor did I get to do a lot of teaching, which was one of my main reasons for going to school in the first place. I thought I'd done a lot of research on the school before I got there, but I was really surprised by how much I disliked it compared to my undergrad. I'll also say don't underestimate the value of being in a city that is central to what you want to pursue after you graduate. I.E. if you want to write plays just having access to the cultural resources in NYC or Chicago can really help you get a headstart. Trying to move from the south to NYC after my MFA program was such a pain in the butt and took WAY longer than my partner and I expected. To underscore this, it sounds like teeth has access to so many more opportunities than were available at my "renowned" grad school. And teeth I am so jealous that you got to chit-chat with Sarah Ruhl. I LOVE her work. If I get in to my PhD prog. I think I might include some of her stuff in my dissertation.

I have an MFA in Dramatic Writing and would be happy to read it if you can't find anyone else, but obvs I am not an English PhD so I would definitely keep looking for someone else first.

When I applied for my Dramatic Writing MFA I just used my favorite piece that I'd written to date. It got me in, but I didn't touch anything like it again until the very end of my program. So I think just choose the piece that you love the most and that your classmates and professors tell you is the best.

I live in Washington Heights, northern manhattan, pretty affordable. We are within walking distance of the Cloisters park which is gorgeous and full of beautiful hiking trails. I work in midtown and I frequently walk through central park on the way home. there's no reason an outdoorsy person shouldn't be able to satisfy themselves in NYC.