MFA Directing 2021

[ctbck]

On 12/27/2020 at 1:06 PM, dariofofanatic said:

Hey all! I'm working on wrapping up my application to a school now and had a question for everyone. Have the programs you've applied to asked for a personal statement? Any advice on this (length of statement, what to cover) would be helpful. Just want to make sure I'm not sending them a novel if they just want a one-pager. For my first draft, I tried to focus on questions I asked myself: What do I bring to the table as a director? What areas do I wish to improve in? If anybody has a suggestion for what else might be worth talking about, I'd love to hear it.

 

Good luck all!

I only applied to DePaul this year but I think that their requirements were helpful for framing my personal statement:

• 1 page
• based on personal experiences to date
• what are your strong points
• where you feel you need development
• what you hope to get from this program and for what purpose(s)

Edited December 29, 2020 by ctbck

[dariofofanatic]

4 minutes ago, ctbck said:

I only applied to DePaul this year but I think that their requirements were helpful for framing my personal statement:

• 1 page
• based on personal experiences to date
• what are your strong points
• where you feel you need development
• what you hope to get from this program and for what purpose(s)

Thanks, this is helpful! Best of luck to you!!

[ctbck]

1 minute ago, dariofofanatic said:

Thanks, this is helpful! Best of luck to you!!

Of course! If you want an extra set of eyes on your statement, I'm happy to take a look via PM. 

I found that what I struggled with most was not solely focusing on my areas of improvement. I feel that as a student I'm very invested in being honest about my weaknesses out of a desire to grow and that was a tricky needle to thread when in another paragraph I'm explaining why I'm a good candidate. Ultimately, I ran out of a bit of space at the end for "what purpose" because in an ideal world I would straddle teaching and directing the same way that the professors their (and elsewhere in the city) do, but wouldn't rule out helping to co-lead a theatre either.

[dariofofanatic]

7 minutes ago, ctbck said:

Of course! If you want an extra set of eyes on your statement, I'm happy to take a look via PM. 

I found that what I struggled with most was not solely focusing on my areas of improvement. I feel that as a student I'm very invested in being honest about my weaknesses out of a desire to grow and that was a tricky needle to thread when in another paragraph I'm explaining why I'm a good candidate. Ultimately, I ran out of a bit of space at the end for "what purpose" because in an ideal world I would straddle teaching and directing the same way that the professors their (and elsewhere in the city) do, but wouldn't rule out helping to co-lead a theatre either.

I appreciate that offer - I might just take you up on it! I'm finding a similar challenge to what you described. I'm having a hard time with the wording for my areas of improvement - I have a very clear idea of what they are, but trying to explain it in writing has been harder than if I were to just explain it to someone sitting next to me.

Here's kind of a silly question - did you start yours like a cover letter (i.e. "I am writing to apply to your program..." etc.) or just jump right in (i.e. "I am a director focused on exploring XYZ")? I think at this point I have most of what I want to say, just need to edit it down.

[jimminy_cricket]

53 minutes ago, dariofofanatic said:

I appreciate that offer - I might just take you up on it! I'm finding a similar challenge to what you described. I'm having a hard time with the wording for my areas of improvement - I have a very clear idea of what they are, but trying to explain it in writing has been harder than if I were to just explain it to someone sitting next to me.

Here's kind of a silly question - did you start yours like a cover letter (i.e. "I am writing to apply to your program..." etc.) or just jump right in (i.e. "I am a director focused on exploring XYZ")? I think at this point I have most of what I want to say, just need to edit it down.

I did something that some people advise against but I ultimately found helpful which was contextualizing how I came to theatre with a brief personal story. 

Edited December 29, 2020 by jimminy_cricket

[ctbck]

57 minutes ago, dariofofanatic said:

Here's kind of a silly question - did you start yours like a cover letter (i.e. "I am writing to apply to your program..." etc.) or just jump right in (i.e. "I am a director focused on exploring XYZ")? I think at this point I have most of what I want to say, just need to edit it down.

I jumped in. LOL! I did use a sentence at the end of my first paragraph that was something like "thus, I'm applying to SCHOOL to X, Y, and Z"

I feel like as a writer I typically overwrite and provide too much detail the way I would if I was talking out loud so I had to have my wife help me get more concise. I also used it to call attention to a few plays on my resume I'd be most excited to talk about in case they get brought up if I got an interview. 

[ctbck]

Happy New Year, all! Things are going to start heating up!

[dariofofanatic]

Happy new year! My resolution: finish this application!!

[ctbck]

14 minutes ago, dariofofanatic said:

Happy new year! My resolution: finish this application!!

You've got this! Which school are you working on?

[cf99]

URTA schedules came out today! 4 of the 8 schools I sent LOIs to scheduled an interview with me, and 2 schools I did not submit to scheduled with me anyways. The 4 that are not interviewing me are more traditional programs, so I knew that I already wasn't a perfect fit. Overall pretty happy! How'd everyone else fair? 

Anyone know much about University of South Carolina's program? Based on their website, it's non-existent. But they requested an interview with me, so I'm assuming it's a new program. Directing head looks like a big Shakespeare guy, which is not at all my area of expertise. 

[ctbck]

3 hours ago, cf99 said:

URTA schedules came out today! 4 of the 8 schools I sent LOIs to scheduled an interview with me, and 2 schools I did not submit to scheduled with me anyways. The 4 that are not interviewing me are more traditional programs, so I knew that I already wasn't a perfect fit. Overall pretty happy! How'd everyone else fair? 

Anyone know much about University of South Carolina's program? Based on their website, it's non-existent. But they requested an interview with me, so I'm assuming it's a new program. Directing head looks like a big Shakespeare guy, which is not at all my area of expertise. 

Congratulations! South Carolina has got to be brand-spanking new... The website says "The University of South Carolina is the only school in the state that offers an MFA in acting, design or directing so you can achieve the highest degree possible in theatre design or performance." but then there's nothing else on the site about it that I could easily find. It is neat to see that they pivoted to digital stuff pretty smoothly, which I think is important considering that there will certainly be some digital remnants of the theatrical experience moving forward post-COVID.

Which schools are you scheduled to interview with? Break legs!

[cf99]

Interviewing with UT Austin, UCLA, UC Irvine, Boston University, CalArts, and South Carolina. OU, Indiana, FSU, and TSU did not elect to interview me. 

Yeah, that's my sense too with Carolina. Hoping to learn more about the program in the interview!

[ctbck]

5 hours ago, cf99 said:

Interviewing with UT Austin, UCLA, UC Irvine, Boston University, CalArts, and South Carolina. OU, Indiana, FSU, and TSU did not elect to interview me. 

Yeah, that's my sense too with Carolina. Hoping to learn more about the program in the interview!

That's great! Definitely a good spread. Best of luck! I'm excited to hear how they go and what your takeaways are. 

[LittleViking131]

On 1/6/2021 at 12:03 PM, cf99 said:

Interviewing with UT Austin, UCLA, UC Irvine, Boston University, CalArts, and South Carolina. OU, Indiana, FSU, and TSU did not elect to interview me. 

Yeah, that's my sense too with Carolina. Hoping to learn more about the program in the interview!

U of Sc is not new. Due to COVID, they took it down. They’ve had a program for a while.

If you do some investigation, you can see their current student and one of their lecturers just graduated from the program. The progam is, I believe, not fully funded, so they took it down due to uncertainty.

[ctbck]

How's everyone doing? I saw that DePaul says mid-January is when we should expect info on interviews — I've yet to hear anything.

Are people prepping for URTAs? Where are people interviewing? What sorts of questions are you preparing yourself to answer? What sorts of questions do you plan on asking programs?

[Rbjrbj]

Happy New Year! Curious if anyone who didn't go the URTA route has started to hear about interviews? Stalking the 2020 board, it looks like around this time last year people started to get interviews scheduled, but who knows if that timeline is still true with all that has changed.

[ctbck]

1 hour ago, Rbjrbj said:

Happy New Year! Curious if anyone who didn't go the URTA route has started to hear about interviews? Stalking the 2020 board, it looks like around this time last year people started to get interviews scheduled, but who knows if that timeline is still true with all that has changed.

I only applied to one school so can only say I have yet to hear from them. They said we should expect info mid-January, so I feel like this week and next are the weeks I'm on pins and needles. 

[cf99]

URTA update: I felt pretty good about my interviews! 25 minutes flew by with each school, so my only regret maybe is that I wasn't more concise with my answers. No questions out of left field, a lot of "why grad school?" and "where do you see yourself career-wise after grad school?", etc. I do primarily devised work, so I got a few questions about my process. I was asked to pitch plays for 5 of my interviews, but 2 of the schools didn't actually bring it up.

Every school that laid out the next steps for me indicated that callbacks would consist of more interviews. No one said anything about having to direct over Zoom (knock on wood). I asked a few schools about their plans for the fall in terms of in-person vs zoom, productions, etc. My main takeaway from that was just that no one really knows where we'll be at in the fall. 

Oh, and I know we talked about Boston a while back -- something I was unaware of is that they have a total change in leadership -- brand new program head. 

Anyone else interview yesterday? How's everyone feeling?

On a different note -- I think Brooklyn may not be taking a class this year for directing. They pulled out of URTAs, and when I emailed them about it and to ask some other questions, I got no reply. Anyone know anything else about it?

[LittleViking131]

On 1/10/2021 at 2:53 PM, ctbck said:

How's everyone doing? I saw that DePaul says mid-January is when we should expect info on interviews — I've yet to hear anything.

Are people prepping for URTAs? Where are people interviewing? What sorts of questions are you preparing yourself to answer? What sorts of questions do you plan on asking programs?

Where did you read about mid-Jan for DePaul? 

[ctbck]

7 hours ago, LittleViking131 said:

Where did you read about mid-Jan for DePaul? 

It's at the top of this page on how to apply: "Finalists are typically selected in mid-January and the finalist interview day takes place at The Theatre School in February."

It looks like last from previous threads people started hearing about interviews around January 14.

[LittleViking131]

2 hours ago, ctbck said:

It's at the top of this page on how to apply: "Finalists are typically selected in mid-January and the finalist interview day takes place at The Theatre School in February."

It looks like last from previous threads people started hearing about interviews around January 14.

Oh! Yes. I read your post as there was some updated details provided -- like an email or a social media post.

Thanks!

[ctbck]

On 1/13/2021 at 10:12 AM, LittleViking131 said:

Oh! Yes. I read your post as there was some updated details provided -- like an email or a social media post.

Thanks!

Ah! I see. No, nothing yet. I'm hoping we hear from them tomorrow but totally get that everything is in flux because of the state of our country... 

[ctbck]

DePaul has sent out finalist interview emails. 

[LittleViking131]

On 1/19/2021 at 5:14 PM, ctbck said:

DePaul has sent out finalist interview emails. 

It begins!

[ctbck]

6 minutes ago, LittleViking131 said:

It begins!

Yes! 

I am a finalist so I've spent the past 24 hours freaking out and trying to wrap my head around how to prepare. Time to head to past year's threads and figure out how to direct two actors I've never met via Zoom.