Directing MFA Questions

[KillerWingfield]

Hey everyone. I know that the 2017 MFA application seasons will soon be upon us and I have, after several years of planning and plotting, finally decided that this year I am going to put myself out there and apply.

It fills me with a lot of anxiety, but mostly it's good excitement type of anxiety, so I am trying to capitalize on that.

I had some questions about MFA programs that I was hoping some of you folks who have been through the process before could help me work out as I gear myself up for my applications. Reading through the journey of the 2016 group has been immensely helpful and has pretty much answered all my big questions save one, so here it is.

I am a high school theatre teacher with a lot of directing credits, but very few from outside my own program. I have always been worried that this kind of experience would not be seen as good enough in the eyes of the grad schools I am interested in attending. I've always made an effort to really push the envelope in my program, but there really is only so much you can get away with in a high school. Reading through the bios that some of these schools have posted on their websites of their current MFA Directing students, I have yet to find any that were once high school teachers (or at least admitted to being them in their bios). This, obviously, fills me with much anxiety. In your experience is this something that most programs out there would turn their noses up to, or would they be open to giving me a shot?

Follow up question: I have thought about contacting some of these programs directly and asking them this same question, but I can't decide if that is a good or bad idea. Thoughts?

I don't want to teach high school for the rest of my life. I thought I did when I was doing my undergrad, so that was my major and my focus, but by the end of it I realized I wanted a whole hell of a lot more. I've basically been looking at and treating this job as a pit stop on the road of life and I am ready to move on from it and pursue something bigger.

My current plan, as it stands, is to apply. Spend some money. Send in some common packets, go to U/RTAs, maybe apply to one or two schools not represented at U/RTAs and see what happens. Hopefully I can get some interviews and show them who I am and what I can do. Even if I don't make it this year then I will come away from the experience with a better idea of what I need to do to make it someday in the future.

Thank you for your attention and input, and best of luck to those applying for 2017!

Edited September 27, 2016 by KillerWingfield
fixed minor errors

[KillerWingfield]

Hey everyone. It's been a couple weeks since I posted this question. 

I finally got a response in the form of an email from someone who posted pretty regularly in the 2016 and 2015 MFA Directing threads, and was accepted into a program last year. I thought I would go ahead and share a synopsis of his response here in case other people with my same question are reading this forum looking for answers.

Basically this: MFA Directing programs require a minimum of 2 years of professional experience and high school theatre just doesn't qualify as professional experience. 

He said that the more "professional" programs like Yale, Carnegie Melon, Brown, and Columbia are probably going to have the toughest time with my type of experience. 

However, that does not mean all is lost. This responder encouraged me to do a few things: first I should apply to URTAs anyway and make an effort to really sell the experience I do have. He said it is much easier to get an interview at URTA and easier to state my case and sell myself in an interview than through an essay or something. He said I should focus on the range of plays I have directed and how the experience has shaped my craft. 

In the meantime I should be making steps to get some community theatre and semi-professional theatre directing experience in an effort to round out the experience I currently have (there is a ton of community theatre in my town and semi-professional and professional theatres just a couple hours drive from my town).

If you are in the same boat as me then do your best to build your resume with other credits besides the one in your own program. The more professional experience you have the better, but if, like me, there isn't anything available near you, then take what you can get. 

I'll be going to URTAs this year. I'll probably get eaten alive out there, but it'll hopefully be all worth it someday. I'll see some of you there! 

Good luck to you all. 

S

[LittleViking131]

Congrats on the MFA idea!

And to piggy back off the previous post, there are many MFA programs that are more academic-minded.

University of South Dakota
Catholic University of America (they have an MA as well in Theatre Ed during the summer months, I believe)
Virginia Commonwealth’s MFA specializes in Performance Pedagogy
Minnesota State University: Mankato
Purdue University (I believe someone just graduated from there who worked mostly in high school theatre…)
Baylor University
Western Illinois University

Yale/Brown/Columbia/BU/DePaul/UCSD/etc.. usually require a strong background in theatre and mindset to work in the future as a professional.

Hope this helps!
 

[KillerWingfield]

Thank you for responding! I will check these out programs out for sure.

Just to clarify, I am interested in moving away from education and into professional directing, but your response is still super helpful. 

Are you applying this year?

[YellowUmbrella]

Hello!

Happy I found your thread. I'm applying this year and I'm trying to make a game plan for travel to get to initial interview rounds. I thought I would see if anyone has found information that seems to be hiding from me.

1. Yale, DePaul, and UCSD- do they publish the dates they would invite people out to the first round of interviews? I know other programs that do, but these are three that are on my shrinking list of top choices on where to apply and it would help if I could have an idea of when I may need to take off from work- and perhaps affect my city of choice for initial interviews. Thoughts? I may reach out to the schools and ask, but I don't want them to think I'm being presumptuous. 

Looking forward to getting to know all of you this application season!

[KillerWingfield]

I can't be 100% sure, but I don't think it would hurt to reach out to the representatives for those schools and ask if they could provide you with that information. Some of the programs I have been researching have listed a contact person for further questions. I think a question like yours would fall into that category.

This is my first rodeo, so I don't really know for sure.

[Directorial]

On 11/6/2016 at 8:53 PM, YellowUmbrella said:

Hello!

Happy I found your thread. I'm applying this year and I'm trying to make a game plan for travel to get to initial interview rounds. I thought I would see if anyone has found information that seems to be hiding from me.

1. Yale, DePaul, and UCSD- do they publish the dates they would invite people out to the first round of interviews? I know other programs that do, but these are three that are on my shrinking list of top choices on where to apply and it would help if I could have an idea of when I may need to take off from work- and perhaps affect my city of choice for initial interviews. Thoughts? I may reach out to the schools and ask, but I don't want them to think I'm being presumptuous. 

Looking forward to getting to know all of you this application season!

Yellow, I got my DePaul interview request on January 10th. This past year the interview dates were January 23rd (New York) and Feb 20th (Chicago). 

Edited November 23, 2016 by Directorial