School of Theatre

Message from the Dean
Message from the Director
Graduate Admissions
MFA Directing
MFA Theatre Education
MFA Design, Production & Management
Building a Bridge from the Classroom to the Profession
Productions & Facilities
Our Faculty
The University
The City of Boston

Degrees offered in:

MFA

Design
Directing
Production
Management
Theatre Education

BFA

Acting
Theatre Arts
Design
Production
Management

Artisan Certificates

The School of Theatre in the College of Fine Arts at Boston University was established in 1954 as one of the country’s leading institutions for the study of acting, stage management, design, production, and all aspects of the theatrical profession. In recent years, the School of Theatre has evolved into an energetic place that values the notion of the new conservatory. From that idea, several core School of Theatre values emerge: 

We believe in the artistic possibilities of collaboration that involve faculty, students, alumni, and guest artists in potent explorations of the art form that encourage working together as the best means for achieving artistic growth.

We believe that an artist must be provided with a rigorous curriculum that allows mastery of the skills of their particular area of interest, be it in acting, directing, playwriting, dramaturgy, design, or production.

We believe that every member of our community is a part of the artistic home that we create together. In that home, we nurture an appreciation of challenge, a conviction for the value of everyone’s potential, and a belief in the need for intellectual growth as a core part of developing artistic growth.

We believe that the School can serve the profession by interacting with it and providing a laboratory for the development of new work or new approaches to existing work. Like our colleagues in the sciences, our role as stewards of the arts within an excellent research institution is to be on the forefront of exploring new possibilities for the theatre.

Our academic programs and several special initiatives have developed over the last decade, enabling us to put these core values into practice. Learn more about them in the pages that follow. 

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Message from the Dean

I am grateful to have this opportunity to introduce you to the excitement of this rich arts community. At the College of Fine Arts, students are prepared for professional work in the fields of music, theatre, or visual arts. Studio instruction is at the heart of a student’s experience in the College. We focus on the development of each student by emphasizing technique and professional skills through personalized instruction. Faculty members are carefully selected for their ability to impart knowledge, their personal accomplishments in the arts, and their commitment to students. Among the College of Fine Arts faculty are artists, performers, and scholars of national and international reputation.

The Boston University College of Fine Arts is comprised of the School of Music, the School of Theatre, and the School of Visual Arts. Although each School has its own faculty and program of study, all three Schools share the goal of providing the best possible training for the next generation of artists.

Walt C. Meissner
Dean ad interim

Message from the Director

Welcome to the School of Theatre viewbook, a publication intended to give you a thorough look inside the programs, philosophy, and people that comprise our Boston University School of Theatre community. On behalf of the faculty, students, and staff of our School, I am delighted by your interest in our work and encourage you to contact us with any questions that may arise or to set up a visit so that you can have a firsthand experience.

I hope this brief overview of the School, its values, and some of its programs will pique your interest. If it does, we look forward to hearing from you and giving you even more insight into who we are, what we believe, and how you might find BU the right place to embark on your professional education as a theatre artist.

Jim Petosa
Director, School of Theatre

Graduate Admissions

Requirements

The School of Theatre offers unique educational experiences for students possessed of theatrical imagination and professional promise. Successful applicants have traditionally been early-career professionals with an established body of professional work.

All School of Theatre graduate applicants are required to submit:

• A completed application for graduate admission to the College of Fine Arts, available on our website. 
• Official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended.
• A résumé.
• Two (2) letters of recommendation from theatre professionals.
• A letter of intent outlining, in detail, the applicant’s experience, what they wish to accomplish at Boston University, and their career ambitions.

Additional requirements for each degree program are provided on the CFA admissions website.

The graduate programs application deadline is February 15, but early application is advised. In late March, after review of all materials, a small number of applicants will be invited to interview with us. The faculty takes time to evaluate each candidate with care. Therefore, applicants should not expect final decisions until late spring.

Applicants applying for financial aid must submit an application on or before February 15. The School of Theatre expects to substantially fund most accepted graduate students. In fact, many students receive up to a full tuition scholarship in addition to a living stipend.

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MFA Directing

Our MFA Directing program provides early-career professionals with the opportunity to cultivate their artistic identities and professional objectives while refining and enhancing their technical skills and range. Coursework is individually designed with each student’s personal ambitions in mind. Each School of Theatre MFA Directing student receives extensive experience in the rehearsal hall in a sequence of projects chosen to stretch and showcase his or her strengths.

Our program seeks to:

• Extend, intensify, and focus the director’s theatrical versatility, sensibilities, scholarship, and imagination.
  
  
• Explore and enhance creative collaborations with actors, designers, and playwrights.
  
  
• Consider the pragmatic aspects of the profession and envision possibilities for new artistic leadership in American theatre.

MFA Directing students are prepared for substantive careers, either as resident or freelance directors, with special emphasis placed on understanding the American regional theatre and other not-for-profit venues. An “artistic director” option is available that joins the MFA Directing curriculum with a graduate certificate program in Arts Administration at Boston University’s Metropolitan College. Full-time students may complete the program in three years, including summers (two and a half years in residence with a sixth semester spent in professional internship placement). Most students receive a full-tuition scholarship, living stipend, and teaching assistantship. Admission is highly selective, with the School of Theatre admitting one or two students each year to the program.

Core faculty

• Judy Braha
  Program Head, Directing
  Assistant Professor, Acting and Directing
  
  
• Peter DuBois
  Artistic Director, Huntington Theatre Company
  
  
• Jim Petosa
  Director, School of Theatre

Curriculum Highlights

• Direction of one to three productions each year plus additional scene work.
  
  
• Preparation and rehearsal of a fully mounted thesis production in the final semester.
  
  
• Opportunity to observe and assist the directors of Huntington Theatre Company (HTC) productions.
  
  
• Internships in the Huntington Theatre Company’s artistic, literary, and education departments.
  
  
• Summer internships with leading regional theatres.

MFA Theatre Education

The MFA Theatre Education program provides a unique opportunity for those who are in the beginning stages of their careers as theatre artists to further their own artistry and professional goals, while at the same time developing techniques for teaching theatre in the classroom.

Our program seeks to:

• Develop and expand the theatre artist’s own personal approach, sensibility, and creativity.


• Work with the ensemble of undergraduate theatre majors in a laboratory-like setting, as a means of reinventing the idea of the artist through intense collaboration.


• Prepare for professional life through various workshops and colloquia.

Core faculty

• Michael Kaye
  Program Head, Theatre Education
  Assistant Professor, Acting
  
  
• Elaine Vaan Hogue
  Program Head, Theatre Arts
  Assistant Professor, Theatre Arts
  
  
• Judy Braha
  Program Head, Directing
  Assistant Professor, Acting and Directing

Curriculum Highlights

• Individually focused curriculum.
  
  
• Opportunity to teach and develop undergraduate courses.
  Weekly graduate seminars.
  
  
• Acting and directing opportunities in School of Theatre productions.
  
  
• Artistic opportunities with our Boston University Professional Theatre Initiative members and our newly formed professional company, the Boston Center for American Performance.
   
  
• In the final year of study, each student develops a thesis project as a natural outgrowth of their individual artistic journey.

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MFA Design, Production & Management

Like all School of Theatre programs, the Design, Production & Management program at the School of Theatre is an intensive conservatory program with a national reputation.

Our program seeks to:

• Foster the development of new forms of theatrical expression and hone skills that enable expression of a bold personal aesthetic.
  
  
• Mix skills courses with both short- and long-term exercises in applied production work, stressing collaboration and process in all areas.
  
  
• Provide individualized programs of study dependent on the level of preparation each student brings to his or her first year of training, and recognize that there exists no model that is truly representative.
  
  
• Prepare students for entrance into a complex/changing art form by providing access to working professionals both onsite and around the world.

Design

Broken into four concentrations—lighting, scene, costume, and sound design—the Master of Fine Arts Design program, as conceived by a faculty of working professionals, requires a serious commitment of time and energy from students. All design students and faculty work out of the BU Production Center, in close association with the staff of Boston University’s professional theatre in residence, the Huntington Theatre Company. Many HTC staff members are also adjunct School of Theatre faculty.

Production & Management

Our Master of Fine Arts Production & Management programs offer degrees in Technical Production, Costume Production, and Production Management. Much of the teaching and learning in these disciplines occurs outside of formal classroom situations, in master-apprentice relationships with either School of Theatre production staff or the production staff of the Huntington Theatre Company.

Artisan Certificates

In addition to our BFA and MFA programs, the School of Theatre offers Certificates of Training for scenic artists, costumers, electricians, stage carpenters, and property masters. These two-year programs offer basic skill and craft courses for theatre artisans and technicians who seek career entry-level training.

Curriculum Highlights

• Coursework in all areas of design, research, literature, construction, and craft skills.
  
  
• Increasingly complex quarterly production and design assignments.
  
  
• All School of Theatre productions are designed and built by students.
  
  
• Opportunity to assist visiting Huntington Theatre Company designers and resident staff.
  
  
• Seminars with leading theatrical designers and technicians.
  
  
• Thesis projects during the final semester allow for further technological experimentation.
  
  
• Full-tuition scholarships, stipends, and teaching assistantships available.

Building a Bridge from the Classroom to the Profession

The School of Theatre has a long tradition of embracing the value of the professional theatre’s participation in the education of our students. We have now arrived at a landmark number of professional theatre ventures that embrace the possibilities of building strong bridges between the study and practice of the theatre arts.

Boston University Professional Theatre Initiative

The Professional Theatre Initiative (PTI) reflects our belief in the necessity of strong artistic relationships with the theatre profession. PTI provides opportunities for stimulating, creative interactions between participating theatres and the BU School of Theatre community. Many of our students, faculty, and alumni are linked with a variety of professional theatres of many kinds, sizes, and missions to provide experience and interaction that serve both the participant and the theatre company itself.

Our long history of association with the Huntington Theatre Company, in residence at Boston University for its entire quarter-century of existence, is proof of this long-held belief. In recent years, theatres as varied as the Olney Theatre Center, National Players, Potomac Theatre Project, Vineyard Playhouse, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, and the Pendragon Theatre, among others, have joined this initiative. Project-based interactions have been successfully forged with theatres such as the Guthrie Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Primary Stages, and The Arden Theatre.                 

Often, PTI member theatres provide professional opportunities in acting, directing, and design and/or career development opportunities through internships. In some cases, our interactions with these companies result in new play development and opportunities to conceive new approaches to existing works. 

For a full list of our professional partners in this endeavor: www.bu.edu/cfa/theatre/professional/pti.

Boston University New Play Initiative

The New Play Initiative expresses our commitment to the School’s participation in the development of new work.  This special initiative provides playwrights, directors, designers, and actors with a variety of developmental options to support the collaborative creation of new work for the theatre. Students, faculty, alumni, and guest artists are given the opportunity to utilize the creativity of the rehearsal room to develop their plays, which are then presented through workshop productions. But the life of these new plays doesn’t end on the BU stages. Many New Play Initiative productions are often later fully produced by member companies of our Professional Theatre Initiative or featured in our InCite Arts Festival.

For example, recent New Play Initiative highlights include:

• Translations of Xhosa by Kira Lallas (CFA ‘02). The playwright’s account of her personal journey while studying abroad in South Africa. Honored by the Kennedy Center and produced professionally by Olney Theatre Center in 2003. Recipient of the prestigious Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play.
  
  
• Brendan by Ronan Noone (CAS ‘01), a former Huntington Theatre Company playwriting fellow. The story of an Irish immigrant’s struggle to acclimate to his new life in America. Workshopped by the School of Theatre (2005) and professionally produced by HTC (2006). Winner of the 2007 Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) award for Best New Play.
   
  
• Lizzie Stranton by Lydia R. Diamond, BU School of Theatre assistant professor and author of the critically acclaimed plays Stick Fly, Voyeurs de Venus, and The Bluest Eye. This re-imagining of Aristophanes’ classic comedy Lysistrata was workshopped by the School of Theatre in 2008 at the Boston Center for the Arts Calderwood Pavilion.
  

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The InCite Arts Festival manifests our belief that the work of the School of Theatre, and the College of Fine Arts in which it resides, can serve a broader audience by presenting new work and revivals of challenging work outside of the city of Boston. The InCite Arts Festival, established in 2008, was conceived as a showcase of the dynamic artistic strengths and synergy of BU’s College of Fine Arts, throughout its schools of Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts. Each school offers new and interdisciplinary collaborations with compelling titles and eclectic works, presented and performed by professional artists, faculty members, alumni, and students.

Each March, the College presents itself through performances in New York City. The College will expand that outreach with an arts festival in greater Washington, D.C., in fall 2009. The Spring 2009 InCite Arts Festival: Art Never Backs Down included:

• La Tragédie de Carmen adapted by Jean-Claude Carrière and Peter Brook—The popular tale of a doomed romance between a sensuous gypsy and a Spanish army officer, told in a powerful one-act adaptation. A collaboration between the School of Theatre and the School of Music Opera Institute and Symphony Orchestra.
  
  
• Pope Joan by Michelle Poynton (CFA ’08)—A compelling drama about the ninth-century woman who, legend has it, disguised herself as a man and rose to lead the Catholic Church for two years.


• Performance Showcase and Design and Production Exhibit—These annual showcases serve as a celebration of the accomplishments of the graduating class and the group’s formal introduction to the professional theatre industry.

For more information about our upcoming InCite Arts Festival: www.bu.edu/cfa/incite.

Boston Center for American Performance

The Boston Center for American Performance (BCAP), our newest endeavor, serves as the professional production extension of the School of Theatre. Expanding the definition of the College as an “artistic home,” BCAP is designed to foster significant interaction between members of the professional performing arts world and the College. Creating productions in one of our many venues in our home city, BCAP employs professional artists to collaborate directly with student artists in a way that encourages intergenerational learning not only through the forging of strong teacher-student relationships, but through the creation of artistic collaborations between artists of differing levels of experience.

This initiative encourages interaction among professional faculty artists, alumni, students, and other affiliated artists both locally and nationally. It is the College’s conviction that such collaborations will have a profound impact on our educational mission, become a significant source of inspiration for the creation of new work and/or new approaches to existing work, and provide the College with a professional extension of its expanding and diverse aesthetic.

In fall 2008, the BCAP initiative debuted with a three-week run of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, featuring faculty and student actors working collaboratively with a student, faculty, staff, and alumni artistic team. In spring 2009, Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife featured two recent MFA Directing graduates—Jeffry Stanton as director and David Gram as performer—supported by a design and production team comprised of both alumni and student artists.

The 2009/2010 BCAP season will feature two provocative, modern classics—A Question of Mercy by David Rabe and Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive.

www.bu.edu/cfa/theatre/professional/bcap

Productions & Facilities

All School of Theatre productions are designed, built, and performed by students, making opportunities for performance, design, and production plentiful at Boston University. In fact, the School of Theatre produces:

• Six fully mounted productions each season—two on the BU Theatre Mainstage, two at the Boston Center for the Arts Calderwood Pavilion, and two in the Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley Studio 210.

• A series of projects for the School of Music Opera Institute, including two mainstage operas and two additional opera one-acts during the annual College of Fine Arts Fall Fringe Festival.

• An additional 35 to 45 workshop projects each year, produced in a variety of venues within the College of Fine Arts and also at the BU Theatre.

• Two to four additional productions from our professional extension, the Boston Center for American Performance, plus a collection of shows for the annual InCite Arts Festival.

The School of Theatre offers a variety of spaces in which to realize our students’ creative visions:

• The majestic and expansive BU Theatre Mainstage.

• The three-year-old Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts in Boston’s South End, a cultural center supported by the Huntington Theatre Company and home to two theatres, rehearsal studios, and event space.

• A versatile and newly renovated black box, the Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley Studio 210.

• Three modern black box studios at the College of Fine Arts, generous gifts from David J. Copeland and Friends and the family of Juliane Ethel Leilani Miller.

• Three classic Dance Studios appointed with sprung floors and mirrored walls.

• The BU Theatre Production Center, with state-of-the-art shops (Scene, Paint, Props, Costumes, Dye, and Crafts) shared by the School of Theatre and the Huntington Theatre Company.

• Additional production spaces at the BU Theatre including a light lab, sound studio, and design studios for each Design, Production, and Mangement academic concentration.

• The School of Theatre Greenroom, a hub for roundtable discussions and student gatherings.

• The intimate proscenium stage known as the TheatreLab@855.

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Our Faculty

At the Boston University School of Theatre, a diverse and accomplished full-time faculty and staff, augmented by guest artists and part-time trainers, serve approximately 240 undergraduate and 30 graduate students each academic year.

Judy Braha
Assistant Professor (Directing and Acting)

Ilana M. Brownstein
Lecturer (Dramaturgy and Dramatic Literature)

Judith Chaffee
Associate Professor (Movement)

Mark Cohen
Assistant Professor (Acting)

Lydia R. Diamond
Assistant Professor (Playwriting and Theatre Arts)

Ben Emerson
Lecturer (Sound Design)

Diane Fargo
Lecturer (Scene Painting)

Sidney Friedman
Professor (Dramatic Literature and Directing)

Adam Godbout
Lecturer (Vectorworks)

Christine Hamel
Assistant Professor (Voice and Speech)

Michael Kaye
Assistant Professor (Acting)

Paula Langton
Associate Professor (Voice and Speech)

Nancy Leary
Assistant Professor (Costume Design and Production)

Jonathan Lipsky
Professor (Acting and Playwriting)

Michael Maso
Associate Professor (Theatre Management)

James McCartney
Lecturer (Sound Design)

J. Stratton McCrady
Instructor (Technical Production)

Rob Najarian
Lecturer (Stage Combat)

James Noone
Assistant Professor (Scene Design)

Jim Petosa
Professor (Directing and Dramatic Criticism)

Penney Pinette
Lecturer (Costume Production)

Betsy Polatin
Assistant Professor (Alexander Technique)

Jon Savage
Assistant Professor (Scene Design)

Mark Stanley
Associate Professor (Lighting Design)

Cristina Todesco
Lecturer (Scene Painting)

Elaine Vaan Hogue
Assistant Professor (Acting and Directing)

Mariann Verheyen
Associate Professor (Costume Design)

Denise Wallace
Lecturer (Costume Crafts)

For full faculty biographies and a complete staff listing, visit www.bu.edu/cfa/theatre/faculty.

The University

BU is in the heart of Boston, a hub of intellectual and cultural activity. It’s all here.

The fourth-largest independent university in the United States, Boston University is coeducational and nonsectarian. Our campus extends over 71 acres from the historic Back Bay section of Boston westward along the south bank of the Charles River. From the townhouses of Bay State Road to state-of-the-art laboratories and classrooms, from peaceful parks and esplanades to the city life of Commonwealth Avenue, the University offers a safe and attractive environment in which students live and study.

Founded by a group of Methodist lay leaders, Boston University has always been strongly committed to equality in opportunity without regard to race, color, creed, sex, or national origin. The University was the first institution of higher education in Massachusetts to grant degrees to women, and graduated the first African American woman MD and the first woman PhD. The University’s commitment to recruiting minorities and women continues today within the student body and the faculty.

Boston University is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc.

The City of Boston

One of America’s most beautiful cities, Boston is rich in historical charm and modern vitality. Home to more than 60 colleges and universities, Boston is an intellectual and cultural center diverse in its people and stimulating in its opportunities, yet at the same time relaxed and accessible.

Boston is the largest city in New England and the site of many pivotal events in American Revolutionary history. A historic seaport that grew to prominence in the days of the China trade and the whaling industry, the city maintains a vibrant and picturesque waterfront. Here, historic treasures intermingle with contemporary skyscrapers, evidence of the city’s thriving business and financial community and its leading role in research and technology.

An urban institution from its inception, BU has always recognized that its future is linked with the future of its city. This extraordinary environment affords students extensive exposure to creative innovation and professional artistry.

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