York University’s MFA in Theatre is an intensive, two-year (five-semester) conservatory program. It is designed for serious, advanced theatre artists who want to further hone their skills so as to enter – or re-enter – the profession, and who seek the knowledge and skills needed to teach at the post-secondary level. Classes are small, hours are long and expectations from faculty are high.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
York offers competitive funding to all qualified graduate students and is committed to promoting excellence in research and teaching. Training opportunities and funding are provided through research assistantships in the student’s field of study, teaching assistantships with relevant undergraduate programs, graduate assistantships with faculty members and/or research assistantships. Your graduate program will provide you with details about your funding package and its components.
At the time of offer of admission, qualified graduate students are provided with a guaranteed funding package for the duration of their program. Students are also strongly encouraged to apply for major external awards. York graduate students have a very high success rate in attracting these scholarships. For more information, please visit Current Students – Funding and Awards.
York’s Awards for Graduate Students
York offers a range of awards for incoming and continuing students, with more than $10 million in internal recruitment scholarships alone, including:
- The Elia Scholars Program is York University’s most prestigious graduate award for incoming domestic or international doctoral students ($40,000)
- Graduate Fellowships for Academic Distinction are scholarships awarded to incoming doctoral or master’s students with high potential for future leadership in international affairs. Fellowships include a scholarship (PhD: $15,000 or Masters: $7,000), a research assistantship ($7,000) and all tuition fees ($5,500)
- Chancellor Bennett Masters and Doctoral Scholarships supports exceptional incoming doctoral or master’s students entering a full-time program in the Liberal Arts ($20,000). At the doctoral level, the award is renewable for a maximum of four years
- The Paavo and Aino Lukkari Awards and Fellowship support graduate students engaged in research on human rights and social justice issues related to the situation of indigenous people and people of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean ($12,500)
- The Susan Crocker and John Hunkin Awards and Scholarships provide valuable support for graduate students pursuing studies in Fine Arts programs ($10,000)
- Enbridge Graduate Awards are awarded to students working in the areas of conservation, renewable resources, climate change and environmental engineering across York’s graduate programs ($12,500)
York’s program in Directing offers students an opportunity to hone their directing skills with in depth study and practical application to plays staged in studio and on our mainstage. In addition to their core course work which includes seminars on Directing, Design, and a practicum where students work with grad and undergrad actors, Directors have the opportunity to study in the many departments in our faculty as time permits. In the first year of study, Directors direct a collective creation project, a Shakespeare project, and two or three unmounted productions. In the second year of study, in addition to ongoing studio projects, students also direct a fully-mounted Theatre @ York production for their MFA thesis.
Directing Curriculum
Each director’s program is assigned by the Director of the Graduate Program in Theatre based on individual needs. Curriculum components include:
- an examination on a comprehensive reading list of 100 plays
- directing seminar
- performance teaching seminar
- graduate research seminar
- classes in the design/production area
- directing collective creation projects
- directing Shakespeare projects
- directing unmounted one-act productions in the first and second year
- directing a fully mounted production in the second year (thesis project)
- other courses at the graduate and undergraduate level as assigned by the program director
- supervised training in conducting evaluations of incoming undergraduate students and in running auditions
