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Properties Design and Management

M.F.A. in Theatre

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Program Overview

Our Master of Fine Arts in Theatre is a three-year program providing professional training through a personalized tutorial-based curriculum. Our program provides opportunities to work and study in a variety of topic areas including: shadow puppetry, visually-based theatre, multimedia rendering, and Japanese theatre.

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Why choose this program?

  • Students begin designing and building properties for productions in their first year of the program.
  • All accepted students receive full tuition waiver and an assistantship.
  • The program is highly individualized. Each student admitted will work with one primary advisor in a one-on-one studio environment over the three-year period.

What You'll Study

Our program provides opportunities to work and study in a variety of topic areas including: shadow puppetry, visually-based theatre, multimedia rendering, and Japanese theatre.

Curriculum

  • Students begin designing and building properties for productions in their first year of the program.
  • The program is highly individualized. Each student admitted will work with one primary advisor in a one-on-one studio environment over the three-year period.
  • The educational value of the studio experience is based on regularly planned projects designed as experiential labs.
  • The primary advisor mentors the progress of the student through these projects and guides the development of the student’s overarching goals and curricular needs.
  • An individualized Plan of Study, designed to meet the needs of each student, is developed to track progress toward the degree.
  • Each student participates in a required review with graduate committee members at the end of each semester of enrollment to evaluate work done, assess progress, and plan future projects and experiences.

Students begin designing and building properties for productions in their first year of the program. The program is highly individualized. Each student admitted will work with one primary advisor in a one-on-one studio environment over the three-year period.

The educational value of the studio experience is based on regularly planned projects designed as experiential labs.

Our curriculum is designed to provide both practical experience and in-depth exploration through the study of a range of topics relevant to the field today. Courses may be conducted in small groups or one-on-one (independent study). Arts Leadership classes are specifically designed to promote discussion, examination, and hands-on exploration.

  • Minimum GPA 3.0 (4 Scale)
  • TOEFL/ IELTS score required  (if applicable)

Learn more 

Each student accepted into the program receives a full tuition scholarship and out-of-state fee waiver. Each student accepted also receives an assistantship of approximately $18,700 for the first academic year, with increasing amounts in the second and third years. To maintain assistantship support, students must be enrolled in at least 12 credit hours each semester.

Find out what loans are available as a graduate student and other opportunities.

Deadline: Jan 15 for consideration for funding

Kerry Chipman, Assistant Professor
343 Henderson Hall, 195 Alumni Mall, Blacksburg, VA 24061
540-231-5335
klchipman@vt.edu 

Questions?

Kerry Chipman, Assistant Professor
343 Henderson Hall, 195 Alumni Mall, Blacksburg, VA 24061
540-231-5335
klchipman@vt.edu