Information for Prospective Graduate Students

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the Director of Graduate Studies, Michelle Granshaw

MFA Performance Pedagogy

The MFA Performance Pedagogy Program is designed to equip working, professional actors with the tools to expand their employment opportunities in teaching acting and other performance styles at the college and university level. It offers a dynamic synthesis of teaching, practice, and scholarship. This program is based on the premise that the professional actor has already gained a level of craft and broad experience that can become the foundation for solid teaching skills. Therefore, emphasis is placed on exploration and strengthening of pedagogical techniques as related to areas of acting and performance training.

José Pérez IV, MFA class of 2017
UP Stages production of Dog in the Manger
Photo by Samantha Saunder Studio
 

Admission applications for the Fall 2026 MFA class will be accepted starting September 2025.

MFA Application Material Requirements and Guidelines

For questions about the MFA, please contact the Head of the MFA program Cindy Croot.

PhD Theatre and Performance Studies

The PhD Theatre and Performance Studies Program prioritizes the integration of scholarship with teaching and artistic practice in order to prepare students to be competitive candidates for academic positions at a variety of institutions, post-doctoral research opportunities, and employment sectors beyond academia. In line with the department’s intellectual vision, the program integrates theory and practice and focuses on underrepresented groups and areas of research, including migration, disability studies, race, gender, sexuality, religion, and transnationalism, across historical, historiographical, literary, performance studies, and practice-based research methodologies.

Christopher Staley, (PhD)
UP Stages production of Appropriate
Photo by Samantha Saunders Studio
 

PhD Application Material Requirements and Guidelines

Admission applications for the Fall 2025 PhD program will be available September 2024. Applications are due January 15, 2025.

If you are interested in graduate programs at the Dietrich School, please email asgrad@pitt.edu for more information.