Graduate Education
The department offers a Master of Arts in Theatre designed for those who desire to pursue advanced studies in theatre as a means of enhancing their professional and academic careers. The master of arts degree in theatre is a broad-based program designed to provide the student with exposure to the most up-to-date knowledge available in areas of theatre studies, such as literature, history, performance theory and criticism. The program concentrates primarily on theory and secondarily on performance
Proficiencies required for entrance to the MA in Theatre program Students who have completed a bachelor's degree in theatre may enter directly into the graduate program. Students who have earned a degree in another discipline are expected to take six hours of dramatic literature, six hours of theatre history, six hours of technical theatre and six hours of directing in order to qualify.
Students may demonstrate to the faculty that their background and experiences actually meet the intention of some or all of these requirements. In that case, they do not have to take those specific undergraduate courses. Students may take some of their graduate courses while taking undergraduate courses to complete these proficiencies, but the undergraduate courses do not count as part of the graduate course requirements.
Because the students come from various backgrounds, they are heavily counseled before being enrolled in the program. Through the counseling process, the students are advised as to which courses they need to take prior to their graduate studies.
A thesis option exists in the program. Students who have no intention of continuing graduate study are not required to take the thesis option. Those students whose plans include further study are urged to do so for their own benefit. In this program, most students are already high school teachers and plan to remain such, so they do not take the thesis option.
For more information, please contact Dr. Eric Wiley. Email: Wileye@utpa.edu.
