Degree Title: Master of Fine Arts

Program Name and Number: Directing - MF5130

Department/Unit: Dance, Film, and Theater

Delivery Mode: Athens Campus

Program Mission: The Ohio University MFA Theater Degrees prepare students to:

• Demonstrate heightened skills in professional presentation, collaboration and communication.
• Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of research practices, dramatic literature, theory and history.
• Apply heightened skills and demonstrate a comprehension of theories and methodologies as they relate to professional practice in specific disciplines.

The goal of the Professional Director Training Program in the Theater Division of Ohio University’s School of Dance, Film, and Theater is to prepare students to be professional directors at the very highest level of the American theater. We aim to be among the best director-training programs in the nation – in faculty mentorship, curricular exposure and production opportunities.

Program Learning Objectives: We feel strongly that director training should be anchored in both theory and the practical realities of the profession. 

• Students learn the fundamental concepts of directing – script analysis, conceptualization, the design process, table work, and principles of staging.  Without these basic skills any director would be lost. 
• We also focus on practical issues (i.e. the director-stage manager relationship, the basic guidelines of the Equity rehearsal process, etc.).
• We also stress rigorous examination of acting and design alongside actors and designers. Learning what actors go through in order to craft a character, how they approach the emotional, physical and vocal demands of a performance, and how complex the process can be on all those levels, gives them a deeper appreciation of the craft of acting, and how delicate the underpinnings are.  The experience of performing onstage engenders respect for the courage it takes to be an actor, and allows for a more respectful approach toward the director-actor relationship. We’ve made it a priority to put directors into the acting classes to participate in and observe the training process, giving them a much-needed perspective on their future work with these same actors.  As part of their current progression, they take two full years of actor training, which in our program emphasizes the techniques developed by Sanford Meisner and Michael Chekhov.
• The same principles apply to the design process:  studying it from the inside out, comprehending the various ways a designer approaches the task of design, allows a director to explore new avenues of working with designers, inspiring them and making clear to them his or her needs on any given project.  To that end, the directors study all the relevant design disciplines – scenic design, costume design, lighting design and sound design – in classes taught by the Production Design and Technology faculty, alongside design majors from each of these respective disciplines.
• Finally, the directors take a playwriting course to learn the valuable lessons of how plays are made, and the importance of dramatic structure, as well as several theater history seminars to strengthen their comprehension of that crucial aspect of drama.

Program Overview:  First year directing classes are designed to help the director understand the logical progression of organic components, which make up the directing process.  This includes exploring how a play is chosen, including the shaping, cutting and modification of the final acting text; examining how a concept or directing approach is formulated, and where the dangers and pitfalls lie; discussing matters of textual analysis, including classical Aristotelian elements, dramatic structure, and breaking the text down from the actor’s point of view into objectives, actions, subtext, given circumstances and beats; analyzing research techniques and the pre-production period; probing the art of collaboration – with the designers, playwright, and actors – and how each collaboration is different; investigating the process of working with the design team on everything from the ground plan to the sound design; scrutinizing the casting process, from the writing of breakdowns to running an audition, and what a director needs to look for in the audition room; breaking down the rehearsal process, from first reading through table work, blocking, scene work, and run-throughs, with particular emphasis on working with the actor; and finally, looking at technical rehearsals, including methods of saving time and energy during cue-to-cue, and strategies for accomplishing as much work as you can in as little time as possible.  A particular emphasis during the final ten weeks of THAR 5211 is sound design, and how the director interfaces with this vitally important aspect of theatre production.

Second year training shifts emphasis to the director’s study of theatrical style. The first semester focuses on the Greeks, melodrama and pre-Shakespearean verse, while the second concentrates on the poetry and plays of William Shakespeare and how, as directors, we adapt our pre-production and rehearsal work to his world.  We begin with an in-depth study of the poet’s primary verse mode, iambic pentameter, starting with a thorough examination of his work in the Sonnet form, and how it functions both as poetry and as a method of storytelling.  The students do in-depth analysis of several key sonnets, and along the way develop a working knowledge of the various rhetorical devices that Shakespeare used, including alliteration, antithesis, malapropism, simile and metaphor, onomatopoeia, parenthesis, synechdoche, assonance, metonymy, chiasmus, and others.  They learn to adapt their existing pre-production skills to the varying challenges of working on the plays of Shakespeare.

The third year of training consists primarily of internship, thesis production, and independent studies.  Classes associated with thesis involve weekly mentoring sessions during the pre-production process as well as during the rehearsal period.  Every aspect of their directorial collaboration is evaluated, with particular emphasis on the strength, clarity and imagination of their conception of the production.  Naturally, this involves regular attendance at design meetings, casting sessions and, once they are in progress, rehearsals.  The directors are also required to submit a professional looking production journal as part of their final grade, and participate in an Oral Defense of their thesis production with a Thesis Committee comprised of the Directing area head, a representative from the performance area faculty, and a third member from outside the performance area.

Opportunities for Graduates: We continue to explore superior internship opportunities across the United States for students in the MFA directing program.  In the past decade we have placed students in an array of professional theaters, including those in New York (Manhattan Class Company, New Georges, Abingdon Theater, and the Obie-award winning HERE); Chicago (two Tony Award-winning theaters – Victory Gardens Theater and the Goodman); London (Punchdrunk and Royal Opera House); and across the nation (Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Pangea World Theater, Florida Repertory Theater, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Shakespeare Dallas, Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theater, Dallas Opera, Cara Mia Theater Company, and many others).  A number of our internships have led to direct employment, either as a director or as a staff member, underlining the professionalism and accomplishment of our graduate students as they bridge to the profession.

Link to Program: www.ohio.edu/finearts/theater/academics/programs/professional-directing-training.cfm

Independent O.U. directing website: www.oudirecting.com

Graduation Requirements:

• YEAR ONE
  • FALL
    • THAR 5010 - Intro. to Graduate Studies (3 credits)
    • THAR 5210 - Directing I (3 credits)
    • THAR 5110 - Acting I: Foundation (3 credits)
    • THAR 5510 - Dramatic Writing Seminar I (3 credits)
    • THAR 5200 - Practicum in Directing (3 credits)
    • Elective (3 credits)
  • SPRING
    • THAR 5211 - Directing II (3 credits)
    • THAR 5111 - Acting II: Foundation (3 credits)
    • THAR 5200 - Practicum in Directing (3 credits)
    • THAR 5301 - Scenography Seminar (3 credits)
    • Costume / Scenic / Lighting Design elective (3 credits)
    • Elective (3 credits)
• YEAR TWO
  • FALL
    • THAR 6210 - Period Style and the Director I (3 credits)
    • THAR 6110 - Acting III: Application and
Character (3 credits)
    • Costume / Scenic / Lighting elective (3 credits)
    • Costume / Scenic / Lighting elective (3 credits)
    • THAR 5240 - Director-Designer Communication (3 credits)
    • THAR 6200 - Practicum in Directing (3 credits)
  • SPRING
    • THAR 6211 - Period Style and the Director II:
Shakespeare (3 credits)
    • THAR 6111 - Acting IV: Character and
Heightened Language (3 credits)
    • THAR 6940 - Thesis: Research (6 credits)
    • Theater Studies elective (3 credits)
    • THAR 6200 - Practicum in Directing (3 credits)
• YEAR THREE
  • FALL
    • THAR 6960 - Theater Project/Portfolio
Thesis (9 credits)
    • Theater Studies Elective (3 credits)
    • Elective (3 credits)
    • Elective (3 credits)
  • SPRING
    • THAR 7902 - Internship in Directing (9 credits)
    • THAR 7200 - Directing Practicum (3 credits)
    • Elective (3 credits)
    • Elective (3 credits)

The degree minimum is 90 credits, however, a full load for funding purposes is considered to be 108 credits, 18 credits per semester. At least 50% of coursework must be in graduate only classes.

Admission Requirements:  Requirements for the initial interview process would include a cover letter, full directing resume, copies of undergraduate transcripts, a statement of purpose and directing philosophy, plus three letters of recommendation.