Training for MFA in Acting
It is art that inspires us, art we aspire to create. As a faculty, we are interested in mastery, or skill so deeply accomplished as to become free. Such skill is a life-practice: the three year MFA in Performance at the University of Tennessee is best understood as a rigorous apprenticeship to a lifetime of endeavor. It provides a foundation for effective work in the art and profession of acting. It is focused on a core aesthetic of American realistic acting, and on the great classical sources of our contemporary traditions. It includes an unrivalled program of international exchange. And each year, The Clarence Brown Theatre season is carefully chosen to serve the MFA program as well as the greater East Tennessee community. Our training has four main themes: fostering the individual artist, skill in use of the self, skill in use of the dramatic text, and skill in artistic collaboration.
The art of the actor is to illuminate the human condition through the medium of self. We provide actors with craft tools that enable them to free their expressiveness and direct it into forms. But craft alone is insufficient. The energy that transmutes craft into art must come from the individual artist. We want actors to discover their own creative forces. We create an environment of support, respect and inspiration for the artist. As a faculty of artists, we do so first of all by example. We offer a clear curriculum that reflects our own sustained creative pursuits. We uphold high standards of behavior and endeavor. And the association of The Clarence Brown Theatre with The University of Tennessee provides exceptional facilities and staff support for all of us. The actor’s essential pursuit is twofold: to be personally and expressively available to the work, and to be able to extend and transform self into the circumstances and character of a play. This dual pursuit informs our curriculum, projects and productions. A lot of our focus is upon helping the actor to get free from anything that constricts or suppresses him/her in a moment of life before an audience. At the same time, we want the actor to be able to direct this freedom into form that is precisely chosen from a text, that reveals character, and that serves an overall production.
The actor’s art is fundamentally collaborative. We place a high value on skill in collaboration – within the graduate ensemble, with a faculty of fellow artists, and with all the designers, directors, production and administrative staff that compose our community, or visit to work with us. Through the international program we also emphasize the importance of collaboration with artists of other cultures, in other languages. We will invite eight actors to enter the MFA program in the 2005-2006 academic year. With eight contributing faculty members, each actor is assured in–depth attention to his/her work.
