About the program
Blues for Mister Charlie (Fall 2018).
The B.F.A. in Acting major is an intensive program that educates and trains students for professional careers in acting. Our curriculum prepares students for successful professional careers while giving them the education to be global citizens and contributors to society. This major offers education and training in contemporary acting, acting in period styles, and acting in Shakespeare. The B.F.A. in Acting major incorporates the study of voice and speech, as well as movement, along with the study of script analysis, dramatic literature, and theatre history, in our curriculum. This B.F.A. in Acting is a unique 60-credit hour B.F.A. program. Most conservatory-style B.F.A programs require 90-credit hours in theatre courses to receive the degree and thus are not able to offer the depth of liberal arts education that Marymount Manhattan provides. This liberal arts education prepares our students with the knowledge and insight needed for the challenge presented by the content found in contemporary theatre, film, television and digital media. In addition, students have the opportunity to add to their performance training during the junior and senior years by taking performance electives that are offered such as Acting for the Camera, Audition Techniques, Voice and Speech Practicum, Dialects for the Stage, and The Business of Acting, a course which culminates in a professional acting showcase for casting directors and agents in New York City during the Spring semester of the senior year.
OUR CORE CURRICULUM
Hamlet (Fall 2018).Acting, voice and speech, and movement training are at the center of our B.F.A. in Acting curriculum. B.F.A students are in at least one acting course every semester during the four-year sequence of courses. In addition to required courses in Voice and Speech and Movement, support for voice, speech and movement training is offered by faculty with an expertise in these areas visiting acting classes to work with students to apply voice, speech and movement techniques to acting techniques being studied. In addition, study in script analysis, theatre history, and dramatic literature provides support for students to learn how to rehearse a role and develop a character by making acting choices grounded in an understanding of the script, time period, and dramatic style of play. Students are exposed to a wide variety of styles of dramatic literature and learn how theatre and acting performance evolved through history.
B.F.A. in Acting majors explore a diversity of playwrights and acting styles throughout the four years of study:
Year #1: Acting: Process & Technique; Acting: Beginning Scene Study; and Movement I and Movement II
Year #2: Acting: Intermediate Scene Study; Acting: Advanced Scene Study; Voice and Speech for the Actor
Year #3: Advanced Scene Study: European and Russian Drama; Advanced Scene Study: British Comedy
Year #4: Advanced Scene Study: Shakespeare; Advanced Acting: Special Topics
The growth and achievement of students is monitored through scene work presented to the performance faculty during the second year of study in the B.F.A. in Acting major.
Please click here for a link to the four year sequence of courses.
PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITIES
Beginning in the Spring semester of the first year, B.F.A. in Acting students audition for Mainstage and Studio productions directed by faculty and guest directors, as well as Directing Projects directed by student directors and Playwriting Projects written by Writing for the Stage students. The MMC Production Committee strives to select a wide variety of productions including premieres of new works, contemporary and period plays, as well as musicals for Mainstage productions in the Theresa Lang Theatre on campus and off-campus at venues such the York Theatre, as well as Studio productions at New York City venues such as National Dance Institute and New York Live Arts, and the Directing Projects and Playwriting Projects in the Bordeau Box Theatre on campus.
NEW YORK CITY AS OUR CAMPUS
Students in the B.F.A. in Acting program truly learn to use New York City as their campus. Whether they are attending shows on Broadway, downtown Manhattan or Brooklyn, doing research at the New York Public Library, or traveling to an off-campus class, our students experience all that the city has to offer.
APPLYING FOR THE B.F.A. IN ACTING
Prospective students for the B.F.A. in Acting must not only satisfy the academic requirements for acceptance to the college, but must audition for the major.