The Acting Concentration

This year is crafted to build and expand your instrument, mesh training and practice, and provide more opportunities to collaborate with each other and other concentrations within the Theatre Program. The Second Year actor engages in Fall and Spring Actor Workshop productions as well as engaging in student director and student playwrights projects.

Scott Whitehurst teaches Shakespeare & Heightened Texts which leads to the 3rd Year Shakespeare production. You deeply explore forms such as clown, dance, Suzuki, games and acting through song with Eugene Ma, Shanga Parker, and Manoel Felciano. Additionally, this year you wrestle with bringing empathy and self-discovery to classic texts with Professor Peter Jay Fernandez. You also learn on-camera audition technique at One on One Studios with James Calleri.

Second-year movement classes deepen your understanding of “body as instrument” and teach practical application, through Stage Combat and Advanced Alexander Technique with Jacqueline Holloway and Jean McClelland, respectively..

Voice training in this year furthers the union of image, open and available emotional impulse, and stylistic structure in relationship to heightened language. You also begin the exploration of dialects and accents through classes taught by Professor Liz Hayes. It is in this year where you are encouraged to create a personal process for interpretation of a wide range of linguistic challenges and opportunities. 

The third year is the culmination of your time at Columbia and celebrates the intense program of study of the first two years. You focus on what it means to be a professional actor, both onstage and off, through the following components: 

• The Acting Thesis. A fully realized production with material selected to best showcase the strengths and talents of the graduating class. The third year also provides the time and opportunity to perform in other Columbia Theatre thesis productions or student films. 

   
• Professional Practice. In fall and spring, this weekly class prepares you for the rigors of the industry and professional world. You also participate in development workshops led by Los Angeles and New York based agents, managers, and casting directors. Representatives from major New York theatres like Playwrights Horizons and Lincoln Center Theatre regularly visit to offer feedback and advice to the class.
   
• Industry Showcases. In the spring, showcases in New York and Los Angeles are held for agents, managers, and casting directors. You  work with distinguished faculty and guests throughout the spring on material selection and scene preparation. 

   
• Shakespeare on Stage: The third year actor fully realizes performing a Shakespeare work on stage.
  

• Proof of Concept. A year long course taught by Rafi Silver empowers you to become your own content creator. In this class, you design, develop, and present your own original work by creating a filmed and produced "sizzle reel." 


By joining our community of generous collaborators as a member of the Columbia MFA Acting Program, you will build the skills to best understand yourself and your craft. With this new knowledge, you will enter the profession with a new-found fearlessness and freedom. ​