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Department of Drama
249 Drama
(949) 824-6614
drama@uci.edu
M.F.A. Acting
For admissions for Fall 2027, we are reviewing applications in the following areas: PhD, Stage Management, Music Direction, Scenic Design, Sound Design, and Lighting Design. We plan to create a selective entering cohort from within those areas.
Acting
The M.F.A. Acting emphasis is devoted to the development of working professional actors prepared to build sustained careers in an extraordinarily competitive field. Through rigorous training and close faculty mentorship, students develop the skills, insight, intelligence, creativity, and artistic vision necessary to shape the theatre of the future. The program has a strong record of professional success, with recent M.F.A. graduates performing on stages across the country, on and off Broadway, in regional theatres, and in film and television. Many alumni also hold faculty positions in university theatre programs. This level of achievement reflects a commitment to training actors not only for professional competence, but for distinction, leadership, and longevity in the field.
Performance Opportunities
Acting students engage in a wide range of performance experiences designed to support artistic growth, professional readiness, and collaborative practice.
Mainstage
Department-wide productions presented each quarter in one of the department’s performance venues. These productions are directed by faculty, visiting industry professionals, or advanced M.F.A. Directing candidates and provide actors with experience working in fully realized, professionally structured productions.
Faculty-Directed Projects
Faculty-Directed Projects are created and led by core acting faculty to address the specific developmental needs of graduate actors. These productions allow for focused exploration of technique, text, and performance practice within a supportive and rigorous environment.
Directing Class Projects and Independent Projects
These projects are directed by M.F.A. Directing candidates or undergraduate Directing Honors students. Many focus on new plays, devised work, or experimental forms, offering actors opportunities to collaborate on original material and contribute to the development of emerging voices.
Student Collectives
Student-led collectives provide space for community-building and creative exploration across a diverse range of affiliate groups. These projects often center on devised or new work and allow actors to initiate, shape, and perform work that reflects their interests, identities, and artistic priorities.
Training
Year One focuses on personalization.
The goal is to deepen and extend the expressive range of each actor in the emotional life, voice, and body by way of realism. Our actors are encouraged to open themselves to a courageous and in-depth way of acting.
Acting
- Fall: Personalization
- Winter: Acting in Character
- Spring: Realism
Voice & Speech
- Fall: Fitzmaurice Voice Work & Knight-Thompson Speech Work/Anatomy
- Winter: Fitzmaurice Voice Work & Knight-Thompson Speech Work/Anatomy
- Spring: Fitzmaurice Voice Work & International Phonetic Alphabet
Movement
- Fall: Mime & Contact Improvisation
- Winter: Contact Improvisation & Scene Work
- Spring: Music Theatre Dance
Year Two focuses on style and process.
The goal is to receive a dynamic vocabulary of skills in various mediums ranging from Shakespeare to Stand-Up comedy. Through trial and error, our actors work toward creating the circumstances that spark the highest level of connection to the work.
Acting
- Fall: Shakespeare Scene Study & Clowning
- Winter: Chekhov & Heightened Language
- Spring: Camera
Voice & Speech
- Fall: Deep Destructuring & Dialects/Accents
- Winter: Vocal Variety & Dialects/Accents
- Spring: 2nd Year Voice Projects & Shakespeare
Movement
- Fall: Period Dance
- Winter: Aikido
- Spring: Music Theatre Dance
Year Three focuses on professionalism.
Our goal is to prepare actors for professional careers defined by creativity and competence. We achieve this through focused professional development, industry exposure, and by cultivating bold, adaptable performers who are ready to work.
Acting
- Fall: Camera
- Winter: Showcase – Professional Prep & Development
- Spring: Apprenticeship
Voice & Speech
- Fall: 3rd Year Voice Project & Affinity Accents
- Winter: Voice Over & Affinity Accents
- Spring: Apprenticeship
Year One Movement
- Fall: "Armed" Combat
- Winter: Michael Chekhov & Audition Techniques
- Spring: Apprenticeship
Auditions
In order to schedule an audition with us, you must first apply to the program.
Our deadline for application is January 9, 2026.
Once we have received your completed online application, and your $135 application fee ($155 for international applicants), the Drama Office will contact you to confirm receipt of your application and set up a personal audition time.
Sometime after that audition, you will be notified if you have been invited to callbacks.
These callbacks will be held in Irvine February 14 & 15, 2026. Should you be called back, and if you are seriously interested in attending the graduate acting program at UC Irvine, please hold these dates.
We will be in attendance at the U/RTA Auditions, but we only hold further interviews with a small portion of those we see in this context. The only way to guarantee a more direct interaction is through the application process listed above.
U/RTA
- Philadelphia: Jan 9-11 (in-person)
- Atlanta: Jan 18 (hybrid)
- Chicago: Jan 25-28 (in-person)
- Virtual: Jan 31 -Feb 1 (online)
- California State University, Fullerton: Feb 7-8 (hybrid)
UCI Applicants
(in-person)
- New York: Monday, January 12
- Chicago: Saturday, January 24
- UC Irvine: Saturday, January 31
Final Callbacks
(in-person)
UC Irvine: February 14 & 15
