Columbia College Chicago’s MFA in Acting and Contemporary Performance Making, a partnership with Arthaus Berlin International Training Centre for Devised Theatre and Performance, offers a practice-based international theatre experience in the fields of acting, devising, and performance making.

Students spend the first year of the program at Columbia’s campus in Chicago, where they explore the foundational skills of acting and performance making, including approaches to presence, characterization, physical and vocal expression, improvisation, realistic and heightened texts, collaboration, and creative experimentation. Students will receive exposure to multiple styles, performance formats and media (including on-camera and voiceover work) and will create and publicly present multiple original performances, including one fully-produced original play.

The second year takes place at the Arthaus studios in Berlin, where students advance their performance training through a deeper investigation of their personal creative voice and vision. Students apply this knowledge to the creation of an original thesis performance.

As a result of successfully completing program requirements, students should be able to:

• apply vocal, movement and acting techniques from the realistic to the abstract within performance;
• create and perform material within different theatrical styles and performance languages;
• demonstrate artistic autonomy through the construction of original devised dramatic and post-dramatic performance works;
• engage successfully in the artistic and administrative aspects of a collaborative ensemble;
• contribute scholarship to the emerging field of performance making through the practice-based research undertaken during the course of two years of study in the discipline;
• contribute original work to the theatrical culture of Chicago, in support of the city’s re-emerging interest in, and commitment to, international performance;
• employ entrepreneurial skills and best business practices in the creation and development of artistic careers within an ensemble or as a solo artist; and
• apply the transferable skills acquired during the two-year program to career options within the performing arts and related disciplines.