BFA in Theatre: Performance

Students during stage performance.
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Department Degree and Course Catalog
Program Course Requirements
Register for a Theatre BFA Audition
Faculty

The Theatre Performance BFA program at UB integrates artistic experiential training and interdisciplinary study to transform students into engaged, versatile, and skilled theatre artists prepared for professional careers in the performing arts. Supported by close faculty mentorship, students train in acting styles and methods for both stage and film, from classical to contemporary, in addition to directing, voice, mime and movement, circus skills, audition techniques, dance, voiceover, and poetic text.

Course of Study

We aim to train theatre artists that will succeed in our increasingly competitive and challenging world of professional theatre.  Performance students rigorously train in a comprehensive four-year sequence that provides them with the range of skill sets and experiential opportunities necessary for success.

Onstage Experience 
Perform in fully realized productions of plays and musicals in our state-of-the-art theatres. Direct and perform in your own funded production with faculty mentorship. Expand your skills through internships and performance experiences with professional theatre companies such as the Irish Classical Theatre, Shakespeare in Delaware Park, Second Generation, and more. Our current students find work during the summer and academic year with these professional companies and at regional theatres across the country through internships and performance experiences Additional performance opportunities occur throughout the year as part of special workshops, staged readings, and collaborative projects. 

Our Faculty
The Department’s faculty members maintain national and international profiles as directors, actors, mimes, choreographers, dancers, musical directors, designers, and scholars. The faculty actively engages in both the profession and creative research while mentoring the department’s students in their course work and departmental productions, thus providing an important link between the worlds of academic and professional theatre and dance. 

Professional Connections and Networking 
Our students have the unique opportunity to network with artists from the world of professional theatre and film. Each semester a diverse range of professional guest artists work with students through a series of lectures, workshops and masterclasses presented through our IACE program. Our renowned alumni come back every year to share their expertise on how to succeed in the industry.

Our International Artistic & Cultural Exchange Program (IACE)
Since 1994, our IACE program has offered UB Theatre & Dance students a world of opportunities for learning and personal development through a large portfolio of programs, formats, and destinations, including two spectacular short-term winter and summer programs led by our award-winning faculty.

IACE presents thought provoking, critical, innovative and interactive events and it extends dialogue into both the classroom and the community. IACE fosters artistic research, peace building, and a better understanding of cultural heritages in a two-way approach: by bringing international artists of multicultural and diverse backgrounds to our university, and by creating opportunities for our UB student artists to experience artistic and cultural exchange abroad. Our Theatre Performance students have premier access to all these offerings: 

  • United Kingdom winter session study abroad: join our UK Culture & Performance Appreciation in London to explore the city’s artistic and cultural world. Attend a curated line-up of 10+ performances, and much more.   

  • Ireland summer session study abroad: join our life-changing intensive 16-day session to experience Ireland: Plays and Places from coast to coast. Immerse yourself in Galway’s International Arts Festival and Dublin’s literary world as we examine Irish plays in the very locations where they take place. For details on these two programs visit the UB Study Abroad website.

  • Canada Performing Arts Experiential Research Program: Come with us to Canada to experience the best of Canadian stage and culture through the artistic and academic lens of UB experts.  We plan events in the fall and in the spring to Canada’s internationally renowned Shaw Festival and The Stratford Festival.

  • Shakespeare Immersive Spring Break in Staunton, Virginia: Take a spring break trip to the Actors’ Renaissance Season at the American Shakespeare Center, and earn academic credit while totally immersed in a laboratory of performance and experience.

  • Additionally:
    • IACE Creative Research Lab: experimental interdisciplinary performing arts laboratory where students explore in depth contemporary creative research questions 
    • IACE Lectures, Masterclasses, Workshops, Performances, and Residencies at UB

Application Requirements

The Theatre Performance BFA program at UB requires an audition for admission. All students must successfully audition for admission through the Department of Theatre and Dance in order to register for advanced theatre courses. Interested students are encouraged to audition prior to matriculation at UB. Current students who intend to audition should contact the department to discuss time to degree completion.  

Auditions
Undergraduate Admissions

For More Information Contact:

Send us a general inquiry at: td-theatredance@buffalo.edu. Or reach out to: