Program Description

Stony brook University’s Graduate Program in Dramaturgy is the home of theatrical innovation for the 21st century. In this program there is very little time to ponder the death of the theatre when every moment is filled with discovery, invention, and creation of new venues and theatrical opportunities.
This is a place where artists can grow and learn to channel their own voices and nurture the voices of others in the spirit and practice of the collaborative arts.

The Department of Theatre Arts provides a unique learning model in Theatre, Dance, and Media Arts for the student, University, and greater Long Island communities. It strives to expand human understanding and expression in a culturally diverse world through a multidisciplinary approach, providing opportunities for collaboration, risk-taking, and practical and aesthetic inquiry.

By integrating coursework with performance and production experience, and creative exploration with theory and history, the Department offers a diverse and substantive curriculum. The program is designed to ignite individual potential for achievement in artistry, craftsmanship, critical thinking, and communication.

The Department of Theatre Arts offers two graduate programs, a 30-credit Master of Arts in Theatre and a 60-credit Master of Fine Arts in Dramaturgy. Graduate study in this department is unique in a number of ways. First, our programs incorporate multicultural study, including both Eastern and Western dramatic literature and theatre history. Second, our program puts practical theatre work and the production process at the center of the curriculum, offering graduate students numerous opportunities to produce their work in actual theatre productions. Third, our program reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the theatre arts. Among the faculty are practicing designers, dancers, actors, playwrights, choreographers, and dramaturgs, all of whom work closely with graduate students. And finally, we have put a strong emphasis on new technologies and interactive media studies.

The goals of the M.A. program are to study the dramatic tradition and the history of the performing arts; to develop an understanding of the vital relationship between theatre theory and onstage practice; and to prepare students qualified to matriculate in programs of study at the M.F.A. or Ph.D. level.

The small, rigorously selective, and intellectually challenging three-year professional M.F.A. program, founded in 1984, has been at the forefront of the study and practice of dramaturgy in America. Stony Brook seeks to find and nurture dramaturgical collaborators skilled in numerous practical sides of the theatre. Student dramaturgs and faculty work together, as colleagues from the center of the production process, not as critics working from the outside or from the margins. Dramaturgs at Stony Brook also act, write, produce, and stage plays in addition to more traditional dramaturgical work. In this practical environment of “making theatre” (Greek dramatourgos), students study production, marketing, dance, performance, design, and every aspect of theatre and life.

Dramaturgy at Stony Brook is a dynamic process, different for each individual, and graduates have not only pursued careers as dramaturgs and literary managers, but also other careers in the theatre, arts, and media, or in teaching at the university level. Professional dramaturgs often become directors, producers, administrators, drama critics, teachers, or playwrights, and many combine two or three different careers. Therefore, the Stony Brook program offers opportunities for students with a wide range of interests in theatre practice and study to pursue individual development within a professional orientation. The dramaturgs at Stony Brook also publish a dramaturgy magazine/journal called The Groundling.

Interested students should request information and application forms as early as possible, especially if they plan to apply for financial aid.