The School of Theater, Film and Media Arts brings the Department of Theater and the Department of Film and Media Arts under the umbrella of the Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts.

Theater

Located on the northern edge of the Avenue of the Arts and just minutes away from the heart of Philadelphia's thriving theater community, the Department of Theater has established itself as one of the finest theater training programs in the nation. Many of our alumni are thriving as actors, directors, playwrights, designers and technicians. They are working artists with credits on stage, television and film here in Philadelphia; in major entertainment industry centers like New York City and Los Angeles; and with professional theater companies all across the country and internationally.

The Professional Training Program in Theater at Temple University, which awards the Master of Fine Arts (MFA), has distinguished itself as one of the foremost theater training and performance institutions in the nation and as an important contributor to the Philadelphia theater landscape. Our MFA actors, directors, designers, playwrights and technicians collaborate with professional faculty, staff and guest artists to train and produce exciting contemporary theater, encompassing a broad range of genres and styles, including classics, new plays and musicals, for a diverse campus and public audience. Our faculty is comprised of a collaborative team of experienced, celebrated working professionals and distinguished scholars from the theater world, who, as both teachers and mentors, generously share their consummate artistry, seasoned expertise and great passion for practicing the craft of theater.

Film and Media Arts

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program in the Department of Film and Media Arts (FMA) is the country’s foremost program in alternative film, video and new media. Temple's FMA department is internationally recognized as a center for filmmaking that is socially engaged, activist, diverse, interdisciplinary and international. With approximately 40 graduate students from diverse communities and countries, the program is large enough to offer intellectual stimulation through a wide range of courses, yet small enough to afford individual attention, maximum access to equipment, and creative control over one’s own projects.

The MFA in FMA is viewed as a creative laboratory for producing works of social significance and artistic merit. We are committed to advancing methods that articulate alternative voices, including those of women; people of color; and others who have been economically, politically or artistically disenfranchised. We look for students with strong creative ideas, experiences and critical depth, no matter their background. FMA students come from all over the world, including through programs like Fulbright. Situated in Philadelphia's thriving arts scene, diverse communities and institutions, the program additionally offers students wide-ranging opportunities for collaborations and audiences.

The MFA is a terminal degree comparable to a doctoral degree, with the notable exception that the Temple program stresses a creative synthesis of both production and theory, requiring comprehensive exams and a final creative project instead of a dissertation. Students work with faculty who are international leaders in their fields with awards from Fulbright, Guggenheim, Jerome, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Pew and Rockefeller as well as major film, art and publication credits. Temple's MFA in FMA allows filmmakers, videomakers, screenwriters and media artists to challenge the current practices of Hollywood, commercial television and global media. With a combination of academic and professional training, the degree qualifies graduates to teach on the university level.

The MFA program at Temple is one of the most recognized graduate programs in the country in terms of national and international film and video awards. Temple graduate students have received nationally competitive:

• University Film and Video Association production grants,
• National Endowment for the Arts media fellowships, and
• Eastman Kodak Scholarships, the nation’s most competitive scholarship in cinematography.

Temple graduate students have also received major recognition at:

• American Film Institute FEST, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Asian American International Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, the Dore Schary Awards, New York Film Festival, Philadelphia Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, and Sundance Film Festival, as well as
• Numerous festivals across the globe in Athens, Berlin, Bonn, Dallas, Houston, London, Melbourne, Montreal and Paris.

Major professional recognition for student projects includes:

• Hollywood’s coveted Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting,
• Several Oscar nominations, and
• Awards from both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

In addition, Temple MFA productions have been picked up for distribution by such prestigious organizations as:

• Coe Film Associates
• Direct Cinema Limited
• Museum of Modern Art
• New Day Films
• Women Make Movies

and for national and international broadcasts in the United States, Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe.

Graduate Programs and Certificates

• Documentary Arts and Visual Research PhD
• Film and Media Arts MFA
• mediaXarts: Cinema for New Technologies and Environments MA
• Musical Theater Collaboration MFA
• Theater/​Acting MFA
• Theater/​Design MFA
• Theater/​Directing MFA
• Theater/​Playwriting MFA
• Theater Instruction MA
• Graduate Certificate: Documentary Arts and Ethnographic Research
• Graduate Certificate: Theater Instruction

Graduate Faculty