There are two paths for admission into the MFA in Acting Program at Northwestern. Please check the information below to decide which option works best for you. For further information, please contact the Theatre Office at (847) 491-3598 or David.Kleineick@northwestern.edu
URTA Auditions
Who is this for?
Candidates attending one of the three URTA Audition events listed below.
Live auditions are held annually in January and February through the University/Regional Theatre Association’s (URTA) national cooperative platform. In 2025 they will be held in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Fullerton, CA:
- Philadelphia: Jan. 10 – 12, 2025
- Fullerton, CA: Jan. 18 & 19, 2025 (hybrid)
- Chicago: Jan. 26 – 29, 2025
Apply at: urta.com
- Auditions are held exclusively through the URTA program.
- Candidates attending the URTAs do not need to submit an application to The Graduate School at Northwestern prior to auditioning.
- Selected candidates will be contacted in the weeks following the auditions with a preliminary offer of admission and instruction on how to submit their formal application.the
Traditional Application
Who is this for?
- International Candidates
- Domestic Candidates not attending the URTA Auditions
- (Optional for) International and Domestic Candidates attending one of the four URTA Audition events.
Apply at: TGS Application Portal (will launch in late October)
Deadline: February 4, 2025
Application Requirements:
- CV/Resume
- 2 letters of recommendation
- Consent for direct referee contact to submit a Recommendation
- Audition Video – One monologue (with provided direction below) and a response to an Oral Prompt integrated into your video submission.
- Our required audition submission is a YouTube link to an online video; any other links will not be eligible for viewing by faculty.
Provided Direction: ‘A monologue should reveal the listener’s moment-to-moment responses to the monologue’.
- Your monologue must not exceed 1 1/2 minutes.
A good audition video is able to:
- Demonstrate listening and reacting to the unseen character’s moment-to-moment responses.
- Convey your character’s underlying thoughts and feelings as you navigate the journey of the scene.
- Show adjustment of your tactics to overcome obstacles that thwart your objective.
* If you sing, please only submit 16 bars of a song.