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Admissions

The Program admits in alternate years, and will not be recruiting a cohort in 2023-24. If you are interested in applying, please check this site for updates about the next admissions cycle in fall 2024 (for a cohort beginning in September 2025). The application deadline will be in January 2025.

URTA Auditions

Who is this for?

Candidates attending one of the four URTA Audition events listed below.

Live auditions will be held annually in January and February through the University/Regional Theatre Association’s (URTA) national cooperative platform in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

  • Los Angeles: Jan. 14 & 15, 2023
  • New York City: Jan. 19 – 22, 2023
  • Chicago: Jan. 29 – 31, 2023
  • Virtual Auditions: Feb. 5, 2023

Apply at: urta.com

Auditions are held exclusively through URTA and the program does not offer private auditions.

NOTE: 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.

Traditional Application

Who is this for?

  • International Candidates
  • Domestic Candidates not attending the URTA Auditions

Apply at: TGS Application Portal

Deadline: January 14, 2023

Application Requirements:

  • CV/Resume
  • 2 letters of recommendation – and consent for direct contact with the referees in addition to the letters
  • Essay Prompt(please respond in the Statement of Purpose section)

    If you had the opportunity to conceive, develop, and produce your own performance project as part of your training experience, what might your project be? Please share as much detail as possible in imagining what you might create. Also describe the collaborative role the MFA Acting program would play in helping you realize your vision. Again, be as detailed as possible in your response. Dream away!

  • Audition Video – our preferred audition submission is via a link to an online video. Video links can be pasted into a word doc and attached in the “supplemental” section of the application
    • MUST NOT exceed 3 minutes
    • MUST CONSIST of 2 contrasting monologues (two different characters from two different plays and two different genres of dramatic literature, trying to achieve two different goals in two different situations)
    • If you choose to sing, please only submit 1 minute maximum of a song.