Admissions
Northwestern MFA in Acting: Admissions Overview
Is This Training Right for You?
Our graduate acting program asks you to examine, challenge, deepen, and expand the habits and abilities that have shaped your work so far. We maintain a thoughtfully taxing workload to develop your capacity to meet artistic and professional responsibilities with reliability, responsiveness, and integrity. Because the training is highly collaborative and ensemble-driven, actors who thrive in our program understand that their preparation, curiosity, initiative, and presence directly shape the creative possibilities of the cohort.
This program may not be the right fit if you are looking for training focused solely on a single theatrical tradition, method, or prescribed approach to acting. Our curriculum draws from an eclectic range of practices and perspectives. You will be asked not only to develop fluency across approaches, but to investigate, integrate, and synthesize what you encounter into an artistic practice that is uniquely your own.
We take professional preparation and industry readiness seriously, and we understand the actor’s creative life more broadly. While students in our program develop skills to thrive in conventional pathways toward work for hire, our training is designed for actors who also experience themselves as artists and generators of culture. Our curriculum helps students develop the ability to initiate creative work, collaborate across disciplines, and build a sustainable creative life rooted in social consciousness.
Applicants should consider not only what they hope to achieve, but also how willing they are to commit to sustained work through which artistic growth becomes possible. You are not expected to arrive as a finished artist. We are interested in your creative individuality, depth, and readiness to discover and develop abilities that may not yet be fully known to you.
Audition and Application Process
Northwestern University’s MFA Acting program is recruiting its next cohort, which will begin training in Fall 2027. Auditions will take place in January and February 2027 through the University Resident Theatre Association.
All applicants seeking consideration for Northwestern’s MFA in Acting program must first complete a live acting audition. Northwestern conducts initial MFA Acting screenings through the University Resident Theatre Association (URTA) auditions, both in person and virtually. Candidates who successfully advance past the final callback/interview round will be invited to submit a formal application to Northwestern’s Graduate School.
URTA events may reach capacity and close before the published registration deadline. Applicants are responsible for completing URTA registration early enough to secure an available audition opportunity. Applicants relying on the Live-Virtual Acting Audition should be especially mindful of registration availability, as URTA does not offer walk-in or day-of registration for live-virtual auditions.
Important Information: Do not submit a Northwestern application unless you have received an invitation and instructions to do so. Submitting a Northwestern application does not fulfill the MFA Acting program’s live-audition requirement, does not register you for URTA, does not reserve a place at a URTA audition, and does not guarantee availability at a URTA audition. Participation in a URTA audition does not guarantee a callback, further recruitment, or admission to Northwestern’s MFA Acting program.
The program may also conduct a limited, invitation-only local resident audition as part of its regional recruitment efforts; requests or submissions for this local initial audition screening will not be accepted. Prospective applicants should participate through the URTAs. An invitation to a local audition screening does not provide preferential consideration in the admissions process. Regardless of the audition pathway, all candidates are evaluated according to the same admissions criteria and must complete all required program and university admissions processes.
Where audition formats differ because of location or modality, the program seeks to ensure that candidates have comparable opportunities to demonstrate the artistic, collaborative, and developmental capabilities considered in admission. Final admissions decisions are made through the same callback/interview and faculty review process for all candidates.
Please read below carefully for our five-step application process.
Five-Step Application Process
Step 1: Register for URTAs
Visit (https://urta.com) for current registration information, requirements, availability, deadlines, and any subsequent schedule changes. Follow the website’s instructions to register for one of the Acting Audition dates. The URTA Acting registration deadline is December 28, 2026, at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. URTA advises that individual events may reach capacity and close before the published deadline. Register early and confirm availability to ensure that you remain under consideration for Northwestern’s program.
Applicants are responsible for completing registration and meeting all URTA scheduling and audition requirements. Audition availability may become limited as spaces are filled, so applicants are encouraged to register before the deadline.
Step 2: Prepare Your Audition
Follow URTA’s requirements concerning the number, type, length, and presentation of your monologues. Beyond fulfilling those requirements, we are interested in how you approach the acting itself.
A monologue should reveal the imagined listener’s moment-to-moment responses to what is being said. We should be able to sense and track the listener’s presence through the shifts in your thinking, impulses, and actions as you experience your words landing on them. Let each change in that evolving relationship generate your next thought, impulse, and action.
Step 3: Complete the URTA Audition
Northwestern’s MFA in Acting Program will attend URTA audition events in Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Fullerton, and the Live-Virtual Audition. You must complete a live audition to be considered for admission to our program. Applicants who advance past the live audition round will be contacted by Northwestern faculty regarding a callback/interview during or after the event.
Step 4: Final Callback/Interview
Following the live audition, if selected to advance, applicants will be contacted by the Theatre Department and invited to participate in an in-person final callback/interview on our Chicago campus. Participation in a callback and/or interview is by invitation only and is not guaranteed.
Step 5: Submit the Northwestern Application
At this time, candidates selected from the callback/interview round will be given instructions about how and when to submit a formal application to the MFA in Acting program through Northwestern’s Graduate School portal. Our program adheres to URTA and Northwestern Graduate School policies regarding callbacks and admissions notification timelines. Selected candidates will receive a final admission decision following the completion of the selection process.
Please note: Only those who complete a live audition can be considered for advancement to Northwestern’s callback/interview and application stage. Applicants are advised to follow all URTA registration, deadlines, and requirements. URTA registration does not constitute an invitation from Northwestern or indicate that Northwestern has already expressed interest in an applicant.
2027 URTA Acting Auditions
Applicants should consult (https://urta.com) for the most current registration information, requirements, availability, and schedule changes.
- Atlanta, Georgia | January 16, 2027 – Hybrid
- Chicago, Illinois | January 24–27, 2027 – In-Person
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | January 30–February 1, 2027 – In-Person
- Live-Virtual | February 3, 2027 – Live-Online*
- Fullerton, California | February 6–7, 2027 – Hybrid
*Important Notice for International Applicants and Applicants Unable to Attend In-Person Auditions: Applicants who cannot travel should register early for URTA’s Live-Virtual Acting Audition (February 3). This is the live-audition pathway available to applicants unable to attend an in-person event. URTA does not offer walk-in or day-of registration for the Live-Virtual Audition.
Baseline Admissions Criteria
Educational background
A bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution (or international equivalent) is required.
Professional experience
It is expected that all applicants will have at least three years of professional acting experience, outside of a university setting, to be considered for acceptance into this program. Highly skilled candidates may also be considered if their experience clearly demonstrates a serious commitment to pursuing an acting career, including internships, acting classes, intensive training, or comparable post-collegiate experience.
US Degree Equivalency (International only)
To help you determine if your degree is the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor’s degree, please reference this list on the TGS Website. When determining if your degree is the equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree, reference the information under the country where your degree was earned. If your country where the degree was earned is not listed, TGS strongly recommends using a credential evaluation service to confirm degree equivalency. The Graduate School strongly recommends (ECE) or (WES).
English Proficiency Test Score Minimums (International only)
TOEFL = 80
IELTS = 7
MET = 54
3 Letters of Recommendation
Resume
Questions
For questions about Northwestern’s MFA Acting recruitment process that are not answered on this page, contact:
Questions concerning URTA registration, scheduling, audition availability, or URTA participation requirements should be directed to URTA.