MFA offered in a partnership with Touchstone Theatre
BETHLEHEM, PA, November 5, 2018: Today, Moravian College and Touchstone Theatre announced that the Master of Fine Arts in Performance Creation will be part of the graduate degree programs offered by Moravian Graduate and Continuing Studies, beginning in August 2019, pending approval by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. This graduate program is intended to educate and prepare artists who want to create their own performances, instead of playing a supporting role in other, existing productions.
"The development of this Master of Fine Arts program is a perfect example of Moravian College's deep and abiding commitment to an education that can transform lives." said Uppinder Mehan, dean of the School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Moravian College.
This Master of Fine Arts program will welcome artists from a variety of backgrounds—actors, directors, writers, choreographers, and designers.
“This is a hands-on program where students’ creative vision will be fostered and brought to life,” commented Christopher Shorr, director of theatre at Moravian College. “Touchstone Theatre is the perfect partner for us in this. We’ve worked with them for ten years and they’ve proven to be terrific collaborators. Students will be ‘in the trenches,’ side by side with professional artists at Touchstone, doing the real work of creating performances from the ground up.”
"The development of this Master of Fine Arts program is a perfect example of Moravian College's deep and abiding commitment to an education that can transform lives."
The Master of Fine Arts in Performance Creation is the first of its kind in the region and offers students an accelerated, full-time, two-year program that includes includes international travel and performance. In addition, the program is embedded in a professional theatre ensemble which provides students the added benefits of real-world teaching experience in local schools, professional performance credits, and involvement with the business side of not-for-profit organizations. This variety of experiences, combined with the interdisciplinary performance work, is intended to create and develop well-rounded professionals.
“We couldn’t be happier about being able to attach an MFA degree to our nearly two decade old apprenticeship program,” said JP Jordan, artistic director at Touchstone Theatre. “This partnership with Moravian will open up new opportunities for the aspiring artists that come to study at Touchstone each year.”
To learn more about the Master of Fine Arts in Performance Creation program at Moravian College, visit moravian.edu/theatre/mfa-performance-creation.
Media contacts:
Moravian College
Michael Corr
Director of Marketing and Communications
corrm@moravian.edu
610.861.1365
Touchstone Theatre
Lisa Jordan
Managing Director
lisa@touchstone.org
610.867.1689
About Moravian College
Moravian College is a private coeducational liberal arts college, located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees. For more than 275 years, the Moravian College degree has been based on a liberal arts curriculum where literature, history, science, cultural values, global issues, ethics, artistic expression, and the social sciences are infused with multidisciplinary perspectives. Visit Moravian.edu to learn more about how the Moravian College liberal arts curriculum prepares its students for life-long success.
About Touchstone Theatre
Founded in 1981, Touchstone Theatre is a professional not-for-profit theatre dedicated to the creation of original work. At its center is a resident ensemble of theatre artists rooted in the local community of Bethlehem, the Greater Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania and the international community of Ensemble Theatres. Visit touchstone.org to learn more.
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