Theatre for Young Audiences

The University of Central Florida offers one of the nation’s most distinctive graduate training programs in Theatre for Young Audiences. The program offers courses such as Puppetry, Storytelling and Methods of Teaching Drama and the MFA in Theatre for Young Audiences is partnered with Orlando Repertory Theatre, a professional Theatre for Young Audiences in vibrant downtown Orlando.

The Master of Fine Arts in Theatre for Young Audiences track is designed for students who demonstrate the artistic and intellectual capacity and evidence of professional promise to pursue careers in professional and academic theatre. This track is for all theatre disciplines and offers opportunities to create work with and for youth, including community-based applied theatre, teaching artistry and education, devised theatre and directing.

The program is a highly selective, rigorous, three-year professional training program emphasizing both theatre theory and practice. The MFA degree is rooted in the belief that classroom study and practical experience in the theatre are of equal and complementary value. 

Students, in addition to becoming highly trained theatre practitioners, must also demonstrate the ability to understand the conceptual basis of their art and to be able to articulate that understanding to others. Toward this end, the department will recruit and develop graduate students who can serve, along with faculty and staff, as role models for undergraduate students whose BFA programs of study are integrally connected and dependent. Assistantships also offer students teaching opportunities in the theatre department.

News

Pegasus PlayLab returns with virtual and outdoor plays

April 23, 2021  This summer, Theatre UCF’s Pegasus PlayLab returns in virtual and outdoor formats. Pegasus PlayLab is a festival at the University of Central Florida dedicated to developing plays by emerging playwrights from around the country. Each summer, audiences are invited to hear staged readings and experience full productions and workshops of...

UCF’s Theatre for Young Audiences Program Is Much More Than a Niche Field

April 12, 2021  “The Grumpiest Boy in the World,” which will be performed at Celebrates the Arts, is the latest production out of the Theatre for Young Audiences program — an important arts education field that provides a range of skills and career opportunities.

UCF Celebrates the Arts 2021 Offers Events for the Whole Family to Enjoy

April 02, 2021  UCF Celebrates the Arts 2021 will offer events for the whole family, from the young to the young at heart!

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Students interested in applying to the TYA MFA Theatre track must be accepted to both UCF Graduate Admissions and through an audition and interview through the UCF School of Performing Arts.

The MFA TYA Track admits students every two years to start the fall semester of each odd-numbered year with interviews and auditions held early that same year.