Acting

We admit actors with a strong sense of individuality and real potential for a lifetime of work in the theater, who possess instruments that are expressive and trainable, who are at home with themselves, who have access to their imaginations and emotional lives and who love playing with others.

The acting program admits 15-17 people each year.

No. An M.F.A. candidate's undergraduate degree can be in any subject. Moreover, an undergraduate degree is not a requirement for admission. Many prospective students audition for and are admitted to the program in the spring of their senior year of college, and others are admitted who have no undergraduate degree. See next question.

No. Individuals without a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution are eligible to graduate from the acting program at Yale with a Certificate in Drama. Certificate in Drama students and M.F.A. students train together and follow the same course of study. All Certificate candidates must have been out of high school for a minimum of five years by the date of their audition. Except for seniors in college who expect to receive their bachelor’s degree before entering the School of Drama, individuals who do not possess a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution and who have been out of high school for less than five years will not be permitted to audition. Candidates who complete the requirements for the Certificate in Drama and later complete their bachelor’s degree at an institution recognized by Yale University may have their certificate converted to the M.F.A. Degree.

To be eligible to receive an M.F.A. from David Geffen School of Drama, an applicant must have a four-year bachelor’s degree from an accredited U.S. institution or the international equivalent. International applicants with a three-year degree from an accredited institution may also be eligible to receive an MFA. If the undergraduate degree you received is not recognized by Yale University, you would be a candidate for a Certificate in Drama. Upon written request the certificate will be converted to an M.F.A. degree if a student later satisfactorily completes an accredited bachelor’s degree elsewhere.

In order to be considered for admission in the fall, you must submit your application no later than 11:59PM (US Eastern Standard Time) on January 2. Applications and inquiries received after that time will not be considered.

No. In order to initiate the application process, and to self-schedule your audition promptly, you must submit your resumé, your photograph, your statement of purpose, and your application fee by the deadline stated above. Your academic transcript(s) and three letters of recommendation may be submitted at a later date. All application materials should be submitted at least 1 week before the date of your scheduled New Haven or Atlanta audition or at least 2 weeks before the date of your scheduled Chicago or San Francisco audition.

Walk-in auditions may be offered in Atlanta only. Check the website after January 5^th for updated information.

We want to know who you are! We suggest you choose material you feel strongly about, material that reveals something personal about you and where something important is at stake for the character. We want to see your idea of what acting is, what your sense of purpose in acting is — not someone else’s. Your heart and your individuality are what’s important to us.

Please prepare two contrasting pieces to share at your initial audition. Your pieces can be drawn from any period and any genre of theatrical literature. If requested, you should be ready to present a third and even a fourth piece. All material must be fully memorized and in English. While there is no strict time limit for the audition, we strongly recommend that your pieces not exceed 3 minutes in length. 2 – 2 ½ minutes per piece is a useful target to aim for.

Your pieces can be from any source. We have found over time that material written for the stage tends to better serve actors in our audition process. However, you should present the kind of material that speaks to you.

No. Applicants should not request and will not be given feedback on their work, either at the time of their audition or at a later date. If we were to do this for one person, in fairness we should then do this for everyone. Given the large number of people who audition each year, this is neither practical nor possible for us.

Your statement of purpose can be as personal as you want it to be and should include why you want to be an actor. Your statement will be read only by members of the Audition Committee and we consider your information confidential. Your statement should be no more than 2-3 pages in length.

If you have an undergraduate degree from an accredited institution where English was the primary language of instruction, you do not need to take the TOEFL. Otherwise — yes, you are required to take the TOEFL or IELTS. For those applying for fall admissions, the TOEFL or IELTS must be taken before February 1. In addition, the application materials you submit must be in English, and you must demonstrate a fluent command of English during your audition and interview.

No.

David Geffen School of Drama trains actors who are already fluent in English. English speaking is a vital technical foundation for the training we offer. The nature of our voice, speech, dialect, and text work requires Acting students to be fluent and articulate in spoken English when they enter the program. We have learned over time that when students come into the program without sufficiently expert and nuanced English, they quickly fall behind their peers. This is problematic not only for those individuals, but it can also be counterproductive for the class as an ensemble, as well as for their collaborators in other departments. We have found that actors who do not yet possess the ability to speak fluent English tend to have limited opportunities for advancement in the profession.

No. The pre-screening is optional. The reason we offer the assessment of the Optional Pre-Screening for Non-Native Speakers of English is to prevent international applicants from spending a lot of money and time traveling to a US audition site, when we can reasonably predict they will not be admitted. We assume that people who take the time to send us a video care what we think and welcome our prediction as a thoughtful way of protecting them from disappointment. If in our judgement you do not yet possess a command of spoken English that we believe is necessary for an actor to be able to take full advantage of our training, we will recommend that you do not audition. However, you have the option of not following our recommendation — that is, we will not prevent you from auditioning in the U.S. The deadline to submit the optional pre-screening is December 1 in order for the Admissions Committee to review your pre-screening before you submit your application by the January 2 deadline.

No. You must audition in person for the Admissions Committee. There is vital information that the Admissions Committee can gain only by being in the actual physical presence of the actor. It is therefore necessary for us to see each candidate up close in an environment unmediated by technology.

Yes, we will send you an invitation letter to show your local U.S. Embassy/Consulate after you have officially submitted your application and self-scheduled your audition timeslot. Please email dgsd.admissions@yale.edu if you self-scheduled your audition timeslot but did not receive an invitation letter.

International applicants are encouraged to plan their tourist visit to the United States in advance. The wait time for a tourist visa application interview can vary, so early application is strongly encouraged. It is important to apply for a tourist visa well in advance of the travel departure date.

David Geffen School of Drama is located in New Haven, Connecticut. During your visit to Yale, we suggest that you may wish to explore nearby cities and visit their tourist attractions.  New Haven is two-and-a-half-hours south of Boston and almost two hours north of New York City.  Both cities are accessible by car, train, bus, and airplane. We also suggest that you may wish to explore tourist attractions at Chicago, Illinois or San Francisco, California during your visit for your audition at those cities.

Many productions at the School, Yale Rep, and Yale Cabaret are open to the public. In addition, the School schedules Visitor Days each fall. This is the only practical and equitable way to respond to the requests of hundreds of applicants and prospective applicants for interaction with current faculty and students, and we encourage you to sign up for this opportunity on a first-come, first-served basis. Please register for the Visitor Days online. Applicants invited to final callback auditions in New Haven will have an opportunity to ask questions in depth and admitted students may also have chances to attend some classes at the School.

The Audition Process: Auditions are scheduled on-the-hour in the morning at 9, 10 and 11 a.m., and in the afternoon at 2, 3, 4, and 5 p.m. Approximately twelve applicants are scheduled to audition each hour.  Applicants complete their initial auditions and return to the reception area. If an auditor wishes to see any applicants from that hour’s group again, the Admissions Committee will post a list of names for a brief End-of-Hour Callback. If your name is not posted at this time, you will not be asked to repeat your audition for the Committee and you are free to leave.

At the end of the morning audition session - around 12:00 p.m. - applicants who had an End-of-Hour Callback may be invited to End-of-Morning Callbacks, and their names will be posted. End-of-Morning Callbacks run from approximately 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. provided the Committee is on schedule.

This same hourly process repeats itself for each hour of auditions scheduled in the afternoon. Any applicant seen in an End-of-Hour Callback should return to the reception area at approximately 6:00 p.m. to see if their name is posted for the End-of-Afternoon Callbacks, which will run from approximately 6:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The End-of-Morning and End-of-Afternoon Callback sessions allow the Committee to learn more about you and your presented work. During this callback session, you will likely participate in a physical and vocal warm-up, be asked to sing a song a capella, and work with members of the Committee on your prepared monologues. An interview may also take place during this callback.

If you are not called back at the end of the hour at your scheduled audition, or if you do not receive a second callback at the end of the morning or at the end of the afternoon of the day you audition, in all likelihood you will not be invited to the final callback in New Haven.

You may audition once per admissions cycle. Candidates are discouraged from auditioning / applying more than three times for the Acting program.

Our short term advice would be to enroll in the best acting class you can find in your area, and keep working on your craft. An MFA program is only one way to further a career, and you may well find that you are able to make significant professional progress through practice and work in front of a talented acting teacher.

You may download a free copy of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale Bulletin in HTML and PDF formats at http://bulletin.yale.edu/. The Bulletin includes official details on programs of study, course descriptions, degree and major requirements, and additional regulations. Under “Acting (M.F.A. and Certificate)” you will find a year by year description of the acting curriculum.

No.

Yes. Read our COVID-19 guidelines for in-person Acting auditions here.