Knoxville theatre-goers have long recognized the benefits of the University of Tennessee Theatre Department’s MFA Acting Program, a program that forms the backbone of the resident Clarence Brown Theatre’s professional productions. However, local attention has been only part of the program’s success as the UT program has been receiving increasing national attention for several years. In 2019, the the Hollywood Reporter’s annual list of top graduate acting programs had UT in a noteworthy 11th spot. Even more impressive, this year’s Hollywood Reporter list places UT in the 8th spot in the company of traditionally strong programs such as the Juilliard School, Yale School of Drama, and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Calvin MacLean, Theatre Department head and artistic director of Clarence Brown Theatre, believes two factors are behind UT’s ranking: affordability and creative support.
“Our students work with a variety of highly regarded guest artists,” MacLean said. “Grad students have extended contact with professional film directors, movement and voice specialists with international reputations, and playwrights who are commissioned to write a play especially for them. These kinds of experiences augment the project work in the Clarence Brown over their three-year residency.”
The UT MFA program accepts seven or eight actor/students in odd-numbered years into the three-year curriculum. (The companion MFA Design program accepts seven designers in even-numbered years.) Those accepted receive a full tuition waiver in addition to an assistantship stipend and become an integrated presence in the in-house Clarence Brown Theatre, an entity operating under a professional LORT arrangement (League of Resident Theatres). This participation earns them an Actor’s Equity Association membership card.
Speaking with Arts Knoxville in 2019, Jed Diamond, head of Acting in the UT Theatre Department and a familiar presence on the Clarence Brown Theatre stage, weighed in on the importance of the program. “The jump in rankings in the last couple of years has stimulated more interest in our program,” Diamond said. “Candidates are more aware of UTK than ever before, and the interest is stronger. However, it is still hard to get the best candidates, as they always have multiple offers. … There is another effect in that these kinds of ranking help to broadcast the many excellent programs that UTK has to offer. They burnish the department’s reputation and the College of Arts and Sciences, and UTK’s overall.”
