Playwriting MFA

Announcing the Rita and Burton Goldberg MFA in Playwriting, a selective two year program with a strong emphasis on production. Students will not only study playwriting, theater history, dramatic literature and play analysis in Hunter’s Department of Theatre, they will also learn how to collaborate with actors, directors, designers, and dramaturgs through the rehearsal process, readings and full productions. This training will include electives in other disciplines, as well as work with the most exciting theatre artists in New York City, under the guidance of Distinguished Lecturer in Playwriting Mark Bly and Playwright in Residence, Tina Howe.The Rita and Burton Goldberg MFA in playwriting is all about making theatre in the theatre capital of the world.

The program also offers a new component for students unique in Graduate Playwriting Programs across the United States today. The students’ thesis plays will not only be fully produced, but the productions will be staffed by professional directors, actors, and designers and student actors. No other existing playwriting program in our country offers students such a rare opportunity to learn from seasoned theatre professionals about the process of working on a new play in the midst of producing their thesis project. These productions, known as the Hunter Playwrights Festival, will be supervised by Thesis Adviser and Production Manager Mark Bly and Tina Howe, Playwright in Residence and will be presented in the Spring each year. This Festival will be an extraordinary opportunity for the playwrights to showcase their work before an invited audience of distinguished local and national industry professionals.