The Degree Requirements
A total of 60 semester hours is required for the Master of Fine Arts Degree. Students will fill those hours with the following class requirements:- Marketing the Arts (3 hours)
- Arts Advocacy and Public Policy (3 hours)
- Fundraising & Financial Management for the Arts (3 hours)
- Business & Legal Issues in the Arts (3 hours)
- Graduate Theatre Practicum (2 hours)
- Alabama Shakespeare Festival (40 hours)
Students will select 6 hours from the following:
- Organizational Theory and Behavior (3 hours)
- Human Resource Management (3 hours)
- Management Communications (3 hours)
- Small Business Consulting (3 hours)
- Industrial Relations (3 hours)
The Internship Requirement
An internship residence is built into the program. During the fifteen months spent at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the students will work with the ASF professional staff at all levels of the organization. Students serve on rotations in marketing, development, educational programs, and general management. Classes such as Marketing the Arts, Fundraising for the Arts, Production Management, and Theatre History accompany the internship experience.The Alabama Shakespeare Festival
The Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s foremost commitment is to artistic excellence in the production and performance of classics and outstanding contemporary plays, with the works of William Shakespeare forming the core of the repertoire. Excellence is best achieved through a commitment to a company of resident artists and by creating a theatre in repertory style, which ASF believes to be the most demanding, stimulating, and rewarding form of theatre.Due to an extraordinary faculty, remarkable management and marketing efforts, and an exciting and diverse repertoire of performances during past seasons, ASF has grown from an audience base of 20,000 to more than 250,000 annually for its mainstage productions. The Festival is now, by far, the largest arts organization in Alabama and one of the largest in North America, a fact that demands a progressive arts leadership. Having begun with a conservative, historically faithful style of production, ASF has grown to a passionate, socially aware artistry. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Kent Thompson, and Managing Director Alan Harrison, the theater is committed to following new directions: making Shakespeare productions more accessible in vocal work, design, and concept; producing and developing plays that deal specifically with Southern and African-American themes and issues; and using non-traditional casting. ASF’s commitment to cultural diversity progressed rapidly with support from the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Resident Theatre Initiative. ASF hopes to provoke the social, intellectual, cultural, and political awareness of its audience.
