Pig Iron School and Rowan University unite to offer MFA in Designed Performance | Rowan today

The College of Performing Arts at Rowan University and the Pig Iron Theater Company of Philadelphia excitedly announce their partnership to offer a Master of Fine Arts and Graduate Certificate in Imagined Performance. Beginning in early 2025, the Pig Iron School will continue its mission of training the next generation of bold and innovative theater artists with Rowan through its master’s program focused on movement, improvisation and ensemble creation. Led by Pig Iron co-founder Quinn Bauriedel, students in the program will train with esteemed and established faculty while working to earn an MFA from Rowan University.

“Rowan University is the perfect partner for the Pig Iron School,” said Bauriedel, director of the Pig Iron School. “Rowan’s deans, provost and faculty have been extraordinarily caring during a difficult summer that left our program and students adrift.”

When the Pig Iron School’s former institutional partner, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, unexpectedly closed its doors in June, Bauriedel and the Pig Iron team made the difficult decision to suspend the curriculum for fall 2024. In the weeks that followed, Pig Iron prioritized its search for partnerships, keen to minimize disruption for the 35 students already enrolled in the program.

“We are beyond grateful to everyone who supported Pig Iron in this moment of crisis and uncertainty as we worked to ensure a home for our artistic laboratory, now and in the future,” Bauriedel added.

Working with Rowan, Pig Iron can welcome these students back to pick up where they left off and continue their education, without increasing their tuition. Rowan will also work with students to support them throughout the onboarding process.

New and prospective students will submit an application to Rowan University and complete a workshop-style audition, designed for faculty to observe applicants creating theater. The audition is made up of three parts, representing the three pillars of the program: movement, improvisation and ensemble creation. Applicants will also submit an artist statement, two letters of recommendation, a work sample, and attend an interview with the professor. This holistic approach ensures that candidates are ideally suited to the rigors of an MFA graduate program with the ability to grow and thrive within Pig Iron.

“We are delighted to be able to step in to serve faculty and students through this unique and exemplary program,” said Rick Dammers, dean of the Rowan College of Performing Arts, noting that expanding the program offerings of Rowan’s studies align with the artistic vision of its undergraduate theater program, making Pig Iron the perfect extension.

Rowan’s College of Performing Arts offers a Bachelor of Arts in Uniquely Designed Theater, a program rooted in experimentation and collaboration where design is at the heart of the curriculum. The program recruits and trains students from across the country through artistic innovation and interdisciplinary training where each class becomes a collection of collaborators. Undergraduate students follow a core curriculum of production courses, intensified by five targeted theater concentrations to produce holistically trained theater artists.

“The exchange of ideas and creative process of this program supports our mission to transform society and our world through the arts,” said Paule Turner, chair of the Department of Theater and Dance. “Our partnership embodies the integration of theater and dance that we have long worked toward.”

Launched in 2011 as a certificate program before transforming into an MFA with UArts in 2015, Pig Iron’s curriculum is designed to erase artistic property lines and transform traditional norms and power structures at the heart of the current regional theater environment. The Pig Iron School has since graduated more than 140 students, many of whom have won Pew Fellowships, Independence Foundation Fellowships, Barrymore Awards, and OBIE Awards, and gone on to become distinguished professors at Georgetown University, Carnegie Melon University and the University of Iowa, among others. others.

“Our students are pioneers and innovators, disrupting the status quo and playfully finding ways to expand access to a type of theater that is physically sharp, intellectually complex, and capable of reflecting every imperfection, wonder, and deep-seated question of society,” Bauriedel said. .

Classes will resume for the spring 2025 semester, following final certification from school boards and accrediting agencies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

For more information about Pig Iron and the Rowan University MFA program, visit go.rowan.edu/PigIronMFA.

About pig iron:
Pig Iron began as a “dance-clown-theatre” ensemble in 1995, and their innovative productions garnered rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and later in the burgeoning arts scene in their hometown of Philadelphia. Today, more than 25 years later, Pig Iron is part of a movement of alternative theater creators who seek to resituate the way audiences encounter performance. The company is at the forefront of the “designed” theater movement, a performance-making practice in which an ensemble of actor-creators begin their work in the studio rather than from a script. Pig Iron has developed a co-authorship method that arises from focused improvisations, discussions and innovative collaborations. Pig Iron engages in collaborations with visionary artists that push the whole in new directions. Collaborations include: legendary director Joseph Chaikin; playwright Toshiki Okada; designers Mimi Lien (Macarthur “Genius”) and Machine Dazzle; Grammy-winning choir The Crossing, indie rock band Dr. Dog and filmmaker Josephine Decker. Pig Iron has toured 15 countries on four continents with notable appearances at the Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Humana Festival, TR Warszawa, and TPAM (Tokyo), among others. The company has won two OBIE Awards (NYC) and 10 Barrymore Awards with over 45 nominations in Philadelphia. Learn more.