Elektra (2019). Photo: Daniella Toscano.

Application Information for the MFA Program in Acting

Applications for Fall 2027 will open on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026 and close on Wednesday, January 6th, 2027

ATTENTION PERFORMING ARTISTS!

We are thrilled to announce that the Graduate Acting Program at UC San Diego will be holding auditions in early 2027 (January and February) for the Fall 2027 Academic Year. We welcome all artists who want to play, explore, and discover with us. We welcome artists who wish to join our astonishing cohorts in design, directing, playwrighting, and performance studies to collaborate, create, and dream. We want to support you, encourage you, mentor you, guide you, challenge you, and celebrate all that you are and the stories you are on fire to tell.

Auditions will take place in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco in January and February of 2027. A virtual call-back week-end will happen in early March. Audition dates, locations, and other details will be published below once they are finalized. There will also be a virtual open house in December where you can learn more about the program, meet faculty and students, and ask questions.

Details to come. For more questions contact:

Cory Caswell – Graduate Program Coordinator – cpcaswell@ucsd.edu

Stephen Buescher – Head of Graduate Acting – sbuescher@ucsd.edu

We look forward to meeting you!

Open House

2026 Open House - date TBD.

Interested in learning more about the program? Watch a recording of the most recent virtual open house that took place in December 2024 to hear from faculty, graduate admin staff, and current MFA students!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING

Application Materials

Please upload the following materials to the UC San Diego application portal

Transcripts or official copies of academic records from all post-secondary institutions attended
A minimum of three letters of recommendation. Please provide the email address of each recommender.
Statement of purpose
8X10 headshot
Resume

Please note: the UC San Diego graduate application fee is a distinct fee, separate from the audition fee.

Auditions

All applicants in the acting area are required to audition. These auditions take place from mid-January through early February in four cities across the country: New York, Chicago, Atlanta and San Diego. Sign-up forms for our in-person auditions are linked below. You will be assessed a $65 audition fee upon sign-up.

If you are unable to do an in-person audition, please contact Head of Acting Stephen Buescher at sbuescher@ucsd.edu to discuss potential options.

2027 Audition Tour Dates and Information

Please note: Links to register for auditions will be posted soon.

New York: Ripley-Grier Studio
520 8th Ave FL16
New York, NY 10018
January 7-11, 2027
Click here for directions

Atlanta: Clark Atlanta University
223 James P Brawley Dr SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
January 25-26, 2027

Chicago: The Hyatt Regency
151 East Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60601
January 29-30, 2027
Click here for directions

San Diego: UCSD Campus
Galbraith Hall (Theatre District)
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093
February 5-7, 2027

Virtual Audition (Live)
Zoom
February 8, 2027

Callbacks

Virtual (Zoom)
TBD March 2027

Preparing for Your Audition

Each audition will be scheduled for approximately 7 minutes. Although this time is limited, we hope to gain a clear impression of your range and imagination, the scope of your ability to bring a text to life, and the level of technical skills you have at your command. More importantly , we welcome your passion and your curiosity in what and how you present yourself and your work. This helps us in imagining your potential for growth in our program and beyond.

We ask that you present two audition pieces. These monologues should meet the following criteria: Each piece should be no longer that two minutes in length. At least one should be from a contemporary play and the other from a play with heightened language, such as works from William Shakespeare, August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, Federico Garcia Lorca, and María Irene Fornés. It will be to your advantage if you choose clearly contrasting audition pieces that show us as much as possible your creative range. We also suggest that at least one piece be within your age range.

Attending your audition will be several members of the acting faculty. An information session and callbacks are conducted at the end of each day for those candidates we wish to see again. At that time, we may request that you present a third audition piece and sixteen bars of a song. We also may work with one or both of your original selections.

After the audition tour, we will invite roughly 16-20 finalists to attend a virtual callback weekend. At that time, candidates will audition for the rest of the faculty, meet current students, and participate in workshops and information sessions.

You must bring the following to your audition

8X10 headshot with a resume on the reverse side (contact information should be included on your resume)

At the conclusion of the callback weekend, there will be a final selection process. We will then notify those actors we wish to admit to the acting program.

International Applicants

We celebrate our international students and welcome you to our audition process. As the majority of classwork and production assignments will be in English, we do require all applicants to demonstrate a proficiency in English.

International applicants are welcome to audition in person at any of the aforementioned locations or during our 1-day virtual (Zoom) audition on Feb 8. For international applicants who cannot audition in person or virtually, we allow recorded audition tapes to be submitted in lieu of auditioning in person. Self-tapes should submitted here by January 13, 2027. The materials should include a headshot, resume, two contrasting audition pieces and sixteen bars of a song.

We will inform candidates of their callback status by TBD 2027. Virtual callbacks will take place in early March (exact date TBD).

In accordance with applicable Federal and State law and University policy, the University of California does not discriminate, or grant preferences, on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and/or other protected categories.

More information about Proposition 209 can be found here.
More information about the University of California Anti-Discrimination Policy can be found here.

If you have questions about the application process or about the materials required of you, please e-mail Theatre's Graduate Coordinator at cpcaswell@ucsd.edu