Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting

The Bachelor of Fine Arts program allows you to broaden your drama experience with classes in design, stage lighting, costume history, dramatic literature, and state management. You can also work behind the scenes as part of a running crew or assistant stage manager.

The B.F.A. in acting makes full use of the resources provided by the Department of Drama and its relationship with Syracuse Stage to provide emerging theater artists with rigorous training in performance technique, text analysis, creative improvisation, voice, speech, and movement.

You will be immediately immersed in a program of pre-professional study in your first year, devoting as many as 18 hours of class time per week to various theater arts. Courses in theater history, directing, voice/verse, playwriting, and technical theater broaden your studies. In the B.F.A. program, you may also select courses in design, stage lighting, costume history, dramatic literature, and stage management. Although first-year students are not permitted to perform on stage for the public, you will have the opportunity to work on productions behind the scenes in a wide variety of jobs, ranging from running crews to assistant stage managing.

Following this first year of building fundamental skills, you will have many opportunities to audition for roles in department productions, co-productions with Syracuse Stage, numerous student- and faculty-sponsored productions, films produced by VPA film students, and Syracuse Stage productions (when age-appropriate roles are available). Equity points may be earned through work with Syracuse Stage.

Official secondary school transcript
Senior year grade report
You must be enrolled in or have graduated from an accredited secondary school.
SAT/ACT scores will not be required for students applying for Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025 or Spring 2026 admission.
Secondary school counselor evaluation
One academic recommendation
Preferred TOEFL - 85+
Preferred IELTS- 6.5+
Preferred Cambridge- 176+


Duolingo (2024 applicants) - 130+