Pig Iron School and Rowan University unite to offer MFA in Devised Performance

Rowan University's College of Performing Arts and Philadelphia's Pig Iron Theatre Company excitedly announce they are partnering to offer a Master of Fine Arts and a graduate certificate in Devised Performance. Beginning in early 2025, the Pig Iron School will continue its mission to train the next generation of daring, innovative theatre artists with Rowan through their master's program centered on movement, improvisation and ensemble creation. Under the direction of Pig Iron co-founder Quinn Bauriedel, students in the program will train with esteemed and established faculty while working toward a Rowan University MFA. 

"Rowan University is the perfect partner for Pig Iron School," said Bauriedel, Director of Pig Iron School, "Rowan's Deans, Provost and faculty have been extraordinarily caring during this difficult summer which left our program and our students adrift." 

When Pig Iron School's previous institutional partner, University of the Arts in Philadelphia, unexpectedly closed its doors in June, Bauriedel and the Pig Iron team made the difficult decision to pause the degree program for fall 2024. In the weeks that followed, Pig Iron prioritized its partnership search, eager to minimize the interruption for the 35 students already enrolled in the program. 

"We are beyond grateful for everyone who has supported Pig Iron in this moment of crisis and uncertainty while we worked to ensure a home for our artistic labroratory now and into the future," Bauriedel added. 

Together with Rowan, Pig Iron can welcome those students back to pick up where they left off and continue their training, without increasing their tuition costs. Rowan will also work with students to support them through the onboarding process. 

New and prospective students will submit an application to Rowan University and complete a workshop-style audition format, designed so faculty can observe applicants in the process of theater-making. The audition is composed of three parts, representing the three pillars of the program: movement, improvisation and ensemble creation. Applicants will also submit an artist's statement, two letters of recommendation, a work sample and attend an interview with faculty. This holistic approach ensures applicants are the right fit for the rigors of an MFA graduate program with capacity to grow and thrive within Pig Iron. 

"We are excited to be able to jump in to serve the faculty and students in this unique and exemplary program," said Rowan College of Performing Arts Dean, Rick Dammers, noting that expanding Rowan's curricular offering in this way aligns with the artistic vision of its undergraduate theatre program, making Pig Iron the perfect extension. 

Rowan's College of Performing Arts offers a uniquely-designed Bachelor of Arts in Theatre, a program rooted in experimentation and collaboration where devising is central to the curriculum. The program recruits and trains students from across the country through artistic innovation and cross-disciplinary training where each class becomes an ensemble of collaborators. Undergraduate students take a common core of production classes, intensified by fived focused theater concentrations to produce holistically trained theater artists. 

"This program's exchange of ideas and creative process supports our mission to transform society and our world through the arts," said Department of Theatre & Dance Chair Paule Turner. "Our partnership embodies the integration of theater and dance we have long been working toward." 

Initiated in 2011 as a certificate program before expanding into an MFA with UArts in 2015, Pig Iron's degree program is designed to erase the lines of artistic ownership and transform the traditional norms and power structures central to the current regional theater environment. The Pig Iron School has since graduated more than 140 students, with many going on to win Pew Fellowships, Independence Foundation Fellowships, Barrymore Awards and OBIE Awards, as well as becoming distinguished faculty at Georgetown University, Carnegie Melon University and University of Iowa, among others. 

"Our students are trailblazers and innovators, disrupting the status quo and playfully finding ways to expand access to a kind of theater that is physically sharp, intellectually layered and capable of reflecting all of society's blemishes, wonders and deep-rooted questions," said Bauriedel. 

Classes will resume for the Spring 2025 semester, following the final certification from New Jersey and Pennsylvania's Boards of Education and accrediting bodies. 

For more information on Pig Iron and Rowan University's 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 then in the burgeoning arts scene of their hometown of Philadelphia. Now over 25 years later, Pig Iron has emerged as part of a movement of alternative theater makers who seek to resituate how audiences encounter performance. The company is at the forefront of the "devised" theatre movement, a practice of performance-making in which an ensemble of actor-creators begins its work in the studio rather than from a script. Pig Iron has developed a method of co-authorship that springs from focused improvisation, discussion and innovative collaborations. Pig Iron engages in collaborations with visionary artists who push the ensemble in new directions. Collaborations have included: legendary director Joseph Chaikin; playwright Toshiki Okada; designers Mimi Lien (Macarthur "Genius") and Machine Dazzle; the Grammy-winning choir The Crossing, indie rock outfit Dr. Dog and filmmaker Josephine Decker. Pig Iron has toured to 15 countries on four continents with notable appearances at the Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, the 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.