Brown Will Cover Tuition for Acting and Directing MFA Program

Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, announced it will fully cover tuition for students in its master of fine arts program for acting and directing.

The three-year MFA program is a partnership with Trinity Rep, a Providence theater, and provides students with professional acting and directing experience in addition to classes. Alumnae include Laura Kepley, the artistic director of the Cleveland Play House, and Taibi Magar, who is currently directing the off-off-Broadway production “Is God Is.” The university hopes that removing the financial barrier will lead to more racial and economic diversity and allow aspiring creators to enter their careers debt-free.

“I really think the key to diversifying the American theater is eliminating debt in arts education,” Patricia Ybarra, the chairwoman of Brown’s Theater Arts and Performance Studies Department, said in a phone interview.

The program’s tuition for the 2017-18 academic year was $52,231. Brown will cover the tuition of all current and future students beginning next fall; in order to fully cover the costs, the next class size will be reduced slightly to 10 students. (The class of 2019 has 15.) Ybarra said the decision is part of the university’s ongoing efforts involving the arts, diversity and eliminating loans: “It’s the synergy between those things that made this a top priority,” she said.

The diversity of the program’s student body has increased over the last few years. According to data provided by the university, the acting and directing MFA programs were made up of 25 percent students of color in 2014-15, compared with 42 percent in 2017-18.

Ybarra said the university’s commitment to covering tuition is open-ended. “I assume we’re doing this forever,” she said.

Brown is currently financially stable, with its endowment hitting a record high last year, valued at $3.5 billion.