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

Pig Iron Theatre Company and Rowan University’s College of Performing Arts excitedly announce that they are partnering to establish a Master of Fine Arts and 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 theater artists, in partnership with Rowan, through an accredited 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 ideal partner for Pig Iron,” 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, our faculty, and our students adrift.”

 

When Pig Iron’s previous institutional partner, University of the Arts, 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 laboratory now and into the future,” Bauriedel added. “When it became clear that UArts would not remit the money owed to us from the '23-'24 year, the emergency support from our community became more crucial than ever. We’ve been so moved by everyone who came to our aid, including local foundations, longtime friends, and hundreds of new donors.”

 

Together with Rowan, Pig Iron can now welcome our 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.

 

“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 seamlessly 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 train in a common core of production classes, intensified by five 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.”

 

Launched in 2011 as a certificate program before expanding into an MFA with UArts in 2015, Pig Iron’s graduate program is designed to expand the boundaries of artistic ownership and transform the traditional norms and power structures central to the current regional theater environment. The Pig Iron School has 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 Mellon 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 mirroring society’s trips and fails, beauties and wonders and deep-rooted questions and values,” 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. Prospective students wanting to learn more about Pig Iron can fill out an interest form for the program, attend an upcoming info session or audition, and even attend a free workshop at various cities across the US.