Department Vision

The Naropa MFA Theater: Contemporary Performance Program is developing a new paradigm integrating contemplative practice and interdisciplinary conservatory level performance training. Its first class of 18 entered in the fall of 2004. The 2 year program has immediately taken its place as a visionary training, attracting an ensemble of professional artists and a faculty which includes some of the best known and most important innovators of new techniques, aesthetics and theater education, developed over the past 25 years. The program is devoted to innovative research and rigorous conservatory style training supported by Naropa’s unique commitment to contemplative education. It is deeply committed to presenting both reinvented classics and provocative original work, and to furthering the reintegration of theater, dance and music within Naropa University’s contemplative context. Faculty and Associated Companies include, Stephen Wangh, author of An Acrobat of the Heart; A Physical Approach to Acting, Naropa Senior Faculty Barbara Dilley and Lee Worley, Meredith Monk/The House, Moises Kaufman and The Tectonic Theater Project, creators of The Laramie Project; and Anne Bogart’s SITI Company.

MFA Theater Staff

Wendell Beavers Director of Graduate Theater, Chair of Contemporary Performance Program

Liz Acosta Administrative Director

Angela Delichatsios Production Coordinator