Challenges for Theater MFA Programs and Recent Graduates

KJ Sanchez and Allison Considine (Photo by Andrew Sisson).

Contributors | Features | Winter 2026

May 13, 2026 American Theatre Editors Leave a comment

Featured Contributors

The challenges facing theatre MFA programs, and the journeys of recent college theatre program graduates.

By American Theatre Editors

“The closing of MFA programs has been very much on my mind, as it has for so many of us in the field,” said KJ Sanchez , an associate professor who leads the MFA directing program at the University of Texas at Austin. As she wrote on this subject for this issue (p. 28), one question kept coming back to her during conversations with her colleagues: How do they make the many contributions MFA programs provide to their universities and to the field more visible? “I hope my article is a call to action for all of us to ensure that our future artists and leaders have avenues for training and development, whether that’s in the academy or via apprenticeship,” Sanchez said. “Both are equally valuable. Both need to be made affordable and accessible.”

For Allison Considine , a Brooklyn-based arts journalist and content strategist who previously served as senior editor of this magazine, writing about the journeys of recent theatre program graduates (p. 34) took her back to her early days in New York City, where she moved to study theatre. “I remember the excitement and fear that shaped my first years out of school,” Considine said, “and I was curious about how today’s graduates are finding their footing.” In her reporting, she was struck by “how ambitious, grounded, and bright these young artists are. They’re relocating far from home, launching theatre companies, taking bold risks in their early jobs, and thinking long-term about their goals and how they want the arts to shape their lives.”

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_Originally reported by [American Theatre](https://www.americantheatre.org/2026/05/13/featured-contributors-7/)._