Acting

We develop and cultivate actors prepared to drive change and solve world problems with their art.   

At Howard University's Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, the Acting Program Area offers rigorous, conservatory-level training for the 21st century. Here, technical proficiency and artistic purpose are inseparable. As a student in our program, you will be challenged and transformed — vocally, physically, intellectually, and spiritually — to become a historically aware, compassionate, and distinguished embodied narrative artist ready to serve America and the global community with your cultural contributions.  

What sets us apart is not only our curricular content and pedagogical approach. It is why. Our students inherit a legacy of Black excellence, civic imagination, and storytelling rooted in cultural responsibility. We do not simply prepare you to enter the arts and culture economy. We prepare you to lead within it. 

Washington, DC, is our classroom. The world is our stage.  Whether you are a current student, a prospective artist, or a parent entrusting us with someone you love — if you believe in the power of bringing stories to life and want to serve the world with your acting, you are in the right place.  Welcome.” 

— Professor Nikkole Salter, Acting Program Area Coordinator 

The Acting Program Area at Howard University's Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts offers intensive, conservatory-level training within a liberal arts construct in one of the most strategically positioned programs in the nation. Located in Washington, DC — America's second largest market for American Theatre — students train in the newly renovated Ira Aldridge Theater and Al Freeman Jr. Environmental Theatre Space under nationally recognized faculty whose pedagogy is rooted in cultural competence and artistic rigor. 

In the Acting Program, the African Diasporic imagination is not a supplement to the curriculum. It is the foundation. Our training centers an African Diasporic lens alongside the classical Western canon, in direct conversation with contemporary research across theatre, performance studies, and cultural theory. 

Our approach is holistic, multi-hyphenate, interdisciplinary, and collaborative. Through it, students develop technical competence, critical consciousness, and creative sovereignty — becoming versatile, embodied narrative artists fluent across stage, screen, and emerging media. They graduate ready to step consciously into the arts and culture ecology, not as observers of the field, but as its pioneers, stewards, organizers, nurturers, and authorities. 

The Acting Academic Plan requires students to complete the full 122- credit hour academic plan to meet graduation clearance.  The academic plan is designed to meet  Howard University's General Education Essential Learning Outcomes as well as Acting Program Area Learning Benchmarks (supported, but not exclusive to, NAST Standards for BFA acting training)  

Students in the Acting Program Area currently represent 20 states and territories of the nation, coming from various socioeconomic backgrounds, and with varying degrees of exposure to acting training.  All students, however, must gain admission to the university and are therefore scholars first — Howard's competitive admissions standards ensure that every actor in this program enters with demonstrated academic strength, in addition to their artistic promise. The vision of the College of Fine Arts is to nurture creatives, scholars and artist-activists.  Our faculty and student populations work to embody that vision. 

Admission to the Acting Program Area is a deliberate and discerning process. We do not simply select students — we curate an ensemble. After gaining admission to the University, each cohort is assembled with intentionality, balancing artistic range, personal perspective and collective potential, because the people you train alongside are not merely your classmates. They are your first professional community. You will challenge one another, discover one another, and ultimately become colleagues who carry the imprint of this training — and of each other — throughout your careers. The curriculum is designed to be navigated together, building the trust, creative vocabulary, and collaborative intelligence that professional ensemble work demands. 

Within the Acting Program, community extends far beyond the rehearsal room. In addition to the academic plan, students apply their learning in the mainstage production season, and engage a rich supplemental curriculum that includes visiting artist residencies, industry masterclasses, and the Acting Program Area's professional development lecture series, alongside interdisciplinary opportunities that connect theatre to music, dance, visual art, film, and the humanities. Washington, DC amplifies every dimension of this experience, placing students in proximity to world-class institutions, policy makers, cultural organizations, and a thriving professional arts community that regards Howard as a vital creative partner. 

To train here is to belong to something. To be chosen for this ensemble is to accept an invitation to become not only a working artist, but a leader in the ongoing evolution of American and African Diasporic performance. 

Admission to this area of concentration is by audition, interview and supporting materials only.  

Visit our Audition page for information and instructions about the virtual submission and audition processes. 

Howard University offers need-based financial aid, and qualified applicants may request an application fee waiver through the Office of Admissions.  Please reach out to the College of Fine Arts Center for Student Success for guidance. 

We are looking for more than the willingness to express emotion. We are looking for artists who are ready — ready to be challenged, transformed, and accountable to something larger than themselves. The ideal candidate for the Acting Program Area at Howard University arrives with hunger, humility, integrity, confidence in their ability to learn, and a genuine investment in the power of storytelling to change the world. They understand that training at the Mecca carries both privilege and responsibility. 

Our ideal student need not have extensive acting training.  Most importantly, an ideal student for the Acting Program embodies: 

Artistic Fearlessness — a willingness to take creative risks, inhabit uncomfortable truths, and pursue the full range of human experience on stage and screen 

Cultural Competence — an awareness of and respect for the diversity of human experience, with particular grounding in African Diasporic history, culture, and artistic tradition 

Intellectual Curiosity — a love of rigorous inquiry across theatre history, dramatic literature, performance theory, and the interdisciplinary conversations that shape contemporary practice 

Technical Discipline — the commitment to develop voice, body, and imagination as precision instruments through daily, sustained practice 

Collaborative Spirit — the understanding that theatre is a collective art form, and that generosity toward fellow artists is as essential as individual excellence 

Integrity — a dedication to honest work, ethical conduct, and accountability in every rehearsal room, classroom, and professional context 

Resilience — the emotional fortitude to receive feedback, navigate failure, and return to the work with renewed purpose 

Empathy — the capacity to inhabit lives unlike your own with specificity, compassion, humanity and no judgement 

Agility — the ability to move fluidly across styles, forms, genres, and media — from classical text to contemporary devised physical theatre work; from stage to screen performance 

Vision — a clear and evolving sense of the artist you are becoming and the impact you intend to have 

Professional Readiness — an orientation toward the industry that is entrepreneurial, self-aware, and forward-thinking, whether the path leads directly to professional work or to advanced graduate study 

Civic Imagination — the belief that art is not separate from the world but inseparable from it, and that the stories we tell have the power to both reflect and shape the future we inhabit 

What does it mean to train on an international stage? Ask our alumnae. 

Tabitha Straker ('26), Amauriah Davis ('26), Khalyla Semexant ('26), and current student Alexandria Wood (‘27) spent a transformative semester training at the British American Drama Academy (BADA) London Program with Sarah Lawrence College — one of the world's most prestigious intensive conservatory programs. Their experience deepened their classical training, expanded their global artistic perspective, and positioned them as artists fluent in both American and British theatrical traditions. Hear directly from them about what it meant to carry Howard's legacy to London — and what they brought back. 

Talk to Quinn Leak (‘27)  and Tyrie Wallace (‘27) returning from the BADA Midsummer summer program! 

Talk with Kevoy Sommerville (‘27) starring in Capital Classics Theatre Company Summer Shakespeare Festival’s productions of Measure for Measure and Midsummer Night’s Dream 

Prof. Nikkole Salter, a member of the Creative Core of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown is invited to direct her seminal play IN THE CONTINUUM at the Mitambo Theatre Festival in Harare, Zimbabwe where one acting student will have the opportunity to travel and perform with a Zimbabwean theatre student, September 2026. When

Business Show: On the Business of Acting 
A Professional Development Lecture Series — Acting Program Area, AY 2026–27 

Howard University's Acting Program Area is proud to launch Business Show, a year-long professional development series designed to support career training. Open to the full Department of Theatre Arts, the series brings working professionals directly to our students through panels, workshops, and interactive sessions. 

Upcoming sessions include: 

The Arts and Culture Economy - An information session that defines the ecology and economy of the arts and culture industries, that is; the institutional landscape of business interactions and possibilities.  Includes acting business history through our contemporary marketplace economy. Focuses on how actors interact with that economy and what it means to be in Business as an actor.  Introduces the Business Plan template and the idea that the business of acting has little to do with the technical aspects of acting.  All the things you have to be able to do and manage so that you can act. 

In the Contract — Contract types, AI consent clauses, collective bargaining and knowing your rights. Featuring AEA DC Liaison, entertainment attorneys from Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts. 

Marketing, Branding & the Digital Actor — Headshots, reels, self-tape, social media strategies, and building your brand. Featuring DC Office of Cable Television, Film, Music & Entertainment (OCTFME) and TIVA-DC, Breakdown Services Liaison. 

Managing Your Finances as a Working Artist — Taxes, deductions, retirement, and building financial security on an irregular income. Featuring entertainment CPAs, Business Managers and the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. (also discussing the proper relationship between an actor and their money consultants)  

Booking the Gig — How the casting ecosystem works, from submission to callback. Featuring DMV casting directors, and NYC agents and managers including a live mock audition session.  (also discussing the proper relationship between an actor and their agents, etc.)  

Working the Job - An information session about AEA membership and protections, professional etiquette, HR policies, workplace standards - knowing your rights and responsibilities to the workplace. Featuring the AEA DC Liaison, Company Management and an HR person. 

The Actor Entrepreneur — Considering the actor as a generative artist, creating content and their own opportunities in the storytelling marketplace. 

The Leading Actor: Race, Representation & Power — A workshop and conversation about leadership, empowerment and navigating the industry as an actor. Featuring Howard University alumni working professionally in theatre, film, and television. 

Acting in the World of AI and New Media — Voice cloning, digital doubles, mo-cap, and protecting your likeness. Featuring OCTFME, Howard School of Communications faculty, and the SAG-AFTRA AI Task Force. 

Acting Well  — The nexus of acting, health and well-being; tools and resources for navigating physical/social/emotional risk factors associated with the life of a professional actor.  Side hustles and bridge jobs 

Business Plan – A workshop session walking actors through creating their own business plan and strategy for entering the field. 

Sessions meet throughout the academic year. All DoTA students welcome.