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California Institute of the Arts

BFA: Experience Design and Production

School of Theater

A group of people on a dimly lit theater stage focused on the person standing in the center

The Overcoat, directed by Tina Kronis, 2024

Imagination, passion, and technical expertise

All-encompassing training awaits innovative theater artists in CalArts’ four-year BFA program in Experience Design and Production. Over the course of the four years, our renowned faculty and CalArts’entire community of artists help you become equipped with an expansive and highly individualized skill set across various metiers and media. The comprehensive curriculum is ideal for talented, forward-thinking artists and technicians engaged with imagination, guided by passion, and compelled to forge a singular creative career.

A line of actors standing on a stage with their arms and hands raised as confetti falls around them

Accidental Death of an Anarchist.

  • Best performing arts programs in the US
  • 8:1 student-faculty ratio

    in the School of Theater

  • Top 20 colleges for performing arts

Envisioning the stage with the theater maker of tomorrow

BFA Experience Design and Production

Central to the BFA XDP curriculum is exposure to a variety of collaborative practices including live performance, film, dance, themed entertainment, and immersive environments, as well as social and civic entrepreneurship. Graduates emerge as flexible, highly skilled theater artists able to adapt across a multiplicity of professional creative arenas.

Let’s connect

As a student in CalArts’ intensive, four-year BFA program, you’ll be immersed in a variety of collaborative practices designed to nurture your personal vision and prepare you for a sustained practice as an innovative theater maker. Grounded in project-based learning supported by a rigorous theoretical and critical framework, the training is intended to lay the foundation for a rich and varied creative career.

Experience Design and Production students may specialize in one or more of the following areas: Costume Design, Lighting Design, Scene Design, Sound Design, Stage Management, and Technical Direction.

In the first two years, you’ll explore the fundamental concepts and skills used by theater artists, fostering a sustained dialogue between thinking and making. In keeping with the School of Theater’s commitment to interdisciplinary study, these core years feature a series of project-driven Studio Labs, in which you’ll examine approaches to design thinking, visual communication, and aesthetics, exploring ideas of “theater” as an expanded field. These experiences provide a foundation for advanced study in your chosen metier practice.  

In subsequent years, you’ll work with faculty mentors to create training programs tailored to your own needs and interests. The curriculum is highly individualized, with core program requirements serving as a framework for further studies customized to meet your personal goals and ambitions.

As a BFA candidate, you’ll have the opportunity to work on projects and participate in workshops presented by the School of Theater and the CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP), and will be encouraged to collaborate with your peers throughout the Institute.

All BFA Experience Design and Production students are required to pass a mid-residence and graduation review in order to complete the program and earn the degree.

Admission requirements

To be considered for the BFA Experience Design and Production program, you must complete an application and all program-specific requirements, including a self-recorded video introduction, an artist statement, and a portfolio of your work. Before applying, please familiarize yourself with the detailed application requirements and resources available to assist you in this important process.

Application requirements

Degree requirements

View BFA XDP academic requirements

In addition to work in your specific program, all undergraduate students must complete requirements in general education, which we call Critical Studies. This liberal arts curriculum is designed to enable students to consider aesthetic questions within larger socio-cultural, ethical, and political contexts.  

View Critical Studies requirements

Minors and interdisciplinary opportunities

CalArts offers students the chance to pursue additional interests alongside their chosen discipline, such as a minor in Digital Arts, Critical Studies, or Arts Education.

Learn more about minors and interdisciplinary opportunities 

Courses you might take

What courses would you take as a BFA Experience Design and Production student? Browse the courses offered in the School of Theater, one of the preeminent theater training grounds in the country.

Explore our course catalog

Meet the faculty

At CalArts, faculty and students are collaborators, teaching, learning, and working together as members of our community of artists. 

What will you create?

Student projects

Experience Design and Production converges studies in narrative, immersive experience, environments, behavior, dramaturgy, fabrication, and interactivity. Check out these portfolios from some of our BFA and MFA XDP students.

Students stand in bare feet in a bright green room. A camera in the foreground prepares to film them.

Some of our alumni

More School of Theater alumni

Lights fantastic

Alumni Story

“In the same way that a painter may use a brush to create phrases and mix color, I’m doing that with light. And lighting also has rhythm and pace. My friends back home will say, ‘Why did you give up music?’ But I never gave up music. I just use a different instrument now.” Tony-nominated lighting designer Brandon Stirling Baker (BFA 10) sheds light on his profession.

Starkly lit black-and-white portrait of a man with a slight smile emerging from a shadow

Alumnx profile: X. Hill / Costume Design.

Gallery

Want to learn more?

We got you. Our Admissions team is all about providing the information you need to decide if CalArts is right for you. We’re excited to connect with you for a tour of our legendary campus, a virtual info session, or at one of our admissions events across the country or around the world. Take the next step—we’re here to help.