AMERICAN THEATRE | AT Education Monthly: Pig Iron School, Special Education Report, and Sensory-Inclusive Theatre

This year is careening to an end, and somehow, the holiday season is upon us. Despite the usual busyness and a packed fall of Broadway shows to catch, a persistent head cold has forced me to slow down. (The 4:30 p.m. sunsets haven’t helped!) In the quiet of this uncertain time, when the world feels a bit wobbly, I’ve been looking for glimmers. And here’s a great one: I was heartened to speak to Pig Iron co-founder Quinn Bauriedel last week about Pig Iron School’s new partnership with Rowan University’s College of Performing Arts in Glassboro, N.J.

The MFA and graduate certificate program in devised theatre will launch in 2025, after being paused when Pig Iron’s longtime institutional partner, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, abruptly closed in June. While the fall semester was canceled, the Philadelphia arts community stepped up to keep the currently enrolled students creatively engaged with fundraising events, free masterclasses, and participation in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The Fabric Workshop and Museum even invited the students to experience a printmaking workshop. How cool is that?

Pig Iron is excited about the opportunity to continue offering training through Rowan University while keeping their home base studios in Philadelphia. Students will travel weekly to Rowan’s New Jersey campus to teach undergraduates, one of the many reasons the partnership feels like a perfect fit.

“You know when you hold off on something for a little while, or you’ve had your hand forced? I think, at least the Pig Iron spirit, my spirit…that there is a little coiling up that I think happens, that I suspect in January 2025, will spring in a way that is joyous and filled with energy and filled with attention,” said Bauriedel.

That forward-looking energy is especially crucial during times of flux, particularly with the presidential inauguration set for the day before classes resume. “I think we’re a very safe space for students of all kinds to feel like they can fully express themselves, but I know that that’s not necessarily the world outside of the studios that we have to be somehow in harmony with and respond to,” said Bauriedel. “And we’re going to aim to do exactly that—to speak to what’s happening in the world, and to make sure that our students feel that they cannot be oppressed or silenced or censored or told how to think within the studio spaces. That’s something we’re all very dedicated to and can’t wait to get back to.”

Check out this American Theatre piece about the new partnership, and Pig Iron’s upcoming information sessions and audition workshops for prospective students.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving!