After the UArts collapse, Pig Iron Theatre finds a new home at Rowan University

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The Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training will become part of Rowan University in New Jersey, almost four months after it was cast adrift following the sudden closure of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Pig Iron Theatre cofounder Gabriel Quinn Bauriedel said Rowan will be the Pig Iron School’s forever home.

“I believe absolutely that this is phase three of the school,” he said. “Phase one we did it on our own. Phase two we did it with UArts. Phase three, the final phase, is with these gentle, kind, wise folks at Rowan.”

The Pig Iron Theatre Company is widely known for its experimental and devised theater techniques and created a school to train students at the master’s degree level. But the degree program requires an institutional partner, which is now Rowan.

Rowan University has three campuses in South Jersey, with the Department of Theater and Dance based on the main campus in Glassboro, New Jersey. Pig Iron will remain in Philadelphia, with students studying at the school’s studio in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood.

“It’s really a unique opportunity to have this exemplary, unique MFA that’s already in existence,” said Rick Dammers, dean of the College of Performing Arts at Rowan University. “They have their own facilities. They have their own students already. It’s a lot easier to incorporate a pre-existing program than to start one from scratch. And the reputation of the program, too, is exciting.”

Classes start in January 2025. The 21 students already enrolled in Pig Iron’s school at the time of UArts’ closure will be automatically enrolled at Rowan. An additional dozen students are expected to begin as first-year students.

Bauriedel had put instruction on hold in the fall of 2024 but was concerned about prolonging the students’ education. He said he needed to move quickly, while still moving carefully to find a good institutional fit.

“They have a really robust undergraduate program in theater and dance, but they don’t have a graduate program. So it’s a nice fit in that way,” Bauriedel said of Rowan. “The artists and educators in the theater and dance department are all people who have been making work in Philadelphia for decades and are very familiar with Pig Iron. I really feel like it’s a simpatico relationship with Rowan.”

Dammers said Pig Iron already aligns with much of the faculty and teaching at Rowan.

“We’re an integrated department of theater and dance, so we do movement-driven theater,” he said. “Their approach is something that we really like a lot and it’s not something that’s new for us. That’s one of the many reasons we’re really excited about this program and partnership.”

After the closure of UArts, Rowan took on dozens of its former students, mostly from its music program. The university reached out to Pig Iron immediately after the closure to begin talking about what it could do. Bauriedel had an immediate concern: International students might find their student visas in jeopardy when their sponsoring university no longer exists.

A deal was quickly devised to have Pig Iron’s international students enroll in Rowan’s arts administration masters program in the fall, to keep their visas active.

“It was a sign that we can do a small project together,” Bauriedel said. “You want to have a few dates before you get married. This was one of those dates. It was a nice date.”

Pig Iron is still smarting from its previous marriage to UArts. Bauriedel said the school is still owed $300,000 in back payments. UArts has filed for bankruptcy, so how its assets will be liquidated and which debts will be paid is up to the court.

“We’ve been told by our pro bono lawyer team to be very sober and not expect a lot out of that,” he said.

Public performances by Pig Iron students are being planned at the end of the spring semester at Christ Church Neighborhood House in Old City. The students will be expected to go to Rowan’s Glassboro campus occasionally to teach classes. Bauriedel said it’s possible they might perform there as well, but that has not yet been discussed.