The Dramatic Writing Option is focused on collaboration, intellectual vision, and experimentation. Students receive constant feedback during playwriting and screenwriting workshops, along with critiques with distinguished guest faculty and guest artists.

Central to the curriculum is Theatre Lab, in which writers, directors, and actors from across the School of Drama collaborate throughout the year to create new plays. This is complemented by a collaborative television lab with similar production outcomes and goals.

The MFA culminates in the New Works Series, in which new plays by graduate playwrights receive full productions, performed by the School of Drama's acclaimed student actors.

All dramatic writing MFA candidates have the opportunity to teach undergraduate courses in playwriting or screenwriting.

For more than two decades, Dramatic Writing scholarships at Carnegie Mellon University have been underwritten by the Shubert Foundation. The program has longstanding ties to Pittsburgh’s City Theatre, which is devoted to the production and commissioning of new plays. There are many possibilities for collaborating with the many new-media initiatives taking place across Carnegie Mellon University, which is recognized as a world leader in arts and technology.