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    Academics

  • Combine rigorous training with creative experimentation. Our curriculum focuses on fostering artistic growth through courses in theory and technique, enhanced by consistent performance and production opportunities. In addition to exploring authenticity of expression, you will confront today's most pressing societal issues through the making of theater, film, and emerging media. Our unique, project-based curriculum nurtures the synthesis of intellectual, academic, and technical skills in the creative process.

    BFA Program

    Our four-year BFA program in Dramatic Arts prepares students as artists, creative thinkers, and engaged citizens. Students take foundation classes in acting, directing, playwriting, and creative technologies. After these required courses, students can choose a series of theater electives based on their interests, and broaden their horizons by selecting as electives a variety of courses in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and the arts in any undergraduate college of The New School.

    MFA Program

    Our selective and intensive three-year MFA program is dedicated to the training of actors, dramatic writers, and directors for stage and camera. Our program is highly collaborative and ensemble-driven, with a focus on the creation of new works and relevant reinterpretation of existing plays. Students participate in in-studio performances and main stage productions in the first two years. In the third year, they take part in both fall and spring full-length festivals as well as the production of an original film in collaboration with the School of Media Studies.

  • Areas of Study

  • With our wide range of minors, explore interests outside of your core area of study across all of The New School's schools and colleges. Acquire new professional skills, develop an interdisciplinary outlook, and gain a competitive edge on job and graduate school applications.

  • Performance & Learning Opportunities

    Go beyond the edge of the stage. Discovering new ways to unleash your talent and potential. Through our performance opportunities, you have the chance to bring your art to life while gaining hands-on experience through creative experimentation.

    BFA Drama
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    Collaborative Partnerships

    Create bold, innovative theater under the guidance of industry leaders.

    Take devised collaborative theater production to new heights. Through the School of Drama's partnerships with companies like the Tectonic Theater Project, you'll have the opportunity to approach staging theater productions in new ways, leveraging the relevance, vibrancy, and innovation that are hallmarks of Tectonic's work. Collaborate directly with Tectonic teaching artists and our faculty as you push your skills outside of your discipline and learn how to employ every element of the theatrical machine towards making narrative, including lights, props, costumes, and text.

    Creative Café

    Where entrepreneurial drive and creative expression collide.

    Have a creative vision you want to bring to life? Creative Café is the spot. Creative Café offers BFA students the opportunity to propose and produce self-directed projects with resources from the School of Drama. Work under the close guidance of a Faculty Advisor, getting hands-on producing experience managing a project from start to finish. Develop the skills that will be demanded of as you as a professional artist while collaborating with undergrad and graduate students from across The New School community to bring your studio performance to life. A creative and entrepreneurial spirit is required.

    MFA Cinema Project Workshop

    Narrative short-film making through interdisciplinary collaboration.

    Come together with fellow graduate students from the College of Performing Arts to collaborate on the development, production, and completion of an original short film. The Cinema Project Workshop pairs MFA Drama writers, directors, and actors together with the producers, cinematographers, editors, and sound designers from the School of Media Studies. During the fall semester, you'll master the theories and principles of filmmaking through a series of short projects. In spring, join a student production team to bring an original screenplay to life, featuring scores by Mannes and Jazz composers.




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  • Take The Next Step

Submit your application

Undergraduates

To apply to any of our Bachelor's programs (Except the Bachelor's Program for Adult Transfer Students) complete and submit the Common App online.

Graduates and Adult Learners

To apply to any of our Master's, Doctural, Professional Studies Diploma, Graduate Certificate, or Associate's programs, or to apply to the Bachelor's Program for Adult and Transfer Students, complete and submit the New School Online Application.