CalArts School of Theater Admissions Book

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS AINROFILAC ETUTITSNI EHT FO STRA

CAL ARTS

School of

T H E ATE R

PERFORMANCE EXPERIENCE

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION

The Glass Mountain directed by Jonghee Woo (MFA Directing). Actors pictured: Whitney Hong (BFA), Talia Cartall (BFA), Nicole Holtz (MFA), Chris Yates (BFA), David Hochwalt (MFA), Shawn Brown (MFA), Anais Lilit Paronyan (BFA), Erik Dabrowski (MFA), Jacob Loader (BFA).

SCHOOL OF

THEATER

Dedicated to the development of new voices and forms, the CalArts School of Theater is one of the preeminent theater training centers in the country. The school’s goal is to educate the whole person, preparing fully equipped theater artists to enter and transform the field. You will be encouraged to build professional experiences and relationships, as we create various opportunities for you to realize effective careers after graduation. The CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP), the Institute’s professional producing arm, embodies our commitment to open such possibilities, providing you with hands-on professional experience well beyond the conventional academic approach.

The School of Theater offers students an educational experience that is experimental, interdisciplinary, international, and diverse.

Our educational mission is to forge a community of citizen artists who are rigorously trained in their respective métiers and are able to work effectively and innovatively across a broad spectrum of artistic settings, media, and technologies. As the practical conditions for theater artists continue to evolve, the training gives you the flexibility, skills, and ingenuity to navigate a rapidly changing environment, and to pursue your dreams with maximum agency. Since we are based in Los Angeles, the epicenter of film and media production, all programs give considerable attention to your having the versatility to succeed in a variety of arenas.

In addition to your chosen métier studies in the areas of Performance or Experience Design and Production, you will also be able to pursue courses and projects in the expanding fields of immersive and themed entertainment, guided by the school’s many connections with industry professionals. Through relationships with Walt Disney Imagineering, On Track Themes, Universal Studios, BRC Imagination Arts, and Fox, CalArts facilitates your engagement with an increasingly exciting landscape of theatrical experience.

The CalArts School of Theater is a singular place. It is unlike any other school in the world in its passionate and mindful pursuit of its mission, and, equally, in supporting your personal aesthetics, dreams, and professional aspirations.

The Seagull directed by Michael Alvarez (MFA Directing). Actors pictured: Carolina Vargas (MFA), Hannah Trujillo (BFA), Chris Brosnan (BFA), Samuel Camp (MFA).

PERFORMANC

E

PERFORMANCE ALUMNI

Hugo Armstrong Matt August Alison Brie Don Cheadle Eliza Coupe Michael Cudlitz Ty Defoe Elizabeth Frances Nataki Garrett Dana Gourrier Virginia Grise Ed Harris David Hasselhoff Bill Irwin Lars Jan Michael Jung Jessica Kubzansky Debi Manwiller Condola Rashad Paul Reubens Amy Keating Rogers Katey Sagal Catherine Sullivan Cecily Strong Amy Tofte Bresha Webb Derek Webster Michole Briana White Chi-wang Yang

ACTING Providing comprehensive training for talented actors and theater artists, the Acting Program moves beyond traditional theater instruction and looks to the wider opportunities of performance practice in the 21st century.

The school offers a rigorous, progressive training program that focuses on an array of acting techniques, together with the disciplines of voice, speech, and movement, to develop one’s mind, emotions, and body as an effective instrument of performance. The objective is to train you to become a versatile artist with the skills and knowledge to chart your own creative and professional path.

The CalArts Center for New Performance will afford you with opportunities to learn and work side-by-side with world-renowned artists in local, national, and international forums. Moreover, with Los Angeles as a center for film and media, the program’s rigorous training incorporates not only acting for the camera but also performance for interactive media and immersive environments.

FOUR-YEAR BFA, THREE-YEAR MFA

DIRECTING Dedicated to artistic experimentation and innovation, the selective, rigorous graduate program prepares already experienced directors to put forward a personal vision for the theater and redefine the boundaries of performance. Studies in the program, tailored to your specific artistic interests, are first and foremost rooted in intensive practical experience. In addition to addressing the full spectrum of the dramatic canon, the program is unique in that it emphasizes the growing importance of original work generated by directors. Courses also pay significant attention to film aesthetics and practice, and their applications in emerging media.

THREE-YEAR MFA

EXPERIENCE DESIGN AND PRODUCTION ALUMNX

Kevin Adams Brandon Stirling Baker Robert Barnhart Chad Bauman Jenny Foldenauer Ian Garrett Roger Holzberg Barbara Inglehart Jeff Kleeman Peter Ksander Brian J. Lilienthal Christine Marie Jamie McElhinney Marco Morante Laura Mroczkowski Cricket S. Myers Leon Rothenberg Darcy Scanlin Meredith Lynsey Schade Qadriyyah “Q” Shamsid-Deen Justin Townsend Miranda Wright Laura Youngkin

IGN S E D E C N E I R EXPE N O I T C U D O R P AND Capitalizing on Los Angeles as a global hub for creative performance and media professionals, the multidisciplinary programs in Experience Design and Production offer you intensive professional instruction in a variety of areas. Increasingly, these individual disciplines are finding new and rewarding expressions in various global media markets, immersive environments, and innovative live performances. Sequential in structure, the programs consist of classroom study and hands-on production experience, allowing you to acquire broad aesthetic knowledge and practical technique. You will also develop a professional-caliber portfolio—a requirement for careers in theater, film, and other directions in entertainment and the arts.

Experience Design and Production FOUR-YEAR BFA SPECIALIZATIONS: Costume Design Experience Design/Themed Entertainment Lighting Design Scene Design Sound Design Stage Management Technical Direction THREE-YEAR MFA SPECIALIZATIONS: Costume Design Lighting Design Producing Scene Design Sound Design Stage Management Technical Direction Interactive Media for Performance

Hamlet directed by Scarlett Kim (MFA Directing). Actors pictured: Nic Prior (BFA), Caleb Fietsam (BFA), Lauren Baker (BFA), AJ Delaire (MFA).

CNP’s HA-M-LET. Actor pictured: Peter Mark (MFA), creator and performer.

CALARTS CENTER FOR NEW PERFORMANCE CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP) is the professional producing arm of California Institute of the Arts, established to provide a unique artist- and project-driven framework for the development and realization of original theater, music, dance, media, and interdisciplinary projects. Extending the progressive work carried out at CalArts into a direct dialogue with professional communities at the local, national, and international levels, CNP offers an alternative model to support emerging directions in the performing arts. It also enables CalArts students to work shoulder-to-shoulder with celebrated artists and acquire a level of experience that goes beyond their curriculum.

Seminal artists from around the world are brought to CNP to develop work that expands the language, discourse, and boundaries of contemporary theater and performance. CNP fosters the future of live performance by infusing the work of such transformative artists with the talent, vitality, and impulses of emerging artists in the CalArts community.

Since its modest beginning, CalArts Center for New Performance has produced work that has had an immediate and startling effect on the national and international performance environment.

CNP represents an integral part of the Institute’s commitment to provide a home for alternative theater and cross-disciplinary work on CalArts’ Valencia campus, at REDCAT, and at other national and international venues.

FACULTY TRAVIS PRESTON DEAN, HEAD OF DIRECTING, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF CALARTS CENTER FOR NEW PERFORMANCE (CNP) CRISTIAN AMIGO SOUND DESIGN CHRISTOPHER BARRECA HEAD OF SCENE DESIGN CAMILLE BENDA HEAD OF COSTUME DESIGN MARISSA CHIBAS ACTING, DIRECTOR OF DUENDE CALARTS (CNP) MICHAEL DARLING HEAD OF TECHNICAL DIRECTION

ELLEN MCCARTNEY DIRECTOR OF EXPERIENCE DESIGN AND PRODUCTION CHARLES MCNULTY DRAMATURGY, THEATER HISTORY ANNE MILITELLO HEAD OF LIGHTING DESIGN ANTHONY NIKOLCHEV MOVEMENT DANIEL PASSER ACTING, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF PERFORMANCE RACHEL SCANDLING PRODUCING, CNP PRODUCER

HEATHER EHLERS MOVEMENT

SHANNON SCROFANO ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF EXPERIENCE DESIGN AND PRODUCTION

PETER FLAHERTY HEAD OF INTERACTIVE MEDIA FOR PERFORMANCE

AMANDA SHANK ASSOCIATE DEAN, CNP ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

JANIE GEISER OBJECT PERFORMANCE, DIRECTING

BREE SHERRY STAGE MANAGEMENT

JON GOTTLIEB SOUND DESIGN

ADAM J. SMITH PERFORMANCE PROGRAM COORDINATOR, VOICE

MONA HEINZE DRAMATURGY LARS JAN ACTING MIRJANA JOKOVIC DIRECTOR OF PERFORMANCE, HEAD OF MFA ACTING ANDREA LEBLANC ASSOCIATE DEAN, CO-HEAD OF BFA ACTING DAMIAN LEWIS CO-HEAD OF BFA ACTING, VOICE AND SPEECH RAFAEL LOPEZ-BARRANTES VOICE GEORGE LUGG PRODUCING, CNP CONSULTING PRODUCER

CHI-WANG YANG ACTING, ASSISTANT DEAN, CNP ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

THIS PAGE AND BACK COVER: Oedipus the King directed by Jesse Bonnell (MFA Directing).

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