Drama Viewbook - 2026

SCHooL OF DRAMA

At the School of Drama, your training starts the moment you set foot on our campus, where you’re immersed in the artistic and cultural life of New York City. You are surrounded by legendary artist-educators who challenge you to expand the boundaries of your artistry and instill in you the commitment and discipline you need for bold creative success.

We teach you to take control of your artistic career. Explore our community, which over its 100-year history has shaped some of the most important theater and film artists the world has ever known.

where new storytellers are born

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students to thrive as artists and engaged citizens in today’s evolving theater and film industries. Our program fosters artistic flexibility, proficiency across multiple media, and contemporary relevance.

The MFA in Contemporary Theatre and Performance revolutionizes dramatic arts training to prepare graduates for success in an ever-changing field and to expand the artist’s role in society today.

The School of Drama, along with Mannes School of Music and the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, has recently

our degree programs at a glance

The four-year BFA in Dramatic Arts prepares undergraduate

integrated with Parsons School of Design, consistently ranked #1 among U.S. art and design schools. Now students of all creative disciplines—music, drama, art, design, media, and more—can innovate and collaborate across diverse forms of artistry in a vibrant new creative community.

Learn more about the values driving our educational programs at newschool.edu/artists-proficiencies.

174

students enrolled at the School

31% international students

of Drama (142 undergraduate, 32 graduate)1

1 Fall 2023 enrollment.

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your faculty mentors

Our faculty is made up of contemporary New York legends— award-winning actors, playwrights, directors, and creative technologists who bring a wealth of industry experience and proven teaching methods to the classroom.

A few of our faculty are listed below; see the whole list at newschool.edu/drama-faculty.

Stephen Karam—A playwright, screenwriter, and director, Karam has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice. His play The Humans won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play, and he wrote and directed its film adaptation, released in 2021.

Joanna Chinyere “ChiChi” Anyanwu—A talent manager and founder of CHI Talent Management, Anyanwu represents clients appearing on Broadway (MJ The Musical, Hadestown), in films (the musical Mean Girls, Boogie), and on TV (Daredevil: Born Again, Only Murders in the Building). She is also a producer for the Now Africa: Playwrights Festival.

Sarah Gancher—Gancher is an Obie Award–winning playwright whose work has been produced or developed at venues including London’s National Theatre, Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Sanjit De Silva—An actor, writer, and director, De Silva has worked on Broadway and in film and television. De Silva has performed in Thomas Kail’s world premiere of Dry Powder at The Public Theater, in New York’s Shakespeare in the Park, in Hammaad Chaudry’s An Ordinary Muslim at the New York Theatre Workshop, and in J. T. Rogers’ Corruption at Lincoln Center Theater.

Cara Hagan—A multidisciplinary performer, curator, and community builder, Hagan has performed around the world using art to pursue liberation.

Her work has been seen at the Performática Festival in Cholula, Mexico; the Conference on Geopoetics in Edinburgh, Scotland; and the Loikka Dance Film Festival in Helsinki, Finland.

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Marjan Neshat—An Obie Award–winning actress, Neshat was recognized for her performance in English, Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play, staged by the Roundabout Theatre Company. That performance earned her a 2025 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

Neshat’s work for stage and screen often explores stories from an Iranian American perspective.

Irina Kruzhilina—A designer and director, Kruzhilina has won awards for work spanning interdisciplinary downtown theater, large parades, and site-responsive installations. She conceived and directed SpaceBridge, presented by En Garde Arts and La MaMa, which won praise from the New York Times. Her work has appeared at venues including Tokyo Disney, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the National Theatre in Prague, and Lincoln Center.

9:1

student-to-faculty ratio

68

School of Drama faculty members

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a community of collaborators

At the School of Drama, you’ll find a community of creatives dedicated to amplifying stories that move society forward.

Actors develop their skills by performing playwrights’ scripts; playwrights gain insights from actors; directors work with digital designers to transform theater for the future.

As a student of the university’s performing arts colleges, you can take courses taught by Mannes and School of Jazz and Contemporary Music faculty members such as Broadway performer Grace McLean (Suffs; Bad Cinderella; Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812) and Broadway and film composer David Van Tieghem. And because your school is part of the New School community, you can connect and collaborate with peers and instructors at Parsons School of Design and in the Creative Writing program—a diverse array of media makers, designers, photographers, and writers.

Follow us on Instagram to see our community in action: @newschoolperformingarts.

If you’re in the area, observe our work firsthand by attending a performance.

View our event calendar at newschool.edu/drama-calendar.

New York City Partnered Projects At the School of Drama, you’re guided by a faculty of industry professionals and benefit from connections to theater innovators and legendary arts organizations in a global capital of theater. Recent School of Drama partners include the New Victory Theater, Pink Fang (formerly Ping Chong & Company), St. Ann’s Warehouse, and the New LAByrinth Theater Company.

Learn more at newschool.edu/drama-partners.

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our ACADEMIC programs

BFA DRAMATIC ARTS

In the Bachelor of Fine Arts program, an interdisciplinary, studiobased structure ensures that you develop a strong foundation in acting, directing, playwriting, and creative technology. Our Guided Theater Electives offer you project-, technique-, and theory-based courses that help you develop advanced skills in one of several areas of focus, including Advanced Performance, Advanced Directing, Advanced Writing, Transdisciplinary Work and Producing, and Technology, Film, and Media.

Your coursework is designed to enable you to explore your artistic vision and expand your skills. Your BFA studies include professional development opportunities and the industry access you expect from a top-tier theater school in New York City. newschool.edu/drama/bfa-dramatic-arts Curriculum Overview The BFA Dramatic Arts curriculum includes required courses taught at the School of Drama and throughout the College of Performing Arts, University Lecture Courses, Guided Theater Electives, and general electives that allow you to explore and tailor your studies through a minor.

Credit requirements sometimes change; visit newschool.edu/provost/ academic-catalogs to see educational requirements for a given year.

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Performing Arts Core Courses All undergraduates take the Performing Arts Core program—courses and electives designed to help you explore cross-disciplinary topics crucial for professionals in the field, nurture you as a holistic and generative artist, and broaden your perspective. Required courses include The Whole Human Artist, Socially Engaged Artistry, Improvisation and Collaboration, and Technology and Experimentation.

Explore courses at newschool.edu/drama-courses.

Creative Technologies Creative Technologies is a multidisciplinary course of study for theater students interested in integrating digital media and live performance. Our courses in video projection design, filmmaking, and sonography equip you with the skills you need to create innovative work and take on hybrid roles such as director-designer and actor-designer. Students with advanced skills in creative technologies can build their portfolio by working on senior film and media pieces or as sound or production designers for our various productions.

Minors That Help You Stand Out Minors let you explore subjects that complement your drama studies, acquire specialized skills, and stand out in professional settings. Popular Business, Creative Entrepreneurship, Sociology, and Audio Production.

Our full list of more than 70 minors can be found at newschool.edu/ drama/minors.

14 Drama studios

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dedicated performance venues

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minors include Contemporary Dance, Film Production, Screenwriting, Fashion

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SPECIAL BFA LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

Learning in the BFA program goes beyond the classroom to include special opportunities like the Creative Lab/Studio series of student-led productions, an annual devised performance, and study abroad in London, England; Galway, Ireland; and Lisbon and Porto, Portugal. Theater professionals invited to performances enable you to share your creativity with a broader drama community.

See the list on the next page and visit newschool.edu/dramaopps and newschool.edu/drama-abroad to learn more.

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The Creative Lab/Studio allows you to pitch and produce work under the guidance of a faculty advisor while gaining hands-on experience by managing a project from start to finish. You collaborate with students from across the New School community, who help bring your project to life.

The Dramatic Arts Senior Festival presents thesis work by BFA Dramatic Arts students that highlights their training in technique while demonstrating the depth of their critical inquiry abilities.

Directed Research Projects are year-long development undertakings that give graduating students the opportunity to apply their skills to a culminating work in writing, directing, acting, or design. Projects can include a new or extant play, film, collaborative work, or media piece.

The Actor Showcase is available by audition to graduating students following a semester-long intensive course taught by a professional manager. Students select and rehearse dramatic material for a performance before an audience of invited casting directors, managers, and agents.

Music Theater Lab is a collaborative theatrical course in which students explore and develop musical theater performance. Students practice and perform songs from a variety of eras and genres.

Bank Street Theater Productions offer students opportunities to work closely with faculty, industry professionals, and peers to create productions and share them publicly. Recent BFA productions include the world premiere of Dipti Bramhandkar’s The Ruminants, Anne Carson’s translation of Orestes by Euripides, Jaclyn Backhaus’s Men on Boats, and Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

performances per year (faculty-,

guest-, and student-directed works)

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16–20

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MFA CONTEMPORARY THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE

The three-year MFA in Contemporary Theatre and Performance combines the rigor of traditional conservatory training with learning experiences that strengthen your abilities in ensembledriven collaboration, innovative practice, the development of new work, and entrepreneurship. Your studies take you to the intersection of acting, writing, directing, creative conceptualization, and technology. You master your artistic field of practice while acquiring the practical skills and knowledge you need to thrive as an independent artist in an industry that increasingly demands interdisciplinary abilities.

You develop dramatic narratives rooted in emotional honesty that reflect a solid mastery of technique in a process guiding you to interpret, improvise, create, collaborate, and bring projects to completion. newschool.edu/mfa-drama

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Curriculum Overview The program’s approach to learning is project-centered, process-oriented, and highly collaborative. Your curricular pathway—designed on the basis of your background and goals—supports your creative practice and fosters advanced skills in multiple disciplines, including multimedia design and new creative technologies. You work closely with faculty, mastering the techniques necessary for careers on the stage and in television and film.

Visit newschool.edu/provost/academic-catalogs to see information on educational and credit requirements for your year of entry.

Capstone Projects As a third-year student, you produce a work that represents the culmination of your unique path through the program. Projects can take the form of an original play, film, devised work, or site-specific collaborative piece.

Minors That Broaden Your Horizons Graduate minors offered throughout The New School enable you to acquire skills to complement your School of Drama course of study.

Learn more at newschool.edu/graduate-minors.

understanding of the power of collective creativity in bringing stories to life.”

—Bin Bin Kuo, MFA Contemporary Theatre and Performance alum

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“ Working so closely with my cohort enriched my

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Special MFA Learning Opportunities

Your diverse community of fellow MFA students, faculty, and industry partners expands your creative opportunities and professional networks. You are encouraged to share ideas for new works, seek collaborators both within the school and from other parts of The New School, and propose projects that provide hands-on experience in all phases of conceiving and producing work. New School graduate students also take part in 1st Mondays, Naked Angels’ monthly play reading series, and participate in events like the MFA Capstone Festival and the Mannes Sounds Festival. Described below are initiatives created to give MFA students experiential learning opportunities.

To learn more, visit newschool.edu/drama-opps.

Site-Specific Projects go beyond the traditional stage as you and your peers create a work responding to a specific physical space, one that draws inspiration from the site’s architecture, history, setting, and use. The project offers unique opportunities for creative placemaking and community engagement and culminates in a public performance.

a play—from developing and rehearsing to staging and presenting. Along with your artist peers, you define and explore the roles and responsibilities involved in producing a new play, developing your ability to contribute creatively in the process.

The MFA Capstone Festival is a collective artistic activation of the Bank Street Theater and surrounding spaces by graduating MFA students. The festival introduces the university and wider community to students and their boundary-breaking creative work, presented at a range of stages of development.

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The New Play Workshop offers hands-on learning in the process of creating

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your creative future awaits

School of Drama faculty and staff help you make your career ambitions a reality. We assist you in finding courses, collaboration partners, and projects beyond the classroom that develop your craft and prepare you to launch a career.

Our Student Career Services team helps you chart a path after graduation and secure internships with renowned organizations such as Theater for a New Audience, Ma Yi Theatre Company, Lincoln Center, BAM, American Ballet Theatre, and many others in the New York metropolitan area.

Learn more about undergraduate career advising at newschool.edu/dramacareers and graduate advising at newschool.edu/drama-grad-careers.

Alumni Innovators Our graduates take their education and creativity into new terrain, reimagining theater and eliciting new emotions, insights, and action from audiences.

A few of our alumni are listed below; learn more at newschool.edu/drama/ outcomes.

Stefania Bulbarella, BFA Dramatic Arts ‘19, is a Tony-nominated projection designer whose Broadway credits include Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride (Nederlander Theatre) and Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Manhattan Theatre Club). Bulbarella was nominated for a 2026 Lucille Lortel Award for her work on Nothing Can Take You From the Hand of God (Playwrights Horizons). In 2022, she received a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Space Dogs.

1,279 School of Drama program alumni

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Brittany Bellizeare, MFA Acting ’09, is an actress and writer who made her Broadway debut in 2024 in McNeal, a one-act play by Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar, in which she starred alongside Robert Downey Jr. For more than a decade, she has been building a dynamic career performing in premier regional theaters, Off-Broadway productions, and New York arts festivals.

Jordan E. Cooper, BFA Dramatic Arts ’18, is an award-winning performer and playwright. He starred in the sold-out 2021 run of his play Ain’t No Mo’, which moved to Broadway and was nominated for six Tony Awards, including two for Cooper himself. Cooper played Tyrone in FX’s Pose and Jett in the 2025 feature film Freakier Friday. He is the creator and executive producer of the Emmy Award–nominated The Ms. Pat Show, which airs on BET+. His play OH HAPPY DAY!, directed by fellow alum Stevie WalkerWebb, premiered at The Public Theater in 2025.

Jason Kim, MFA Playwriting ‘13, is a playwright, screenwriter, and librettist.

Kim wrote the book for KPOP—which won Outstanding Musical at the 2018 Lucille Lortel Awards and a Tony nomination in 2023 for Best Original Score—and was a writer on HBO’s Girls.

Stevie Walker-Webb, MFA Directing ’16, launched his career with We Ain’t the Huxtables, a work created by members of C.A.S.T., an arts nonprofit he co-founded that uses theater as a means of creating radical social change. Walker-Webb also directed Ain’t No Mo’, which garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play. He earlier won a Princess Grace Award for Directing. Walker-Webb is the artistic director of Wanted in fall 2026.

Hadi Tabbal, MFA Acting ’07, is an actor and playwright who made his Broadway debut in 2025 in English with the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Since graduating, he has established a thriving career as the star of NBC’s The Brave and in regional theaters, on Off-Broadway stages, and at major arts festivals.

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of Baltimore Center Stage and will be directing the Broadway premiere

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Your New Home in a Creative Capital

Your studies at the School of Drama unfold in New York City’s legendary downtown neighborhood, Greenwich Village. The Village’s history—which includes social activists who stirred the nation and virtuosos who developed new art forms—inspires you as it did New School alumni and faculty groundbreakers like Marlon Brando, Bradley Cooper, Bea Arthur, Bill Evans, James Baldwin, Stella Adler, and John Cage. Today the Village is home to dozens of small theaters, jazz clubs, and performance venues, all just steps away from our dorms and classrooms.

Housing Our residence halls and other university facilities are a short walk from your classrooms, giving you easy access to libraries, computer labs, and our 24‑hour University Center, which houses our cafeteria and performing arts library. Our dorms offer a secure environment and facilities including free laundry machines, and residence hall staff organize a variety of social, educational, and cultural activities. All first-year full-time undergraduates must live in on-campus housing unless they meet waiver eligibility.

For details, visit newschool.edu/housing.

The New School’s comprehensive financial aid program provides competitive merit-based scholarships and need-based aid for those who qualify. All applicants, including international students, are automatically considered for merit aid.

We also participate in government grant, loan, and work-study programs.

For more information on financing your education, visit newschool.edu/drama/ tuition-fees-estimator and newschool.edu/student-financial-services. You can email questions to sfs@newschool.edu.

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Financial Aid

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Learning Resources The New School’s extensive resources—performance and gallery spaces, libraries, XR studios, making facilities, computer labs, archives, and research centers and institutes—help you get the most out of your time at the university.

Public programs bring luminaries and new ideas to campus, drawing on the city’s position as a center of culture, commerce, and innovation. The University Learning Center (ULC) provides academic support to The New School’s diverse student population through one-on-one tutoring sessions and workshops. newschool.edu/learning-center

Health and Wellness The Student Health Services (SHS) team help you thrive in the classroom by offering comprehensive confidential, culturally sensitive medical and counseling support. Resources include immunizations, in-person and telehealth appointments, individual counseling, support groups, and psychiatric care.

Dedicated staff on campus provide services and can refer you to specialized and public healthcare resources. SHS also organizes wellness activities such as meditation classes, workshops, and stress relief events during challenging times of the year. newschool.edu/health-services

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“ At The New School, from the very beginning you’re taught about the importance of collaboration.”

—Jason Kim, MFA Playwriting alum

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a place for limitless collaboration

The School of Drama is one of the university’s performing arts schools, along with Mannes School of Music and the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and the three form a creative community with Parsons School of Design. All are housed in The New School. This unique model allows us to offer three tiers of collaboration. Within each school, students collaborate across disciplines with their classmates—actors with directors, composers with musicians—erasing boundaries between majors. In the three performing arts schools, musicians, composers, playwrights, actors, and directors join forces, taking classes and creating together. Across The New School, performing arts students can pursue minors and courses in every discipline, including liberal arts, design, technology, media, and management. We embrace collaboration with an entrepreneurial spirit. Discovery, rigorous practice, and versatility aren’t just words to us; they are at the core of the New School curriculum.

“ I chose The New School because it was in the heart of NYC and was one of the only schools that felt like a playground for artists of all kinds—actors, writers, musicians, fashion designers, community organizers.

You can’t help but be inspired here.”

—Jordan E. Cooper, BFA Dramatic Arts alum

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WE ARE THE NEW SCHOOL Since its founding in 1919, The New School has been a center of independent thought, dialogue, and action. We are a community that applies integrative approaches to global problems and leads the systemic change needed to make the world more equitable, more sustainable, and better designed for all. Today our university is made up of colleges offering courses in art, design, media, and performing arts and in the liberal arts and social sciences.

Get in touch and take the next step Contact our team, learn about admission requirements, attend an admission event, or make an appointment.

Contact the program 212.229.5150 x2 or 800.292.3040 x2 performingarts@newschool.edu

For important information including accreditation, student rights, campus safety statistics, and tuition and fees, visit newschool.edu/your-right-to-know. Published 2026 by The New School. The New School is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Photo credits: Maria Baranova, Sophie Barkham, James Ewing, Ben Ferrari, Guerrilla Photography, Nathaniel Johnston, Matthew Mathews, Siobhan Mullan, Martin Seck, Michael Kirby Smith This brochure is printed on FSC-certified paper with UV inks that conserve energy and material and do not release VOCs into the atmosphere—reflecting the university’s embrace of environmental responsibility.