Professional work assignments (PWA) place our students in key technical management roles in mounting David Geffen School of Drama, Yale Repertory Theatre, and Yale Cabaret productions. Though they sit within an academic program, these assignments are modeled after professional jobs the students might take on after Yale, requiring a similar approach, effort, and quality. Those roles typically include the following management positions:
All first- and second-year students complete three production assignments; third-year students, only two. At the end of each year, students continuing in the program submit their requests. The program chair uses those requests along with faculty recommendations, as the basis for making assignments for the following year.
Each student's PWA promotes their professional growth. When appropriate, we devise special assignments to suit a student's career goals. We also permit second and third-year students to substitute an approved research project for one PWA. In all this, the guiding principle is to allow students to pursue practical experiences that would most benefit them and work as independently as possible.
To see descriptions of various production projects please click here.