Theater Management

Production Opportunities

In a distinctive feature of the Theater Management curriculum, students have the opportunity to engage in the management of Yale Repertory Theatre from the beginning of their training, and to collaborate with students and faculty from other programs in productions of David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Cabaret. Students progress through positions of increasingly significant responsibility for producing the David Geffen School of Drama/Yale Repertory Theatre’s roster of over 40 productions annually.

During the first year, theater managers rotate through several different roles such as house manager; assistant company manager; assistant in the management, marketing, and development offices; and as management assistant at Yale Cabaret. In addition, every first-year student serves on a Yale Repertory Theatre run crew. In the second year, theater managers advance to semester-long positions as company manager, assistant managing director, or assistant director of marketing or development for Yale Repertory Theatre, or associate managing director of Yale Cabaret. In their final year, theater managers’ professional work assignments are substantially full-time positions at a high level: associate managing director of Yale Repertory Theatre, David Geffen School of Drama, or special projects; associate director of marketing or development; or managing director of Yale Cabaret.

Acting Projects

First-, second-, and third-year actors employ skills from class in rehearsal and performance of a modern classic or contemporary work of challenging dimension with directors from among their faculty and professionals in the field. Dramaturgs are assigned to these projects. Designers and sound designers are assigned to Fall Project. Spring Project and the Commedia Project are designed by the company. The processes are managed by students from the Stage Management, Theater Management, and Technical Design and Production programs. The Fall Project is open to a small public audience, while the Spring Project and Commedia Project are presented by invitation only from members of the companies.

Langston Hughes Festival of New Work

The Langston Hughes Festival of New Work incorporates and advances the principles of the New Play Lab, bringing playwrights, directors, actors, dramaturgs, and stage managers together to work on a new play. The Festival embraces the significant artistic, technical, and managerial challenges of producing new plays in rotating repertory. The process is managed by students from the Theater Management and Technical Design and Production programs, and is presented to a public audience.

Shakespeare Repertory Projects

Clarity of language, lucidity of storytelling, and impact of performance are the primary objectives of these productions of works from Shakespeare’s canon, which are proposed and staged by second-year directors, and approved by the faculty and the Dean. Directors lead their peers from the Acting, Design, Dramaturgy, and Stage Management programs in rigorous mutual exploration and imaginative realization of the text with the collective purpose of generating a well-conceived and skillfully executed production. These productions are managed by students from the Theater Management and Technical Design and Production programs and they are presented to a public audience.

Directors’ Thesis Productions

Third-year student directors propose productions of contemporary or classical plays, musicals, adaptations, or—more rarely—original works, as the production portion of their thesis, which must be endorsed by their faculty and approved by the Dean. Directors lead their peers from Acting, Design, Sound Design, Dramaturgy, and Stage Management in circumstances resembling as closely as possible those they will encounter in a professional context. These productions are managed by students from the Theater Management and Technical Design and Production programs. Performances are presented to a paying public audience.

Carlotta Festival of New Plays

Students in all disciplines collaborate on the production of three new plays written by third-year playwrights. The Festival’s name honors Carlotta O’Neill who designated that the proceeds from the publication of Long Day’s Journey Into Night by her husband, Eugene O’Neill, would support playwriting at Yale University. The Festival embraces the significant artistic, technical, and managerial challenges of producing new plays in rotating repertory, in circumstances similar to those in the professional theater. The third-year playwrights are paired with third-year Directors, who lead their peers from the Acting, Design, Sound Design, Dramaturgy, and Stage Management programs to fully realize the playwright’s work. The Festival is managed by students from the Theater Management and Technical Design and Production programs, and performances are presented to a paying public audience.

Yale Cabaret

The Yale Cabaret is an independent, student-run theater company in residence at David Geffen School of Drama. It provides an additional, strictly extracurricular, outlet for the exploration of a wide range of material, including self-scripted material, company-devised original work, adaptations, and musicals. Extracurricular participation in the Yale Cabaret is encouraged, subject to prior notification of the program chair. No second- or third-year student on academic warning may participate in the Yale Cabaret.

Yale Repertory Theatre

Yale Repertory Theatre is the multiple Tony Award-winning professional theater in residence at David Geffen School of Drama, which produces an annual season of new and classic plays as well as the No Boundaries performance series. In a relationship analogous to that of a medical school and a teaching hospital, nearly every student at the School of Drama receives a meaningful production assignment at Yale Rep during their three years of training.