The fall brings new productions, new students and new possibilities, it also brings the annual Stage Directions guide to theater training programs. In the following resources section, we spotlight an impressive group of schools offering some of the leading theater training programs. It is at these schools, these shops and on these stages where theater’s next generation hone their skills, find their passion and emerge with the new ideas that move our industry, the art of production, forward. We encourage you to take some time to read over the following Education Resources pages and learn more about what these outstanding schools offer that has allowed them to build such successful theater training programs. Then go to the school’s websites for further information on their many degree programs. And if you are looking to hire new production people at your theater, your shop or your company consider the talented graduates of these programs. Perhaps even call the schools directly to discuss the current employment landscape in our industry and the skillsets that are needed today to fill the roles available.
Webster University’s Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts is the only undergraduate training program that has a major regional theatre and an opera company on campus. The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis offer unparalleled opportunities for study. The Conservatory also partners with The Muny, St. Louis’ summer home to professional musical theatre, the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Variety St. Louis, and the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre.
Programs of study include Performance (Acting and Musical Theatre); Directing; Stage Management; Costume Construction; Scene, Costume, Lighting, Sound; and Wig & Makeup Design; Technical Production; and Scene Painting. Learn more, visit
www.webster.edu/conservatory
The Department of Drama at Syracuse University offers rigorous undergraduate conservatory style training with an unparalleled level of integration with a professional theater company. As a student in Acting, Musical Theater, Stage Management, Theater Design & Technology, or Theater Management, you will be carefully guided in your artistic and professional growth by a team of skilled and committed teachers. The Department of Drama also has a unique affiliation with Syracuse Stage, Central New York’s premier professional theater, as they both share more than just their physical home: they share a commitment to the great things that happen when established and emerging artists join forces. Students, who have the opportunity to work in close association with the production, administrative, and artistic staff of Syracuse Stage, will participate in master classes offered by nationally and internationally renowned theater artists.
The Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree program in theater design and technology combines classroom and hands-on learning experiences. You can specialize in one or more areas, including set design, costume design, and lighting design. If your interest is in the technical aspects of theater, you can explore scene construction or painting, lighting, properties, costumes, or sound design. You will have the opportunity to design Department of Drama main stage productions and work collaboratively with faculty directors and designers—and with the professional staff and company of Syracuse Stage—to see your designs realized by a professional production team. You may also observe or act as an assistant to guest designers for Syracuse Stage.
Stage Management students will progress through a step-by-step program, learning and applying a method of stage managing that is utilized in every major professional theater company in both the United States and abroad. Combining classroom and experiential learning, working with professionals at Syracuse Stage, throughout the course of training in their Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree program.
Learn more at http://vpa.syr.edu/drama
St. Bonaventure University’s B.A. Theater Program offers you a nurturing and creative environment with small, intensive classes—which means lots of individual attention and mentoring—on their beautiful campus in Western New York.
In SBU Theater classes, you’ll grow your skills and express yourself in ways you never thought possible. And you’ll be taught by working theater professionals with decades of experience in theater and performance media. Their BA Theater program offers a diverse range of productions. From Shakespeare’s Hamlet to Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s Cellphone; premieres like Lines: A Surrealist Vaudeville, and their 2022 production of Patch of Blue’s We Live by the Sea.
SBU Theater offers you the chance to act and get design/tech production experience from your very first semester. Their award-winning devised theater productions have allowed students and faculty to develop exciting new stage works that resonate beyond their campus population. Senior theater majors produce their own capstone productions, which have included original plays, musicals, and solo works.
At SBU, they believe in the enduring properties of theater: its power to inspire, to move, to provoke emotion, empathy, and laughter. They believe in ensemble. At SBU every actor, designer, and technician contributes significantly to the success of every production.
Their students regularly participate in the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival. SBU theater students have interned at theaters including The Alley and ACT and successfully completed graduate & conservatory programs such as NYC’s Neighborhood Playhouse. They write for theater and arts blogs and publications, teach and direct in academic and regional theater programs, practice law, create media and marketing campaigns, and are making their marks in all sorts of production and performance opportunities. At St. Bonaventure, the possibilities are up to you. Learn more at www.sbu.edu/theater.
The Department of Theatre Arts at Marymount Manhattan College offers two degree programs (BA/BFA) to set you on your path to success. At MMC, they combine a professional theatre arts education and rigorous training with a comprehensive program in the liberal arts. It is their philosophy that the more well-rounded the education of their theatre students, the better prepared they are to create and produce compelling, informed, imaginative, and innovative theatre. Dedicated to providing their students with an unparalleled training, they offer the following majors: Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) in Acting; in Musical Theatre; in Theatre Design & Technology. Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Directing; in Producing & Management; in Theatre History and Performance Texts; in Theatre & New Media; in Writing for the Stage.
Their students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and from across the country and around the world, to engage in classes that will challenge, excite, and nurture them. Their faculty are committed to the teaching and mentoring of students and alumni while continually engaging in their own professional and creative work. This provides their students with an unparalleled experience in their development as educated and creative individuals. At MMC, New York City is your campus. Alongside their innovative curriculum, their classrooms extend beyond their main campus and include prestigious art galleries, world-class museums, award-winning theatres, professional studios, and the best cultural institutions NYC has to offer. Options for further study (sampling) include Arts for Communities; Drama Therapy; and Arts Management.
Marymount Manhattan College offers you small classes, personal attention, and great courses. They combine professional theatre education and training with the liberal arts, teaching their students how to create compelling, informed, imaginative, and innovative theatre. Learn more at www.mmm.edu.
Baylor University is home to a dynamic theatre program with special attention to building community while training excellent artists. The department offers the BA in Theatre Arts and BFA degrees in Theatre Performance and Theatre Design and Technology. The Department of Theatre Arts is committed to creating an educational and artistic environment in which all people can thrive. To that end, they are engaged in ongoing work to increase equity and inclusion throughout the program. Maintaining a low cap enrollment of undergraduate majors, the Department of Theatre Arts provides small class sizes and ample opportunities to excel.
All students are grounded in a holistic theatre education with required course foundation classes in theatre history, script analysis, performance, and a full range of hands-on technical elements. Advanced courses in acting, directing, dance, design, and theatre crafts allow for the development of strong skills in the field. Specialized theatre course offerings include musical theatre voice, dance, playwriting, dramaturgy, stage management, stage combat, and acting for the camera.
The Mission of Baylor University is to educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment within a caring community. The Department of Theatre Arts strives to nurture a close-knit community of intellectually curious and artistically daring theatre practitioners while preparing students for future success through liberal arts education and professional training.
Learn more at www.baylor.edu/theatre.
Manhattan School of Music offers a Bachelor of Music degree program in Musical Theatre. The program starts with the cornerstones of training—acting, singing, and dancing—but recognizes that their contemporary performers must also be trained beyond the “triple threat” model. Now more than ever, multifaceted musical theatre artists are in demand. MSM’s Musical Theatre faculty is a stellar collection of artist-educators who combine exemplary teaching with the highest level of professional know-how. In addition to acquiring essential skills as performers, MSM Musical Theatre students learn how to manage their careers, audition effectively, and negotiate the challenges of a highly competitive field. They are encouraged to develop their artistic interests and are given the opportunity to investigate areas beyond performing, including directing, choreographing, writing, and composing. They embrace individuality and honor each student’s journey. At MSM they are passionate about the arts and the next generation of musical theatre artists. Performance Opportunities include four fully produced musicals; The Fred Ebb Foundation Musical in Development; Freshman Cabaret; Senior Showcase (industry showcase for the graduating class); Musical Theatre LabSeries, and more. You can view previous productions at www.msmnyc.edu/programs/musical-theatre/previous-productions. Learn more at www.msmnyc.edu/programs/musical-theatre.
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is a top-ranked creative and performing arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, N.C. Founded in 1963 as America’s first public arts conservatory, UNCSA celebrates 60 years of training wildly creative, gifted and hardworking young artists to do what they love. At UNCSA, students are encouraged to grow, to experiment, and to develop their abilities to the fullest. Students study with resident master teachers who have had successful careers in the arts and who remain active in their professions. Students are enrolled in the five conservatories that make up the School of the Arts: Dance, Design and Production, Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. Ranging from high school to undergraduate, graduate, and post master’s, the students are selected by audition or portfolio review and interview. Along with rigorous arts training, students receive intensive academic instruction through the Division of Liberal Arts and the High School Academic Program. With its full academic program, the school awards the high school diploma, bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and the Professional Artist Certificate and Graduate Artist Certificate.
One of the top theatrical design and production schools in the world, the School of Design & Production at UNCSA delivers a profoundly creative, hands-on immersion in the behind-the-scenes magic of entertainment. Students attending UNCSA receive training in a stand-alone design & production conservatory dedicated to rigorous professional training in every aspect of modern stagecraft: costume design and technology, wig and makeup design, scene design, sound design, stage management, and more. They also gain invaluable experience working inside 100,000 square feet of state-of-the-art production space.
In the past, the design and production industry focused on careers in stagecraft—jobs behind the scenes of a play in a theater. “Now, their School of Design and Production teaches global entertainment,” said Michael J. Kelley, dean of the School of Design and Production. “While Broadway and international tours are their backbone, they also teach you to work in themed entertainment (such as theme parks), and aboard cruise ships.” Here students learn to build the future of entertainment.
Students come to the School of Design & Production with a passion for their art — and they leave equipped to live that passion in the professional world. There’s no better marker of the success of their program, and no greater source of pride, than the achievements of their alumni. UNCSA alumni work as scenic artists, makeup artists, stage managers, prop designers, sound engineers, lighting technicians, technical directors, and more in some of the most prestigious and well-known institutions across the globe—on Broadway, on television, in film, and beyond. Their alumni have worked with world-renowned organizations like Cirque du Soleil, Blue Man Group, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Berkeley Ballet Theatre, Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre, and The Walt Disney Company.
“I think that’s part of the secret at UNCSA: becoming prepared to work with people and interact with teams. Not everyone has those skills. There are people who have been in the business a long time and don’t have them. But they’re key,” states McLane Snow (D&P ‘07; Freelance Automation Installation Supervisor with TAIT). Another alum—Paul Tazewell (D&P ‘86; Tony Award-winning Costume Designer for Hamilton) notes, “The School of the Arts has been life-changing for me. I have realized just how much of an effect it’s had on my growth overall… the school is so much a part of who I am and how I relate to people.”
The undergraduate program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts allows you to pursue what you’re passionate about, while preparing you realistically for a professional career. The graduate program at the UNCSA gives you the opportunity to refine your craft and continue the development of your professional skills. If you’re looking for somewhere that nurtures a deep focus on your art, UNCSA is the place. You will be immersed in your chosen field with instructors and peers who share your drive and dedication. The small student-to-faculty ratio allows you to work closely with faculty mentors to tailor your education to your own needs and goals, while giving you the tools you need to be a dynamic artist in the professional world. Learn more at www.uncsa.edu/dnp.
