The New School of Drama

Our School of Drama combines rigor with creative experimentation. We focus on authenticity of expression and confront today's most pressing societal issues through the making of theater, film, and emerging media.

Our faculty is made up of New York's contemporary legends-award-winning actors, playwrights, and directors who bring a currency of professional experience, artistic training, and project-based learning into the classroom.

Our four-year BFA program in Dramatic Arts prepares students to be artists in today's changing world, creative thinkers, and engaged citizens. Our MFA program throws students into an intensive, highly collaborative, and ensemble-driven training, with a focus on the creation of new works and relevant reinterpretation of existing plays.

We take inspiration from the greats who walked these halls before us, including Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, and Tennessee Williams, as well as our more recent graduates, like Adrienne C. Moore and Jason Kim.

The School of Drama has its roots in the legendary Drama Workshop, which came to The New School in 1940. Founder Erwin Piscater and his faculty, which included Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, fostered some of the most important artistic voices in the modern American theater, Tennessee Williams, Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, and Judith Malina to name a few.

In 1994, the School of Drama began offering an MFA degree, with concentrations in directing, playwriting, and acting.

In 2013, the School of Drama established a BFA in Dramatic Arts to nurture and educate the next generation of citizen artists. This program offers students the opportunity to grow not only as directors, writers, actors, and creative technologists, but as artists with multiple interests and skills.

In 2021, the School of Drama launched an MFA degree in Contemporary Theatre and Performance, which takes a modern approach to conservatory training. This program focuses on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary creative practice and prepares students to transform their field and expand the role of the artist in society today.