Dean's introduction

Erik Ehn

The CalArts School of Theater stands as one of the most forward-looking theater training programs in the United States, dedicated to the development of new voices and new forms. We offer professional training in an environment optimized for educating the whole person, and prepare full-fledged theater artists to enter and transform the field.

The school has two branches: Programs in Performance include courses of study in acting, directing, and writing for performance; Programs in Design and Production comprise scene, costume, lighting and sound design, technical direction, and management. The Programs in Design and Production also provide graduate-level specializations in producing, production management, scene painting and properties design. An additional specialization in puppetry is housed at the school’s Cotsen Center for Puppetry and the Arts.

All of these disciplines interact continuously as the school presents an extensive series of productions each year: full-scale works staged in connection with the curriculum, groundbreaking new projects developed and produced in collaboration with internationally renowned artists and institutions, and an annual New Works Festival. Our five theater spaces—the architecturally unique Walt Disney Modular Theater and four black-box theaters—often run productions simultaneously. We also make use of other on- and off-campus sites and venues, both conventional and unconventional.

Diversity—social, cultural, ethnic, economic—is crucial. The promise of the future is best realized by those who can recognize the opportunities inherent in diversity, make choices, and create new and elegant connections. In this spirit, CalArts offers students an educational experience that is:

Creative

Interdisciplinary

International

Creative: Creativity is experiential; production is at the heart of learning as students work side by side with faculty, who serve as both instructors and artistic mentors. In rehearsals, workshops and performances, the ideas and techniques engaged in the classroom are tested and joined in force through practical applications and immersive learning environments designed to promote collaboration.

Interdisciplinary: We push students to excellence in their métier, and then urge them to reach across boundaries.

International: The school advocates a global understanding of theater. We foster the development of the distinct personal voice, and charge that voice to know and declare its place in society at large. We support academic and cultural exchanges and tour shows internationally. We encourage the braiding of the academic with the world beyond our walls through the Community Arts Partnership, which links our students and faculty with youth in the local community, and the Center for New Performance, which allows students to work in an apprentice model with professional artists from around the globe.

Our training encourages open imaginations, availability to inspiration and collaboration, and the contemplative ability to be and do, to think and feel, in an open and searching manner, all the while maintaining a sure center.