The curriculum of Playwrights Horizons Theater School is constantly evolving in response to the ever-changing needs of the students, faculty and the world of theater itself. Students take classes in acting, directing, design, dramaturgy, playwriting, voice, speech, music performance, and movement. The four year curriculum channels the students’ skills toward ever more challenging material. With each semester, as the skills taught grow more sophisticated, the program becomes more attuned to the needs of the individual student. A special feature of the school is its extensive four-year directing program that is unique in undergraduate theater training.
Graduates of Playwrights Horizons Theater School have become professional directors, actors, designers, theater administrators, teachers, founders of their own theater companies, casting directors, agents, and technical directors. They work in theater, television, and film. Many former students have studied or are studying in graduate programs at New York University, Yale, Julliard, University of Southern California at San Diego, Columbia, American Repertory Theatre Conservatory, Northwestern, Washington University, Cal Arts, Indiana University and A.C.T. Conservatory.
In 18 years of operation the school, now under the direction of Helen R. Cook, has trained more than 1,800 theater students and produced approximately 600 faculty and student directed productions. The school, situated east of NYU’s main campus at 440 Lafayette Street, has a current enrollment of 200 students.
The uniqueness of the directing program and the strength of the acting program within the context of a multi-faceted curriculum assure students of a comprehensive base from which to make strong choices about their futures. The collaborative nature of the training at Playwrights Horizons Theater School produces a graduate who is aware of the world and his or her place in it and who is a thoughtful, well-trained and versatile theater artist.
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