History
History of Yale School of Drama
Yale University founded a Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts in 1924 through the generosity of Edward S. Harkness, B.A. 1897. In 1925, while the University Theatre was under construction, the first class of students was enrolled. George Pierce Baker, the foremost teacher of playwriting in America, joined the faculty to serve as the first chairman of the department, and the first Master of Fine Arts in Drama was conferred in 1931. In 1955, by vote of the Yale Corporation, the department was organized as a separate professional school, Yale School of Drama, offering the degrees of Master of Fine Arts, Doctor of Fine Arts, and Certificate in Drama (for those students who had completed the three-year program without having the normally prerequisite bachelor’s degree).
History of Yale Repertory Theatre
In 1966, under the leadership of Dean Robert Brustein, Yale Repertory Theatre was formed as part of Yale School of Drama, establishing a complementary relationship between conservatory and professional practice.
A hallmark of Robert Brustein’s artistic leadership of Yale Repertory Theatre from 1966 to 1979 was his insistence on a resident company of artists. Brustein’s dream of a permanent repertory company became an inspiration to the emerging field of nonprofit theatre. The model of Brustein’s programming choices, emphasizing the production of new plays and classics of the world theatre in vivid and inventive interpretations, has remained the centerpiece of the work of Yale Repertory Theatre.
During the tenure of Lloyd Richards, dean and artistic director from 1979 to 1991, the theatre increased its emphasis on the production of new plays. Athol Fugard, Lee Blessing, and August Wilson were among the playwrights who premiered their work at Yale Rep during Richards’s leadership. Yale Rep was one of the first resident theatres to regularly transfer serious work to the commercial theatre, developing a model of professional producing that changed the course of new play development in the American theatre.
Stan Wojewodski, Jr., dean and artistic director from 1991 to 2002, was notable for his commitment to the individual artist. Wojewodski made longterm commitments to Suzan-Lori Parks, Len Jenkin, and Ralph Lemon, as well as numerous actors, directors, and performance artists.
James Bundy, appointed dean and artistic director in 2002, emphasizes the production of new works and bold interpretations of the classics that make immediate connections to contemporary audiences. His tenure has included regional, American, and world premieres of plays and translations by Henry Adam, David Adjmi, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Kia Corthron, Lucinda Coxon, Amy Freed, Marcus Gardley, Kama Ginkas, Rolin Jones, Sunil Thomas Kuruvilla, Elizabeth Meriwether, Richard Nelson, Bruce Norris, David Rabe, José Rivera, Sarah Ruhl, Octavio Solis, and August Wilson. During this time, Yale Rep has also commissioned more than a dozen playwrights to write new work, and provided low-cost theatre tickets and classroom visits to thousands of middle and high school students from Greater New Haven through Will Power!, an educational program initiated in 2004.
Yale Repertory Theatre has produced well over 100 premieres, including two Pulitzer Prize winners and four other nominated finalists. Eleven Yale Rep productions have advanced to Broadway, and countless other plays first produced at Yale Rep have been presented at theatres across the country. Yale Rep productions have garnered more than forty Tony Award® nominations and eight Tony Awards, and the theatre itself is the recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.
