Theater Management

The Theater Management department prepares aspiring leaders and managers to create organizational environments increasingly favorable to the creation of theatre art and its presentation to appreciative audiences. Recognizing that there is no substitute for experience, the department provides students with the knowledge, skills, and values to enter the field at high levels of responsibility, to move quickly to leadership positions, and ultimately to advance the state of management practice and the art form itself.

Although the focus is on theatre, many graduates have adapted their education successfully to careers in dance, opera, media, and other fields.

In the context of an integrated management perspective, students are grounded in the history and aesthetics of theatre art, production organization, hiring and unions, the collaborative process, decision making, organizational direction, motivation, organizational design, human resources, financial management, development, marketing, and technology. The Theater Management program focuses primarily on theatre organizations, but incorporates discussions of other performing arts organizations, other nonprofits, and for-profit organizations to help identify the factors that make theatre organizations succeed. It is training in the practice, supplemented with up-to-date theoretical knowledge.

The training program combines a sequence of departmental courses, approved electives in other departments and schools, topical workshops, a case study writing requirement, and professional work assignments. In a distinctive feature of the Theater Management curriculum, students have the opportunity to engage in the management of Yale Repertory Theatre from the beginning of their training, and to collaborate with students and faculty from other departments in productions of Yale School of Drama and Yale Cabaret.

In the first year a student enrolls in seven departmental courses per term, one of which consists of a case study on a particular theatre organization; attends a variety of topical workshops; and is given professional work assignments in a number of operating positions on a rotating basis.

In the second year the student enrolls in five departmental and elective courses per term, attends a variety of topical workshops, and performs two term-long professional work assignments of increased responsibility. In another distinctive feature of the Theater Management curriculum, the second-year student has the option of replacing one term residence with a fellowship in a professional setting away from the campus, selected by the faculty.

In the final year the student enrolls in four departmental and elective courses per term, attends a variety of topical workshops, and may be given a yearlong professional work assignment of high responsibility. Occasionally a student writes in-depth case studies in lieu of the third-year professional work assignment.

The Theater Management department offers a joint-degree program with Yale School of Management, in which a student may earn both the Master of Fine Arts and Master of Business Administration degrees in four years (rather than the five years that normally are required). A joint-degree student must meet the respective admission requirements of each school. The typical plan of study consists of two years at Yale School of Drama, followed by one year at the School of Management, culminating with one combined year at both schools. Generally, students have until the beginning of their second year at the School of Drama to decide whether they are interested in the joint degree option.

Students are required to complete twenty-five required courses (including the case study writing requirement), seven approved electives from other departments and schools, a variety of topical workshops, and professional work assignments. (For students choosing the second-year fellowship, the course requirements are reduced to twentyfour departmental courses and three electives.)

Elective sequence:

Seven electives approved by the chair, selected from other departments of Yale School of Drama, from Yale School of Management or other professional schools, or from Yale College. One elective must be either Production Planning or Production Management. One elective must be an additional course in dramatic literature or criticism in the Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism department.

Among other electives for consideration are:

• Principles of Stage Management
• Scene Design
• Costume Design
• Introduction to Lighting Design
• History of Theater Architecture
• Theater Safety
• Strategic Management of Nonprofit Organizations
• Strategic Leadership Across Sectors
• Negotiation
• Emotional Intelligence at Work