Directing (M.F.A. and Certificate)

Liz Diamond, Chair

Yura Kondonsky, Associate Chair

The entire aim of the David Geffen School of Drama Directing program is the education of the director as creative artist and collaborative leader. Our goal is to train directors whose future work will advance human understanding and compassion through the infinitely expressive interplay of image, action, and word unique to our art form. The Directing program strives to be a space for students to engage together in lively exploration and experimentation; rigorous, generous critique; and shared discovery. Our graduates go on to play significant roles in communities around the world as directors of theater, opera, television, and film; as founders of opera and theater companies; as artistic directors of theaters and community arts organizations; and as arts educators.

Each year, three directors are admitted to the program on the basis of demonstrated artistic ability and capacity for collaborative leadership. They bring to the School a wide range of sensibilities, but share some crucial qualities. They are generators of ideas and projects. They have lively imaginations, an appetite for hard questions, and a robust curiosity about, and respect for, the world beyond their own cultural borders. They are not afraid to take risks, and they take responsibility for the philosophical and political implications of their work. Above all, they have a deep respect for the colleagues with whom they work and are eager, in coming to Yale, to contribute to a mutually supportive community of fellow learners.

In course and production work, emphasis is placed on nurturing directorial imagination: developing every student’s ability to articulate and transform artistic vision into theatrical image and embodied action. Equal emphasis is placed on strengthening the director’s capacity for inclusive leadership. Our core courses are (a) the Directing Practicum, which engages the student in a practical exploration of theatrical composition—the relationship of form to content—through studio exercises and projects; (b) the Directing seminars, which teach practical skills in text analysis, directorial interpretation, and production preparation, using a broad range of dramatic writing, theory, and production histories as course texts; and (c) the Labs, where directors, playwrights, and actors develop their ability to collaborate creatively through exercises, scene work, and critical feedback. The Directing program also hosts an annual opera practicum with singers from the School of Music, and, through Yale College and the School of Art, provides opportunities for students to gain an introduction to filmmaking. In addition, we welcome visiting theater artists to conduct workshops and engage in discussion throughout the year.

Because the art and craft of directing require an understanding of all the expressive modes that together embody theater, the Directing curriculum integrates core courses in acting and design into its programming. Directors also take courses in dramaturgy, playwriting, and theater management. Additional courses in these and other disciplines may be taken as electives.

Production work, involving intensive collaboration with fellow students in all School programs, is central to our training. Throughout their time at the School, directors practice their craft in diverse forums, ranging from scene work in classrooms to full productions in various performance spaces. Through these opportunities, directors put theory into practice, developing their ability to respond to a range of artistic, logistical, and leadership challenges. In the first year of training, directors participate in collaboratively created projects in DRAM 50a, The Theatrical Event, and direct workshop stagings of new plays by first-year playwrights in the New Play Lab. In the second year, directors direct a Shakespeare Repertory Project and a new play by a peer playwright. In the third and culminating year of training, directors direct a full production of their own thesis project and direct a new play by a peer playwright in the Carlotta Festival. In addition, directors may be assigned to serve as assistant directors on Yale Repertory Theatre or School productions.

Directing students and faculty are engaged, in classes and productions, in an ongoing effort to critically examine—and to reimagine—the role of the director in the contemporary theater and wider culture. We are striving to foster, within ourselves as individual artists and as a community of collaborative artists, a practice of directing firmly rooted in anti-racist and anti-oppressive principles.

All directing and assistant directing assignments are made by the chair of the Directing program (pending approval by the dean). Additional or alternative projects may be assigned to directors in all years of training, including new works, assistantships, and, on occasion, casting in School and Yale Rep productions.

Yale Cabaret

Directors are strongly encouraged to direct productions for Yale Cabaret and to participate in the work of the cabaret in other capacities. Students considering work at the cabaret must seek prior approval by the program chair, with the understanding that assigned academic and production work will be prioritized.

Plan of Study: Directing

Required Sequence

Year One

Year Two

*DRAM 350b, The Choreographic Imagination, is not offered in 2024–2025. Students will take an elective, chosen in consultation with program chair, in its place.

Year Three

Additional Requirements for the Degree

Anti-Racist Theater Practice Requirement

Directing students are required to enroll in DRAM 450a/b, Theater as Cultural Work: Leading with Values, in order to fulfill the School’s anti-racist theater practice requirement. Combined with the prerequisite workshop, Everyday Justice: Anti-Racism as Daily Practice, this course offers vital strategies for the lifelong development of individual and communal anti-racist practice.

Theater History Requirement

Directing students are required to successfully complete two term-length courses in theater history in order to fulfill the School’s theater history requirement. This may be accomplished either by enrolling in DRAM 6a/b, Survey of Theater and Drama, or, with prior approval of the program chair, by enrolling in two other theater history courses offered at the School or elsewhere within the university.

Elective Requirement

Directors are encouraged to take elective courses as their schedules permit. Courses may be selected from other programs within the School, and elsewhere within the university, subject to approval by the chair of Directing.

Participation in Commencement

A Directing student who has satisfactorily completed all production assignments and received a grade of Pass in all required courses, with only the Director’s Thesis Production Casebook remaining to complete, may participate in Commencement ceremonies. The degree in directing will only be conferred, however, when the Directing student has completed all requirements named above and successfully completed the Director’s Thesis Production Casebook. See DRAM 140a/b, The Director’s Thesis for details regarding completion of the production casebook.

Courses of Instruction

DRAM 37a/b, The Production Process See description under Playwriting.

DRAM 50a, The Theatrical Event Almost all performances are composed of three main elements: artist, audience, and event. What is a theatrical event? What are the artistic aims of a particular theatrical event and how may an artistic choice affect its reception by an audience? How does one meet a theatrical event on its own terms? In this three-week laboratory introduction, students function as both artists and audience, creating short pieces in response to prompts from photography, painting, music, and other media, and then discussing them. The goal of this course is to teach students how to read a theatrical event as both creators and audience. Required of actors, directors, dramaturgs, and playwrights during their first term in residence. Liz Diamond, Catherine Sheehy

DRAM 51b, New Play Lab See description under Playwriting.

DRAM 53a, Authentic Collaboration See description under Acting.

DRAM 103a, Acting I See description under Acting.

DRAM 110a, Foundations of the Art and Craft of Directing The course is designed to develop directorial skills in rigorous close reading of the text, associative imagining, and detailed production scoring. Through a series of analytical and creative encounters with a play, research, individual and group assignments, and scene work, directors develop methodologies for reading for events and action, thematic focus, production and performance style, and personalized theatricality. The course also explores the role of the director as a leader of the acting ensemble and the director’s practical work with actors on activating the play’s central dramatic conflict. Plays in the modern realist tradition serve as texts for these investigations. Yura Kordonsky

DRAM 112b, Introduction to Set Design See description under Design

DRAM 113a, Voice I See description under Acting.

DRAM 120a, Directing IIa: Directorial Approaches to the Plays of Shakespeare This course continues the development of the director’s analytical, interpretive, and imaginative abilities through an examination of the specific artistic and technical demands of poetic drama, focusing on the plays of Shakespeare. Emphasis is placed on the role of verse in determining action and shaping character and on the art of developing and articulating a directorial vision that will give new life to these texts. Throughout the term, seminar discussion centers around scene study, production research, project presentations, and on-the-feet investigations of the relation of script requirements to acting processes. Within this course, there is also a practicum of eight sessions with actors (who are enrolled under DRAM 190a, Shakespeare Practicum) during which directors and actors work together in on-the-feet explorations of Shakespeare’s plays. Karin Coonrod

DRAM 120b, Directing IIb: Directorial Approaches to World Performance This course continues the exploration of directorial approaches to an expansive variety of dramatic and theatrical forms by inviting students to explore a range of world performance traditions. Guided by the instructor, students explore oral traditions, texts, ideas, and an array of performance forms. Through the course each artist develops ideas for imaginative adaptations and productions that reflect an understanding of, and respect for, the cultural context from which the source material springs. Awoye Timpo

DRAM 124b, Introduction to Lighting Design See description under Design.

DRAM 130a/b, Directing III: Directorial Approaches to New Dramatic Forms A practical course on directorial approaches to modern and contemporary experimental drama. Emphasis is placed on the further development of interpretive skill through close reading and research, and stylistic orchestration of one’s reading of a play in production. Plays and landmark productions from the twentieth century and contemporary avant-garde are the course texts. Students’ production strategies for these works, as well as for their current School productions, are presented and discussed in weekly sessions. In the spring term, the course also examines the work of influential directors of the modern and contemporary period. Liz Diamond

DRAM 140a/b, The Director’s Thesis The primary project of the final year in directing is the thesis, a full production of a major work of classical or contemporary dramatic literature, or a new or original work, proposed by the student director and approved by the dean in consultation with the program chair. The written component of the thesis is a production casebook documenting the student’s preparation, rehearsal, and postproduction evaluation of the thesis production. The class meets weekly through the closing of the final thesis production of the year to provide counsel and practical support to students at each phase of the production process: design, budgeting, rehearsal, technical rehearsal, and performance. The course also provides individual and group advisement on the drafting of the production casebook. Susanna Gellert

DRAM 180a, Rehearsal Practicum: Meeting the Play This course focuses on the director-actor collaboration in the early stages of rehearsal. In this lab, first-year actors and directors learn “by doing” how to rigorously analyze the text of the play in order to discover its dramatic structure, given circumstances, and characters’ objectives, and to activate the central dramatic conflict of a scene or a play. The course teaches communication tools and rehearsal strategies that serve to engage the shared creative energies of all collaborators as they work to articulate, through bold and specific choices, the story unfolding on the page. Taught in conjunction with DRAM 563a. Yura Kordonsky

DRAM 190a, Shakespeare Practicum This practicum focuses on the director-actor collaboration in rehearsals, specifically on the plays of Shakespeare. In this lab, second-year actors and directors learn “by doing” how to mine the form and content of a Shakespearean text. Students work together to unpack given circumstances, character objectives, and the central dramatic conflicts of scenes and plays, exploring these in on-the-feet work while negotiating the space, with the goal of strengthening their ability to make and receive offers and to test and develop production ideas within the rehearsal process. Taught in conjunction with DRAM 120a. Karin Coonrod

DRAM 191b, Managing the Production Process See description under Theater Management.

DRAM 203a, Acting II See description under Acting.

DRAM 220b, Shakespeare Rep Project Proposal Tutorial Throughout their professional lives, directors conceive of theatrical projects and use their writerly skill to persuade producers and collaborators to join them in bringing these to life. In this course, students learn to develop their personal criteria for selecting a particular play (in this case a play by Shakespeare) and, in concise, lucid, and artistically compelling prose, to make a case for its production. During this course, students curate a list of plays, read and discuss them with one another, research production histories, develop early ideas for a production, and write and revise two production proposals. In drafting their proposals, students are challenged to discover and succinctly describe each play’s events, dramatic action, and contemporary significance. The work culminates in mid-April with the submission of two SRP proposals by each student director to Directing program faculty, the chair, and the dean. Sara Holdren

DRAM 248a, Designer and Director Dialogue In this course, sound designers and directors are given opportunities to practice collaboration and develop a richer understanding of their mutual practices. This semester-long workshop is open to all designers, directors, and playwrights. Jill BC Du Boff

DRAM 290a/b, Geffen School Show Proposal Tutorial The Geffen School Show, produced in the director’s final year, and the director’s accompanying production casebook, together comprise the Master’s Thesis in Directing. This tutorial course is designed to provide individual and group coaching to directing students in their penultimate year as they generate a list of potential thesis projects; workshop potential projects; and write and revise two compelling production proposals. In the drafting and presentation of these proposals, students are challenged to explicate why these projects are meaningful in this present cultural moment for the director, for fellow Drama students in training, and for the public. The course consists of group and individual meetings and involves substantial independent work on the part of the student director, beginning in the summer before the penultimate year. The course culminates in the spring with the presentation by the student director of two proposals to Directing program faculty, the program chair, and the dean. Susanna Gellert

DRAM 330a/b, Directing Practicum As the core course of the Directing program, the Directing Practicum is designed to develop the student director’s artistic and practical ability to assume the complex of responsibilities required of the professional director. Work in the Directing Practicum includes, but is not limited to, scene study, exercises in composition, adaptations, open rehearsals, practical study of prominent directors, explorations of non-text-based performance forms, and the creation of devised work. Liz Diamond, Yura Kordonsky, and guests

[DRAM 350b, The Choreographic Imagination This course develops the theater maker’s ability to mobilize the expressive power of the entire human body onstage. Students learn choreographic practices in order to expand the possibilities for what can be imagined, composed, and communicated in theater. We explore means of generating movement, activating space, manipulating timing and dynamic, effectively composing individual and group activity, and juxtaposing movement and language. Practical investigations in class develop physical instincts and movement literacy. No prior experience with dance required—merely openness to learning in motion. Open to non-Directing and non-Drama students with permission of the instructor. Not offered in 2024–2025]

DRAM 360a/b, Bridge to the Profession This course, meeting for twelve sessions in academic year 2024–2025, prepares directors for entry into a rapidly changing professional arena. Students identify the personal and artistic values and aspirations upon which to develop short- and long-term professional goals. Visits with artistic leaders, agents, union and foundation heads, and others are arranged in relation to the student’s goals. The building of a project to take into the field comprises the major portion of the course work, with readings and short exercises assigned throughout the course. Lileana Blain-Cruz

DRAM 380b, Introduction to Shakespeare for the Director This course begins the directing student’s yearlong exploration of Shakespeare’s work by introducing key tools of Shakespearean text analysis, including paraphrasing, scansion, and argument. Students learn to mine the text for given circumstances, character, objectives, and action, noting the opportunities and limitations of the printed play script. They also develop vocabularies in actors’ and directors’ processes of engagement with verse drama, to promote directorial confidence in collaborative interpretation. Assigned reading, written exercises, committed table reading and direction, and seminar discussion introduce students to a range of possibilities for discovering specific, playable dramatic action. James Bundy

DRAM 390b, Opera Practicum An introductory course in opera direction, offered in collaboration with singers from the Yale School of Music’s M.F.A. program in opera. This laboratory course focuses on the director/singer dialogue, while exploring opera’s defining characteristic as an integration of the arts. Examining the structure and style of a specific opera, the course explores approaches to creating work at once faithful to the spirit of the work and vitally alive for a contemporary audience, while fulfilling the primary demands of the music. Weekly sessions feature practical scene work, research assignments, and open rehearsals. The core text is the repertoire chosen by Yale Opera for its annual projects. Guest artists from the field are invited to provide insights and to respond to the work in class. Dustin Wills

DRAM 403a/b, Acting Intimacy and Combat for the Stage See description under Acting.

DRAM 450a/b, Theater as Cultural Work: Leading with Values The course engages students in articulating, embodying, and promoting anti-racist and anti-oppressive values in all aspects of directorial practice and theater-making. Through role play, examination of case studies and theory, and sharing of lived experiences, students and faculty learn to apply cultural work principles for a just world to their work as theater makers. The goal of this work is to interrogate and end practices that cause harm within our processes; to build and strengthen practices for accountability amongst collaborators; and to invest in the future by imagining, creating, and implementing systems of care and leadership that do not perpetuate or promote white supremacy culture. Nissy Aya

DRAM 563a, Activated Analysis II See description under Acting.