Program Description

California Institute of the Arts


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The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) School of Theater trains students from a global perspective and historical precedent while preparing them for current performance practice. The School’s mission is to promote a cultural and aesthetic diversity of viewpoint, experience, and expression.

Programs of Study

The School of Theater offers undergraduate degrees in acting as well as costume, lighting, scene and sound design, management, and technical direction. Undergraduate programs lead to a Bachelor in Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree.

The CalArts School of Theater supports and broadens the work of burgeoning artists from multiple disciplines. The School of Theater’s relatively small size (a 7:1 student-faculty ratio) allows for small classes, and one-on-one instruction. Every student works closely with his or her mentor, a faculty member who serves as that student’s artistic and academic adviser. Students gain essential practical experience through School of Theater productions and various other performances, including an annual New Works Festival. All undergraduate students must fulfill the Critical Studies requirements (40 percent of the total curriculum), which include courses in the humanities, social sciences, cultural studies, and natural sciences.

Facilities

On-campus performance spaces include four black box theaters and a cabaret-style stage. Chief among them is the Walt Disney Modular Theater, or the MOD, a vast black box that can be arranged to support an unlimited range of stage and seating configurations. The School of Theater operates shops and labs for scenery, costumes, props, sound, lighting, and computers.

Off-campus, CalArts’ dramatic performance space in downtown Los Angeles, REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater), opened in 2003 as part of the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. REDCAT provides numerous opportunities for School of Theater students, both as a performance venue for select productions and as a forum for acquiring professional experience in design, production, and management.

Faculty and Alumni

Leading professional theater artists in every area of practice comprise the School of Theater faculty. Each member of the faculty is committed to fostering the ambitions of the next generation of theater artists. Faculty members include Jon Gottlieb, Marissa Chibas, Travis Preston, Erik Ehn, Carl Hancock Rux, Carol Bixler, Fran Bennett, Martha Ferrara, Ellen McCartney, Christopher Barreca, Mary Heilman, Mary Lou Rosato, and Stephanie Young.

Faculty members are in constant contact with noted theater companies and current stage, film, and television professionals and, as such, are able to recommend students for valuable apprenticeships and internships.

Alumni from the School of Theater pursue careers across a variety of media and performance arenas. Distinguished members of this group include Don Cheadle (’86), Ed Harris (’76), Jennifer Elise Cox (’91), Bill Irwin (’72), Daniel K. Boland (’95), and Barbara Inglehart (’86).

Special Programs

The Center for New Performance at CalArts (CNP) is the professional producing arm of CalArts. Dedicated to the creation of adventurous projects that challenge and redefine the boundaries of contemporary performance, the Center for New Performance enables current students, faculty members, alumni, and guest artists to collaborate in producing new, vital, boundary-crossing performances.

Housed in the CalArts School of Theater, the Cotsen Center for Puppetry in the Arts is an interdisciplinary laboratory for the study and exploration of puppets and performing objects in theater, film, dance, and art. It allows School of Theater students to incorporate the use of performing objects into their theatrical vocabularies, or concentrate on work centered on puppets and other performing objects.

CalArts champions cross-pollination in the arts. In addition to various collaborations within the School of Theater, students work with writers, musicians, composers, choreographers, filmmakers, animators, and visual artists throughout the Institute.

School of Theater students have access to valuable teaching and community engagement experience through Community Arts Partnership (CAP) workshops and classes at community art centers throughout Los Angeles.

Cooperative Agreements

Most Center for New Performance projects are performed under the Actors Equity Association Contract with the University/Resident Theater Association (U/RTA); an employment agreement devised to both develop and expand professional theater and advanced training laboratories. This agreement allows students to garner equity points toward participation in the Actors Equity Association.

The School of Theater features exchange programs with the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School. Graduate directors and stage managers may have internships with the Sundance Theater Laboratory.

Application Procedures

Deadline--freshmen and transfers: January 5. Required: essay, high school transcript, college transcript(s) for transfer students, audition for acting applicants, portfolio for design applicants. Recommended: 2 letters of recommendation, interview. Auditions held 15 times on campus and off campus in New York, NY; Chicago, IL. Portfolio reviews held continuously for design majors (on campus) on campus and off campus in New York, NY; Chicago, IL.

Contact

Mr. Seth Stewart, Admissions Counselor, California Institute of the Arts, 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, California 91355; 661-222-2716, fax: 661-253-7710.