Production & Design Studio Curriculum

The First Year of study in Production and Design sets the foundations of learning for the student’s degree.

Students spend three days a week studying theatre design and production. The alternate weekdays are reserved for academic classes.

First-year students study all aspects of production to gain shared skills and vocabulary. These goals create life-long collaborative skills and production techniques. 

Students entering the Second Year of Production & Design focus on two from the following five disciplines: Scenic Design, Costume Design, Lighting Design, Sound Design, and Management. Management classes include further Stage Management training: Production, Company and General Management as well as Producing.

Focused coursework builds upon the basic information provided in the first year of training. Students work toward improving specialized skills, broadening their ability to interrogate text, and deepening their understanding of the collaborative process.

Each discipline focus class is supported by discipline specific instruction in model-making, figure drawing, Vectorworks, and other technical or problem-solving courses.  Every student participates in further "Theater-Making" classes.

The Third and Fourth years of Production & Design, the program’s Advanced Training, are intensive and rigorous. This approach forges the student’s deeper understanding of their primary area of focus. They achieve this by synthesizing dramaturgy with personal creative processes.  

Each discipline continues with a Level III course that combines the coursework and production experiences to create the student's personal style.

In some cases, students will participate in professional learning environments, taking internships in New York City and working with their faculty mentor on a production within the Tisch Drama Department. 

Third and Fourth year students may also choose to study P&D disciplines they had not chosen in their Second year.  There are also opportunities to explore other studio options in the Drama Department including directing, acting or musical theater.

Advanced Training offers students the flexibility to enrich their academic experience by choosing to study abroad or complete a minor or double major.

Production Laboratory is where classroom learning is put into practice. 

Each year, Tisch Drama hosts an array of over 100 plays and projects in our various studios and performance spaces. These productions span a wide spectrum, offering a diverse range and level of production experience, from student-driven extra-curricular work to fully supported departmental collaborations.  

Production and Design students are assigned to at least one department production each semester. Often students will volunteer for three or four additional shows per year. 

In the First Year, each student will be assigned a crew or support position on department productions (called "Tisch Drama Stage" or TDS) to observe, collaborate and contribute to the production.

In the Second Year, students will assist Upper Level P&D student designers or stage managers on department productions. Alternatively, they might assist the staff technical director, costume director or production electrician in a technical position. 

In the final two years, students will have the opportunity to assume substantial responsibility in design or to manage full productions. The faculty decides when each student is prepared to assume a major leadership role in production. 

*The graduate program and undergraduate programs at Tisch are separate. Graduate students are not assigned to undergraduate student productions.