In Spring 2025, Tisch Drama will launch The Innovation Studio, the department’s newest professional training program for advanced-level students. Developed and led by Rubén Polendo, THE INNOVATION STUDIO is a theatre research laboratory engaging exciting technologies as a central collaborator.
The department is proud to add the new studio to its lineup of now eleven professional training programs. The rigorous training at The Innovation Studio enables advanced-level students to work across disciplines – strategically blurring the lines between performance, direction, scholarship, dramaturgy, management, and design. The studio interjects physical training, technology, scholarship, and art-making with the intent of disrupting traditional processes of theatre-making—resulting in innovative practices that expand students’ work and the field by developing a unique viewpoint and skills that encourage continuous learning and growth.
Said Polendo: “How do we make and think about theatre now? How do we train for new models of theatre making and collaborate with them now? These core preoccupations have shaped my pedagogy and Tisch Drama’s Innovation Studio—they are the driving force to investigate, interrogate, and—above all— innovate.”
He added: “Perhaps most excitingly there is the opportunity of re-interrogating our idea of what “live” means. What is the essence of liveness. Is it a principle? An aesthetic? What does it bring to the table and why do we care? Technology can mediate liveness in visible and invisible ways. If, as theater makers, we are able to conceive technology as a tool that amplifies the desired impact, we begin to shape a different relationship with it—a collaboration with technology.”
The spring semester will gather the first cohort of sixteen Drama students for this exciting new studio. It's open to actors, playwrights, directors, designers, managers, producers, scholars, and multi-hyphenates eager to push the boundaries of their theatre arts practice. No previous technology skills are required.
"I'm so excited for Tisch Drama to offer this training, not only because it investigates the kind of collaborator technology has the potential to be (an obviously necessary investigation for the future of our field), but also because it's teaching students how to engage in creative research, and how to activate arts practice as a tool for knowledge creation,” said Drama Department Chair, Tomi Tsunoda. “This kind of curriculum isn't typically available at an undergraduate theatre program. I think it really speaks both to our investment in the symbiosis of practice and scholarship, and to the ways Tisch Drama is looking holistically at the future of the field."