Stanislavski, Brecht and Beyond: An Integrated Approach to Actor Training in Berlin

Create and perform realistic and devised theater. Strengthen and deepen your presence on stage. Craft performances that are intellectually informed, viscerally exciting, and theatrically courageous.

Experience a cosmopolitan city that holds a complex and crucial place in modern European history. Youthful, artistic, and hip, Berlin has traveled a path that led from the defining cultural avant-garde of the Weimar Republic to the devastation of World War II, from a divided city symbolizing the Cold War to today’s reunified and renewed capital. 

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Program Overview

Stanislavski, Brecht and Beyond: An Integrated Approach to Actor Training in Berlin is a one-semester program in theatre and actor training for advanced drama students. It is offered by NYU Berlin in conjunction with the Tisch Department of Drama, in affiliation with faculty from the world-renowned Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Berlin University of the Arts, and the internationally acclaimed Berlin Schaubuhne.

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Curriculum

Your semester abroad consists of your core program course and two additional companion courses, completing a full-time, 16-unit semester.

Please Note: Students studying abroad on a Tisch track are not eligible to pursue an internship (except for Theatre in Ghana and Television Writing in London). Tisch programs do not provide work visas.

Actor Training in Berlin (Core)

THEA-UT 9455 | 8 units

The curriculum will focus on the study and practical application of aspects of German theatre that have made and continue to make a significant contribution to international theatre practice. It includes the integration of the Russian based Stanislavski Method of Physical Actions and Active Analysis with Brecht’s Epic Theater, Advanced Realistic scene study, classes in video performance with the company Gob Squad, Brecht scene study, Devised theatre, Post Dramatic Theatre, movement, voice and rigorous actor-oriented Dramaturgical research. Students will study the history of 20th Century German Dramatic Literature, Dramatic Theory and Theatrical practice, German language, attend productions in several major theatres and take field trips to other cities in Germany. The program will culminate with workshop performances of several original devised theatre pieces based on short plays (Lehrstucke) by Brecht.

Students will also attend performances in the FIND Festival, a two-week theatre festival hosted by the Berlin Schaubuhne, for many years the premier theatre in Germany. Designed to foster international artistic exchange this festival brings together a select group of international theatre students for ten days. They attend several contemporary professional productions, meet with the directors and participate in a series of master classes led by an international team of major teaching artists including Mr. Ostermeier.

The overall goal of the program is to enable students to create and perform realistic and devised theater that balances full physical and emotional embodiment with critical distance and actively interfaces the dramatic story and the theatrical context. This integrated approach aims to strengthen and deepen their presence on stage and their ability to create performances that are intellectually informed, viscerally exciting, and theatrically courageous.

Key Issues and Intersectional Approaches in German Theatre

THEA-UT 9612 | 4 units

Theatre in Germany serves as a hotly debated public venue for working through major social and political issues and critiquing the status quo. This tradition begins in the late 18th century with the radical dramatists of the Sturm und Drang period and continues up to the present. This course centers on 20th-century German theatre and on the theories, movements, and dramas that shaped it against the backdrop of a tumultuous century. However, we begin by critically engaging with the foundational contributions of Lessing and Schiller with attention to their attempts to emancipate theatre from existing power relations, before moving on to the dramatist Hauptmann and the socially critical Naturalist movement. Our exploration of 20th century theatre seeks to foreground voices that—in form and/or content—sought to transform the bourgeois theatre institution and the hierarchies associated with it. These include dramatist Frank Wedekind and director Max Reinhardt, female avant-gardes such as Else Lasker-Schüler and Marieluise Fleiβer, and the left-wing theatre of the Weimar Republic, including Piscator and Brecht, whose concepts we will critique and deconstruct. In subsequent weeks, we look at racializing theatre of the Nazi dictatorship, postwar theatre trends in East and West Germany, and developments in reunified Germany starting in the 1990s. Finally, we explore current debates surrounding structural inequalities in German theatre and attempts to create more diverse and equitable stages—a concern we will trace throughout our course. Our weekly meetings center on history and theory, tying the past to the present, and usually including a dramatic text. We will also attend performances at several theatres and performance venues connecting them to our course material and attending to the ways the theatre is responding to urgent issues facing German society today.

German Language

Course Number TBA | 4 units

You will take one of the German language courses offered through NYU Global. Placement is based on your experience. 

 

If you are a non-Tisch NYU student or visiting undergraduate student, please check with your home school advisor on how Tisch study abroad courses will apply to your degree.

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Program Dates

Spring 2025

Student Arrival: January 16, 2025
Student Departure: May 9, 2025

Arrival and departure dates are tentative and subject to change.

Admissions

Prerequisites:

Tisch Drama Majors: Four semesters of studio training or equivalent.
NYU and Visiting students:  One year of college or professional training.

The spring 2025 application is closed.

Application: Acceptance to the program is by audition/interview as well as application review. Please read the following application requirements before starting your application.

Note: Students should wait to receive their admissions notification and confirmation that the program is running prior to purchasing airline tickets. Students accepted to the program should purchase refundable airline tickets and/or travel insurance in the event the program is canceled or program dates are changed due to world events. It is strongly recommended that students purchase insurance for trip cancellation, flight cancellation, luggage loss or damage, as well as medical and accident coverage.

Expenses

Spring 2024*

  • Academic Year 2023-2024 Full-time Tuition, 12-18 unit flat rate per term: $33,194

Additional Fees Include:

Please review the Tisch Special Programs cancellation policy.

Visit the Office of Global Programs for additional study abroad costs.

*Spring 2025 tuition rates TBA

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Scholarships and Financial Aid

There are opportunities for financial assistance to study abroad.
Please review the Scholarships and Financial Aid for Study Abroad page for more information.

Housing

Visit the NYU Berlin website for housing options and descriptions.