The School of Drama's Visiting Faculty Artist Program, which brings to campus practicing theater artists and professionals, has been awarded a three-year $250,000 grant by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Visiting Faculty Artist Program is designed to broaden the scope of the drama school's core training and curricula by offering students a "real world" perspective on the world of professional theater. For instance, as part of the school's 70-year-old playwriting program, distinguished playwrights are offered periods of residency at the school, where they read and respond to works by student playwrights. Among the playwrights who have come to Yale through this program are MarWellman, Eric Overmyer and Marlane Meyer.
"There are few more vital links between the world of professional theater practice and the sphere of advanced conservatory training than the Visiting Faculty Artist Program at the Yale School of Drama," says Dean Stan Wojewodski Jr. He adds that each department at the drama school has intregrated and "immeasurably benefited" from the presence of visiting faculty artists.