School of Theater

The CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP) is the professional producing arm of California Institute of the Arts, established to develop original theater, music, dance, media, and interdisciplinary projects. Extending the progressive work carried out at CalArts into a direct dialogue with professional communities at the local, national, and international levels, CNP offers an alternative model to support emerging directions in the performing arts. It also enables CalArts students to work shoulder-to-shoulder with celebrated artists and acquire a level of experience that goes beyond their curriculum.  

Seminal artists from around the world are brought to CNP to develop work that expands the language, discourse, and boundaries of contemporary theater and performance. CNP fosters the future of live performance by infusing the work of such transformative artists with the talent, vitality and impulses of emerging artists in the CalArts community. Each year School of Theater students and alumnx are engaged in professional projects, workshops, and visiting artist residencies.

The CalArts School of Theater provides students with an ever-expanding set of opportunities in new and future pathways for performance and design. Among the most exciting of these is the world of experience design, immersive environments, and themed entertainment.

This involves immersive place-making, experience design, and the creation of story-based entertainment projects for theme parks, exhibitions, museums, theatrical presentations, and other environments. Theater makers are uniquely equipped for this arena, as story and concept are the driving forces. Participants transcend any single métier, encouraging collaborations among the worlds of design, performance, visual art, and management.

Project based classes and professional partnerships are central to this area of study. CalArts School of Theater has relationships with a number of themed entertainment companies including Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI), BRC Imagination Arts, Paramount, Universal, On Track Themes, Thinkwell, and RGH Entertainment. These have yielded numerous internships and job opportunities for current students and alumni.

The Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) CalArts Educational Initiative offers students the opportunity to work directly with professional WDI mentors to develop themed entertainment projects. This month-long process culminates in a presentation to Disney executives at WDI headquarters in Burbank. A professional and educational experience of the highest order, past participants have been hired for significant creative positions. The WDI CalArts Educational Initiative is nurtured by CalArts alumnus Michael Jung, Creative Executive of Theatrical Development for Walt Disney Imagineering Live Entertainment. 

The Portfolio Review is an annual exhibition of work by graduating and continuing Experience Design and Production students. Each year, arts professionals in the fields of live performance, interactive media, installation, immersive and experience design, and social practice are invited to CalArts to experience the extraordinary work of our students.

The Actors Showcase is an annual presentation of graduating actor performances for theater, film, television, and other industry professionals. Developed throughout their final year of training, the showcase is a vital bridge for graduates entering the professional field. Presented in Los Angeles, New York, and online.

In partnership with the California Institute of the Arts, Art Change US has a mission to reframe the national arts conversation by embracing the cultural assets of demographic change. ArtChangeUS is creating a vast network of artists, idea producers, and organizations that serves as an urgently needed catalyst to bring unheard leadership voices to the forefront of social discourse, arts production, and community change.

This annual summer program of the CalArts School of Theater brings student-created projects to the Edinburgh Theatre Festival Fringe, held each August in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Fringe is the largest and most exciting theater festival in the world, with over two million tickets sold each year. Operated in partnership with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, this unique opportunity enables students to present their work to an international audience.

The CalArts School of Theater and CalArts Center for New Performance has fostered multiple partnerships with companies and arts organizations throughout the world. Fundamentally driven by our faculty, alumnx, as well as student interest, these have yielded internship and employment opportunities for our student and alumnx community. 

Some of our ongoing relationships include:

• Comédie de Saint-Étienne National Drama Center 
• Festival Internacional de Teatro Universitario
• Geffen Playhouse
• Getty/Getty Villa
• The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
• REDCAT
• STUDIO teatrgaleria
• Under the Radar Festival
• Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
• Wuzhen Theatre Festival