BWW Student Center's School in the Spotlight: Brandeis University

Led by a gifted faculty of scholars, theater artists and practitioners, Brandeis provides graduate and undergraduate students with innovative performance-related opportunities in the context of the realities of professional theater. The results are exceptional productions reflecting the diversity, innovation and excitement of contemporary theater as well as a unique vision of the theater of tomorrow.

The creation of the Brandeis Theater Company, an ensemble-based group of actors, designers and directors drawn from the students, faculty, staff and professional guest artists of the theater arts department breaks new ground in the training of theater students. "We want to train students on a professional model," professor Eric Hill said, "Medical internists are not trained in a classroom, and theater artists should not be either." The company produces challenging, forward-looking programming that promotes multiculturalism and artistic achievement.

Brandeis University has been visited by the finest artists of their time including Arthur Miller, Martha Graham, Edward Albee, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Barbra Streisand, Whoopi Goldberg and Steven Spielberg. The acting program has hosted such artists as Olympia Dukakis, Bill Irwin, Clinton Turner Davis, Marvin Hamlisch, Mercedes Ruehl and Woodie King, Jr. In a recent season, professional actors Neil Casey, Thomas Keating, Michael Hammond and Trey Burvant joined our student actors on stage for four different productions.

Legendary theater luminaries Sir John Gieguld, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Lillian Hellman, George Balanchine and Richard Rodgers dedicated our historic Spingold Theater Center in 1965. It houses three theaters of diverse size and programming: the 750-seat proscenium mainstage, the 175-seat thrust Laurie Theater, and the 100-seat Merrick Theater. Spingold productions are directed by distinguished professionals, and the plays are chosen to provide meaningful integration between the classroom and the stage.