SU’s Tepper Center announces beginning of drama immersion semester

SU’s Tepper Center announces beginning of drama immersion semesterJanuary 24, 2005Jaime Winne Alvarez jlwinne@syr.edu

Producer’s $1.2 million gift is largest ever to SU Drama Department;SU and other students to begin program in Fall 2005

Beginning in the Fall 2005 semester, the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Tepper Center for Careers in Theatre at Syracuse University will launch a semester-long drama studies program in New York City. Chancellor Nancy Cantor and SU alumna and Board of Trustees member Arielle Tepper ’94 announced the program.

The Tepper Semester is made possible by a gift from Tepper, a Broadway producer since 1998. Tepper’s Broadway productions have garnered 21 Tony nominations, and she is currently producing “Spamalot” and “Democracy” on Broadway. Her additional Broadway credits include “A Raisin in the Sun,” “Jumpers,” “The Dead” and “Freak.” Her off-Broadway credits include “De La Guarda” and “The Last Five Years.” She founded the annual Summer Play Festival for Emerging Writers (SPF), which debuted in New York this past summer.

Tepper’s $1.2 million gift is the largest ever to SU’s Drama Department. The semester is the latest in a series of initiatives that Tepper has made possible for the department.

The Tepper Semester offers undergraduates in advanced levels of study in the fields of acting, musical theater, design and stage management the opportunity to immerse themselves in a rigorous artistic training program in the culturally rich setting of New York City. Students from SU and around the country will apply for 40 available openings. During the semester, they will study with New York-based professionals from all aspects of theater.

The program centers on the development of individual artistic skills and talents combined with a practical application of business and professional skills. Combining courses with professional experiences will offer participants professional skill enhancement, cultural awareness and personal growth. Unique to the program are opportunities to learn from established theater professionals in the heart of the theater district and from exposure to a variety of theater-related career opportunities.

Students can also intern at Tepper’s acclaimed SPF, where they will participate in a full range of production activities including public relations, literary management, casting and producing.

Tepper Semester students will be housed at the New Yorker Hotel. Classes will be held at 42nd Street’s Theater Row complex and in professional studios throughout the theater district.

Says Tepper, “I hope we will capture talent that otherwise might be lost. The students are fantastic and I can’t wait to have them in New York and working at SPF.”

Established in 2001, the Tepper Center has sponsored a New York immersion program for graduating seniors to orient students to the profession and evaluate and enhance their skills. In four years, the success of the program made it evident that a semester-long experience was needed to provide the full potential of experience-based learning.

“I can think of no richer experience for developing artists than to immerse them in the world of the professional practitioner,” says Cantor. “Arielle Tepper is the visionary that’s making it possible. She knows that her investment in emerging talent insures a dynamic future for the American stage and the technical professions. It is fueled by Arielle’s enormous caring for young people entering the business she loves.”

The Tepper Semester will parallel SU’s study abroad programs in London, Madrid, Strasbourg and Florence, and will be offered to students at colleges who have a relationship with the University’s Division of International Programs Abroad.

Carole Brzozowski, dean of SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, says “It took Arielle Tepper to demonstrate that the best learning laboratory for theater students was in our own backyard.”

For more information, contact Tepper Center program director Lisa Nicholas at (212) 239-1113 or (315) 443-9853.