What are Collaborative Arts, and how do they benefit and increase the marketability of emerging artists? Join Artistic Director, Richard Trujillo as he talks to the faculty of the Collaborative Arts Program at NYU Tisch, and find out!

Collaborative Arts is an innovative new degree in the Open Arts Program at Tisch/NYU where students get hands-on training in a wide variety of artistic disciplines. Our students acquire foundational knowledge and develop their skills in the areas represented by Tisch’s three divisions: the Institute of Performing Arts, Emerging Media, and the Kanbar Center for Film & Television. Artists of all types are required to work both inside and outside their areas of interest: creating cutting-edge multidisciplinary arts projects that are performed and/or exhibited, as they gain invaluable experience in producing and entrepreneurship. Whether it is directing a show, choreographing a dance, or conducting creative research, the Open Arts Program’s BFA in Collaborative Arts nurtures self-starters who want to engage in multi-disciplinary work, generate projects, address complex themes, and refine their artistic vision.

Mary Bitel, L.C.S.W., B.F.A., Ph.D., holds a B.F.A. in theatre from Wayne State University, an M.S.W. with a concentration in group work from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College and a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Mary is the Chair of Open Arts and Collaborative Arts where she teaches the integration of the arts with the theories, skills and dynamics of group work. Mary is also an acting teacher at Tisch where she leads the acting component of the Collaborative Arts BFA curriculum as well as teaching a course on Shakespeare. Mary is a senior faculty member in Tisch’s International Theatre Workshop, Amsterdam, having taught script analysis in that program since 1998. Prior to taking her faculty position at Tisch, Mary worked professionally as an actor, was Director of GirlSpace, a community-based after school program serving adolescents and teens in NYC, and for a number of years was a guest lecturer at Silberman School of Social Work. Mary is a member of Actors Equity and the International Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups.

Steven Drukman is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright who may be best known to San Diego residents as the author of IN THIS CORNER, which premiered at the Old Globe in 2007-08 and won the Best New Play award that year. His newest play, PRU PAYNE, will have its premiere at Arizona Theatre Company next season. He is currently working with New York’s LAByrinth Theatre Company on a production of his adaptation of Racine’s PHEDRE. Other world premieres include: DEATH OF THE AUTHOR at the Geffen Playhouse in LA (published by Dramatists Play Service—and recently optioned as a TV series), THE INNOCENTS—the first-ever commission by Naked Angels—and THE PRINCE OF ATLANTIS, which premiered at South Coast Rep and was published in American Theatre magazine. Also a journalist, he wrote for The New York Times for many years and worked as an actor in Chicago as a member of the Organic Theatre Company. He has a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from NYU.

Sarah has been at New York University for twelve years. She spent her undergraduate studies focused on stage management and graduated from Boston College with a B.A. in Theatre. That course of study led her to work in the Education Department at the Broadway and Off-Broadway Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club. From there, Sarah worked for six years in the Special Programs Department at Tisch School of the Arts, where she prepared and advised visiting and NYU students participating in Tisch Study Abroad, Semester at Tisch, Open Arts and Summer in NYC. Sarah went on to receive her M.A. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from NYU's Steinhardt School and now, working closely with the Office of the Chair, Sarah manages the academic and administrative operations for the Open Arts and Collaborative Arts Programs.

This event was made possible by Friends of SCPA, a charitable organization, and its donors. There is no charge for this event.

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