History and Philosophy
The Experimental Theatre Wing prepares students to create, perform, and direct their own work, and to meet the far-ranging demands of experimental and traditional directors, playwrights, choreographers, composers, and filmmakers.
The program began in 1975 through affiliations with major avant garde theatre and dance companies and directors in New York, including Mabou Mines, The Ridiculous Theatrical Company (Charles Ludlum), Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theater Company, The Performance Group, The Iowa Theater Lab, Mary Overlie, and Ryszard Cieslak (the lead actor from Jerzy Grotowski's Polish Lab Theater). Over the years, members of those companies have been joined by other leaders in contemporary theatre, dance, and music, who collaborate to develop innovative approaches to physically-based performance training.
Rather than initiating students into any one artistic movement or theory of training, ETW provides a wide range of training methods in the disciplines of voice, movement, and acting. The curriculum is designed to help each student understand her or his own creative process, so that training happens consciously — directed by students as they develop their vision and choose their techniques, rather than imposed on them by an "all-knowing" teacher. Students are challenged to see themselves as creative initiators, capable of reshaping the contemporary theatrical landscape. ETW is a four-year professional training program with an enrollment of over 140 students.
Alumni
From creating new theater companies to performing with major experimental companies to working on Broadway, off and off-off Broadway, in feature films, network and cable television, nightclubs, major regional theater and contemporary dance companies, our alumni have acted, danced, sung, directed, taught, designed, composed, choreographed, and written successfully in a wide variety of national and international venues, and in a wide range of theater and performance styles. See our website for a listing of alumni.
Administration and Faculty
Rosemary Quinn, Director
Nanc Allen, Administrative Director
ETW Core Faculty
Richard Armstrong
Wendell Beavers
Catherine Coray
Terry Knickerbocker
Kevin Kuhlke
Paul Langland
Cecil MacKinnon
Mary Overlie
Rosemary Quinn
Lisa Sokolov
Raina von Waldenburg
Steve Wangh
ETW Adjunct Faculty
Roger Babb
Frances Becker
David Cale
Maureen Fleming
Karen Finley
Joe Goodrich
Pat Hall
Jonathan Hart Makwaia
Saskia Hegt
Rebecca Holderness
K.J. Holmes
Margaret Jansen
Michael Jones
Paul Lazar
Kelly Maurer
David Neumann
Natsuko Ohama
Robert O'Neill
Fabel Pabon
Annie-B Parson
Peggy Pettitt
Tamar Rogoff
Tina Shepard
Roberto Sharpe
Wendy Vanden Heuvel
Jack Wetherall
