Yale University has committed to developing a landmark theatrical arts building that will bring faculty, staff, students, and guest artists under one roof and further establish downtown New Haven as a lively center for education, performance, and culture.
A pivotal lead gift, along with other essential gifts, enables the long-envisioned project, known as the Dramatic Arts Building (DAB), to proceed. It will be the new home of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and Yale Repertory Theatre (Yale Rep). The building also will be a home for Yale’s undergraduate Program in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) and will provide dedicated rehearsal space for the Yale Dramatic Association (Dramat), the university’s oldest and largest undergraduate theater group.
“This new building will unite scholars and artists who have long been divided among multiple facilities,” said Provost Scott Strobel. “It will become a locus of creativity and collaboration. Faculty studying theater history will work alongside professional playwrights, who will share hallways with student designers, directors, and actors. With this project, we will integrate scholarship, education, and practice under one roof. We will empower students and faculty to boldly shape the future of the dramatic arts.”
Toronto-based architecture firm KPMB Architects has been chosen to design the building. Well known for its work on cultural and arts buildings, KPMB designed Yale’s Adams Center for Musical Arts, a multi-use music complex for the full range of university students that opened in 2017.
The current vision calls for an inviting, technologically sophisticated, and environment-friendly building filled with natural light. It will include a state-of-the-art new theater and stage for Yale Rep and the Geffen School, as well as rehearsal spaces, purpose-built classrooms and offices for Geffen and TDPS faculty and staff, and areas for casual meetings. The building will also house production workshops for costumes, lighting, projections, scenery, and sound, now in various campus locations. Bringing these functions together in custom-built, proximal spaces is expected to create practical efficiencies and put performers and behind-the-scenes theater artists into close and regular contact. The Dramat will use the main stage for a major annual production.
This is a huge step toward aligning our facilities with the talents and aspirations of our exceptional faculty, staff, and students. It will be a place where people are excited to come to work and study, and to make and experience art. They’re going to feel a sense of purpose and aspiration, and the building will send a tangible message that reinforces Yale’s abiding commitment to artistic practice.
James Bundy
Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean of the Geffen School and Artistic Director, Yale Repertory Theatre, 2002–2026