Dean, The New School, School of Drama

Reporting to the Executive Dean of the College of Performing Arts and serving as a core member of the highly collaborative CoPA Deans Council, the Dean of the School of Drama provides academic, artistic, and managerial leadership to the students, faculty, and staff of The School of Drama.   The Dean will be a gifted academic and artistic leader and outstanding administrator who is devoted to ensuring that graduates are prepared to enter and innovate the professional world that awaits them. The ideal candidate will have an appreciation for tradition and culture while never hesitating to spark a program revolution that better serves the needs of the students. Additionally, this candidate will have an awareness of evolving trends in the dramatic and performing arts, and a passion for leading progressive programming that reflects and informs the most current values of the field.    The ideal candidate will value being a member of a high-performing leadership team with a highly collaborative style. The ideal candidate will possess a significant appetite for sharing authority and responsibility with all the Deans Council.    This position carries the secondary title of Associate Dean at the College of Performing Arts and includes a concurrent faculty appointment as Associate Professor of Theater. The concurrent faculty appointment is strictly contingent upon continued employment as school dean.

Responsibilities: ●      Provide vision and leadership for all theater, academic, and performance aspects of the School of Drama. ●      Oversee the design and implementation of new and innovative degree and certificate programs in collaboration with the Vice Dean for Curriculum and Learning. ●      Develop and maintain collaborative relationships and special projects with peer colleges and academic leadership across the university. ●      Manage the school budget in collaboration with the Vice Dean for Finance and Administration. ●      Oversee the hiring and retention of high-level and diverse faculty. ●      In collaboration with Strategic Enrollment Management, oversee the recruitment, enrollment, and retention of exceptionally gifted and diverse students. ●      Provide leadership for School of Drama supporters, donors, and board members. ●      Ensure consistent collaboration and partnership with centralized functions in the University, including development, enrollment management, marketing and communications, student success, and HR. ●      Supervise School of Drama full- and part-time faculty, including adherence to the collective bargaining agreement with ACT UAW Local 7902. ●      Serve as member of the College of Performing Arts Deans Council and on key university committees and task forces. ●      Additional responsibilities as assigned

About The School of Drama The New School has a long and storied history in collegiate dramatic arts education, beginning with the 1930s residency of Harold Clurman and The Group Theater, where Clurman and colleagues taught a variety of theater-based courses alongside fellow faculty members in dance and music, including Martha Graham and Aaron Copland.   In the late 1930s, then New School president Alvin Johnson hired the great German experimental theater director Erwin Piscator to create the Dramatic Workshop at The New School, a comprehensive theater education program with Stella Adler, Herbert Berghof, and Lee Strasberg serving as department chairs. The Dramatic Workshop also hosted an Off-Broadway theater and its alumni include a who’s who of major figures in theater, film, and music in the mid to late 20th century, including Bea Arthur, Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando, Vinette Carroll, Tony Curtis, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, Judith Malina, Walter Matthau, Rod Steiger, Elaine Stritch, Tennessee Williams, Shelly Winters, and others.   Today, The School of Drama is the creative home to a dynamic group of actors, directors, writers, creative technologists, and multi-disciplinary theater artists. With a focus on authenticity of expression and artistic innovation, the school’s curriculum confronts today’s most pressing societal issues through the making of theater, film, and emerging media.    The School of Drama’s faculty is made up of award-winning actors, playwrights, and directors who bring a currency of professional experience, artistic training, and project-based learning into the classroom. The multidisciplinary MFA and BFA degree programs bring together rigor, creativity, and collaborative learning to create work marked by professionalism, imagination, and civic awareness.    Following in the footsteps of Belafonte and Brando, more recent alumni include the likes of Bekah Brunstetter, Bradley Cooper, Jordan E. Cooper, Jason Kim, Adrienne C. Moore, and Stevie Walker Webb.     The College of Performing Arts at The New School (CoPA) was formed in 2015 and draws together the Mannes School of Music, the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and the School of Drama. With each school contributing its unique culture and history of creative excellence, the College of Performing Arts is a hub for cross-disciplinary collaboration, risk-taking experimentation, innovative education, and world-class performances.   The over 1,100 college students at CoPA are actors, performers, writers, improvisers, creative technologists, entrepreneurs, composers, arts managers, and multidisciplinary artists who believe in the transformative power of the arts for all people. Students and faculty at CoPA collaborate with colleagues across The New School in a wide array of disciplines, from the visual arts and fashion design to the social sciences, public policy, advocacy, and more. CoPA includes Mannes Prep, the 106-year-old pre-college music program for students ages four to 18.
 The curriculum at CoPA is dynamic, inclusive, and responsive to the changing arts and culture landscape. New degrees and coursework, like the new graduate degrees for Performer-Composers and Artist Entrepreneurs are designed to challenge highly skilled artists to experiment, innovate, and engage with the past, present, and future of their artforms. New York City’s historic Greenwich Village provides the backdrop for the College of Performing Arts, which is housed at Arnhold Hall on West 13th Street and the historic Westbeth Artists Community on Bank Street.    Founded in 1919, The New School was established to advance academic freedom, tolerance, and experimentation. A century later, The New School remains at the forefront of innovation in higher education, inspiring more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students to challenge the status quo in design and the social sciences, liberal arts, management, the arts, and media. The university welcomes thousands of adult learners annually for continuing education courses and public programs that encourage open discourse and social engagement. Through our online learning portals, research institutes, and international partnerships, The New School maintains a global presence. 

The New School is committed to creating and maintaining an environment that promises diversity and tolerance in all areas of employment, education and access to its educational, artistic or cultural programs and activities. The New School does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, creed, sex or gender (including actual or perceived gender identity or expression or transgender status), sexual orientation, sexual and other reproductive health decisions, pregnancy, religion, religious practices, mental or physical disability, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, veteran status, marital or partnership status, or any other legally protected status.   Minimum Qualifications:   ●      Advanced degree in theater, performing arts, or a related field. ●      Minimum seven years demonstrated teaching and administrative experience at a performing arts conservatory and/or college or university theater school/department/program. ●      Deep understanding and knowledge of theater education, including diverse perspectives on dramaturgy and dramatic structure; traditions of actor training; vocal and movement pedagogy; techniques of music theater; traditional, experimental, and devised approaches to theatre-making. ●      Significant knowledge of the professional landscape including the entire range of theater, film, television, and emergent media. ●      Extensive experience in a wide range of management and administrative competencies including employee supervision, financial management, labor relations, strategic planning, data-driven decision-making, enrollment management, and marketing and communications.  ●      A fundamental interest in, and comfort with, team leadership.  ●      Ability to adhere to university COVID-19 policy and requirements. ●      Demonstrated commitment to Equity, Inclusion, Social Justice, and the transformative power of the arts and education.   Preferred Qualifications:   ●      Demonstrated experience, success, and a fundamental desire to directly fund- and friend-raise.  ●      Talent and commitment in serving as an ambassador to a wide range of internal and external audiences.  ●      Experience identifying and casting talent. ●      Significant experience managing budgets. ●      A skilled storyteller and listener, with an empathetic leadership style, able to engage with a broad range of constituents, including students, faculty, staff, board, alumni, theater industry, and institutional partners. ●      Significant knowledge and understanding of the work and lives of students, faculty, and staff within higher education. ●      Great patience coupled with a deep desire to break with tradition and conventional work so that graduates may have the greatest chance at success in the workplace of today and tomorrow.