AMERICA'S THEATER CAMPUS
The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s Waterford, Connecticut campus is a collection of renovated 19th-century mansions, farmhouses, and barns overlooking the Long Island Sound.
The resources of the O’Neill and its 90-acre seaside campus are available for use by students. The historic campus boasts four performance venues, two libraries, administrative offices, and residences for students, staff, faculty, and artists. A recent multimillion-dollar expansion created new dormitory cottages, laundry facilities, dance studios, rehearsal rooms, and a state-of-the-art composition classroom for the National Theater Institute.
Easily accessible by car or train, the O’Neill is two hours from New York City or Boston.
For over 50 years the O’Neill has been an artistic training ground. To study at the O’Neill is to create theater on equal footing with the hundreds of theatrical luminaries who have also called this campus home. The theaters are your classrooms and every day you are tasked with presenting your best work onstage and off.
Come discover what it is to work in an atmosphere of complete creativity, where you are encouraged to
Risk, Fail, and Risk Again.
COTTAGE HOUSING
Six dormitory cottages are each home to approximately a dozen students in double or single rooms. All rooms include beds, desks, dressers, and closets and are fully accessible. Each floor has private bathrooms and shower rooms. Every cottage has a common living space to study, socialize, or even stage a scene. Our 2023 Theatermakers are housed on Mitchell College's Campus; click here for more information.
DINING
Three meals a day are served on-site by our resident chefs. Special consideration is given to accommodate dietary restrictions and the cafeteria offers continual access to snacks and beverages, essential for late-night playwriting sessions.
LOCAL TRANSPORTATION
NTI students are provided local transportation for doctor appointments and frequent Target runs. For students part of the NTI Theatermakers program, a shuttle service to and from campus is provided. Students are also welcome to bring their own cars.
SAFETY & SECURITY
The safety and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff is the main priority of NTI. Students, faculty, and staff all live in housing accessed by key fobs. The consumption of alcohol is not permitted while participating in an NTI semester program. The campus is monitored nightly by professional security staff trained to respond to emergencies or help with housing lockouts.
NTI FELLOWS
Apprentices, often NTI alums, ensure student well-being and are reachable both in-person and by phone from 7 AM to 11 PM while security is reachable from 11 PM to 7 AM.
Much of what we now take for granted in contemporary theater contains DNA that can be traced back to a green patch of land overlooking the Long Island Sound in Waterford, CT.
The O’Neill: Transformation of Modern American Theater by Jeffrey Sweet. Published by Yale University Press 2014.
