SEMESTER
DIRECTING FOCUS
NTI SEMESTER
Strengthen your passion for directing and expand your artistic boundaries.
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16 Credit Hours
As an NTI Semester student with a Directing Focus, studying with professional artists will help you understand the history of directing, explore a variety of directorial styles, and challenge you to dream about the future of your craft.​
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You’ll attend classes and workshops across theatrical disciplines that will prepare you to support every facet of a production. You’ll also take specialized courses that will delve into the practice and theory of directing and will receive personal mentorship from directors currently working in the field. Each week, you’ll have an opportunity to direct a piece, whether it's a cut of a script for Theater Labs, a piece of new work during Playwrights & Librettists week, or a part of your ensemble’s Company Project.
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Over the course of your semester at NTI, you’ll gain confidence in your instincts and vision and grow your understanding of how to convey that vision to an audience.​
COURSE CREDITS
The NTI Semester Directing Focus confers credit for the following academic courses totaling 16 hours:
Directing Theory and History (NTI-354)
The history and theory of directing is researched and students analyze and apply to their own work the theories of landmark directors: Jerzy Grotowski, Robert Wilson, Marìa Irene Fornés, Anne Bogart, Peter Brook, Katie Mitchell, and Richard Foreman, among others. The courses include seminal film work, script analysis, and crafting a concept for a foundational play.
Director’s Tutorial (NTI-355)
Students gain practical training through table work, intensive rehearsals, and presentations of scenes. The preparation for rehearsals include intimacy coordination classes, and stage combat, inclusive rehearsal practices, Directors approach character analysis, design principles, choreography, and writing original work. Each student creates a director’s notebook for a specific script including a portfolio of images, analysis of the play’s world.
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Director’s Observership (NTI-451)
Weekly classes and conversations with professional directors, as well as observerships with artists in residence at the O’Neill and visiting rehearsals at our local regional theaters. Students observe professional directors, and are in class not only with directors but with actors, playwrights, and designers at the O’Neill and in New York City. Directing students attend 16-20 productions in NYC, both on Broadway and Off-Broadway, and in Connecticut regional theaters.
Director’s Projects (NTI-452)
In a practical approach under the guidance of a variety of professional directors, weekly scenes from plays and musicals are directed in a rigorous rehearsal and presentation process in a variety of theater spaces. In the final weeks of the semester, Student Directors play a major role as directors for both Playwrights and Librettists Week and the Company Project.
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Connecticut College is the founding partner and the college of record for the National Theater Institute programs. To learn more about credits and transcripts, please click HERE.
*The NTI Semester Directing Focus was previously titled "Advanced Directing" pre-2025.
SAMPLE SCHEDULE
Every week at NTI looks a bit different as schedules are worked around our incredible faculty and artists. Scroll through to see what your week could look like as an NTI Semester student with a Directing Focus.