The New School Welcomes Doug Hughes for Spring Semester

The New School for Drama has announced that the award-winning director Doug Hughes will be teaching this spring semester. Working with professionals, like Hughes in the New York theater world is a cornerstone of Drama students' experience at The New School. In the intimate setting of the classroom, Hughes will be teaching Directing Chekov and Beckett to second-year students earning an MFA in directing.

This is not the first time Hughes has worked with students at The New School for Drama. He was the school's Distinguished Artist-in-Residence in the 2007-2008 academic year. Recently, Hughes directed Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter adapted by Rebecca Gilman for The Acting Company and New York Theatre Workshop. Other credits include Theresa Rebeck's Mauritius for MTC and the Broadway revival of Inherit the Wind, starring Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy. He received a Tony Award for Best Direction for Doubt, written by 2006-2007 Artist-in-Residence John Patrick Shanley. Hughes also won the Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics, and Drama Desk Awards for the same production. In 2004, he received Tony, Lortel, and Outer Critic's Circle nominations for his direction of Frozen by Bryony Lavery.

"We are fortunate to have such an accomplished director on hand to inspire our students," said Robert LuPone, director of The New School for Drama. "His experience in both classic and modern productions will instill in our students the drive and dedication needed to amass a promising body of work. The broad range of his work complements our program perfectly."

At The New School for Drama, the instinct to create is revered. Through its interrelated, three-year MFA program in acting, directing, or playwriting, the school is forging the next generation of dramatic artists. A faculty of working professionals brings to the students' unique and original voice, and helps them establish a rooted sense of who they are as individuals and as artists. The New School's history in the dramatic arts began in the 1940s, when the Dramatic Workshop, led by founder Erwin Piscator and a faculty including Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, fostered artistic voices as distinctive as Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando. For more information, visit www.drama.newschool.edu.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.