Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film
Designed by the renowned architectural firm of Cesar Pelli and Associates, the Vogelstin Center provides first-rate facilities which include a spacious drama classroom that allows for a variety of in-class performances and the attendant feedback that is so crucial to performers. A prime feature of the Center is the 300-seat Martel Theater, featuring a traditional proscenium-style stage. This design is consistent with the Drama Department's desire to give its students experience with all types of theaters.
Boasting a long and distinguished history that stretches back to the 1920s, the drama department at Vassar College was the first to be established at a seven sisters school. Created by the dynamic and talented Hallie Flanagan Davis--famous for her nationally-recognized "living newspapers" productions at Vassar--the department's more recent 'productions' include Meryl Streep, Frances Sternhagen, Lisa Kudrow and John Tenney amongst other sucessful actors, directors, designers, writers and producers working in theater, film and television.
Many of these graduates worked on the same stages used by Vassar drama students today, including a 19th century stable converted during the 1920s into a proscenium theater seating over 400, and the old school powerhouse, which today hosts many student productions, as well as the renowned Vassar College & New York Stage and Film Powerhouse Summer Theater Program in its incredibly flexible black box performance space. Vassar has plans to renovate its theater facilities in the near future, installing state of the art theater technology and expanding office and classrooms while retaining the historical integrity of these magnificent buildings.
Vassar's academic strength is evident in its liberal arts approach to the study of drama, integrating areas of history and literature, with an expectation that both students and faculty will produce powerful and vigorously experimental works.
Arms & the Man by Bernard Shaw
Dir. Chris Grabowski
The Cenci by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Dir. Michael Barakiva
The Wilder Plays by Thornton Wilder
Dir. Chris Grabowski
Wilder, Wilder, Wilder (Long Christmas Dinner and Happy Journey) by Thornton Wilder
Dir. Chris Grabowski