THE MXAT SCHOOL was founded in 1943 by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, a legendary Russian director and teacher and co-founder with Konstantin Stanislavsky of the MXAT. The theatre, founded in 1898, and its studios became the training grounds for exploration and development of the famed teaching, ethical, and production principles that later led to the creation of the celebrated “Stanislavsky Syste
m.” Senior members of the MXAT company have always taught at the School. The MXAT School today is considered the leading theatre training program in Russia. Every summer the MXAT School auditions several thousand applicants, of which only 30-40 students are admitted into the freshman class. The School is a fully accredited Russian academic institution with a conservatory-type curriculum offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in acting; directing; playwriting; set, costume, and lighting design; technical directing; and production and theatre management. Close ties with the MXAT offer students an opportunity to integrate with the fabled company at the primary stages of their professional development. Students present their productions in rotating repertory throughout the season at the School Studio Theatre located next to the MXAT Main Stage. An average season includes 6-10 productions by junior, senior, and graduate acting classes. Many students are invited to join the MXAT company upon graduation. Most of the School’s graduates are working as company members with one of the more than two hundred Moscow theatres and experimental theatre groups. The MXAT School is a recognized cross-cultural center and home of numerous international theatre exchanges. It has hosted guest artists from all over the world, including directors and teachers from Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the United States. Russian students have toured their productions and participated in workshops and seminars in Berlin, Budapest, Hamburg, London, New York, Paris, and Strasbourg. From 1994 to 1998, students from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) School of Drama studied in Moscow and in Pittsburgh as a part of the joint CMU/MXAT Graduate Acting Program
