A Unique Program
Our Mission:
Our mission is to enrich and validate the youth experience in our diverse community via excellence in a conservatory-style acting training program. As part of this mission, we seek to increase reading and writing proficiency rates among local elementary school students through unique and innovative literacy-focused outreach initiatives.
Our Conservatory:
The Drama Studio offers 25 different courses through the 24-week conservatory program from September to May, and multiple vacation intensives during April and summer school vacations.
Our Community:
The Drama Studio is a second home for many students: young people often study in the conservatory from age 9 all the way through high school graduation. Drama Studio students form long-lasting friendships and discover a community that embraces their individuality.
A Place for Everyone:
The Drama Studio has had great success uplifting students of all abilities and personalities. Many DS students and their parents find that our theatre training helps them deal with ADD, ADHD, social anxiety, learning disabilities and other challenges.
Extensive Scholarship Program:
The Drama Studio has never turned down a student due to inability to pay and has given $239,000+ in scholarships to conservatory and intensive students over 27 years.
Our Productions:
Since 1987, the Drama Studio has produced 220+ plays, 90+ of which have been original works written by our playwriting students or commissioned specifically to reflect our mission.
Local Support:
The Drama Studio has, over a period of almost 30 years, received steady support from over 250 individuals, businesses, and foundations, including 20 years of both Springfield Cultural Council and Mass Cultural Council funding.
A Short History of the Drama Studio
The Drama Studio was founded in 1987 by Steve Hays and a group of educators and parents who envisioned an institution where youth could study acting as seriously as they could study music, supported by a carefully designed curriculum, productions of quality scripts, and a strong scholarship program to ensure opportunity for all. The term “conservatory-style” was used to describe a two-part process: first, a series of acting classes, offered sequentially from introductory to advanced levels, that would permit acting students to grow in their craft over a period of years, and second, a series of production opportunities that would allow students to audition, rehearse and perform at the same level of quality operating in the classroom. We have now added a third part to our approach: community and educational outreach. This outreach, in the form of field trips, touring productions, literacy workshops and residency programs is vital to our mission because it makes our program even more accessible to all local young people.
Drama Studio Inc. is a tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. Please contact us if you need our tax ID number.