NTI
SEMESTER
The NTI Semester offers 13 weeks of immersive theater training where you'll be encouraged to join the O'Neill's longstanding legacy of creative risk-taking and bold collaboration.​​
Whether you're a student looking to expand your education or an artist seeking unique supplemental training, the NTI Semester provides individuals at any stage of their creative journey exploratory immersion in all aspects of the craft.
With focuses in acting, music theater, directing, and playwriting, you’re able to specialize in the area that interests you most while undertaking this rigorous exploration of what it means to be a complete theater artist. By broadening your horizons, you will cultivate your curiosity, discover new passions, and become a more empathetic and aware collaborator.
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During your NTI Semester, you'll gain experience with various methods, styles of text, and approaches to the work. At the O'Neill, you'll be exposed to the larger professional landscape and a wide network of creatives. You’ll collaborate across disciplines as a close-knit ensemble. The relationships forged with both your peers and your teachers will carry into your professional career, leading to lifelong collaborations.
PROGRAM DATES & DETAILS
Fall Semester 2025
Semester Dates: Sept. 8, 2025-Dec. 7, 2025
Fall Break: Nov. 25, 2025, at 5pm through
Nov. 30, 2025, at 5pm
Early Bird Application Deadline: April 7, 2025
Regular Application Deadline: May 19, 2025
CHOOSE YOUR FOCUS
When you apply to attend our NTI Semester at the O'Neill, you’ll select a discipline to focus your training on. In addition to taking classes with the entire ensemble, you’ll take specialty classes in the area you choose and it will inform the roles you take on during Theater Labs.
THE NTI SEMESTER EXPERIENCE
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CLASSES & MENTORSHIP FROM INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS​
​At NTI, you’ll take classes each week from professional working artists who are masters of their craft. Classes vary by focus but include subjects like Droznin Movement, Script Analysis, Crafting a Character, Stage Combat and Intimacy, Solo Work, and more. These teachers will also provide mentorship that goes beyond the classroom, offering advice for your future career.
THEATER LABS
Each week, Theater Labs challenge you to put what you are learning in class on its feet. Under the mentorship of a professional guest artist, you’ll have just 15 hours to stage a series of scenes with a group of peers. You’ll develop your creative instincts and gain practical experience with a wide range of classical and contemporary plays and musicals.
PLAYWRIGHTS AND LIBRETTISTS WEEK
Drawing on the O'Neill's legacy of new work development, Playwrights and Librettists Week is dedicated to the staging of original one-act plays and musicals written, directed, designed, performed, and produced by your NTI ensemble under the mentorship of professional playwrights. This collaborative week supports and amplifies the voices of the next generation of American theater writers and exposes you to the process of developing new work.
NEW YORK CITY RESIDENCY
THEATER ATTENDANCE
As an NTI student, you’ll take trips to NYC and to prominent regional theaters such as Yale Repertory Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, and Hartford Stage. You may also attend workshops and performances by artists in residence on the O’Neill’s campus. Often NTI students have exclusive opportunities to learn more about the artistic process with the cast and creative teams.​
COMPANY PROJECT
During a one-week residency in the epicenter of the American theater, you will train with professionals in a series of workshops, master classes, and Q&As. While in the city, you'll see exciting new work both on and off-Broadway, exploring the flourishing artistic landscape New York City has to offer.
As the culmination of your NTI Semester, you’ll devise a piece of theater unique to your ensemble. Through public performances, you showcase what you have learned and what has inspired you throughout your time at NTI.
