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On the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, students walk. Reuters’ Shannon Stapleton Following a $150 million grant from the David Geffen Foundation, Yale announced on Wednesday that tuition for theatre students will be waived beginning in August. Beginning in the 2021-22 academic year, all current and future full-time students in degree and certificate programs at Yale will be eligible for tuition reimbursement. The contribution, according to the institution, will eliminate financial barriers to the school’s illustrious program, which boasts Oscar winners Meryl Streep, Frances McDormand, and Lupita Nyong’o among its alumni. “Yale already offers some of the best professional training for performers, authors, directors, designers, and theater management of all types. By removing the tuition barrier, a wider range of brilliant people will be able to develop and perfect their skills in front of, on, and behind the Yale stages “In a statement on Yale’s website, Geffen stated. According to Yale, Geffen’s gift is “the largest on record in the history of American drama.” The university renamed the school the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale in honor of the donation. Acting, design, directing, dramaturgy and dramatic criticism, playwriting, stage management, technical design and production, and theater administration are all available at the school. It has roughly 200 students enrolled in ten different degree and certificate programs. Geffen is a millionaire entertainment magnate and one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Animation SKG. He founded Asylum Records, Geffen Records, and Geffen Pictures. Geffen’s net worth is estimated to be $10.2 billion by Forbes. Geffen donated $200 million to UCLA’s medical school in 2002, and it was renamed after him. In the 1978-1979 academic year, Geffen taught a course at Yale called “The Music Industry and Arts Management,” according to a press release from the university. After receiving a $100 million grant, Yale’s school of music abolished tuition for its students in 2005./nRead More

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