Support Programs

Program support is critical to the School of Drama’s efforts. It is often the opportunities provided by these funds which sets the School of Drama apart and, by augmenting the work of its prestigious faculty, secures its place among the Top Five Theatre Programs nationally.

Give to Program Support Funds

Ways to Give

Descriptions of Funds

• Friends of Drama Fund
  The Executive Director uses this fund for program enrichment. This fund gives the School’s Executive Director the flexibility to take advantage of timely, unexpected opportunities it might otherwise miss given the University’s two-year budget cycle. Among other things, the fund permits the School to bring in visiting artists, to support career-development activities, to make occasional special equipment purchases, to meet special maintenance and update needs for our facilities, to offer additional classes, and to foster the creation of new works.
• Drama Graduate Student Support Fund
  This fund supports PhD and MFA students by assisting in career entry activities such as travel expenses, conference attendance, and registration fees.
• PATP Showcase Audition Tour Fund
  The UW School of Drama Professional Actor Training Program (PATP) seeks to develop the skills and attitudes which enhance the talents of our MFA students and lead them to successful professional acting careers. To enable their introduction to the profession, a Showcase performance is produced in their third year. It is performed during an audition tour in New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle for casting agents, directors, producers, and other industry professionals. Producing the PATP Audition Tour costs approximately $80,000 annually and the costs continue to rise.
  
  Donations can also be made to the Adopt an Actor (AaA) program. This program provides donors with the opportunity to become personally acquainted with an individual graduating PATP actor or PATP graduating class. Giving levels vary from $25 for a partial adoption to $4,000 for a fully-funded adoption, with options between these amounts available. Please refer to the Adopt an Actor Brochure for more details of this program.
• Showcase Endowment Fund
  To provide support for career-entry activity for students in the Professional Actor Training Program in the School of Drama. This fund is already endowed at just more than $100,000. The School seeks to build this endowment to $750,000 to eliminate the annual fundraising pressures on third-year PATP students as they prepare for their Showcase Audition Tour so they can channel their time into academic and creative work instead.
• Producing Directors Fund
  The Producing Directors Fund seeks to enhance the curriculum of the School of Drama's three-year Professional Director Training Program through a series of programs designed to facilitate student artistic and career development.
• The Agnes Haaga-Geraldine Siks Endowment for Youth Drama
  Agnes Haaga and Geraldine Siks, both beloved and distinguished professors emeritus, are innovators and leaders in child drama. This endowment will ensure that coursework and special speakers and events in Theatre for Youth are part of the curriculum offered to undergraduate students at the School of Drama.
• Visiting Artists Program Fund
  The UW School of Drama believes that an interactive relationship between our students and working professionals in the theater deeply enriches the academic experience. By working alongside professional artists, our students are challenged, motivated, and inspired and are able to begin bridging their work into the real world. Donations to the Visiting Artists Program will help fund:
• Bringing guest artists of national and international stature to the School of Drama and the associated costs such as travel, per diems, housing, materials and honorariums.
• Developing artistic exchanges, with Seattle's professional theatre companies, to bring artists from their productions to the School of Drama.
• Formalizing events for students to attend in conjunction with local professional productions.
• Hiring guest faculty to facilitate obtaining release time for School of Drama faculty, allowing them to pursue creative work and relieving overloads.
• Michael J. Wurl PATP Endowment Fund
  Michael J. Wurl, an alumnus and dear friend of the School of Drama, was instrumental – along with alumna Pamela Reed and Mark Levine – in establishing the annual PATP Showcase Benefit in 1999. A 1975 alumnus, Michael believed that the priority of third-year PATP students should be artistic and scholarly pursuits rather than fundraising for their Showcase audition tour. Established in April 2002, the Michael J. Wurl PATP Endowment Fund provides support for the Professional Actor Training Program (PATP).