The Yale DRAMAT is the second oldest college theatre association in the country and the largest undergraduate theatre organization at Yale. Its membership numbers over one hundred students, who annually elect a nine-member Executive Board. From the day of its first meeting on February 2, 1900, the Yale Dramatic Association has been dedicated to producing high quality drama at Yale, offering a unique opportunity for Yale students to work with professional directors, designers, and choreographers in the best-equipped theatre facilities on campus. The DRAMAT produces seven shows a year: three Experimental Shows, Spring and Fall Mainstages, the Freshman Show, and the Commencement Musical.
The DRAMAT has presented American premieres of Camus’ Caligula, de Ghellerhode’s The Death of Doctor Faust, Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, and Bond’s The Woman, as well as the English language premiere of Eugene Ionesco’s Hunger and Thirst. Original works by Yale undergraduates are also a DRAMAT tradition, whose earliest contributors were Cole Porter ‘13, Stephen Vincent Benet ‘19, and Thornton Wilder ‘20.