Yale drama school to stop charging tuition after receiving $150 million donation

Yale University’s drama school will stop charging tuition for its students starting in August after receiving a $150 million donation.

The donation came from philanthropist David Geffen, the drama school said in a statement. It’s the largest donation on record in the history of American theater.

The donation also makes the school the only one of its kind to eliminate tuition for all degree and certificate students.

Geffen said in a statement that it’s an “honor” to partner with Yale to achieve the milestone.

“Removing the tuition barrier will allow an even greater diversity of talented people to develop and hone their skills in front of, on, and behind Yale’s stages,” Geffen said. 

“I hope this gift will inspire others to support similar efforts to increase accessibility and affordability for arts education at colleges and universities across the country,” he continued.

The Yale Drama School will be renamed the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University.

Geffen has an extensive career across music, film and theatre. The philanthropist has produced the films “Bettlejuice” and “Risky Business,” and has helped produced Broadway classics “Cats” and “Dreamgirls.”  He once taught a course at Yale in the late 1970s.

The school enrolls about 200 students across 10 degree and certificate programs. Among its alumni are actors Meryl Streep, Angela Bassett and Lupita Nyong’o.

But the drama school is not the only one at Yale to eliminate tuition. The Yale School of Music stopped charging tuition in 2005 after receiving a generous donation.

According to The New York Times, only a handful of other tuition-free graduate programs exist across the country.