Performance Venues

Boasting a 60-foot proscenium stage, the Peter Jay Sharp Theater seats 915. Juilliard’s two major student dance series, New Dances and Juilliard Dances Repertory, are held here, as well as three full opera productions each year and performances by the Juilliard Orchestra and the New Juilliard Ensemble, some recitals, and special events. The house is equipped with full theatrical lighting, a 95-piece orchestra pit, and internal cuing and monitor equipment. The Peter Jay Sharp Theater is at street level, easily accessible through Juilliard’s West 65th Street entrance.

Seating 188, the McClelland Drama Theater is the Drama Division’s main performance space. Each year, eight fully produced plays are mounted here: three fourth-year drama productions, a rotating repertory of three shows in February, and an annual spring production of two Shakespeare plays performed by the third-year drama students. The theater contains a large thrust stage that supports productions ranging from classical Greek to modern avant-garde plays, lectures, drama community meetings, and special events. The McClelland Drama Theater is located on the fourth floor.

C. Michael Paul Hall, one of two recital halls at Juilliard, is one of Juilliard’s main performance spaces. The hall has 275 seats and plays an important role in the lives of Juilliard students. The hall hosts as many as four events a day, ranging from student and faculty recitals and chamber music concerts to juries and master classes. Paul Hall houses the Holtkamp organ, one of five organs in the school, and is outfitted with microphones and recording equipment which allow for professional quality recording. Paul Hall is at the lobby level.

At 150 seats, Morse is a smaller performance space with a flexible seating configuration. Located on the S level, it is frequently used for recitals, master classes, and lectures, as well as meetings and other events.

Designed with the latest technological advances and available for use by all three divisions, this black box theater seats 98. It has more than 2,000 square feet of performance space and more than 2,000 square feet of production support space, including a state-of-the-art lighting grid, a permanently installed sound system, a removable dance floor, and video projection capabilities. Juilliard’s Music Technology Center is wired to the theater, allowing students to make use of the advanced sound capabilities of the space.

The Kaufman Dance Studio, one of six Dance Division studios, was added during the building’s renovation, in 2009, and provides 2,300 square feet of dance rehearsal space. Overlooking Broadway, the exterior glass wall is the architectural centerpiece of the building’s eastern façade, which extends over the sidewalk in front of Alice Tully Hall. This architectural feature, which allows passersby to look in on rehearsals and performances, promotes the idea of the school reaching out into the city. The Kaufman Dance Studio is on the second floor.

Seating 70, the Steinberg Drama Studio is an intimate black box space which serves as a performance studio for most third-year drama productions. Technical support is provided on a smaller scale.

The newest rehearsal space for Juilliard’s four large ensembles is 3,500 square feet and boasts 29-foot tall ceilings. The space is acoustically engineered with movable panels along the top half of the room’s periphery and fixed acoustical panels along the bottom half to allow for varying levels of sound absorption and diffusion.

Room 340, with its glass exterior wall overlooking Broadway, is used primarily as a jazz rehearsal and performance space that accommodates small ensembles and the larger Juilliard Jazz Orchestra.

Seating capacity and technical support in the Ellen and James S. Marcus Vocal Arts Studio are similar to the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Drama Studio. This space serves as a performance studio for Vocal Arts productions.