Want to become an actor or director? The new BFA in Performance Making at Pace University’s Sands College of Performing Arts gives you the training to perform, direct, collaborate, and create original work for the stage and screen. With intensive coursework in acting and directing, a semester in Barcelona, Spain, and innovative performing arts spaces opening in 2026, this program prepares you to launch a career in the performing arts—in New York City and across the globe.
Three Reasons to Choose the BFA in Performance Making
1. Train Where Broadway Begins:
Pace's Sands College of Performing Arts is ranked among the top 10 most-represented colleges on Broadway—but it doesn’t stop there.
Study in the heart of New York City, surrounded by professional theaters, TV studios, and production companies.
Learn from expert faculty who actively work in the entertainment industry as actors, directors, and creators.
Get two years of dedicated acting and directing training, plus four years of intensive collaborative practice, where you’ll devise new work and build your artistic voice.
2. Take Your Talent Global:
Studying abroad isn’t just exciting—it expands your artistry.
As part of the program, you’ll spend a semester at the Institute of the Arts Barcelona, a top conservatory-style school in Spain.
Work alongside European directors, actors, and collaborators, gaining new performance techniques and global perspectives.
Create original work both in Barcelona and New York City, building international connections and expanding your artistic vision.
3. Create in Cutting-Edge Spaces:
Beginning in 2026, you will train, create, and perform in state-of-the-art facilities at One Pace Plaza East.
New theater spaces, including a 400-seat proscenium theater, a double-height black box with tech gallery and catwalks, and a flexible venue that opens into the plaza courtyard.
A scene, prop, and paint shop equipped for welding, upholstery, rigging, and full-scale set creation.
A 3,300-square-foot professional-grade costume shop designed for full fabrication, including dyeing, spraying, and distressing.
Dedicated vocal/self-tape rooms, screening rooms, flexible rehearsal spaces, drafting studios, and digital design labs.
Animation studios, a film and sound stage, ADR rooms, and podcast studios.
Join the next generation of performers, directors, and creators in bringing bold, new work to life.
Start your application today—or reach out to sands@pace.edu with any questions.
