Design for Theater and Entertainment Media is a three-year program offering advanced professional training in three artistic areas: scenic design, costume design and lighting design. The faculty include internationally recognized theater artists with many years of design experience in theater, opera and other dramatic forms. The diverse professional backgrounds, aesthetics and teaching approaches of the faculty allow for a wide-ranging, flexible program that can be customized to address the talents, needs and interests of each student. The program is highly selective and admits just a few students each year, permitting small classes and individualized attention not available in other professional training programs. While the development of specific design skills is important, the design faculty believe that a good overall design sense, heightened dramatic sensibilities and critical thinking are the essential qualities a designer must cultivate in order to be prepared for any kind of future creative challenge. The program's goal is to produce artists who know how to think creatively, how to conceptualize, and how to find new ways of designing for the theater. Students frequently work as assistants to faculty members on their professional projects. There is a strong emphasis on helping the student build a professional portfolio that reflects the designer's unique individual style and approach as an artist in the theater. The School offers designers outstanding production facilities, which include four professionally equipped theaters, a professional design studio with superior computer-assisted design facilities, a professional model shop, a lighting laboratory, and professional shops for scenery, lighting and costumes. All major theater productions in the School are designed by students and there are classes and design opportunities in film and television as well.