The Yale School of Drama trains and advances leaders to raise the standards of global professional practice in every theatrical discipline, creating bold art that astonishes the mind, challenges the heart, and delights the senses. Yale University founded a Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts in 1924 through the generosity of Edward S. Harkness, B.A. 1897. In 1925, while the University Theatre was under construction, the first class of students was enrolled. George Pierce Baker, the foremost teacher of playwriting in America, joined the faculty to serve as the first chairman of the department, and the first Master of Fine Arts in Drama was conferred in 1931. The University Theatre is also the home of the Yale Dramatic Association, one of the oldest collegiate theatrical companies in the United States and Yale’s premier undergraduate production company.