Juilliard School in the context of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Drama school, acting school and theatre school is an undergraduate and/or graduate school or department at a college or university, or a free-standing institution (such as the drama section at the Juilliard School) that specializes in the pre-professional training in drama and "theatre" arts, such as acting, design and technical theatre, arts administration, and related subjects. If the drama school is part of a degree-granting institution, undergraduates typically take an associate degree, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, or, occasionally, Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Design. Graduate students may take a Master of Arts, Master of Acting, Master of Science, Master of Fine Arts, Doctor of Arts, Doctor of Fine Arts, or Doctor of Philosophy degree.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a 16.3-acre (6.6-hectare) complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to five million visitors annually. It houses performing arts organizations including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Juilliard School.

Wendell Edward Pierce (born December 8, 1962) is an American actor and businessman. Having trained at Juilliard School, Pierce rose to prominence as a character actor of stage and screen. He first gained recognition portraying Detective Bunk Moreland in the HBO drama series The Wire from 2002 to 2008.

Pierce's other notable television roles include the trombonist Antoine Batiste in Treme (2010–2013), James Greer in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (2018–2023), the attorney Robert Zane in Suits (2013–2019), and Clarence Thomas in Confirmation (2016). He earned Independent Spirit Awards nominations for his film roles in Four (2012) and Burning Cane (2019), on which he also served as a producer. Other notable film roles include Malcolm X (1992), Waiting to Exhale (1995), Ray (2004), Selma (2014), The Gift (2015), and Clemency (2019).

William McChord Hurt (March 20, 1950 – March 13, 2022) was an American actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he received various accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, in addition to nominations for five Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award.

Hurt studied at the Juilliard School before his film debut, in Ken Russell's science-fiction feature Altered States (1980), for which he received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year. He went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Actor playing a gay prisoner in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985). Hurt was also Oscar-nominated for Children of a Lesser God (1986), Broadcast News (1987), and A History of Violence (2005). He starred in films such as Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), The Accidental Tourist (1988), Alice (1990), One True Thing (1998), Syriana (2005), Mr. Brooks (2007), Into the Wild (2007), and The Yellow Handkerchief (2008). Hurt also portrayed Thaddeus Ross in five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films starting with The Incredible Hulk (2008) and concluding with Black Widow (2021).

Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born to Chinese parents in Paris, he was regarded as a child prodigy, and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, Ma moved with his family to Boston and later to New York City, where he continued his cello studies at the Juilliard School before pursuing a liberal arts education at Harvard University. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world, recorded more than 92 albums, and received 19 Grammy Awards.

In addition to recordings of the standard classical repertoire, Ma has recorded a wide variety of folk music, such as American bluegrass music, traditional Chinese melodies, the tangos of Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, and Brazilian music. He has also collaborated with artists from a diverse range of genres, including Bobby McFerrin, Carlos Santana, Chris Botti, Diana Krall, James Taylor, Miley Cyrus, Zakir Hussain, and Sting.

John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a British-American theatre and film producer, actor, director, and teacher. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane. He enjoyed a distinguished career as an influential producer of both the stage and screen, and was the founding director of the drama department of the Juilliard School and co-founder of The Acting Company.

Houseman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture for producing William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1953). As an actor, Houseman won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Professor Charles W. Kingsfield in the 1973 film The Paper Chase, which he reprised in the 1978 television series adaptation.