Following twenty-three years of leadership at Yale, James Bundy has informed us that he will retire from his positions as Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean of David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre on June 30, 2026. Though he will be deeply missed in these roles, we are grateful that he will continue to teach at both David Geffen School of Drama (DGSD) and Yale College.
James’s long service to DGSD is unprecedented—no prior dean of the school has held the role as long. His tenure is marked by outstanding achievements as an artist, administrator, teacher, and fundraiser. In addition, his visionary leadership has fostered extraordinary advancements in graduate conservatory theater education and professional practice, fundamentally transforming DGSD and Yale Rep and positioning both institutions for ongoing preeminence in the field.
Perhaps the most profound hallmark of James’s tenure is his contribution to the remarkable philanthropic support for the dramatic arts at Yale, which has expanded student access to premiere theater education. Since becoming dean, he has played a lead role in establishing seventy of the school’s ninety-one named scholarships, and in 2008, DGSD began offering students in the playwriting program fully funded tuition and living expense stipends. Most significantly, in 2021, the school received $150 million from the David Geffen Foundation—the largest single gift in the history of the American theater—eliminating tuition for all degree and certificate students in perpetuity.
In his role as dean, James has transformed the leadership structure of the school, recruiting associate and assistant deans of diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to support strategic and operational planning. He has welcomed to Yale eminent theater artists and managers to teaching and leadership roles, appointing all ten chairs of the school’s programs of study. To ensure the continued vitality of the relationship between Yale Rep, the school, its alumni, and the field, he has cultivated DGSD’s Board of Advisors, established in 2002 and comprised of leaders, including alumni, from a wide variety of disciplines.
James’s strong leadership was particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. When in-person gathering became incompatible with producing live theater, the school temporarily lengthened its three-year MFA program to four years. This additional year was fully subsidized by the school and provided students with meaningful production assignments, a core tenet of the school’s conservatory training. James’s care for theater makers and audiences has also resulted in new training and production practices, creating a community of students, faculty, and staff who promote an environment of mutual respect, dialogue, and continuous learning.
As artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre, James has immeasurably enriched the cultural life not only of our campus and our city, but of the American theater at large. Since his appointment, ten Yale Rep plays and musicals have been honored with the Outstanding Production of the Year Award by the Connecticut Critics Circle. The organization has also recognized James with the Tom Killen Award, for his lifetime of dedication to the theater and to theater in Connecticut, and the Outstanding Direction Award for his revelatory staging of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, one of a dozen critically-acclaimed productions of canonical works he has directed at Yale Rep.
In 2008, under James’s direction, Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre was established, becoming one of the nation’s most robust and innovative programs to develop and underwrite new plays. Throughout his Yale career, James has produced four world-premiere plays that advanced to Broadway, collectively receiving a total of eleven Tony nominations and two Tony Awards. Two other plays were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.
Over the past two decades, the work of field-leading visiting artists has graced the Yale Rep stage. To foster meaningful connections between the distinguished guest artists working at Yale Rep and DGSD students, James established the Beinecke Fellows program, inviting current legends into lectures and classes with theater’s next generation.
Further, James has relentlessly worked to advance the school’s historic claim of unparalleled excellence by improving its facilities. To date, he has collaborated with other university leaders to raise more than $100 million toward a new Dramatic Arts Building. This landmark facility will serve as home to David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, Yale Repertory Theatre, and the undergraduate Program in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. It will also provide dedicated rehearsal space for the Yale Dramatic Association.
This spring, the provost’s office will form a search advisory committee to help us identify candidates for the next dean of DGSD. We will keep the school’s community informed as the search process takes shape and opportunities to provide input are organized.
We offer profound gratitude to James for the myriad ways he has transformed the dramatic arts at Yale over these last two decades. We estimate that more than 1,500 students have received a world-class theater education under his leadership—and scores of faculty, staff, alumni, artists, and visitors have benefitted from his dedication to making Yale a center of theatrical excellence.
Sincerely,
Maurie McInnis
President
Professor in the History of Art
Scott Strobel
Provost
Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Dean of David Geffen School of Drama
Dear Members of the Yale Community,
Following twenty-three years of leadership at Yale, James Bundy has informed us that he will retire from his positions as Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean of David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre on June 30, 2026. Though he will be deeply missed in these roles, we are grateful that he will continue to teach at both David Geffen School of Drama (DGSD) and Yale College.
James’s long service to DGSD is unprecedented—no prior dean of the school has held the role as long. His tenure is marked by outstanding achievements as an artist, administrator, teacher, and fundraiser. In addition, his visionary leadership has fostered extraordinary advancements in graduate conservatory theater education and professional practice, fundamentally transforming DGSD and Yale Rep and positioning both institutions for ongoing preeminence in the field.
Perhaps the most profound hallmark of James’s tenure is his contribution to the remarkable philanthropic support for the dramatic arts at Yale, which has expanded student access to premiere theater education. Since becoming dean, he has played a lead role in establishing seventy of the school’s ninety-one named scholarships, and in 2008, DGSD began offering students in the playwriting program fully funded tuition and living expense stipends. Most significantly, in 2021, the school received $150 million from the David Geffen Foundation—the largest single gift in the history of the American theater—eliminating tuition for all degree and certificate students in perpetuity.
In his role as dean, James has transformed the leadership structure of the school, recruiting associate and assistant deans of diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to support strategic and operational planning. He has welcomed to Yale eminent theater artists and managers to teaching and leadership roles, appointing all ten chairs of the school’s programs of study. To ensure the continued vitality of the relationship between Yale Rep, the school, its alumni, and the field, he has cultivated DGSD’s Board of Advisors, established in 2002 and comprised of leaders, including alumni, from a wide variety of disciplines.
James’s strong leadership was particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. When in-person gathering became incompatible with producing live theater, the school temporarily lengthened its three-year MFA program to four years. This additional year was fully subsidized by the school and provided students with meaningful production assignments, a core tenet of the school’s conservatory training. James’s care for theater makers and audiences has also resulted in new training and production practices, creating a community of students, faculty, and staff who promote an environment of mutual respect, dialogue, and continuous learning.
As artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre, James has immeasurably enriched the cultural life not only of our campus and our city, but of the American theater at large. Since his appointment, ten Yale Rep plays and musicals have been honored with the Outstanding Production of the Year Award by the Connecticut Critics Circle. The organization has also recognized James with the Tom Killen Award, for his lifetime of dedication to the theater and to theater in Connecticut, and the Outstanding Direction Award for his revelatory staging of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, one of a dozen critically-acclaimed productions of canonical works he has directed at Yale Rep.
In 2008, under James’s direction, Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre was established, becoming one of the nation’s most robust and innovative programs to develop and underwrite new plays. Throughout his Yale career, James has produced four world-premiere plays that advanced to Broadway, collectively receiving a total of eleven Tony nominations and two Tony Awards. Two other plays were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.
Over the past two decades, the work of field-leading visiting artists has graced the Yale Rep stage. To foster meaningful connections between the distinguished guest artists working at Yale Rep and DGSD students, James established the Beinecke Fellows program, inviting current legends into lectures and classes with theater’s next generation.
Further, James has relentlessly worked to advance the school’s historic claim of unparalleled excellence by improving its facilities. To date, he has collaborated with other university leaders to raise more than $100 million toward a new Dramatic Arts Building. This landmark facility will serve as home to David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, Yale Repertory Theatre, and the undergraduate Program in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. It will also provide dedicated rehearsal space for the Yale Dramatic Association.
This spring, the provost’s office will form a search advisory committee to help us identify candidates for the next dean of DGSD. We will keep the school’s community informed as the search process takes shape and opportunities to provide input are organized.
We offer profound gratitude to James for the myriad ways he has transformed the dramatic arts at Yale over these last two decades. We estimate that more than 1,500 students have received a world-class theater education under his leadership—and scores of faculty, staff, alumni, artists, and visitors have benefitted from his dedication to making Yale a center of theatrical excellence.
Sincerely,
Maurie McInnis
President
Professor in the History of Art
Scott Strobel
Provost
Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry