Northeastern and the Huntington Theatre Company on Thursday announced a new educational alliance designed to provide a diverse range of professional experiential learning opportunities for theatre students.

Through this alliance, which will begin in the 2017-18 season, Northeastern theatre students will engage with the Tony Award-winning regional theatre company through specially designed co-ops as well as master classes with Huntington artists as part of the Northeastern Department of Theatre’s “NU Broadway” series.

The institutions will collaborate on developing ways to connect Huntington productions with theatre courses at Northeastern while exploring opportunities to develop new graduate programs in conjunction with the Huntington’s apprentice program. Theatre department faculty will also participate in Huntington Theatre Forums.

“Since Northeastern is focused on professional experiential learning through co-ops, a relationship with the Huntington makes perfect sense,” said Scott Edmiston, chair of the Department of Theatre and professor of the practice. “Our students will greatly benefit from increased interaction with the nationally-acclaimed professionals at the Huntington and from greater access to some of the most exciting and innovative work in contemporary theatre.”

Edmiston served as the Huntington’s artistic associate from 1997 to 2003. The alliance marks the beginning of a new relationship between Northeastern and the Huntington in which they will work together to cultivate young theatre artists and connect faculty scholarship with contemporary theatre practice.

“Teaching is in the Huntington’s DNA, and we look forward to the start of this new alliance with our professional colleagues and neighbors on the Avenue of the Arts—the Northeastern University Department of Theatre,” said Michael Maso, the Huntington Theatre Company’s managing director. “We look forward to mentoring and helping to train students in both classroom and co-op settings, on stage and in our new production center.”

Student ‘completely enthralled’ with upcoming co-op

Northeastern theatre major Liam Hofmeister will be the first student to co-op at the Huntington through this alliance. As part of the co-op, which will begin in August, the rising fourth-year student will serve as assistant director of an upcoming production at the Huntington this fall. He will also blog for the Huntington, work on marketing projects, and contribute to the theatre’s social media presence.

“My biggest goal for this co-op is to learn how a theatre company operates, which is something you really can’t fully grasp without working there,” he said. “What’s great about this position is that I’ll get to be nimble in working with those on the artistic side as well as those on the arts administration and marketing sides. I’m completely enthralled about the assistant directing opportunity.”

Hofmeister, AMD’19, said he is eager to immerse himself in the Huntington to learn how a theatre company operates and to bolster his directing experience—noting that he’s already developed an affinity for direction through his coursework and experiences with productions run by the department as well as the student-run Silver Masque and Northeastern Shakespeare Society. Prior to his co-op at the Huntington, Hofmeister will serve as assistant director on the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s production of Romeo and Juliet this summer on Boston Common.