The Barrow Group Youth Programs
The Barrow Group Performing Arts Center, 520 8th Ave, #901, New York, NY 10018
About
The Barrow Group Youth Programs offer online and in-person classes where students take part in acting, improv, musical theatre, playwriting, and on-camera work. The program is part of The Barrow Group, which focuses on storytelling rooted in reality and spontaneity, with an emphasis on what is happening rather than how it looks.
• Ages: 5–18 years old
Founded in New York City in 1986, The Barrow Group describes itself as an artistic home that is nurturing, accessible, collaborative, and inclusive, and is dedicated to bringing humanity, authenticity, and spontaneity to the performing arts. All teaching artists in The Barrow Group Youth Programs complete a rigorous one-year teacher training program, and faculty and staff are developed from within The Barrow Group’s culture through a robust teacher-training pipeline. The organization is led in part by founder and Co-Artistic Director Seth Barrish and maintains an “all-in-it-together” ethos, a culture of kindness and trust, and a clear “story first” orientation, with a deep focus on the audience’s experience.
The Barrow Group has received multiple awards and honors, including the Drama Desk Award for Off-Off-Broadway Excellence in 1995 and again in 2005, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Show for All the Rage by Martin Moran in 2013. Its productions and artists have earned additional recognition such as the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Show for My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend (2011), the Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble for The Temperamentals by Jon Marans (2009), and the OBIE Award for The Tricky Part by Martin Moran (2004), along with multiple Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, and Nightlife Award nominations. Time Out New York, Backstage, and CBS New York consistently name The Barrow Group one of New York City’s top places to study.
Community involvement connected to The Barrow Group includes free artist programs such as FAB Women, Artist Residencies, and in-house readings, as well as workshops for corporations, artist residencies, and partnerships with higher education and K–12 schools. Cross-collaboration among actors, writers, directors, and filmmakers is a stated feature of the organization, supported by a respectful, engaged, and deeply supportive working board and multiple entry points into training and community.
Testimonials about The Barrow Group include statements from Anne Hathaway, who said, “The Barrow Group was really the institution that taught me how to act,” and Tony Hale, who called The Barrow Group his “most significant training.” Alison Wright said, “TBG was the first place where I could believe I was actually enough, exactly as I was,” and Brett Gray shared, “For the first time I’ve felt that I can let go and be spontaneous.” Additional testimonials include Poorna Jagannathan, who said The Barrow Group is where she “unlearned how to act and learned how to be me,” Sakina Jaffrey, who described it as the environment that gave her tools “to be utterly spontaneous and to be truly myself,” and Lola Kirke, who stated, “I attribute my entire career to what I learned at TBG, which is essentially: how to be more myself.”
Last updated July 29, 2026.
• Ages: 5–18 years old
Founded in New York City in 1986, The Barrow Group describes itself as an artistic home that is nurturing, accessible, collaborative, and inclusive, and is dedicated to bringing humanity, authenticity, and spontaneity to the performing arts. All teaching artists in The Barrow Group Youth Programs complete a rigorous one-year teacher training program, and faculty and staff are developed from within The Barrow Group’s culture through a robust teacher-training pipeline. The organization is led in part by founder and Co-Artistic Director Seth Barrish and maintains an “all-in-it-together” ethos, a culture of kindness and trust, and a clear “story first” orientation, with a deep focus on the audience’s experience.
The Barrow Group has received multiple awards and honors, including the Drama Desk Award for Off-Off-Broadway Excellence in 1995 and again in 2005, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Show for All the Rage by Martin Moran in 2013. Its productions and artists have earned additional recognition such as the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Show for My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend (2011), the Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble for The Temperamentals by Jon Marans (2009), and the OBIE Award for The Tricky Part by Martin Moran (2004), along with multiple Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, and Nightlife Award nominations. Time Out New York, Backstage, and CBS New York consistently name The Barrow Group one of New York City’s top places to study.
Community involvement connected to The Barrow Group includes free artist programs such as FAB Women, Artist Residencies, and in-house readings, as well as workshops for corporations, artist residencies, and partnerships with higher education and K–12 schools. Cross-collaboration among actors, writers, directors, and filmmakers is a stated feature of the organization, supported by a respectful, engaged, and deeply supportive working board and multiple entry points into training and community.
Testimonials about The Barrow Group include statements from Anne Hathaway, who said, “The Barrow Group was really the institution that taught me how to act,” and Tony Hale, who called The Barrow Group his “most significant training.” Alison Wright said, “TBG was the first place where I could believe I was actually enough, exactly as I was,” and Brett Gray shared, “For the first time I’ve felt that I can let go and be spontaneous.” Additional testimonials include Poorna Jagannathan, who said The Barrow Group is where she “unlearned how to act and learned how to be me,” Sakina Jaffrey, who described it as the environment that gave her tools “to be utterly spontaneous and to be truly myself,” and Lola Kirke, who stated, “I attribute my entire career to what I learned at TBG, which is essentially: how to be more myself.”
Last updated July 29, 2026.
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