Established in 1960, the NTS receives its principal funding from grants awarded by the Government of Canada and cultural ministries in each province, with added financial support from private and corporate donors.

It offers training to actors, directors, playwrights, set and costume designers and production specialists to work in the professional theatre industry.

The National Theatre School occupies a historic landmark in Montreal, the Monument-National on Boulevard Saint-Laurent, and a building in Le Plateau district at the corner of Rue Saint-Denis and Avenue Laurier.

Once a juvenile courthouse, the school’s main home, the Michel and Suria Saint-Denis Pavilion, sits on the border between the Plateau Mont-Royal and Mile End neighbourhoods.

The Pavilion also houses Canada's largest collection of theatre related books and manuscripts, both published and unpublished, and audio visual materials available in both official languages.

Actor and CBC television producer, David Gardner chaired the committee that included Colonel Yves Bourassa, Donald Davis, Jean Gascon, Gratien Gélinas, Michael Langham, Pauline McGibbon, Mavor Moore, David Onley, Tom Patterson, Jean Pelletier, Jean-Louis Roux, Roy Stewart, Powys Thomas, Vincent Tovell and Herbert Whittaker.

[3] In the 1920s, he worked closely with his uncle, the remarkable French theatre director Jacques Copeau, to revolutionize theatrical practice and training in France through the Vieux-Colombier troupe.

[4] In 1960, the first year of its operation, the National Theatre School only offered classes in acting for its Francophone and English students.

For example, in 1968, which was dubbed "the year of the barricades" because of the many student protests that swept across Europe and North America, the National Theatre School experienced its own uprising.

Placements at the school are highly competitive; for example, the Acting program auditions around six hundred students annually but only twelve are accepted.