There are several options available if you're considering spending time in New York.

I applied for a Fulbright scholarship. It's an exchange programme that gives postgraduates the chance to study in America, offers them guidance, opportunities and support and funds everything from accommodation to university fees.

There are a few scholarship programmes which work in a similar way. To apply, you need to provide a sense of your agenda for going to the US. For me, studying in America provided an opportunity to gain a foreign perspective on theatre making in Britain and to work with and learn from people and companies I've always admired.

I studied Theatre Directing at Columbia University. My course ran for three years and operated as a kind of laboratory where we undertook practical training, apprenticed master directors, directed several presentations a week and immersed ourselves fully in the city and its arts culture. There are similar graduate directing courses at Brooklyn College, The New School, University of Texas and Yale, Ohio, Brown, UCLA, Stanford and Carnegie Mellon universities among many others.

There are several opportunities for British theatre artists to have their work shown in New York. Brits off Broadway is an annual festival celebrating British theatre. It runs for a month at 59E59 and features a number of British shows that wouldn't normally have the support to transfer overseas.

Some of the New York theatres and companies actively scout for British work at theatre festivals such as Edinburgh, Avignon and Dublin, but if you approach a producer yourself you should be prepared to justify why you think it's important that your work is shown in the US. I've worked with British playwrights whose work has become more powerful and distinguished in the context of the American cultural scene because it has a different perspective. Likewise, I've just directed The Mountaintop here in London, which is written by an American, and is about a unique moment in American history, but it has a quality in London that it would not have elsewhere. Different perspectives can go a long way.

PS122 is an off-Broadway performance space which shows a lot of international work. It's probably the cultural equivalent of somewhere like the BAC. The Public Theatre support young writers through their Emerging Playwrights programme and their Summer Playwrights Festival. New writing companies like Naked Angels, The Play Company, MTC, The Flea, The Women's Project, Atlantic Theatre, Primary Stages and 2econd Stage have an interest in premiering young British work, and initiatives like the Old Vic's US/UK Exchange create transatlantic collaborations.

OVNV New York Network is a good resource for any young practitioner working in the US. It started a couple of years ago with a version of the 24 Hour Plays. The participants from that project formed a company called At Play Productions of which I'm a proud member. We just successfully produced our first professional production - Al's Business Cards - on Theatre Row and we meet on a regular basis to exchange ideas and resources. That's a good example of what the network does best, which is to bring people together and facilitate conversations. They also offer regular talks, support groups and workshops from industry professionals, much like the London OVNV.

James Dacre was talking to Katie Jackson.

Photo by Grufnik courtesy of Flickr

Read an interview with James about the theatre culture in New York.