Theater/Performing Arts

[Anonymous]

Not looking for opinions on this as a course of study. I have a child who is very passionate about musical theater in particular (already had some main roles in local community theater productions). Child is in high school and also enjoys humanities, writing, visual arts, foreign language, etc. She’s a strong student in those subjects but struggles with math—and grades reflect that.

Would appreciate hearing from anyone that has had experience with applying or attending the following schools (you or your child), including details on the audition process.

SUNY Purchase
Wagner College
Rutgers
University of the Arts
Muhlenberg
Shenandoah College
VCU Arts
North Carolina School of the Arts
Elon
SCAD

Any suggestions for other options we should consider? As you can tell from the list, looking mostly at east coast and kid doesn’t like really cold weather so probably not going to apply north of New York.

[Anonymous]

It's cold and snowy but Ithaca College has a great theatre program.

[Anonymous]

Years ago it was also Syracuse, NYU and DePaul on that list, but yes - very cold.

[Anonymous]

Of that list, Rutgers and SUNY Purchase are the ones respected most by conservatory style arts high schools. Carnegie Mellon as well. Obviously Juilliard and NYU Tisch are the cream of the crop. Fordham should also be on your list (Denzel Washington's alma mater). SCAD is generally where the more visually-oriented folks go. For production, a fairly unknown outlier is Full Sail in Orlando. Quietly it's been feeding a huge number of grads into the video game, film crew, sound, EFX and concert production industries. Audition stuff in next post.

[Anonymous]

Auditions vary. In most cases you only audition if doing a BFA, as opposed to a BA. That's a judgment call. BFA is a lot more focused, BA goes you perhaps more flexibility across courses but less intense on the craft.

As someone interested in musical theater, you're talking learning two monologues plus a couple of song variations. Plus dancing. And you want to be prepared with twice that amount if someone asks. Should also be reading a wide variety of plays and understand character and script analysis (again to have a good answer if someone asks about your approach). AT NYU musical theater is a separate audition from theater. Not sure how that works at other places.

[Anonymous]

If you want to attend an audition based program, you need to cast a very wide net, because it is so subjective and competitive. Two you might want to look into Marymount in Manhattan and Hartt at the university of Hartford. Catholic U has a pretty well regarded program, as does Florida State. There are very active boards on College Confidential about these programs and the audition process. Many of these schools participate in joint audition sessions, so you can audition for multiple schools at once. There is one in Chicago but one on the East Coast as well.

[Anonymous]

What about Boston Conservatory?

[Anonymous]

If grades are a struggle I would suggest the BFA and audition route. They'll certainly look at grades but most of the really good programs have long since realized that being great in a creative field has little to do with test scores and math grades. Not that you can have bad grades, but talent is the dealbreaker. Regular BA will mean more gen ed courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about Boston Conservatory?

Oh sorry— didn’t read your last line.

[Anonymous]

There's a ton of overlap between your list and the schools my 10th grade dancer is looking at. If you're on Facebook, there's a group called Dance Parents: College Bound that's a great resource. If you joined and posted there or did a search, you could pick through the dance-specific stuff to find nuggets of good recent info about the performing arts programs.

[Anonymous]

Also, I’m not sure if you should let grades limit where you apply because theater programs are not going to be as concerned. I know of two kids who got into top theater programs with not great GPAs that were brought down by math and science. These were schools they never could have dreamed to get into if they had just applied to the regular programs. Just something to research more though because I’m not an expert.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for the input and suggestions so far. I forgot to include Pace University in NYC on our list.

Grades are pretty solid except for math. She’s very bright but not the most studious. Would rather be singing and performing than sitting in class! Child already works with a vocal coach and has a solid repertoire of song choices for auditions. Dance is probably her weakest of the three MT skills. Going to do a pre-college vocal program at Purchase this summer.

[Anonymous]

I had never heard of this until recently but my DC's friend is set to attend Western Connecticut State University (West Conn) - apparently a very highly regarded theater and fine arts school. This student auditioned all over the country and was thrilled to be accepted here...

[Anonymous]

I say this to all my students ( I teach at a school of the arts) -- focus on the create part, not just the performing part. If you seek a career in the 21st century then write your own music, scripts, parts, shoot your own films, post them to every forum that makes sense. Create your own opportunities. The school won't matter as much if you do.

[Anonymous]

As an upstate new yorker who wen to Boston for college -- Boston is actually warmer and less snowy than any of the SUNY schools so maybe consider Boston Conservatory and Emerson? Carnegie Mellon and Julliard are of course excellent but given the acceptance rate I probably wouldn't bother even trying for myself/my kids.