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theatermom · 07-20-2005, 08:16 AM

My intention is not to turn this discussion into an argument, but I have to come down on Mary Anna's student's side on the discussion of the quantity of the acting (and dance) training offered as part of the BM MT concentration at Steinhardt. Please note that I specifically said QUANTITY, not QUALITY. Never having taken a class there, it would be unfair to judge the quality of the training by what we have seen in performance. As Alwaysamom notes, I'm sure there are many talented students there but how much "value-added" training in acting and dance the program has given them is impossible for an outsider to judge. But I do have some anecdotal information to support my concerns.

When my D was looking at Steinhardt in '03-'04, we saw their production of "A New Brain" which I was enormously impressed with, especially from a vocal standpoint. If you know the show, however, I think you might agree that the vocal demands of that show far outweigh the acting demands. After her audition in November, the MT department at Steinhardt showed some real interest in having my D come there and as such personally invited us to be their guests at several other productions. We were still quite interested in Steinhardt so we gratefully took them up on this generous invitation. We saw a small VP, black box production in December, sort of a chamber opera and we also went to see "Ragtime" in February. Despite what we heard were the rave reviews received by this production from the NYU community, we were both hugely disappointed by what we saw. The staging was well done but I have to tell you that the dance (more choreographed movement actually) and acting were not much better than some high school shows we've seen. Some of the voices were memorable but even there the performances were quite uneven. This is perhaps due to the fact that these shows are all cast with a mix of undergrad and graduate MT's and the occasional VP student. When we had met privately with the MT chair before seeing these last two productions, we went over the MT curriculum with him (he's a terrific guy, by the way - we all really liked him and respected how honest he was with us) and questioned what we perceived to be real shortcomings in both the acting and dance offerings of the curriculum. He reminded us, as has been pointed out here before, that this is a BM with a concentration in MT, not a BFA. As such, it is probably the closest thing to what several people in this forum have expressed an interest in - an undergraduate program that offers a quasi-MT degree focused primarily on vocal performance. It seems to do that quite well. Steinhardt grads probably rank exceedingly high in overall musicianship, but if you want a balanced, well-rounded MT program, I would say that there are other programs to put ahead of Steinhardt on your list.

07-20-2005, 08:16 AM	#43
theatermom Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Philadelphia Threads: 14 Posts: 621	Acting at Steinhardt My intention is not to turn this discussion into an argument, but I have to come down on Mary Anna's student's side on the discussion of the quantity of the acting (and dance) training offered as part of the BM MT concentration at Steinhardt. Please note that I specifically said QUANTITY, not QUALITY. Never having taken a class there, it would be unfair to judge the quality of the training by what we have seen in performance. As Alwaysamom notes, I'm sure there are many talented students there but how much "value-added" training in acting and dance the program has given them is impossible for an outsider to judge. But I do have some anecdotal information to support my concerns. When my D was looking at Steinhardt in '03-'04, we saw their production of "A New Brain" which I was enormously impressed with, especially from a vocal standpoint. If you know the show, however, I think you might agree that the vocal demands of that show far outweigh the acting demands. After her audition in November, the MT department at Steinhardt showed some real interest in having my D come there and as such personally invited us to be their guests at several other productions. We were still quite interested in Steinhardt so we gratefully took them up on this generous invitation. We saw a small VP, black box production in December, sort of a chamber opera and we also went to see "Ragtime" in February. Despite what we heard were the rave reviews received by this production from the NYU community, we were both hugely disappointed by what we saw. The staging was well done but I have to tell you that the dance (more choreographed movement actually) and acting were not much better than some high school shows we've seen. Some of the voices were memorable but even there the performances were quite uneven. This is perhaps due to the fact that these shows are all cast with a mix of undergrad and graduate MT's and the occasional VP student. When we had met privately with the MT chair before seeing these last two productions, we went over the MT curriculum with him (he's a terrific guy, by the way - we all really liked him and respected how honest he was with us) and questioned what we perceived to be real shortcomings in both the acting and dance offerings of the curriculum. He reminded us, as has been pointed out here before, that this is a BM with a concentration in MT, not a BFA. As such, it is probably the closest thing to what several people in this forum have expressed an interest in - an undergraduate program that offers a quasi-MT degree focused primarily on vocal performance. It seems to do that quite well. Steinhardt grads probably rank exceedingly high in overall musicianship, but if you want a balanced, well-rounded MT program, I would say that there are other programs to put ahead of Steinhardt on your list.