wct

documenter-

I will aks my colleague if I can pass on her sister's email address to you so you can talk to her about Emerson.

fishbowlfreshman

You won’t find many BFA Acting students from intense programs on CC because they’re much too busy to be playing around on the internet much. If you have an account set up, I’d suggest getting on Myspace.com and searching out all the acting majors at Purchase and Emerson you can find and contact all of them to see if a couple will take the time to talk. Don’t be shy and don't take it personally if most don’t respond, but you can probably find one or two from each school that won't just give you the company line.

wct

documenter-

I sent you a PM with the student's email address from Emerson. She would be happy to talk to you.

meow meow

nice. how much experience in theatre has your girlfriend had? has she done a lot locally or have an agent? did she have any connections? what did she do for her pieces? thanks!

cls238

Hi,
If I'm in the wrong place, please advise. My daughter's decided to switch from acting to directing and the schools with directing tracks seem to be pretty limited. She fell in love with Fordham and we're visiting CMU in a few weeks...film's certainly a possibility, but I understand everyone wants to be a "film director"...thanks in advance for any help!

jasmom

See NYU, Tisch, Drama with studio placement in Playwrights Horizons.

hayhayden

For Directing check out: Carnegie Mellon, UMichigan and NYU. You can study directing at other top schools but there is no set directing major, rather it's theatre studies...look @ BU, SMU, Northwestern.

Especially at Carnegie Mellon, many of the directing students will go into film and television. The graduates of the undergrad directing program have a very high success rate, mostly because they are not tunnel visioned on directing for the stage and because the skills they learn are helpful in a variety of jobs within the Industry. Therefore, grads have gone on to become not only directors in theatre, film, and television, but also casting agents, talent agents, producers, and studio execs in NYC and LA.

Due to the nature of directing, I'm sure the skills learned at ANY of these programs will be conducive to these careers, for as a director you need to know acting, design, script analysis...and the list continues. I only mention Carnegie Mellon as I am the most familiar with it.

Hope this helps

icekiss45

Best MT Programs (in no particular order)

Carnegie Mellon
CCM
OCU
Syracuse
NYU
U Michigan
Ithaca
Boston Conservatory

Best Theatre

Syracuse
Boston
AMDA
Julliard
NYU
Yale

boopster's mom

Thank you icekiss45 for including AMDA in your list. I was impressed with this program and know a few who are currently attending and like it very much. I think AMDA is slowly regaining their reputation for excellence that they enjoyed in the eighties and early nineties. All programs see high points and low points, including the so-called "top 10." If you look at AMDA's graduates, they have the highest success rate- including those working on Broadway. Sure they accept many more students, however look at the pool they are drawing from: the hundreds of very talented students who are turned away from universities who only accept 10 - 15 people into their program.

What it boils down to is that all of these programs basically teach the same things. No performer was ever denied a Tony because they didn't go to CCM or BOCO. From what I've learned on these boards it really doesn't matter. Go where YOU feel you will flourish, where you will be happiest doing what you love. Study the greats and learn all that you can. Those with drive, passion and skill will succeed wherever they are planted.

icekiss45

thank you! go where YOU feel confortable, not where anyone else wants you to go. I personally and a fan of Syracuse, only because I feel confortable there. AMDA is a great program, but i dont like conservatories, for me.

gustof777

University of the Arts has a great program as well and is right by Philadelphias theater district. It is a young program but you can get really great training

kiwee

I would personally have to recommend my own school, Webster University St. Louis. Amazing theatre conservatory, teachers, and students make it a great theatre school.

WallyWorld

Kiwee

I was impressed with what I saw on Webster’s web site. It looks like a good program. What year are you?

Two questions that came to my mind.

1) Since they offer both an MT program and straight acting, do the non MT students get “less” of anything than attending a school that does not offer an MT program?
2) The audition requirements stated monologues only from works post 1930 and specifically stated no Shakespeare (I guess that was for those who did not realize that the bard was prior to 1930). That seemed odd to me?

Thanks Wally

kiwee

I'm a freshman next year, and am not actually in the Theatre Conservatory myself. I'm an Art History major, but I do have many good friends in the conservatory. From talking to them, I know that the non MT students and the Mt kids have a lot of the same classes and the same workshops together, and that they have the same opportunities availiable to them as the MT kids (ie: voice lessons, music classes, etc since these are all elements of non musical theatre as well) As far as the audition requirements, a friend of mine who auditioned for the MT program had the same query and found that the admissions staff thought that there is so much Shakespeare out there in movies, etc that people could just study that and give a cookie cutter audition. They want to see YOUR talent, not Kenneth Branaugh's, and so they would like for their prospective students to choose something that isn't quite so mainstream. They do, however, have classes, etc, where they work on Shakespearian theatre, so it is definately not a Shakespeare free environment! Webster is a great school and everyone I have talked to in the Conservatory is very happy there. Not to mention, it's a VERY affordable option compared to some of the other schools that people have been mentioning on this thread. If you have any more questions you can email me at pinkmartini177@hotmail.com and I'll try my best to get the answers for you from my friends.

fishbowlfreshman

Since everyone is posting on this thread now, there should be a link to the eight parts of the Theatre/Drama Colleges Thread to maintain some kind of continuity. Anyway, there it is.