Hello!
I’m currently a male sophomore MT major at LIU Post who was accepted through NYC Unifieds, and I’m honestly loving every single minute of it.
Most of what “vshtkn” and “winnieroot” are correct in what they are saying, and I want to add on to a few things that were said!
Yes, the auditor that you met was David Hugo, who is the freshman acting teacher and is also the director of the Musical Theatre aspect of the entire department as a whole. He and all of the other acting professors are very individual focused, as they give special attention to every single student when they’re presenting something in class. All of the professors want you to grow as an actor, and as long as the work is being put in, you will experience tremendous growth, as I know that I have.
The biggest focus of the program itself is the Suzuki method. In the spring semester of your freshman year, you learn the basics of the Suzuki method and really focus on perfecting that the entire semester. Sophomore year you don’t learn as much about it, but if you’re cast in a show or are in the musical theatre class, you’ll keep training so you don’t lose what you learned the year before. Junior year is where you’ll work with Maria Porter, who trained under Tadahashi Suzuki himself, and her own method of applying the Suzuki training into the work that one does. I’m only a sophomore, so I cannot fully explain what happens in Maria Porter’s class, but from what I hear from upperclassmen, it is absolutely incredible and it really helps one put all of themselves into the work that they present.
Here is a link to a video that we have that shows what we do when it comes to Suzuki training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHnBtHF9vmM
When it comes to Dance, it is not heavily “required” by the Theatre department, but most, if not all of the Theatre students, take as many dance classes as they can. There are classes ranging from beginner to advanced, wherein the advanced classes you would be taking with Dance majors. There is a beautiful new dance studio that is located next to the Theatre building that is much larger than the original dance studio, so there are two dance studios. A lot of people take advantage of this by using the space to practice what they’re learning in class in order to better themselves when it comes to dance in general.
We get a lot of wonderful opportunities to watch professionals do what they do best through the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts. As mentioned, artists such as Kristen Chenoweth, Christine Ebersole, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Chita Rivera, Rebecca Luker, and upcoming Lea Salonga, Kelli O’Hara, and Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley have all done shows here, with a few of them offering master classes for us theatre students. Touring companies of Broadway shows also come here on occasion, with some of the most recent ones being Rent, Once, Annie, The Producers, and Pippin. Students can either receive comp tickets or can get a student ticket for $15 if comps aren’t available.
If there are any more questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me! I hope that I was able to answer some of the questions that people were wondering about this wonderful program here at LIU Post! 