Roger_Dooley

Please join me in welcoming our newest College Rep, TheTheatreSchool, from (surprise) The Theatre School at DePaul University.

As we always caution, please don't address threads or pleas for help directly to our College Rep members. Post your issue in the appropriate forum, and you'll get help from other CC members and, if a College Rep has something to contribute, then no doubt he/she will.

Welcome to College Confidential, TheTheatreSchool!

troublesomejason

Sweet!! I have three friends there from our theater department .

Welcome!

allysoncdiva

Welcome! I am so glad there is a thread for Depaul's The Theatre School!

aljabeel

Hooray! I'm so happy to welcome a rep from such a fantastic program! We here at CC are delighted to have you.
I'll get right down to business:
If you could name 3 male and 3 female contemporary monologues that have been done to death at your auditions, what would they be? Who are some playwrights or works that you wish more aspiring students would look into?
Thank you!

WallyWorld

There is an elephant in the living room and it has nothing to do with monologues. The good news is that the “lay of the land” is clear to everyone going in. Yet, if we are going to call a spade a spade, from my view their cut system is absurd.

I am an Irish Catholic who would love to send one of my children to a school with an impressive story such as DePaul. And, the handsome arts community in Chicago cannot be denied. My daughter has a very good chance at being accepted for straight drama to the top conservatories in the country and she will not apply to DePaul due to their cut system. I know that she is not alone. So, you could argue that the cut system reduces the quality of their applicants.

So, if you want to get down to brass tacks lets have an explanation from the school rep as to why they employ a cut system that for those of us outside of the industry looks really bad.

TheTheatreSchool

Thank you for the welcome and WallyWorld, you have hit the nail on the head. In fact it was several recent posts regarding our cut policy (specifically this thread Depaul University ) which made me want to contribute to make sure the correct information was included here. Although I must say that ckp has done an excellent job of representing us (and I don’t even know who s/he is!) but given the important nature of this information I felt the need to weigh in.

Certainly cuts and evaluations have been discussed in excellent detail on this forum in the past so I don’t want to rehash that information here, but I wanted to specifically address this information as it pertains to our program.

While our specific process of evaluation and specific capacities may be unique to us, evaluation-based conservatory acting training programs are not unique, with a wide variety of options and training opportunities. Anyone considering studying acting in a conservatory should be a good consumer and certainly ask the institutions they are considering the following types of questions: How many students do you admit? How many admitted students do you enroll in your first year? Do you have an evaluation system? Does that evaluation ever lead to a student being removed from the program or directed into another major? What will my casting opportunities be? Will I participate in a professional showcase? eEtc. Ultimately, the college search should be about finding the program(s) that will provide you the best match for what you want, your style of learning, etc.

At The Theatre School we enroll 52 freshman actors. The first year curriculum is an exploration-based one-year intensive, including 16 contact hours a week in the theatre training curriculum (e.g. acting, movement, voice & speech) as well as three non-casting production assignment throughout the year. I do not want to discuss curriculum too much here as it is available in great detail on our website. Throughout the first year the students are being evaluated and provided quarterly feed back from the faculty in four areas - discipline (work-ethic), collaboration (ability to focus and respond to partner, citizenship), professional potential, and progress in the program (response to the work and continued growth).

At the end of the first year the entire class is evaluated by the full-time performance faculty and 26 of the students are invited to continue into the second year at which time they are secure in the program. The group that is evaluated could be as large as the original 52 or smaller depending on the natural attrition during the year – which can be as large as about 4 or 5 students (not the 15 as referenced in the re-post from fishbowlfreshman in the thread link I posted at the top) – meaning the evaluated class is generally between 48 to 52 students.

The 26 students who are invited to the second year then are guaranteed 9 required meaningful casting assignments in our 40+ play production season over the next three years and all participate in our Graduate Showcases in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles in the final year.

One thing any applicant should know about our undergraduate Acting program is that we do have a cut policy and entering the program comes with an inherent risk. That is a reality of our program and has been a reality (in a variety of forms) from the school's inception as the Goodman School of Drama in 1925. No student should ever enter our program uninformed of this information as it is communicated on our website, in our printed materials and the policy is read to applicants (and parents) during the information session before every Admissions audition.

To also do double duty and address the concerns in the other thread (above), while it may seem counterintuitive to someone outside of the program, ckp is very much correct that the first year experience for the majority of the class is not a cut-throat competitive environment. The first year curriculum (in fact all four years) is ensemble-based and the students' commitment and responsiveness to that ensemble is part of their evaluation (the collaboration element above). Anecdotally, I can say that students who are uber-competitive or "cut-throat" do not fair very well in the evaluation. What we see happen is that "family" effect that ckp mentions where student become VERY supportive of each other.

This is our program. And I would be the first to tell you it is not for everyone, which is why we take great care to be upfront and honest about this information and make it accessible to every applicant. The great thing about college education is that there are LOTS of choices. As you can imagine, there are a lot of prospective students/parents who don’t agree with our process, which is fine because there are lots of other great choices out there.

We are, however, very proud of our history of providing excellent training and opportunities for artistic growth to our students and have a strong track record of producing alumni who are prepared, confident and successful in crafting a career for themselves in their chosen area of the industry. A wealth of information about this is available in Theatre School News in the Alumni section of our website and I will let that speak for itself.

Thanks again for the welcome to CC and I am happy to assist in whatever way I can.

musicmom1215

Before I start, please don't anyone attack me for asking this question. I am not trying to argue about this cut policy, because frankly I don't care how they do things there (my D is already in another program and is very happy), but I am curious how this policy evolved. Has it always been that way? Or did someone find that a five-minute audition was not enough to really evaluate the talent or potential of the student?

5pants

TheTheatreSchool,

I offer a heartfelt welcome to CC. As I have mentioned before I have twin sons who both auditioned for DePaul a couple years ago, one was accepted the other waitlisted. With lots of consideration the one S decided to attend Webster to pursue MT....it was a hard decision for him.

We found The Theatre School to be an outstanding program....and you listed many of those reasons in your post. I do encourage everyone to look into the program at DePaul. During our visits we spoke to many students who were also interested in musical theatre. Those students took voice and dance privately in order to enhance their skills.

TheTheatreSchool, I am very glad you have decided to participate in the discussion here on CC.

SUE aka 5pants

5pants

aljabeel,

I believe the answers to your questions may be found on The Theatre School's website. The school use to post an extensive list of what plays to avoid and I believe a list of suggested plays....couldn't find that online however. Here is a link to The Theatre School's checklist and guidlines for application/audition. http://theatreschool.depaul.edu/pdf/...ist_acting.pdf

Perhaps if that list I referred to still exists and I just was kind of doofus in locating it the college rep may be able to provide the link for it. It was a convenient list to have as it provided a bit of a guidline for a monologue search.

SUE aka 5pants

Hindoo

My daughter is very involved in high school theater--but as a junior and soon-to-be senior, she has gravitated toward behind-the-scenes involvement, such as stage management, directing, and tech work. How would those interests effect her at DePaul? ... What are your thoughts on the overall liberal arts program there? ... Also, she is concerned that DePaul is largely a commuter school. Is this so? She would like to live on campus in a fairly close-knit community. ... One last question. Clearly, I haven't done my research yet, but does DePaul give decent merit aid? My daughter has a 35 ACT, 2290 SAT, all A's in AP/advanced classes, and pretty decent extracurriculars.

WallyWorld

TheTheaterSchool

You made my point exactly. You guys, for better or worse, are very candid about the way you run your program and I appreciate that. I would rather an upfront explanation of a program with cuts than monkey business that I have observed elsewhere. And, I assure you, I have a predisposition towards liking you guys. Yet, your post did not answer the questions at hand.

1) The need for an evaluation system and “cutting your losses” is obvious. Yet of the top conservatories you seem to be in the minority of having such an extreme cut system. Why is that good for your students? Why is that good for your school? Why is it good for the world of theater?

2) I know a few “best of the best” stage actors and some “best of the best” students who claim they would not apply or attend a program with such a “blood on the floor” cut system. Have you given consideration to the fact that such a system would reduce the quality of your applicants? I well could be missing the point and would welcome enlightenment.

15 drop out? 5 idiot slackers are routine? I rest my case for point #2

babar

The DePaul program seems top-notch. My son filled out the application for the school (which we felt was a good fit) and made an appointment for the audition during the NY unifieds. After reflection, he decided to cancel the audition for DePaul because he didn't want to attend based on the cut policy. He was a strong candidate who was admitted to several wonderful schools and will be attending a highly regarded BFA conservatory program this fall. I am writing this to back up WallyWorld, who said in an earlier post that his daughter would likely make a similar decision not to apply to DePaul for the same reason. From the outside it appears to be an archaic and draconian way to run a program. There's something wonderful about tradition, and the fact that this policy has existed since the year of the Scopes trial is impressive, but I do think that there is a way to be evaluative that is more fair to students (I reiterate the point made before about the negligible difference between student #26 and student #27 of the class when making a cut from 52 students to 26). DePaul's own students are surprised, shocked and saddened by decisions of who is cut after a year. Are there pedagogical reasons for DePaul's policy? I find it especially hard to reconcile the policy in the context of a Catholic institution with a mission actually stating the importance of the dignity of each person and the importance of sensitivity to everyone. I am not out to change DePaul. Obviously it attracts students and that enables it to continue as it is. I am just struggling to understand it. Thank you!

TheTheatreSchool

aljabeel,

5pants is correct. We used to publish a list of suggested plays and a list of plays to avoid but stopped distributing that list a few years back in favor of giving applicants and expanded list of suggestions for what to look for in a monologue. That list is at the link that 5pants posted. One of the reasons we stopped using those lists was because one too many applicants (and only one would have been too many!) didn't look at the lists and showed up the day of the audition with a monologue from the "plays to avoid" list only to have another applicant point that out to them or to see the list for the first time that day and get upset that reflect poorly on them. We didn’t like to see that happen and it was an unfortunate side effect of having those lists.

I see a hundreds and hundreds of auditions each year and I can tell you that pieces that are "done to death" concern me less than when a 17 year old actor chooses a piece with a character who is way beyond their natural playable age range or pieces that don't allow the actor to present a natural, honest and connected moment. Typically broad comedies and farce are on one extreme and highly or overly emotional pieces are at the other extreme. Both types of selections can present very large and unnecessary acting hurdles in a two minute piece.

The "done to death" issue also doesn't concern me as much because good material is good material. The key is really to read read read and then read some more. Read plays. Read the trade magazines as many of them have columns in each issue that profile newly published plays. Some event print short length or full length new plays. Find the plays and pieces that speak to you or are about ideas/themes that are important to you and get you motivated and thinking creatively. Picking a piece that affects you (whether it is Chekhov or Iizuka) will ultimately be what allows you to present two minutes that are honest and interesting.

TheTheatreSchool

hindoo,

Re: how your D’s interests in behind-the-scenes areas of theatre affect her at DePaul? That depends a little bit on what your D wants to study. We have BFA majors in all of the areas you mentioned - stage management, theatre technology and directing (theatre arts). So, she could major in one of those areas and explore and experience them quite comprehensively. If she is interested in studying acting, then she wouldn’t get much experience in those areas within the required curriculum and production assignments (beyond the first year when all students in all 11 of our undergrad majors work production crew assignments).

Re: the liberal studies programs...we are a BFA conservatory so the number of liberal studies requirements is lower than it would be in a typical BA liberal arts-based theatre program. The liberal studies requirements are outlined here: http://theatreschool.depaul.edu/unde...al_studies.php

You may have been asking about the quality of the liberal arts course experience though. That can often depend on how motivated/diligent the student is in selecting course that will interest and challenge her/him. Theatre students with strong academic records in high school can also participate in DePaul’s honors program for their liberal studies requirements which can also elevate the level of challenge and the experience.

Re: on-campus community...Because DePaul is a large urban institution it does have a large commuter population of two kinds - students who apply/enroll from the Chicagoland area and commute from home AND students who move off-campus in there sophomore, junior or senior years into one of the many wonderful neighborhoods surrounding the Lincoln Park neighborhood which is the home of our campus. DePaul has an on-campus resident community of about 3000 students in 19 different resident halls and buildings and there is an active on-campus community. About half of that number are freshman. In The Theatre School, 85% of our freshman live in on-campus housing. That number drops significantly in the subsequent years as students move off-campus.

Re: merit aid...Every applicant to The Theatre School is automatically considered for both talent-based and academic-based merit scholarships. These are four-year renewable scholarships and if a student receives one it awarded in the letter admitting her/him to the program. Further merit based one-year scholarships are awarded by our faculty each year to returning students. All total, we give about 1.2 million in scholarships to our students each year (we have a total enrollment in The Theatre School of about 330 students). Given your D’s test scores she would be very competitive for the high-end academic scholarship consideration (which are in the $11,000 to $13,000 range per year).

actressfosho

That is how many tuition dollars DePaul will make this year off the students that get cut. They can probably pay all the acting teachers with that. I find it hard to believe the faculty wouldn't get rid of the cut if they had a choice like all the other top drama schools that used to have one. Perhaps they haven't been able to find a way to make up the funds and the DePaul's administration isn't helping?

A positive is that it probably gives some kids that come off the waitlist a chance at good training they wouldn't get otherwise. I don't know anyone that got in who decided to go and doubt it is many top drawer students' first choice because of the cut. Why would anyone put themselves through that if they had other choices that were just as good or better? It would suck to pay $25,960 for tuition and be like number 27 - 30 because you were the wrong race, sex, height, body type, had the wrong hair color or some other random reason.

Don't apply or audition and do like I did and write your congressman if the unfairness of cut systems makes you mad. The university probably gets lots of federal funding and I bet they would drop the cut like a hot potato if it was going to get cut.

Wallyworld - You should read closer. Both thetheaterschool and ckp have said those numbers in that quote aren't right and it is only like 4 or 5 that drop out. That makes it even scarier.