<p>A great article in Today’ NEW YORK TIMES, regarding Auditions for College Theater Programs. They are also taking readers question TODAY!!! SO ASK QUESTIONS NOW!!!</p>
<p>Just found out from a friend of my daughter that I GOT IN! is now available electronically for Kindles and iPads on Amazon.com. A great Christmas present, and you don’t have to wrap it!</p>
<p>The 2011 College Theatre Directory published by Dramatics Magazine has come out. My daughter’s drama teacher keeps a copy in her office at school. It has a very detailed listing of colleges and admissions info as well as degrees offered and audition requirements and contact information. Wow! Super helpful. Also what scholarships are available. Students can subscribe or order a copy.</p>
<p>The Educational Theatre Association (sponsors of the International Thespian Society) website is a good source of information and has a page dedicated to college preparation:</p>
<p>[College</a> preparation | Educational Theatre Association](<a href=“http://schooltheatre.org/education/college-preparation]College”>http://schooltheatre.org/education/college-preparation)</p>
<p>Among other information, the page has the best summary that I have seen describing the differences between BA and BFA programs. In addition to the college prep page, the website has tons of good stuff, including articles and videos on a range of theatre skills and techniques.</p>
<p>Of course, the Annual Thespian Festival is a great resource for aspiring MT kids including an audition forum with 40 or more schools present.</p>
<p>This group is the publisher of Dramatics magazine and the College Directory noted in the previous post.</p>
<p>The “SchoolsForTheatre.com” website (which is suprisingly hard to find through Google unless you spell “theatre” the Thespian way…) provides a fairly comprehensive list of schools and programs:</p>
<p>[Schools</a> for Theatre](<a href=“http://www.schoolsfortheatre.com/index.php]Schools”>http://www.schoolsfortheatre.com/index.php)</p>
<p>The site has an elegant, but somewhat limited, search interface (computer geeks like me will wish the site had more search refinements, such as limiting MT to “BFA only”). The coolest part is that you can find a school, click on a degree program and then see a summary page with links to the school website. This site saves several steps and typing vs. using a generic search engine like Google.</p>
<p>IMHO, the site is great tool for building a “balanced list” of schools to target for admission.</p>
<p>Keep them comin’ EmsDad! Great resources!</p>
<p>These are great resources. Although the ETA site information about the the philosophical differences between many BA/ BM/ BFA programs seems pretty accurate. The % of courses in and out of the major is a little more broad (no offense to them, there are SO many differences in this area, that it would be impossible to cover all the variations!) Generally speaking a BA program will require more courses outside of the major than a BM or BFA program (although exceptions do occur), a BM program will be more heavily music focused than a BFA or a BA program (though exceptions do occur). </p>
<p>For example, I teach in an auditioned BA Musical Theatre program where the required course work is about 50/50 in terms of in and out of the major. However, most students come in with some AP, IB, dual enrollment, foreign language background that allows them to place out of some of the required academic course work outside of the major… bringing it closer to 60/40 in terms of required course work in and out of the major. Almost all of the students take far more courses in the major than are required (some also do take electives outside of the major, double major, or pursue a minor), but for the most part by the time a student graduates about 70% - 80% of their actual course work is in their major. There are other BA programs I know of where students are only required to take 30 - 40% of their course work outside of their major… on the flip side there are BA programs where students only take 30 - 40% of their course work in the major… it really varies tremendously from school to school. There are BFA programs where students take 30 - 40% of their course work outside of their major and BFA programs where students take more like 10 - 20% of their course work outside of the major. There are BM Musical Theatre programs that follow closely the Vocal Performance curriculum (with additional acting and dance classes), and there are BM Musical Theatre programs that look more like BFA programs, etc… etc… etc… There are generalizations by degree program, but in the end each program is very individual and unique. </p>
<p>I encourage those of you just starting the process to look at the philosophy of each program that interests you, as well as the required courses (in and outside of the major) and the non-required (but offered) courses (in and outside of the major). Each school is VERY different in the way the programs are organized and administered. There are many different options, but depending on your personal criteria you may find that you end up with a mix of BA, BFA, BM programs that feel like the right fit for you. </p>
<p>It feels like a daunting process, but there is so much information available on websites, and most program directors (and/ or programs admissions liaisons will be happy to answer any questions you have). The resources that EmsDad are TERRIFIC tools! Thanks EmsDad :)! Great place to start gathering info that will help with creating a balanced list of schools!</p>
<p>Break Legs :)!</p>
<p>The PBS DVD series, “Broadway, the American Musical” is a wonderful source of information on the history and development of Broadway musicals. Understanding the history and development of the art form is useful in preparing for college auditions since selection of material is important and diving into the reams of songs available without knowing much about periods, shows and composers can make it a very daunting task. The DVD’s for the series are available on Netflix. The website associated with this series is full of information including essays, timelines, even a Broadway trivia game.</p>
<p>[Broadway:</a> The American Musical | PBS](<a href=“http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/index.html]Broadway:”>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/index.html)</p>
<p>There is also a companion coffee-table book that is really great:</p>
<p>“Broadway: the American Musical” by Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon.</p>
<p>And a companion set of CD’s.</p>
<p>There are many other books that survey the history of Broadway, but this one seems to be particularly good and easy to interest a high-schooler (my then-middle-school DD sat transfixed through all the DVD’s, immediately put the book at the top of her Christmas list, and then sat for hours pouring over it after presents were opened). It gladdens my heart to see her on Saturday afternoons looking through youtube videos for songs by Cole Porter and Jerome Kern.</p>
<p>Other interesting DVDs include:</p>
<p>“Show Business: the Road to Broadway” - this chronicles the 2003-2004 Tony season (Wicked, Avenue Q, Caroline or Change, and Taboo).</p>
<p>“Moon Over Broadway” - covers the development of “Moon Over Buffalo” with Carol Burnett. Like the book “Making It on Broadway,” this vividly documents some of the negative aspects of the business.</p>
<p>These are also available on Netflix.</p>
<p>Is Mary Anna Dennard`s Preparing for your College Audition audio cd still available? I cant seem to find it anywhere.</p>
<p>I emailed and asked, and she discontinued the CD because now she has the book, I GOT IN!. And I also found out that the updated 2012 Edition of I GOT IN! is now available on Amazon (or her website) starting this week.</p>
<p>Motherofthemall,
Thank you for finding that out for me. The 2012 version is out now? That’s great!</p>
<p>Hi..just signed up and still navigating my way around (have never done posting/blogging before)…this is great…tons of info for a parent that is a scardee cat inside and a proud papa on the outside..Trying to gather all the info i can (and not much “out there”..like regular college searches)..so that my son’s choices are made with the head and the heart
gotta go to work…but thanks for everything so far</p>
<p>Welcome scardeedad! There is so much great information here. If you haven’t already found this thread, it’s a great place to get started:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/477658-preparing-apply-information-h-s-juniors-seniors.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/477658-preparing-apply-information-h-s-juniors-seniors.html</a></p>
<p>Best of luck to you and your S!</p>
<p>The Annual Report from Actor’s Equity makes for interesting (and sobering) reading. The 2009-2010 report (the latest one at the time of this post) can be found here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.actorsequity.org/docs/about/AEA_Annual_2009.pdf[/url]”>http://www.actorsequity.org/docs/about/AEA_Annual_2009.pdf</a></p>
<p>From the main AEA page it can be accessed under “News & Media.”
[Actors</a>’ Equity - Representing American Actors and Stage Managers in the Theatre](<a href=“http://www.actorsequity.org/]Actors”>http://www.actorsequity.org/)</p>
<p>This is not a career for the faint of heart: $7,500 median salary, 13.5% average weekly employment, only 41% of Equity actors are actually employed in theatre jobs, only 29% of employment is actually “on Broadway,” only 22% make $25,000+ from theatre jobs, etc. </p>
<p>The statistics are skewed, of course, because they cover union members only and work done under Equity contracts.</p>
<p>I dont know if it has been said yet, but Audition by Michael Shurtleff is the best book ive encountered yet.</p>
<p>“Get The Callback- the art of auditioning for musical theatre” by Jonathan Flom… Flom is a professor at Shenandoah Conservatory and attended Penn State himself.<br>
Very useful info and insight-- avail on Amazon</p>
<p>^^^I haven’t read Jonathan Flom’s book but am interested in doing so. I was told about this book recently by another CCer who had read it. I was unaware of the book at the time. The reason this person asked me about it is because Jonathan describes an applicant to Penn State’s BFA in MT program’s audition and in fact, the person he is discussing is my daughter apparently (the CCer copied me the excerpt and it is indeed about my daughter’s college audition…a positive critique thankfully!). I had no idea (nor did my daughter) about her being discussed in this book. </p>
<p>But back in my D’s audition year (winter 2005), she auditioned on the last audition day for PSU and found out a few days later that she was accepted. At the time, Jonathan Flom (who we did not know) was an MFA in MT Directing second year student. At PSU, current students can and do sit in on the auditions. Two weeks after this audition, and just one week after my D’s final college audition, she was in a terrible car crash that resulted in some very serious injuries and landed her in intensive care, eventual surgery, hospital stay, and a long recovery. I will never forget that during the ten days that I “lived” in my D’s hospital room, and among the outpouring of email support I received, there was an email I read from Jonathan Flom who explained who he was and what he thought of my daughter (from the PSU audition) and how he heard that she was injured and in the hospital from a CCer who at the time was a PSU MT student and it was such a beautiful note from a “stranger” and it meant a lot. I just went through old emails from back then and found it. So, it was meaningful to recently learn that all these years later that he wrote a book and describes my D’s audition in it! She didn’t end up enrolling in PSU, however.</p>
<p>We’re huge fans of Flom’s, after reading the book (first) and meeting him (second)-
really hoping for Shenandoah. In any event, the faculty there just struck a chord with us. Fingers crossed…</p>
<p>A great book resource for age appropriate songs is the Teen Pop Broadway Collection compiled by Rider University’s head of Musical Theatre, Mariann Cook. We found out about it at Unifieds, and we got ours on Amazon for $17. Lots of great audition songs. Well worth it.</p>
<p>I got in! By mary anna dennard</p>