D24 was accepted to the CSU Fullerton’s BFA in their new devised theatre program, and BA theatre programs at UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, Loyola Marymount, and Northwestern U. We’d appreciate any feedback. Here are some factors we are weighing…
Theatre Emphasis: In addition to acting, movement, voice training, D is interested to study devised theatre, musical theatre (MT), and theatre for social change. CSUF has one of the few programs in the US focused on devised theatre. All the other programs she was accepted to focus on general theatre knowledge (typical of BA programs). Of these, NU is more flexible in terms of major and core requirements, and has option of a MT certificate. UCI has a BFA in MT and one professor who specializes in devised. LMU has an emphasis of social justice woven into its school.
BFA vs BA: D wants more hands-on performing arts training, but flexibility to take classes in other areas of interest (Gender Studies, Social Justice). All the BA programs allow for more non-theatre classes and possibility of double major/minor. But after her AP credits are factored in, she could do a minor with the BFA program at CSUF. UCI and UCSB have option to do a BFA, but D doesn’t like that BA students can’t audition for the BFA until after they are already a student at the school. At CSUF, she’d already be enrolled in the BFA program as an incoming Freshman.
Academic Environment: Theatre class sizes would be small, but GE classes may be really large especially at CSUF and UCs. Someone noted that (generally speaking) the intellectual caliber and engagement of UC students will be more on par with D’s ability than that of CSUF students. We assume that LMU and NU especially will also have this advantage. However, due to her past mental health issues, we are concerned that NU might be too stressful of an environment. Does anyone have any experience to share regarding academic rigor at NU? We’ve heard NU is pretty academically intense (especially with the quarter system)…maybe theatre classes are little less so but definitely in the other subject areas.
Support services: UCI, LMU and NU seem to have more supportive mental health and disability services. CSUF seems to be less so.
Location: NU’s weather may be too cold for D. Also D applied to mostly CA schools, because they’d be closer to home for emotional support (if she needed it) and industry connections.
Gap Year: To give herself a break, D is also considering a gap year. At CSUF, she’d need to re-apply and is afraid of not getting in again. However they did say enrolled students are allowed to take a break between semesters if needed.
Cost: We are still waiting on financial aid package for the state schools (CSUF, UCs), but NU offered her a full-ride (which is difficult to pass up)! LMU’s aid is not enough to make it an option right now, but we might ask them to ask them to reconsider our package. We’ve also applied to other non-college specific scholarships.
Theatre - you had me sold at Northwestern and full ride!!
Tough major where many will struggle and you have admission into arguably the top performing arts school in the country (certainly one of the tops)…the name is strong enough to help in life, if theatre doesn’t work out or if the student secures additional education (major / minor, etc.).
Very impressive.
Interesting comment on LMU and social justice. NU has a program as well as likely most schools do - although maybe not woven into the fabric like a Jesuit school.
Is Devised Theater similar to Stream of Consciousness writing ? If so, both seem like excuses to skip over learning the fundamentals and proven methods in each art form.
P.S. I do know that Devised Theater is based on doing a production without a pre-existing script. “devised theater is the process of collaboratively creating a new work without a pre-existing script” where the creators are also the actors.
No, AFAIK Devised Theater is when the whole troupe collaborates on the set design, production, etc., meaning actors are expected to have some technical and writing ability in addition to interpretative skills and their input is valued, as is the technicians’wrt the production etc.
That being said, it’s relatively new but NU follows what’s going on. She should email that department, explain she’s been admitted, her interests in Devised Theater, ask whether anyone in the Dept shares that interest, how the Dept weaves issues of social justice into the curriculum, etc.
My pick (as a professional theatre artist) would be between Northwestern and Fullerton. UCI, UCSD and LMU all have graduate programs (UCI and UCSD in acting, LMU in performance pedagogy) and given the option, I always think it’s best for students to be in an environment where they are not competing with graduate students for opportunities. Northwestern offers an MFA in acting as well, but I know their MFA students are primarily cast in Northwestern’s summer season when undergrads are not typically on campus, so there’s far less competition there. Furthermore, their theatre program is so much larger than most schools and there’s an incredible culture of student theatre (great for your D who wants to devise!), I would be less worried about scarcity of opportunities.
From a “not having debt makes your theatre career SO much easier” perspective, I think it is incredibly difficult to pass up the full ride from Northwestern, and I think there’s incredible value to being so close to one of the largest theatre markets in the country.
I worry a little about your D being able to balance her interest in MT and devised theatre at Fullerton, to be honest. I know that students in the BFA programs at Fullerton are guaranteed casting in at least 2 productions throughout their time in the program, and as a NAST accredited school, I know they take very seriously the requirement that BFA MT majors perform in at least one production in their area of concentration. I wonder if that means that it’s more difficult for BFA Devised Theatre majors to get opportunities in MT. That would be something to get clarify about.
Actually all theatre students start w same primary theatre training for first 2 years, after that they will specialize in a specific area like acting, MT, or devised. Devised also integrates acting with movement and voice to tell the story.
MYOS1634 Yes, we emailed and are still waiting to hear back at NU about her interests, although I like how you framed the question about weaving in social justice into the theatre major specifically.
tsbna44 Thanks for the link! And yes, given all the advantages that a NU degree would bring and the financial offer, NU is hard to turn down. (Altho given our financials, we’re still hoping for a good amount of aid at other schools too.) Right now, I’d say that D doesn’t see enough advantage in the particulars of NU’s theatre program to overcome her concern about its intense school environment affecting her mental health. (However, we are still gathering information about about NU.)
Thanks so much for your perspective as a professional. I’m so curious to hear more about what made you land on NU and Fullerton…is your main reason for putting those 2 school on top related to undergrad performance opportunities? Actually, the only school (including UCSB, which you didn’t mention) where this seemed an issue was at UCI. Actually D likes how for both devised and MT, she can integrate her acting, dancing, and singing skills, but if given a choice between devised and MT, she would choose devised. It’s just that most schools don’t have both. And then while most schools give students opportunities to develop devised works on their own time (and she’d have to find time to do that on top of her busy courseload), D likes that CSUF has formal training in devised theatre as part of her curriculum.
Given the option, I would not personally choose a school that has both BFA actors and MFA actors, so for me, that would make me eliminate UCI and UCSD right away, and would make me want to get more info about the role the MFA Performance Pedagogy students at LMU play in the undergraduate curriculum (how many classes are they teaching? How do their research interests intersect with the work of the undergrads?).
I also think UCSB may not be a fit for your D - based on my experience as a guest artist there a few years ago, I didn’t observe that a lot of devised or physical theatre was happening there (although I was a guest artist during COVID, so take that with a grain of salt), and there definitely was not a lot of musical theatre going on. I think the students get great training there, but I think having to audition for the BFA in sophomore year comes with downsides.
It sounds like your D’s heart is really with devised theatre, so if you can make the cost work, that makes Fullerton the logical choice to me. If not, I would go with NU, because I would always, always pick coming out of theatre school with no debt over any other option (and I think NU’s larger program means that your D will get to explore all her varied performance interests in a way that she may not be able to at other institutions).
Yes, we were told that school productions that would be primarily MFA students at UCI and UCSD. However it did also seem that there were enough other student-run opportunities to perform. Do you think that these are as valuable experience as the school productions? At UCSD, there is a long-standing student club that produces 2 musicals per year. My concern is that since it’s not as integrated into her curriculum, all the rehearsal hours would not be factored into her class load. UCI also has the BFA in musical theatre, but D doesn’t like the idea of needing to audition into each musical theatre class, and eventually into the program itself (similar to UCSB). We’ll need to ask more about LMU MFA role in the teaching…that’s a great question.
After talking about it some more, D told me that she’s actually still hoping to take MT classes and likes that NU has the MT certificate (although doesn’t like that she’d need to audition for it). And then she’s starting to see the advantages of the flexibility of NU’s program. She’s also questioning whether she’d want to be in a BFA program with required performances (and rehearsals) each semester versus having the freedom to choose the performances she wants to audition for and time to pursue other interests. She was a little bit concerned about amount of practical acting/movement/vocal training available at NU, since it’s only a BA program. However they market it to be like “conservatory training”…would you say that their program has enough hands-on training to train her to be a working professional after college, especially compared to a BFA trained actor?
Speaking as someone who did not have a chance to do a lot of school productions in my theatre school experience (I think I did 2 total, and neither were musicals, despite being a BFA MT student), I definitely felt like I was playing catch-up when I got my first contract in the professional world. Student productions are great, but I think school productions that are run like professional productions teach students how FAST you have to be able to move when you’re on a professional contract.
I wouldn’t be concerned about NU not having enough practical training - Northwestern is one of the top 10 most represented colleges on Broadway right now. Not that Broadway is the be-all, end-all (I work in a market with little connection to Broadway and I’m very happy), but clearly Northwestern grads do well in commercial theatre. I matriculated from a BFA program elsewhere in the Midwest and many of my former classmates are working in theatre in Chicago and say that Northwestern grads do very well in that market.
It sounds like your D might want to talk to some faculty members at Fullerton about a BFA Devised Theatre student’s ability to take some MT classes, among the other great questions that you’ve prepared for other schools.
One thing that I’ve been thinking about for NU is that there program is much larger with so many students that D would need to audition against for performance opportunities. Granted, there are so many theatre clubs and organizations, I’d hope she’d still get the chance to perform. However at CSUF BFA program is so much smaller and performing is required for the degree…I think she might stand out more! What do you think?
If your daughter does not get the chance to perform at Northwestern, then she may be pursuing the wrong major. Stated in a more positive fashion: Your daughter should get many opportunities to perform at NU due to the sheer number of productions that occur each year plus due to the environment of being around such a significant number of talented, motivated actors.
NU’s program offers a lot of opportunities, a great deal of flexibility regarding performance options, and a talent rich environment.
I agree. It appears there so many ways to be involved in performance. I guess I was wondering how competitive it would be to be cast in a department production given that there are 400 talented theatre majors on campus. At CSUF there seem to be only 40 students and performing is a requirement for the BFA.
She will need professional or recognized/amateur experience during college and after college, not just college productions, and Northwestern is the top dog in that market (and well-represented in LA).
She will have more competition from CSUF imho but generally speaking the path is not linear.
If this is a major concern, then Northwestern University may not be the best option for you. NU students–regardless of major–are intelligent, motivated, and hard-working. The quarter system is fast-paced and efficient with less down-time than the semester system.
Also, depends upon the individual as most theater majors do not view their requirements as work–they tend to see matters in terms of opportunities to pursue their passion.
If unsure as to one’s major or unsure regarding specific career goals, then it might be better to consider a liberal arts curriculum.
Most theater students are on South campus–which is a more happy, social location as opposed to the more stressed out engineering majors primarily located on North campus.
I thought NU was a liberal arts curriculum? D is very certain that she wants to major in Theatre. Our concern is more about the non-theatre classes. And we had heard about the North/South campus divide! Thanks for that info! Any intel on dorms that Theatre majors tend to be in?
One of the 6 undergraduate schools at Northwestern University is a liberal arts school (Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences). Any student can take classes in Weinberg.