<p>I took a stroll to the Mankato theatre department website. Their list of classes looks great. Even the BA/BS students’ program looks quite nicely balanced, with a lot of training and experiential learning (one red flag in BA programs is when most of the courses offered are “academic” study of theatre, like literature, history, and theory - all of which is good, but most performers want a solid amount of training as well as bookwork). It looks like the BFA students basically take more classes - they both have the same foundations, but the BFAs are required to take more credits in the department. </p>
<p>Questions to ask at this school would be - How do the BA/BS and BFA students interact? How else is the BFA experience differentiated? How is casting determined? What is the production experience like? Also, at a school with a BFA in MT in the department, how do Acting and MT mix, both in coursework and in productions? Sometimes at a smaller school, resources get a little more focused in one direction or another - this isn’t bad, but it’s good to know before you get there.</p>