I am planning to take my d to visit one or two schools this spring to watch their musical theatre productions. As far as I know, there is not a preview day scheduled, but I would love for her to get a tour of the facilities and be able to visit with a mt student. It is likely that she will apply to the programs when the time comes.
How have you all handled informal visits? We don’t know any students in these programs, btw. We have some people who can show us around campus, but not the mt departments. Any advice? Who would be the best contact person? What questions would you ask?
Just set up an individual tour if you can at the same time. We did this at one school, we toured on a Friday during the day and then went to a show that night. My D got a tour of the MT facilities since we told them this was something we wanted and then at one school they did set up for her to meet with a member of the faculty. The student giving the tour was an MT student which helped. Usually the school will accomodate you when you set up the tour through he admissions office if you ask ahead of time. At least at the small schools we have had luck. They probably wont be able to have you do all the things but we have been able to either meet with faculty or the tour guide was a theater student.
dont get too bummed if you dont like the show…we liked the ones we have seen and we saw two so far but one was at a university where the leads were MFA students…
Many schools have tours that are specific to BFA- We took them at: CCM, Ithaca, CMU, Boston, BW, Emerson and Syracuse before application process. Generally made with a quick phone call, and tour guides were current BFA students
Contact the MT department directly to let them know your daughter is interested. Last spring we went to see our older D in a show at her school. Because younger D is interested in Acting, we let the them know we were coming & asked if she could observe an acting class. She was able to sit in on a class & attend an acting showcase that was part of another class & just happened to be scheduled that day. I got to see the showcase also - which was lots of fun because parents don’t normally get to sit in on classes!
Last year, nothing could have kept me away from touring the schools. This year? I wish I’d listened to the advice so many people gave me: don’t tour before you apply. Don’t let your kid fall in love before they audition because this process is so random and subjective. Everyone applies to the same schools - you’ll visit them when you audition. I’m sure there are many who would disagree with me on this, but that’s really a piece of advice I wish I’d listened to. We went to a lot of trouble and expense to visit schools ahead of time, and we thought “how would she know if she’d like them or not?” Well, she would’ve applied anyway and your child gets their heart set on a school that has a minuscule acceptance rate. Well, I’m sure you’ll go anyway. I did last year too but wish I could go back and time and tell my younger self not to do it.
I know - and have heard the same advice @4gsmom. I am actually trying to get her to see that there is more than one school out there that would be great for her. She has her heart set on one school and I want her to fall in love with several programs so that she can see how good they ALL are. Does that make sense?
@4gsmom, we tried to visit according to school “type” rather than seeing all schools. In a single trip, we hit three regions he thought would work and saw two liberal arts colleges (one near a city; one in the middle of nowhere), a large university, and an urban conservatory. It helped confirm that my son was seriously committed to MT, as he was able to watch and (occasionally) join in classes. He showed no interest seeing any other part of campus–just the theater buildings and the gym (not even the dorms or cafeteria). My son then decided he didn’t want to see any more until it was time to audition, as he didn’t want to get too vested in any one school, particularly as the chances of acceptance are slim almost anywhere. We saved a lot of money that way, too. If he has choices, we’ll visit before a final decision.
My D is a junior and we have been trying to get some school visits in to get a better idea of the programs. We spent a day at Wright State, and my D shadowed a Sophomore MT major at Otterbein. We have a spring break trip planned with a tour of CMU and a day at UofArts in Philadelphia. We have plans to visit Shenandoah in June while a friend of ours is working for their Summer Musical program. Most of the schools we just contacted the head of the department or whoever’s email was listed for more information. I was trying to set up UofM, but that one is a little more confusing. Does anyone have any experiences with them as far as doing a high school visit, more than just a tour? Thanks!
Based on the crazy stories I was hearing out of NYC auditions last week, it might be also be smart (and maybe ultimately even more important) to visit and sit all the way through a few big open calls (starting at 3am when the people with a shot at actually being seen arrive) before deciding what type of education you want. When people say the profession isn’t for the faint of heart, they aren’t kidding.
Ha @MomCares. It is a crazy lifestyle. It seems like more schools are creating MT programs every year … adding more qualified candidates into an already saturated market.
So true! I haven’t been to an NYC open call, but it seems like sitting with hundreds of recent BFA grads for 12+ hours waiting to audition might offer a lot of interesting perspective to young college applicants, not to mention giving them ample time to talk openly with recent grads of virtually every program in existence all in one trip! Plus maybe you’d land a contract.
I concur with that @MomCares being an excellent idea!
I also would recommend if you have a junior to get your kid in to some type of summer program at an MT program college if at at possible. I know they’re expensive & I get that trust me and if not then it’s ok but I took my D to an audition at a top known college for MT recently & it was a great indicator of what she’ll encounter next year. The competition is fierce folks. Know this ahead of time and don’t put yourself in a bubble. Your kid is a star at their local gig but the best thing you can do for them is throw them into the reality of EVERYONE is good. Everyone is the lead in their local gigs. There are going to be girls who are competition dancers. There are going to be kids who have equity points already, who work in regional theatres & getting paid to do so. Just sayin. Best to be prepared! My D went in knowing this and it was still a good wake up call. she handled it well and was pleased with her audition but still. The kids applying wouldn’t , for the most part , be applying if they weren’t in theatre forever. Yes there is that rare exception of someone coming to MT later in high school but that seems to be the exception not the rule. Educate yourself which you are if youre reading this forum. Not saying your kid won’t get into programs or colleges but I encountered some parents that are "in the bubble " and that’s a dangerous bubble to be in. They are also not looking at any other schools but the ones you google for TOP MT programs …
We aren’t touring anymore schools unless they are on the way to vacation etc, unless it’s a small less selective school. @4gsmom has a good point!
“Ha @MomCares. It is a crazy lifestyle. It seems like more schools are creating MT programs every year … adding more qualified candidates into an already saturated market.”
It’s a money maker. A guaranteed money maker for the schools. The question is why aren’t there more of them? You have parents (like most of us) willing to spend a fortune to help our children live their dreams. If I were the President and Board of Trustees at a university, I’d certainly want to build a theater program.
And even knowing this, I wouldn’t change sending my daughter to school for theater. It’s her passion and I can’t imagine anything worse than her turning 40 and thinking: “What if…” I know so many people with the “coulda shoulda wouldas” and they are so unhappy. So, she goes to theater school and if it doesn’t work out and she does something else with her life? Great - at least she tried. (and she can’t blame us for squashing her dreams.)
It is nuts… Where else do you practically beg to get into a program applying and auditioning for a zillion schools, possibly get lucky enough to get in, only to be asked to pay crazy tuition costs not to mention all the additional expenses incurred in theater training in general, to then graduate with some 2% employment rate and a constant struggle to find employment in your field? I told my husband yesterday we must need our heads examined…
It is expensive for parents/students, but I don’t think it’s a huge money maker for the schools. Conservatory training is mostly in small groups, so they have to hire a lot of teachers per student. Plus there are all those lovely facilities to maintain. And unlike successful football team, no TV rights or licensing to generate $$$
I don’t think it’s a huge money maker for the schools either in terms of competing with sports etc where all the money is. I will say I plead ignorance in the beginnings of the college MT info gathering as to how many kids want to go to college for it! A few years ago I had no idea how crazy it is. I figured it was just like anything else and though I figured you had to audition I had no idea as to how many applicants the schools get!
I have a really hard time believing that many/most MT programs or any auditioned theatre program with limited enrollment “makes money.” Consider all the expenses involved in an MT program:
Specialized MT faculty have to be hired including MT professors and voice teachers. Depending on the size of the program, additional acting faculty may also be required.
Additional adjunct faculty is usually required for directing, choreographing, and musical direction for programs that do two or more shows a year (a few small programs that only do 1 musical a year can sometimes rely on the dance department and music department faculty for these roles, but you really want faculty and adjuncts/guest artists with extensive credits in professional musical theatre in order to attract top MT students).
Putting on musicals also requires a large, sophisticated, digital sound system with lots of expensive, miniature, wireless body mics. Also required are complex, expensive lighting instruments and controls as well as a state-of-the-art backstage communication system and computers and software to monitor and control everything that is going on during a musical. Not to mention large budgets for sets, costumes, rehearsal accompaniment, a pit orchestra, and technical direction.
Licensing costs for musicals are high with large per-performance fees.
Most college theatres are relatively small (around 500 or less seats), ticket prices are relatively low, and show runs are relatively short (maybe 9-10 shows). Hence, ticket sales are not going to generate lots of revenue, especially considering online ticket service fees of 10-15% or more must be paid for handling digital transactions (this includes not just credit card fees, but you have to pay per transaction for your merchant bank gateway and your web-based ticket management system).
All this is typically for a very limited number of students, so no way their tuition will cover all this.
Having spoken with dozens of Theatre Department heads every year as a volunteer at our local regional college theatre auditions, I have never met one that said MT was a money maker. On the contrary, the schools that do not have MT programs all say the reason that they don’t have one is that it is too expensive and time-intensive to manage vs. the number of additional students that would be brought in. In particular, they all say that hiring and paying for accomplished voice teachers is a major hurdle, in addition to production expenses.
^^^Not to mention the cost of bringing guest artists to campus for master classes, etc. Many have to be paid a fee and even for those who aren’t, the MT Dept has to pay for travel, meals and lodging. Depending on tuition, they may be making money but it is surely not a huge amount. Remember, most of these top programs may have 48-60 kids in the entire program. No way is tuition paying for everything that goes on.
