Kent State University (OH)

SrMoment
Sat, 03 Mar 2007 18:41:28 +0000

Greetings Fellow CCers,

With Daughter being deep in the college auditions, it’s been a couple months since I’ve had much time to spend on this forum. But after 7 straight weekends on the road, I’m very happy to say that she’s finally done auditioning, and we actually get to stay home this weekend. Her journey, which took us to 10 schools in Ohio, Indiana, New York (the state), Pennsylvania and North Carolina, proved to be amazing, tiring, fun, humbling, exhilarating, scary, stressful and extremely enlightening. Although I’m glad this adventure is behind us, I wouldn’t have missed it for all the coffee in Seattle. The hard part begins now as we wait to hear some “good news” from at least a few of these schools.

So while I have a little free time, I’d like to share with you some information about a school in northeast Ohio that proved to be one of the most surprisingly impressive stops on our circuit. [Kent State University](http://www.theatre.kent.edu/) is located about 15 miles from Akron, 40 miles from Cleveland and 100 miles from Pittsburgh. We learned that KSU is Ohio’s 2nd largest state college with a total enrollment around 25,000. So our first surprise was the large size of the campus. Programs offered at KSU include BA Theatre, BFA Musical Theatre, BFA Design & Technology, BFA Dance Performance and BFA Dance Education. The enrollment at the School of Theatre and Dance totals about 340 with 34 of these currently in the BFA Musical Theatre program. The Musical Theatre Coordinator is [Terri Kent](http://www.theatre.kent.edu/faculty/kent.htm) who also serves as the Artistic Director at [Porthouse Theatre](http://dept.kent.edu/theatre/porthouse/index.html) in Cleveland’s acclaimed Blossom Music Center.

KSU has only 2 musical theatre [audition dates](http://www.theatre.kent.edu/musthea_aud.htm) for the year (Nov & Feb) with about 100 students auditioning each year. The BFA MT freshman class enrollment is typically 8-12 students, but the unique thing about KSU is that they don’t have a cap on the number of students they invite into the program. According to Terri, they will accept all students who demonstrate the potential to be successful musical theatre professionals. She said that even though the number of acceptances will vary from year to year based on the talent of the auditionees, the entering class size remains in the 8-12 range. Their audition last weekend included a very informative Q & A session with Terri, several other faculty members, and a half-dozen current MT students. My overall impression from the discussion was that the school/faculty is doing everything it can to make the program the best possible, and the current students are extremely happy there. The word “family” was used innumerable times by both the students and faculty. I believe Terri said that they started their [NY Senior Showcase](http://www.theatre.kent.edu/showcase.htm) in 2002, and it’s become more successful with better attendance each successive year. We also had the opportunity to see their spring musical production of Hair while we were there. And I have to say that the quality of the production and the performances was on par with that of the better known schools we’ve had the pleasure to see this year.

So, all in all, this was one of Daughters more encouraging audition experiences and a very pleasant surprise for all of us. I realize this information comes a bit late for high school Seniors. But for all you Juniors and parents out there, KSU is definitely a school I’d recommend you check out for next year. I’ll be happy to field any questions you may have.

SrMoment