liberal arts vs. conservatory

fishbowlfreshman
Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:39:47 +0000

Fishbowl, I can’t speak for the “intensity” at other Tisch studios, just the one my kid is in, CAP21. She doesn’t find it too intense for her, though it is demanding and challenging. She was used to a very full schedule all day, night and weekend before she ever got there.

It has been pretty well documented on this forum that CAP21 students sometimes switch into other studios third year because they find the acting portion of the triple threat training to be deficient for their purposes. Also, it sounds like your kid did a lot of musicals in h/s, community theatre, and at the Stage Door Manor summer camp before she went to Tisch. From the actor training perspective, that’s mostly performing – not training. I’m not saying that’s a bad background to have, but it’s not the same as starting college/conservatory with anywhere from two to six years of process-based actor training. The experience is completely different. As an example, I think you’ve said that she is already an accomplished musician. Imagine her being stuck in a music class with someone like me who apparently has some musical talent, but has only done things by ear and is just now learning to read notes and rhythm. She’d be bored out of her skull! While the learning curve for acting may not be quite as long as that for music, it’s still a very long road and most of these schools typically place all the actors in the same class regardless of prior training. The difference is that the college/university BFAs typically start off with baby steps for those who’ve not yet learned to “read” and gradually increase the pace while the conservatories allow for a few baby steps before taking off at a full gallop leaving those same students hanging on for dear life – with absolutely no time or energy left for rigorous academics. This is why a large number of the students you see at the top conservatories either come from arts h/s backgrounds or have extensive professional resumes. It’s not that they’re any more talented, but their needs are different because of their backgrounds and those schools tend to be geared towards them. This is also why I think it is important to distinguish between the two types of programs. I’ll say again that one is not necessarily better than the other, but the differences are important to know when looking at prospective schools and it does nobody any good for a school to claim it’s something it’s not. There is no end-all be-all Chuck Norris of MT or acting schools, but there might be a several semi-Chuckies for those who do their research and make intelligent picks on where they’ll apply/audition instead of pursuing some unfounded romantic notion about the “Ivies.”



Thus when talking about percentages of time in professional training conservatory style classes vs. academically oriented classes, I think of the Theater Studies classes (which at Tisch require 7 semesters) as part of their academic load and in fact, take place on non studio days. Those classes are akin to ones a person would take in a BA theater degree program, whereas the conservatory style classes in a BFA program are not normally part of a BA liberal arts program.

Okay. Due to the variations in numbers of courses required, you’ve convinced me that perhaps the Theatre History/Studies/Lit classes might best be put in their own percentage category if/when I get around to making the list. See … I’m reasonable. However, also keep in mind that the better BA Theatre Studies programs offer enough acting, voice, and movement classes to roughly equate to the first two years of a lower intensity BFA. Would that make them somehow separate from the major? I think not.



Since you are counting the Theater Studies academic classes as part of the professional training, that would mean that a Tisch student, for example, only takes ONE liberal arts course per semester. That is not much more than at a place like CCM.

Interesting. There are a minimum of thirteen gen ed classes that need to be completed at Tisch to get a degree. At that rate, it would take a kid with no AP or transfer credit at least an extra semester (and an extra $25,000) to graduate. To finish on time, she would need to come in with at least five APs with scores of 4 or better. Remember also that one of the oft extolled virtues of Tisch on this forum is that students can and do double major. It doesn’t seem feasible at all for someone to do it that way and graduate on time.

Why is it that almost every in-depth discussion on this forum ends up revolving around Tisch? You’d think there were no other schools out there … I hope someone has access to the “big list” so the new programs MusThCC found can be added. They deserve some consideration, too.