<p>Hi all! i was reading a book about acting and came across a couple of pages saying that straight acting is much better because the student really gets the history of plays and is exposed to a lot of playwrights and literature and just. Ends up knowing a lot of plays.</p>
<p>So i was wondering: do any MT programs have something like that, where, when a student is finished they know a good deal about the history of theatre and many plays/playwrights?</p>
<p>Yes, you need to examine the curriculum at each BFA in MT program because they differ a great deal. For example, at my D’s program at NYU/Tisch, she had to take 7 courses in Theater Studies from a wide array of offerings and these include theater history. At some other school, there may be no requirements in this or just one or two courses and limited choices.</p>
<p>I received my BFA in MT from Syracuse… we took most of the same literature and history courses as the BFA actors. I believe there are some slight differences now, but worth looking into.</p>
<p>I teach at James Madison University – our Musical Theatre and Theatre Concentrators are required to take the same history courses and most of the same dramatic literature and play analysis courses. They may also take the non-required courses if they choose. Many of the MT students do take the additional courses.</p>
<p>I agree with Soozievt… check the requirements for the MT programs that interest you. Look to see if additional courses are offered, and contact the schools directly to confirm that the classes that are not required are open to MT students if they would like to take them.</p>
<p>Wow - I am sorry some folks would think that. It implies that musicals do not involve history or period study or vernacular dance. Musicals, in and of themselves, can be terrific doorways to the histories they embrace. Sooo, I agree with others here - please do investigate the faculty and curriculum at schools you are interested in. As mentioned many schools require the same history courses for MT and acting majors. But further, please try get a grasp on the MT faculty understanding and teaching of the social impact and historic importance of shows like “Showboat”, “South Pacific”. “Once onthis Island”, “Hair”, and so on…</p>
<p>and Ithica</p>
<p>Please ignore “and Ithaca” which is both misspelled and misplaced, No excuse for misspelling - I just do that every now and again, it is mispalaced becauase I was reponding to two questions last night and made a mistake ! Sorry.</p>
<p>I think theatre history is a requirement of most theatre degrees-at Marymount Manhattan my d took a year long Musical theatre history course as part of her Musical Theater foundations course. This year as a soph she has a year long Theatre history course</p>
<p>Allright thank you all for the information (: i was reading the book and thinking to myself ‘this can’t be right…’ but i wasn’t entirely sure. Many thanks!</p>
<p>In defense of the book, there is some truth to the generalization. Most BFA’s in Musical Theatre have fewer history, literature and criticism classes attached to them. This is not a case of desire as much as it is a case of numbers. With dance and music classes there is less room for lit classes. That isn’t to say anything negative about the intelligence or academic difficulty of MT programs.</p>
<p>kjgc…it is true that some BFA programs have very few courses in theater history, literature and criticism. However, this varies a great deal from BFA program to BFA program and applicants ought to examine each BFA program’s curriculum and put them side by side to see the differences (not just in this one respect either). For example, my D’s BFA degree (in MT) program at NYU/Tisch required 7 Theater Studies courses (not training ones). Some programs may require just 2, for example.</p>
<p>Soozievt… that is why I used the term “generalization.” I just finished looking at many BFA curricula. While I have no hard and fast statistics the reality is that (in general) Musical Theatre programs have fewer credits in hist, lit, crit than the other BFA programs in theatre. It is not true across the board. Each program is different. In fact many integrate the reading of plays into the program in other ways (required reading lists, multiple plays being read in studio classes, etc.) It stands to reason that if my time is spent in dance classes, learning music, learning the musical theatre repertoire, voice classes, that there is less time to be spent simply reading the canon. My post was not intended to denigrate what MT students do, or to even suggest that a MT student can’t be well read. It was in support of the generalization the book made. </p>
<p>In fact, the BFA in Musical Theatre about to go online where I teach will have exactly the same number of classes in hist, lit and crit, however the classes will be different. All four of our BFA programs will have the same basic reading list. But there will be an additional individualized list for Acting, Design / Tech and Physical Theatre students. In the end, all BFA students will exit with a strong sense of historical perspective and a strong base in the literature. And I don’t believe for a moment that we are unique in this approach. Hope this clarifies my statement.</p>
<p>Yes, I fully understood you were not denigrating what BFA in MT degree students take and also made some generalizations. My only point was that it really varies a lot between the schools. And many programs don’t have much required in this aspect, and just a few courses or even focused primarily on Musical Theater History. I was just saying this is not true of ALL MT programs and from personal experience, was not the case at my D’s program in MT at Tisch where she had to take seven courses in Theater Studies and two were pre-selected and five were from a wide array of options of courses in many facets of Theater Studies and in fact, the requirements were identical whether one was studying acting or MT. This is not true at all schools, I realize. I’m glad you are building into your program too.</p>
<p>Two more cents… I understand about forming generalizations. I just want to point out that you can only gather a finite amount of actionable intelligence on a MT program’s level of commitment to having their students understand about history and context of their subject area by evaluating how many courses are titled as history, literature and criticism. In my experience any director worth their salt does, indeed, delve into the historical context of every production they attempt. Many programs have dramaturgy students that help in this area. I think, and I know this is not always the case, that what separates a university dance course from the studio dance training are the books, papers, and critical analysis that accompany the actual physical training. Musical Theater dance courses, in university settings, should explain where and why the dances and musicals were developed. This is why I mentioned that students and persons in the process of choosing schools try to get some sense of the faculty’s sense of training in these areas.</p>