<p>you’ll get a lot better, take your acting classes or coaching a lot more serious, and just everything well go to another level when you’re auditioning for real work, I think kids should get out there as soon as possible, a freshman at tisch will get more out of theater classes/school productions if they are going out on real auditions…and if they get cast they’ll make it fit with their schedule or take a semester off, believe me it won’t be a problem. Now this is easier in LA with more TV and film opps to work and still go to class at ucla, etc…granted theater can take too much time so…</p>
<p>scratch “pros”…replace with “pro environment”, that’s what I meant</p>
<p>A student at Tisch really doesn’t have time to audition for professional work as a student. VERY difficult to fit in as the schedule of classes is all day long and rehearsals on weekends. But even if the student could audition for professional work, if they are cast, they will most likely have to take a leave. My D had friends who did that. Some returned to college eventually and some didn’t. My D did not opt to do that as she valued her four years of training. Many students in these programs work professionally during the summer. My D also had professional experience before she got to college. She felt that pounding the audition pavement was soon enough when she graduated at age 20 with her training and education under her belt. She had paying professional jobs in summers. She did one professional job during fall of soph year when one of her professors who is a Tony nominated playwright/composer/director had a new work that was performed in NYC and hired my D, who was only 18 at the time, to be the musical director of this work. It rehearsed at night and so she was able to do it and didn’t audition for college productions during that time period. But most plays and musicals in NYC of the professional sort, rehearse during the day and that is not possible for a college BFA student to do. My daughter has an original musical where she is the writer, composer, and lyricist and it is getting an Equity production produced in NYC shortly. When casting it, she said she could not cast anyone who is currently a student as it would be impossible for them to do it. Every actor cast, however, has a college degree. Most are Equity. Some have been on Broadway, and one has a Grammy nomination. Lots of working actors in NYC actually do have a degree in the field, even though some don’t.</p>
<p>My point earlier is that the students in BFA programs get to work with pros in classes and who direct their college productions. These programs are professional degree programs. It is all valuable experience. They may work in professional theater in summers and then upon graduation (and some did so before they got to college in the first place).</p>
<p>By the way, there are highly regarded BFA in MT and Acting programs at colleges that also have an association with an Equity theater, but are not located in LA or NYC. For example, one of the very well regarded BFA programs in MT is at Syracuse and that school is associated with Syracuse Stage, an Equity theater, and students have opportunities to be cast there while in school. Another example of a highly regarded BFA in Acting program is at U of Minnesota where the BFA in Acting students work with the acclaimed Guthrie Theater.</p>
<p>and what about your example of tommy lee jones? </p>
<p>if you had been his college counselor would you have sent him to a BFA program instead of the path he took, no bfa, english lit, but learn acting from the greater boston theater community? </p>
<p>i think you should consider his story as a direction for some of your students interested in theater…it’s a good story!</p>
<p>Actually, pacheight, I work with many students who are seeking a BA path who want to pursue theater. They want more academics and not a BFA program. But their reason is not so they can do professional theater while in school but more that they either are not ready to commit to a BFA degree program or want the flexibility of a BA degree in their studies or want to double major which is nearly impossible at most BFA programs. </p>
<p>I fully support students who prefer a BA over a BFA! In fact, a huge part of my guidance is helping them to figure out if a BFA or a BA is the most appropriate option for them. </p>
<p>Last year, one of my advisees who preferred a BA path, ended up applying to just two BFA programs as an exception to her preference to earn a BA. In the end, she turned down Brown and Stanford, as she realized that NYU/Tisch really better met what she wanted to do. But I have had some students only apply to BAs. One of these students opted to attend William and Mary. Another chose Brown (and has since graduated and is working professionally in NYC and is Equity). I have a student this year who still can’t decide whether she wants a BA or a BFA and so has applied to some of each. </p>
<p>So no, I would not tell someone who wanted a BA that they need to do a BFA. They don’t. Also, there is the option for a BA student to eventually do a BA + MFA path.</p>
<p>Those seeking a BA whom I know are not doing so in order to work with the professionals in the city where the college is located. That is not their rationale.</p>
<p>By the way, Harvard has excellent extracurricular theater. So does Yale. I know some kids highly talented in theater and musical theater who chose Harvard and Yale and have done lots in theater ON campus.</p>
<p>sooz: again it sounds like your daughter is doing well. and i think that’s great! </p>
<p>sending kids to syracuse when they could be in boston learning from a pro acting community (better yet NY or LA) is what i’m talking about. i don’t think you should be sending many theater kids to syracuse. but hey I know you think it’s fine.</p>
<p>I don’t think this discussion can get wrung out anymore:)</p>
<p>i did like your tommy reference, his path reminds me of someone i like a lot, and she’s a heck of a lot better looking than tommy:) mainly the recruited athlete to H piece…well more like hyps columbia, ucla, usc, cal and duke. but also getting a top tier agent on day 1, or landing a big stage role, followed by a starring tv role…although tommy was a bit of a slacker taking I think 10 days after he arrived in NY to land his first role. And geez, he was old, something like 22:)</p>
<p>Bill Hurt is not my favorite actor, but he’s good.</p>
<p>I take it that you are talking of your daughter with regard to acting. She has wonderful credits. But getting cast as a child is not the same as an adult. My kid had a top agent in NYC as a child as well, whom she got when she turned 10. Competing for roles as an adult is different as one is up against many who have substantial training. When my kid was, well, a kid, she was cast professionally in NYC more due to natural talent, whereas as an adult, training is very important, as well as natural ability.</p>
<p>Times have changed since Tommy Lee Jones was in college and a young actor. For example, if you think some UG kid can just walk off the street and be cast at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, it is not so. I know of an upcoming production there as my daughter has a good friend in it. The cast is made up of many who have Broadway credits. All are already professional actors. Some also, believe it or not, went to top BFA programs including NYU/Tisch, Juilliard, and U of Michigan. Also, you mentioned elsewhere that regional theaters can be “clubby” but ART in Cambridge cast this show primarily in NYC, as do many regional theaters.</p>
<p>But you bring up Tommy Lee Jones and how he was cast right away in NYC at age 22. By the same token, you are not into an actor going to college outside of NYC and LA. Which is it? He did all right coming from a college outside of NYC. And while you seem to be against BFA programs, my D was cast in a professional Equity tour the week she graduated (she was 20) and her pal, roomie and fellow rural Vermonter who went to her BFA program, was cast in a tour the day she graduated and is now starring on Broadway. Many paths lead to success in the world of theater.</p>
<p>Mods- can’t you shut this down? It has ceased to become anything but a joke- and before someone gets hurt, how about putting us out of our misery? And hearing about whose kid has more/better acting credits by age whatever is SO off-topic. And the more these parents post about their kids, the more information is “out there” which can identify their children to anyone with a Google connection and a layperson’s knowledge of Playbill and Actor’s Equity.</p>
<p>I still remember that I waited for 6 hours to get DD into her private pre-school in the bay area because it was first come first serve. The wait grew to 18 hours during the peak of dot com era.</p>
<p>Which indicated that the only thing that prevented parent from sending children to this school was money.</p>
<p>blossom, agree with not talking about kids credits as proof of this or that argument. sooz, i think your daughters activities are exciting but we were talking about advising kids to not necessarily go to college for a bfa or at all…</p>
<p>blossom, a little creepy saying “get hurt”…but whatever.</p>
<p>I find myself in this new (to me) world full of moderately successful parents with spectacularly successful children. Meanwhile, while I am the cat’s meow and my children are, in most respects, ordinary kids. Something, quite frankly, does not add up. I feel cheated, and in fact suspect that I have been. </p>
<p>I read with interest an article in the Times recently where an adult woman discovered that she had been kidnapped at birth and raised by her abductor. That article, along with my reading of CC leads me to believe that I have been baby swapped. Three times.</p>
<p>I do not intend to make this a federal case (although if you transported my kids across state lines, it plainly is) but I want my naturally successful children back; in return I am willing to return the base models I now have in my loose possession. I suggest an exchange at the mid-point of the George Washington Bridge (needless to say you, the New Jersey side, me NY).</p>
<p>Oh my god stats, I hear what you are saying! Only I am spectacularly ordinary and my relatively ordinary child looks quite a bit like me so I am pretty sure I went home with the right baby! His ordinary prep school and non-ivy college is my not so secret shame. Oh well, what can you do. We love each other despite our mediocrity. Luckily H managed to overcome his low tier college and is able to support us in style!</p>