Theater at Yale

tycew
Wed, 09 Nov 2005 15:31:41 +0000

I’m currently a freshman, considering double-majoring in theater studies and philosophy. First off, most of my upper-classmen friends in the program love it. There is definitely more emphasis on theory than one would find at a conservatory, but many of the upper level classes are true acting classes with a performance base. All in all, I’ve heard wonderful things about the professors, especially Toni Dorfman and Joe Roach.

There’s an enormous amount of opportunity to perform, whether one is majoring or not. In my first semester I did one straight play and one musical, and I have several friends who have done three shows this semester. In the first week of school there were 14 large auditions, with another half dozen smaller ones that were less publicized, and more productions auditioning every few weeks. Among the highlights of this semester: “Caligula”, “Henry IV”, “Phaedra’s Love”, Pinter’s “Betrayal”, “The Wild Party”, “Assassins”, “Stupid Kids”, “Ice Cream”, “Richard III”, and “Parade” (actually goes up second semester). All of those shows except “Assassins” were student directed, which allows a tremendous amount of opportunity for involvement. For “Assassins” they brought in a director from New York.

It’s definitely not the same as a conservatory experience, but there’s no lack of training or opportunity. I recently discovered that Michael Cerveris (currently starring in Sweeney Todd on Broadway) had his only formal training as an undergrad at Yale.

As far as time goes, I wouldn’t recommend doing more than two shows at once, but I certainly know people who do. If you want to do nothing but theater, you could easily do 20 shows by the time you graduate. I’ve found a wonderful interest in theater on campus, and many people make a point of seeing a show every weekend. One of the reasons I wanted to come here is the prominence of arts on campus, and I certainly haven’t been dissapointed by what I’ve found.