Theater/Drama Colleges Part 2

xiggi · November 3, 2008, 5:04pm

By Valerie (Valerie) on Tuesday, June 01, 2004 - 03:41 pm: Edit

Jamimom

Can you share what schools your S was/is looking at for theatre in California? What he thought about the different schools and their programs.

Where else is he looking? I beleive his interest is MT isn’t it or does he also have other interest in the Theatre area?

Also, you other children - were they also interested in the Theatre and where did they go to school?

**By Thesbohemian (Thesbohemian) on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 09:24 am: Edit **

Here’s a fun question to keep the thread going. Is there any uniformity in what the better theatre schools are looking for as to types for their freshman ensembles? Most say on their websites that they don’t discriminate as to sex, race, etc., but is this really true? For instance, are they generally trying to keep an even balance between males and females? Are they looking for a rough percentage of leading men and ingenues versus character actors? What about minority actors? Is it really even a rough percentage or do some actually have a given number of slots for each type? I’m just wondering who I’ll really be competing with in the auditions. Will it truly be everybody or just the rest of the people of my type? How many blonde ingenues audition for the top schools each year? LOL That could almost be made into “How many does it take to screw in a light bulb” joke. I say three … One blonde ingenue to screw in the light bulb and at least two others to stand around arguing about who could do it better and who the one actually screwing in the light bulb had to sleep with to get the role. Could my jokes BE any older?

Also, if anybody has info on the West Virginia University program beyond what’s on their website, I’d be interested in reading it.

**By Wct (Wct) on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 04:40 pm: Edit **

Thesbohemian-

Supposedly CMU accepts actors based on talent so they don’t always have an even number of males vs. females. In fact last year there were more males accepted than females, (12 males, 6 females in acting). I don’t know yet what they accepted this year. I know that there are schools that take an even number of each in their ensembles.
**
By Emilyp114 (Emilyp114) on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 06:21 pm: Edit **

Thesbohemian:

I can tell you that Tisch does not have a certain quota of ‘types’ that they are looking to admit each year. This may be because they accept roughly 300 a year to be divided among the seven major studios but they always tell applicants that they simply look for the ‘best’ individuals they can find both artistically and academically. I remember one of my profs telling us this year that CMU has a strong diversity mentality in its admissions process and that each admitted drama class has approximately 25% visible minorities. This year apparently it was even higher in the freshman class with 48% visible minorities.

**By Doctorjohn (Doctorjohn) on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 05:46 am: Edit **

Thesbohemian:

In response to your question, here’s a mind experiment: suppose you’re the chair of a theatre program, you’re looking for a class of 20, and your 20 most talented prospects are blonde female ingenues. Would you take all of them? If so, what benefits and problems could you anticipate? If not, what would you do instead?

Have fun.

By Thesbohemian (Thesbohemian) on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 05:01 pm: Edit

Doctorjohn,
That’d make me chair at USC, wouldn’t it? I suppose the all-female thing has been done to death. Maybe I’d need to adapt the training model taking cues from some of the historically all-female schools. All blondes? Hmmmmm … Certainly a challenge for the design people. I guess I could create diversity by banning all hair coloring outside the department. Yeah, that’s it! I can see the signs now. “THIS THEATRE IS A NO PEROXIDE ZONE.” What I’d probably really do is admit 35, put the 20 blondes four-to-a-room on the same floor of a dorm, and introduce stage combat in the first half of the freshman year with real blades. THAT’d get me back down to 20 students in no time. I don’t think I’d have many eliminate themselves from excessive partying. The 20 blondes would just go to a club and stand around outside wondering why they needed to be 21 to get in. Brain cramp! There’s a punchline here that’s eluding me! Grrrrr It must come from portraying the “flirty blonde waitress” from 11:00 to 3:00 all week. A BFA in table-waiting (as my mom calls it) might not be so bad after all. It’s a performance opportunity, right? Almost $800 my first week! Better than my cousin who’s using his Business degree at Blockbuster …

Twenty blonde ingenues at the top of the talent pool? Like, Omigod! Now I’m gonna have nightmares. Maybe a screenplay is in order …
Hillary, Olsens, and Kirsten, OH MY!

**By Wct (Wct) on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 05:04 pm: Edit **

Doctorjohn-

I had to chuckle when I read your post because in my heart of hearts and to be realistic there has to be some kind of balancing act when accepting talent into an ensemble pool. No matter what is said by reps from a particular program there has to be some kind of thought behind the numbers game. I would think there would be some flexability considering you usually have seniors as well as juniors in productions during the year, even though many programs say you don’t hit “main stage” until your senior year, I have seen under classmen (women) in main stage productions when it was necessary to do so. So there is some amount of flexability on the stage. But then, there is the place where most of the work is being done…the clasroom. So you would need a certain amount of balance for students to do scene work in class with fellow students of different “types”. So there you have it really. There just has to be some kind of formula. I would find it hard to believe otherwise.

**By Doctorjohn (Doctorjohn) on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 05:37 pm: Edit **

That was my point, and you and Thesbo clearly understood it, Wct. When programs say they take “the most talented” regardless of race, sex, religion, I have to smile. It’s just not possible. Nor is it fair. If you take 20 blonde ingenues, you will inevitably pit them against each other for casting opportunities. It makes more sense to put together a fairly balanced class, reasonably divided between men and women, voice parts, coloring and “types”. That way, each actor is encouraged to develop his or her unique humanity, rather than being focussed on being better than everyone else. So, Thesbo, the real answer to your question is that, in most cases, you’re competing for entrance with other equally talented people who look like you. Realistically, you’re not competing with the dark-haired male baritone who auditioned just before you.

But I’d really like to see a movie with 20 blonde ingenues…

**By Theatermom (Theatermom) on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 05:51 pm: Edit **

Thesbohemian,

If all else fails, you have a future as a comedy writer. That’s the best laugh I’ve had in weeks.
I knew there was a reason I’ve always loved being a brunette…

Thanks!

**By Thesbohemian (Thesbohemian) on Sunday, June 06, 2004 - 11:34 am: Edit **

Doctorjohn - Thanks for confirming that.

Theatermom - Glad you enjoyed it. That kind of thing gets me in trouble all the time! LOL Kinda makes me wish I could go back and delete some of my earlier posts from when I was all stressed-out from AP exams, juries, and half the people around me having emotional breakdowns.

Emily - Do you know why Tisch makes people graduate early if they use all their AP credit? Why can’t they just take a reduced courseload or go part-time as seniors?

All - I saw some talk on the MT thread about schools with senior showcases. How valuable are those for actors in reality? What percentage of people who participate actually get work as the result of their showcase performance? Are those the people who are probably going to get work, anyway? Don’t most of the good students really just go on to graduate school? I’m just curious about how much value I should give those in evaluating schools.

**By Emilyp114 (Emilyp114) on Sunday, June 06, 2004 - 06:03 pm: Edit **

Thesbohemian,

I’m not sure who told you that Tisch requires you to graduate early if you use all of your AP credit. There’s a limit on AP credit for all of NYU and they certainly do not make anyone graduate early. Trust me, NYU likes you to stay around as long as possible. It’s unlikely you’d be able to fulfill your major in Tisch drama in less than four years in any case, regardless of the amount of AP credits you receive.

As for showcases, (Tisch calls them industry nights), they can be very valuable. Fortunately, for those of us who go to school at Tisch, we have individuals in the theatre world at most Tisch performances so senior ‘showcases’ are not the only venue in which to make an impression. Tisch has approximately 100 productions every year and I can tell you that of all of the shows I attended this year, in addition to Steinhardt’s shows, there were a ton of theatre people there looking at the students. It’s a perq of being in the city, like having guest lecturers or friends of your prof just dropping by. This happened several times throughout the year. I don’t know the facts and figures on showcases for other schools but I can’t see how they would be anything but a benefit to those students.

Lastly, very few BFA students go on to graduate school.

**By Thesbohemian (Thesbohemian) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 12:06 am: Edit **

Emily,
Thanks. Interesting. A friend of mine who graduated this year was looking at Tisch, but decided not to audition there partially because of the AP issue. I guess it doesn’t make a lot of difference unless someone is doing like she and I and essentially trying to start off with sophomore credit. Anyway, she passed a lot of the stuff she’d collected in her search along to me. The following are excerpts from a form letter which the enrollment coordinator supposedly sends to freshmen with AP credit. It was sent to her when she inquired about the policy:

"Dear Freshman,
We have been notified that you have received AP Credit. You should have received a letter from Student Affairs breaking down how the credit was applied to your record. There are many ramifications involved with accepting AP Credit, and we want to make sure that you understand how it will affect your education. We have therefore set up group meetings with you so that we may discuss your particular situation. …

You’ve worked your butts off to get your AP Credit- why wouldn’t you want to keep it? Because here at NYU, we have requirements that you must fulfill before you graduate. The flip side of this is that once you fulfill your requirements, you must graduate. Therefore if you use your AP credits to fulfill 8 points of Gen-Ed (the maximum we allow) and then you have additional credits applied to your Electives, you may have less time here than you realize, or it may be just the thing to help you obtain a double major or minor. …

Do I want to complete a full fourth year of Professional Training? You are only required to complete 48 points (3 years) of Professional Training for your degree. If you want to complete a full fourth year, it is recommended that you accept no more than 16 AP credits total."

The form was from Grace Clements and was dated March 7, 2003. Has the policy perhaps changed or am I misreading it? Did you attend a meeting like the one described? I’ve managed to cut my list back down to just five realistic schools and I’m giving some of the ones I’d passed over which sometimes offer full rides a second look. Gawd, I’m picky! lol

**By Jamimom (Jamimom) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 12:14 am: Edit **

Thesbohemian, that is a curious letter. “You have worked your butts off…” is not a phrase I would think would come from a college. Definitely, take a look at the policy. I am not as familiar with Theatre programs and Tisch but I know many kids who have applied AP credits, taken extra courses and still stayed the full for years at NYU. This does not appear to be an issue to me there, and I would be interested in finding out if it is just for knowledge sake.

**By Emilyp114 (Emilyp114) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 10:04 am: Edit **

Sorry for posting this here, too but not everyone posts in both this and the MT thread.

hope all of you drama/mt lovers watched the Tonys last night. I was super proud and excited because one of my studio friends and fellow Tischie, Chad Carstarphen, was featured because he won one of the Tony scholarships. Yay Chad! I’ve seen most of the productions nominated this year in every category (a perq of going to Tisch is that we often get comps!) Most of the winners were deserved but I would have to say that, as much as I love Idina (it’s required to love Tisch alumni ;)), Donna Murphy deserved it more. Also it’s a crime that Tovah Feldshuh didn’t win. And I was ecstatic that the underdog Avenue Q won best musical.

**By Soozievt (Soozievt) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 10:10 am: Edit **

Emily…I was also shocked to see Chad on there! He was friends with my D at theater camp (they were in a cabaret cast together) and so I know him and have seen him perform in a few musicals. My daughter had theater friends over to watch the Tonys last night. I was like, that’s Chad!!! I know he also goes to Tisch. Tell him his little Vermont friend saw him up there!!! Yay! Talented guy. You both in the same studio?? Maybe some day she can join you, lol!
Susan

**By Cama (Cama) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 10:28 am: Edit **

My sister was one of the unit producers for the Tony’s. Right now I’m sure she is sleeping as usually a break down can go to sometimes 2 in the morning. Sometimes she has some really interesting behind the scenes info (and gossip). When I speak to her will post any fun info abut the goings on behind the scenes with all the celebs.

**By Thesbohemian (Thesbohemian) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 05:04 pm: Edit **

Jamimom,
It’s apparently an in-house type letter intended for current students. I’ve sent Ms. Clements an e-mail asking about it and I’ll let you know what she says if you’d like.

**By Emilyp114 (Emilyp114) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 05:22 pm: Edit **

Thesbohemian,

I have no idea what that letter from Grace Clements would have been referring to, especially since it’s dated in March. Any current student would have discussed their AP credit long before that, and with their academic advisor not with Grace Clements. Also, why would your friend have received that if they didn’t even audition for Tisch? Doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

All colleges at NYU have rules governing AP credits and which classes are accepted for credit and which aren’t. It’s useful to get that information but I certainly wouldn’t worry about having to graduate early. I have never heard of anything like that and I have many friends who have been at Tisch and NYU longer than I have.

In any case, it may interest you that if you’re looking for a school which provides a full ride, then Tisch wouldn’t be for you anyway. NYU does not offer full scholarships to anyone and the largest ones it does offer are not offered to Tisch students.

**By Primab (Primab) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 05:31 pm: Edit **

I have a question about Tisch. I have been told from a few different people highly connected in the theater world to avoid Tisch. They say they let too many people in and therefore there is not a lot of attention or focus on the individual. I would love those of you who attend or their parents to give me some perspective. Thanks so much for your time.

**By Thesbohemian (Thesbohemian) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 06:04 pm: Edit **

Emily,
I was going to look again into the scholarship thing because of something Jamimom said above. Oh well … As for the letter from Ms. Clements, it’s stapled to an email my friend initially sent to Sandra Bowie last July which Ms. Clements answered with the letter attached. She had apparently found something on the website that caused her to ask about AP policies and Ms. Clements sent the letter along with a “Drama Student Credit Worksheet” in explanation of the policy.

Primab,
Obviously, I don’t go there, but everything I’ve heard is that Tisch is a great department though it’s probably like any large place in that you’ll have to really make it a point to seek out your mentors. They’ll be there, but they’re not going to come to you so you can’t be shy.

**By Jamimom (Jamimom) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 06:25 pm: Edit **

I can give you a few perspectives that I have about Tisch. I think that they have a great gravy train coming in there with their studio system. You audition for Tisch but have no say where you will be placed, most likely at some studio in Midtown, where you will spend your time training for theatre. Because the studio is run independently, the staff is not necessarily Tisch or NYU staff, the facilities are not NYU facilities. In fact these studios take in many other students as well as those from Tisch. You are basically contracted out. So Tisch is a bit removed from the actual experience. And whether you like it or not, you are stuck there for 2 years with a chance to try again for a studio you prefer at that time. For that you pay full NYU ticket. I know I sound a bit cynical about this, but it does sound crazy to me and I have a S who wants to give this a whirl.

Also from what I have heard, Emily can correct me, NYU gaps big time when it come to financial aid. There are so many wannabees auditioning for Tisch that I hear that getting a talent award is not a decent possibilities. NYU loves high SAT scores, and that is one way to get some money out of them but it is not going to be easy to sing for your supper from them.

The best theatre students do tend to go to Tisch and just being around this crowd, I am sure brings up the standards. Being in one of 7 studios does break up things a bit which does not happen at other theatres, and being in NYC is a huge plus as you meet the crowds in the know, important in this field.

I do not know how much MT is offered at Tisch except at Cap21 which is their MT studio and the most widely requested, I hear. Emily has posted on this a few times. A more traditional approach to MT which is hand in hand with NYU’s music department is to audition with the Steinhardt School of NYU. S has friends both at Tisch and Steinhardt, and they love where they are respectively, so it really depends on what you want.

My kids went in to see the grand opening of “Bombay Dreams”; they knew the lead from Pittsburgh who is D’s age. (Ironically both leads are from Pittsburgh–one from Fox Chapel, the other as a student from CMU) The young lady is on sabbatical from Tisch to perform in this show. Only in NYC, my kids would say. So oportunities are abound just from being in NYC, though Tisch does not officially permit auditions until after sophomore year ( the girl would have been a sophomore this year had she stayed).

Be aware that Tisch is a “Big Boy” school along with CMU and are akin to the HPY gang as far as selectivity goes. Certainly go for it, but make sure you have some school with varying selectivities when you apply, something no different from what other applicants to colleges should have.

**By Emilyp114 (Emilyp114) on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 06:32 pm: Edit **

Primab,

I’m curious who the ‘highly connected’ people would be. I just finished my freshman year at Tisch and can assure you that the information your friends have given you is totally false. While it’s true that Tisch is a large school, the individual classes are probably the same size as any other drama department in the country. I can tell you that in my studio classes, my group had 17 students all year. If someone needs more focus than that allows, then they’re probably looking at the wrong major. The studio training, the guest lecturers, the master classes, the availability of theatre, the experience of the staff, the connections, the internships, the number of productions, the availability of staff, the personal attention are without comparison in any other school. All that and a great academic education at one of the top universities in the country make a great fit for a lot of students. I know there seems to be some negativity in some areas regarding Tisch and I don’t understand it. It’s a great school with a wonderful reputation in the industry. I have family members in every aspect of the theatre world in the city and honestly, each and every one of them would highly recommend Tisch, and not just because I’m there.

Theater/Drama Colleges Part 2

CONNECT WITH US