Theatre Design Major

Lizzy5851
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 17:40:42 +0000

@Costumedesign1 - It’s really great that you are thinking about this now. My daughter’s portfolio was mostly work that she produced from spring Junior year through the summer before senior (and some early Sr year work from AP Studio Art). About 1/3 of the work in her portfolio was costume design (3 shows, lots of photos of her best pieces, a few sketches) all from youth theatre productions. 1/3 was fashion design (photos and sketches). The rest was mostly 2D and some 3D art (painting, drawing, sculpture).

She has been really fortunate to live in a great arts community - she is very involved in youth theatre and has taken a lot of art and fashion design classes both in and out of school. She also has top grades, SAT, strong writer, etc. She has performed in a lot of shows too. So the whole application was pretty strong.

About pre-college. We made a decision for her not to attend. It was really about spending time at home and with family, and she found an opportunity to spend 6 weeks last summer working on 2 shows, with a great mentor and a lot of responsibility - so she got great experience and portfolio material from her summer anyway.

When we visited CMU we met a graduating senior that did attend their pre-college. She loved it and felt like the faculty admissions decision for her had been made by the end of her summer program. She was probably one of their top graduating costume designers last year.

So my advice is this:

Pre-college is great, and I’m sure it’s a wonderful way to spend a summer. But I clearly think that you can develop a top portfolio without it (if the time or the money is a problem for you) I never felt like it was a strike against my daughter that she did not do pre-college.

Particularly if you are worried about all the other parts of your application (grades, sat, resume) then pre-college would probably be a great way to boost your application if you can afford it.

Either way, do take lots of art classes - everything offered at your school and at a local art school if you can. Find opportunities to get involved in local theatre. Design if you can, and if you can’t, then just volunteer to sew and fit, etc. Sketch costumes and construct them, even just for spec (not for a real show).

I hope that this helps. All the best of luck to you! I will look forward to hearing how it all turns out. Let me know if you have any other questions!