U Cal Irvine and U Cal Northridge

MTTwinsinCA
Mon, 13 Jul 2015 01:59:03 +0000

CSUN is our local CalState campus and has a great MT program, which is considered a “minor” that can be combined either with BA theatre or BA Vocal performance. The program operates within the Mike Curb College – read about who Mike Curb is and you’ll know why this school is great for performers. There is a very well-connected group of theatre alumni, many of whom work all the time here in LA – both in theatre and in TV and Film. Look up Diane Ketchie – she is the VP Professor who heads up the MT minor. She is fantastic and has a background in MT – was in the SF Company of “Phantom” and is a well-respected vocal teacher in this area. She and her husband are active performers and well known in LA and beyond. In this past year, the new dean of the Curb College has taken an active role in allowing the GORGEOUS Valley Performing Arts Center on the CSUN campus to be used for student productions – not just as a touring house. This past spring, the school mounted “The Drowsy Chaperone” in the VPAC and it was a pretty spectacular production – I enjoyed it immensely. I noticed this past year several CSUN groups had shows in the Hollywood Fringe Festival and one girl we saw several times in school productions seems to be launching a pretty successful career, appearing in several local musicals. Among my sons’ high school theatre peer group, there were many many talented kids who went to CSUN for theatre, VP and MT for a variety of reasons. Some couldn’t afford to attend out of state MT programs and/or didn’t have a lot of parental support for that particular major so they compromised by staying local. Some need to live at home to save money. Some didn’t understand the audition process for the larger BFA schools and/or got a late start into theatre world. Others didn’t have the academic qualifications or test scores to get in elsewhere. And there were a few others who really just wanted to go to CSUN – there is a strong middle-school and high-school summer musical theatre/theatre/improv program on the campus, called the Teenage Drama Workshop at CSUN, that helps flow theatre students into the university. One caveat regarding all CA public universities – our state has constant financial issues and many campuses and majors are considered “impacted”, so it is worth your while to ask the department specifically what you can expect in terms of getting the classes you need to graduate on time. Many of our friends have taken 4-1/2 or 5 years to finish.