Will I be taken seriously?

CCer2014
Sat, 22 May 2010 14:48:30 +0000

There is a prejudice I think, but it depends on the school you go to. If you graduate from say CMU or a program with a similar structure, you would have gotten the same core acting classes (which includes speech, movement, and voice in addition to the acting), so you will be taken seriously as a straight actor.
But I know of someone who graduated from another one of the big name MT schools who wouldn’t be taken seriously at auditions for straight plays and film/tv, so they are currently in grad school pursuing an MFA. Their school where they got their BFA in MT is AMAZING for MT, but the acting training they got there was very minimal…just enough so they could do MT acting, but not enough to prepare them for Shakespeare, etc. There are many wonderful MT schools out there that will prepare you just for that, but oftentimes do not include the full range of voice, speech, and movement that is necessary to study in addition to acting to be fully prepared to act in straight plays. Lots of times, voice and speech is replaced with singing and movement is replaced with dance. Or sometimes you will get some of those classes, but only every now and then…not every semester.
My advice for you is to look into MT programs with a heavy emphasis on acting where you would basically take the exact same courses as the actors, but will just have extra dance and singing/music classes. Also look into straight acting programs that have singing and dance in their curriculum. UNCSA, for example, graduates some wonderful MT performers even though it is straight acting program. I attended their showcase recently and was really impressed by the kids who sang as well. And there’s the other option…go get your BFA at an MT school and then go back to school to get an MFA in acting after. That is what I would had done if I had decided to go to one of my MT options.