<p>It’s been 2 weeks since we moved my D into Wright State University (Dayton Ohio) and I am just now getting around to posting our experience.</p>
<p>Before I proceed… to the messages about zicam - we think it works really well also - my D likes the oral spray better than the nose swabs because the nose swabs seem to iritate the lining of her nose some. My other D does fine with the nose swabs. My husband tried the oral tablets that melt in your mouth and he didn’t like them because they took a long time to melt and tasted like chalk to him. There are other forms of zicam but that is our experience with the ones we’ve tried.</p>
<p>Back to the move in. One very nice thing about the move in at Wright State was that the MT kids (other theatre and dance kids too I believe) got to move in a day earlier than the rest of the freshman because they had placement tests on move in day. So she moved in on Aug 31st, it was unrushed, not very busy and a very pleasant move in day. There were some other ‘special’ groups that also got to move in early so we were not alone, but there was not the crowded traffic or unloading zone that I’m sure is typical of the ‘freshman’ day. Some of the MT students chose to room with other MT students and some chose not to. My D chose to room with a nonMTer, and this student was able to move in early because my D had permission to move in early, so they were able to set the room up together and get to know each other etc. So the school was accomodating.</p>
<p>The next day (Sept 1), D had placement tests in acting, singing, dance (ballet and jazz), and music theory/piano. We were busy getting an extra key made for her car. We had traveled out on the 30th, so it was our 3rd and last day there. Between placement tests, we hastily gave her the keys, told her where her car was parked, and said a quick good bye. This was a good thing in the sense that I didn’t have time to get too emotional because her singing placement was next (she doesn’t cry AND sing well at the same time -lol). </p>
<p>Since then she has been very busy, happy, ‘loves’ her classes and the teachers and the students. The MT kids seem to be a close knit group especially the freshman at this point who have a ‘nonperformance’ quarter — but only a quarter. They will be auditioning sometime this quarter for next quarter. (They are on a quarter system there with the 4th quarter being summer, so most students do 3 quarters per year).</p>
<p>I’ll be happy to share more experiences or answer questions if I can about WSU. We have been very impressed with their program, scholarships, and what we’ve learned about the training.</p>
<p>Luckily I have another D at home because it is hard to let that first one go… but I think she has found a wonderful ‘fit’ in her school as I hope all the other cc freshman have as well.</p>
<p>Musicalmom
I am glad to see some information about Wright State. It will be one of the local places we look at for our D, although she is just beginning to think about what she thinks she wants and doesn’t want. She worked with a few students from WSU this summer woh were wonderful people and very kind to her, as well as being wonderful performers. I hope you will continue to provide some information as D has many friends who are now looking.
One thing I wondered about WSU is about the diversity of the program? I know they did Ragtime last year (or maybe the year before).</p>
<p>I would be happy to supply what knowledge I can about WSU. My D is currently a freshman so I will be learning as she progresses.
Yes, they did ‘Ragtime’ last year as well as ‘Blithe Spirit’, ‘The Elephant’, ‘As You Like it’, and ‘Annie Get Your Gun’. This year they are doing ‘The Story’, ‘Grease’, ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’, ‘The ThreePenny Opera’, ‘Aida’, and I am hearing rumors of another musical but am not sure. On their website, you will find a history of past productions that might be of interest.</p>
<p>My D felt welcome there from the first moment on audition day. She visited several times and the staff was very warm and helpful. She has only been there a few weeks now but is extremely happy and busy. I know it is a good ‘fit’ for her. The students seem to be a close knit group at least from her freshman point of view. We were impressed with the classes she is taking and the overall program. Last year we saw ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ there and were very impressed with the performance. It was wonderful and I’ve seen the show multiple times in many venues.</p>
<p>My D is not a local, so I can’t supply too much information on the surrounding areas other than the university is on the outskirts of the city of Dayton, Ohio and borders the suburb of Fairborn.</p>
<p>Let me know if I can be of further assistance or if you have more specific questions.</p>
<p>Well, I’ve decided to come out of the closet as a long time lurker! My S is also a Freshman at Wright State and is loving their program. He knows musicalmom’s daughter and says the same thing, that they are a very close knit group. We are also not from Ohio and I know he has spoken of other students from several other states. We first learned of WSU while he was a summer camper at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. It turns out that this year not only is the director of their (IAC) MT program on staff at WSU, but the music director of the Summer MT program was just hired as an accompaniast/voice teacher. They are both highly respected in their fields. We were able to see “Ragtime” last Fall and thoroughly enjoyed the performance. It was a very large cast with amazing talent! </p>
<p>Keepingcalm, when you ask about the diversity of the program, are you asking about the overall program, or ethnic diversity?</p>
<p>I would be happy to share any information that I can about the program. My S doesn’t call home often (he’s loving being with a group of like minded students), so I’ve already learned that I must ask specific questions to really find out what I need to know as a parent! So far, it’s all been positive.</p>
<p>musicalmom and bbutcher…both fresh from the closet…welcome!!</p>
<p>Both my Ss entertained the idea of auditioning Wright State…I can’t recall why we didn’t, but the head of Webster’s MT Department at the time spoke highly of the program. :)</p>
<p>In fact, one of Webster’s acting instructors has a daughter who is currently a senior at Wright. It must be good!!!</p>
<p>My daughter is now a junior in hs and is considering WSU. She was very impressed when she visited it last spring. One thing that concerned me about the school is that the voice teachers in the music department of WSU do not teach the MT kids voice. It seemed the music school was not involved in the MT program. That is very different from other schools we have visited, such as Shenandoah, OCU and Baldwin-Wallace.
Does anyone have any insight into this at Wright State? How is the quality of the vocal training at Wright State?</p>
<p>bbutcher
I am really interested in the ethnic diversity of the MT program at WSU. I do know some things about the University in general, since we live just south in a large city with a mjor MT program (I bet you can’t guess). We would like D to be at a program that has enough diversity that it can regularly take on musicals such as Ragtime and as someone noted above Aida.
However, since we are just down the road, it maybe easiest for us to just hit the highway and look for ourselves. Although this is not a option for everyone and ethnic diversity seems to be an issue that is rather touchy on the boards.</p>
<p>By the way, my D does know some of the IAC/WSU faculty as she did two summers at Interlochen, but as an intermediate.</p>
<p>Henrob,
I may be able to partially answer your question. The musical theatre major is housed under the theatre/dance/motion picture department at WSU. There is a separate music department at the university. My d loves her voice instructor so far and feels she is getting great training so far. And as bbutcher notes, they just hired an instructor for their mt voice faculty from Interlochen Arts Camp which is highly regarded. </p>
<p>Your concern about this issue would be a question best answered by the department either at audition time or via a phone call to the department. </p>
<p>We also ran across this difference when d was auditioning for programs last year. WSU was not the only program set up this way. As you say, B-W is different (they are also different in that their program is a BM, not a BFA and is a conservatory(as Shenandoah is). WSU is conservatory-like training in a liberal arts environment. The freshman first quarter take 1 gen ed which is also required by their major - theatre in the western culture. The rest of their schedule is filled with acting class, ballet, jazz, movement for the actor, theatre speech, voice/singing instruction including the private lessons, music theory (unless they test out of it), and I think a reperatoire class of some sort. Pretty comparable to other intense bfa mt programs.</p>
<p>I am also interested in Keepingcalm’s question about ethnic diversity in MT programs (not just WSU). I posted pretty much the same question on the OCU thread. Interestingly, I noted there that OCU (not necessarily the MT program) only had 6% African Americans and 3% Hispanics. I looked up NYU later, and found that their percentages were even lower than that! Very surprising.</p>
<p>However, I have to believe that NYC (and some other metropolises) would provide a more diverse environment than Oklahoma City would, beyond the campus. That will be a fairly weighty consideration in our D’s decision where to apply, in addition to the quality of the MT program. Have others out there been making those kinds of decisions?</p>
<p>I was also interested in Keepingcalm’s comment about diversity being a “touchy subject.” I think that a young person’s desire to expand her horizons beyond what she’s known growing up is a valid and worthy ambition. But that doesn’t mean everybody will make his/her decision with the same criteria–different people want different things, and should make application decisions according to their own judgements. So I’m not sure why that should be “touchy.”</p>
<p>My comment about it being a touchy subject was based on a questions that was asked during the summer by someone else. They asked about the diversity of a summer program and did not really get an answer. One response was something along the lines of “about the same as elsewhere”, well since we haven’t been else where that wasn’t too informative. The second detailed the gender ratio, which wasn’t really what I believe the person asking was thinking about.</p>
<p>For me, it is a less an issue of D’s comfort with groups and student population, or expanding her horizons, but more an issue of range of productions that schools can take on. If programs are basically caucasian, it would seem they are less likely to produce MTs that require a primarly ethnic cast. If much study of the of Musicals and plays goes on is focused on the traditionals, then does it make it more difficult for less mainstream to enter into the commercial venue?
I have no idea how varied the reportoire of theatre that programs study is, so I might be completely off base on this. But based on my single experience with the program next to me, they Musicals they produce are (and I hope htis doesn’t offend anyone) rather “white bread.”
This has nothing really to with WSU or their choices but is a more general issue/question.</p>
<p>hello,
I also saw WSU’s production of Ragtime last fall with the IAC kids who visited the school. I was very impressed with everything I saw, but most importantly I was impressed with the ethnic diversity of the program. I live very close to Webster U and see shows there alot. Not to put down Webster in the slightest, but racially it is not a diverse program. WSU IS!!! I think this fact really separates them from other programs.</p>
<p>I would like to prod a little more information along to people regarding Wright State- Anyone out there willing to contribute?</p>
<p>When are audition dates for Wright State?
Requirements for auditions/applications?
What is the season lineup for productions?</p>
<p>I would love to hear more info on this school…anyone willing to bite?</p>
<p>SUE aka 5pants</p>
<p>P.S. I believe that the topic of “Diversity” was brought up in it’s own thread…if I have time I will try to locate to ‘bump’ it so that this facinating and worthwhile conversation might continue over there. THANKS!! P.S.S. If someone can locate it sooner, please feel free!!</p>
<p>Wright State’s on campus auditions are usually in February. I think they have offered 3 February dates in the past (Saturdays to my memory). I do believe they also have off campus auditions but I am not sure where.</p>
<p>Audition requirements - In the past it has been the following: two contrasting one minute monologues, two contrasting songs (1 minute in length each) from musicals, and a dance audition. My d was told at the audition that the dance was sort of icing on the cake if you were a dancer, but that you did not have to be dancer to be selected. Another plus about Wright State if you are a strong dancer is that you can take dance classes with the dance majors. Of course, these audition requirements could change, so please check the website (<a href=“http://www.wright.edu%5B/url%5D”>www.wright.edu</a>) or call the school. I don’t believe the audition dates etc are on the website yet for this coming year, but probably will be soon.</p>
<p>Application requirements - there is a university application for admission to the university, and a BFA admission/Scholarship application that is also used to set up your audition date. I don’t remember either being very long or difficult. </p>
<p>You will find this and last years shows on my recent post dated 9/17.</p>
<p>ANd I agree that there is quite a bit of ethnic diversity in the program, but I don’t have any stats, just a general feel for what I saw on visits, performances, and audition day. But this would be a better topic for another thread (not just WSU) which I believe may have already been started.</p>
<p>Wright State needs to update their webpage because it lists audition dates from 2004 and doesn’t have information readily available about their production season, and so on. Musicalmom, maybe you can suggest it! So many people rely on the websites as their initial introduction to a program. Some sites list the curriculum for the BFA, the productions, audition requirements, audition dates, etc. Wright State didn’t have quite as much with those things on their site, or at least not updated. </p>
<p>I am glad you are here sharing about this program so more learn about it. I haven’t had a student apply there (yet). </p>
<p>I actually had heard of this program back when my daughter was 11 and in sixth grade (surely before we ever began thinking about colleges for MT!!). She was in a professional regional tour and a young man in the cast was a senior in HS wanting to go into MT (not from our town but from our region). I recall that the whole admissions season was during this tour they did and he ended up choosing Wright State which I had not heard of at the time but he explained a bit about it and how he had the best financial offer from them and so he went. I have never spoken to him since and he has since graduated college.</p>
<p>Actually, Wright State has the audition dates from last year listed on their website. So, they do need to update, but they aren’t as far behind as you thought Soozie. This year’s season is available on their site. I looked at it earlier this week. It is as follows:
October - The Story by Tracey Scott Wilson
November - Grease
January - Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
February - Three Penny Opera
May - Aida</p>
<p>Yikes Dancersmom, thanks. When I looked, I saw audition dates for 2004 and could not find a link to the productions. I didn’t look hard enough I suppose! It is funny because for another school last night, I had a mom who told me she couldn’t find certain information on the site, and I found it readily so, here the opposite just happened. Now, i am curious, so I gotta go look! :D</p>
<p>OK, so I just revisited and here’s why I was confused. If you click on Admissions and Retentions, you get 2004 audition dates. The way I found THIS year’s audition dates are if you dowload the application for the BFA program, the audition dates for this year are ON it. Voila. </p>
<p>I didn’t see the link for the season last night because I accessed the major a different way than I just did now and the page I went to last night didn’t have the links that the page I just went to had. Phew.</p>
<p>Now, I can see why others tell me they can’t find certain things on other schools’ sites and I can easily because sometimes the way these things are designed and whick link you take to a certain area yields various results. I see why all these kids need parental secretaries as it is time consuming!</p>
<p>I am a former acting major from WSU. I went there for the 05-06 school year and ended up being released from the program. I have been involved with several shows during my year there and got to know the professors very well. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me!</p>
<p>Is there anyone who is currently involved with Wright State’s program on this forum. We would like the exact dates of their performances this spring - particularly Aida. We would like to go and see this show, as D just did it this year which makes it easier to compare quality if you know the show well. However May is a deadly month as she has multiple performances with school and Dad is in a show that runs three weeks.</p>
<p>I wish Wright State spent a little more time up dating their website, as it seems like a poor PR vehicle to have audition information two years out of date.</p>
<p>I can tell you when Urinetown is and that is March 2-4 and 9-11. I just called the theater arts department and got the Aida dates and they are…May 10, 11, 12 & 13, 16-20, & 24-27. I also asked if she thought that they would be updating their website with the information and was told that they are having lots of problems with the website and it won’t be changing. She did say that the University as a whole was having difficulty with the website and that it wasn’t just the Theater Arts department having the problem. They are more than willing to answer questions and encourage phone calls ~ they have always been very friendly and helpful when I have called. Good luck fitting this in with your busy Spring schedule!</p>
THANKS!! P.S.S. If someone can locate it sooner, please feel free!!</p>