@TaylorsmomWI be safe on the road! Its pretty easy to get to the Alys Stephens Center off of I65. We had a visit with Valerie and her fantastic program over Presidents day. Sounds like the competition will be high when my D auditions next year. That makes me super happy for Valerie because she is such a talented energetic person. I think great things are going to come out of that program in the future. The talent we witnessed in the class we observed was great. Auburns BFA may be a prescreen next year. Samford is a great program, but is a private Baptist school Birmingham Southern is Methodist and non freshman audition. Montevallo has a good program and the rumor is that Alabama will be going to a MT BFA in the next year or so. We live in the Huntsville area and my D has stated she doesn’t want to go too far away. We’ll see as she firms up the list in the next month or so. Everyone that is visiting Birmingham soon don’t forget your Zyrtec the Spring pollen is thick!
Hi @brightstaral. You might already know this since you live in the Huntsville area, but UAH now has a theatre major–and they offer great scholarships!
UA (Tuscaloosa) is an incredible program on an amazing campus. We were totally impressed. Loved UAB too, but the main campus is just the epitome of college. UAB is urban, which some prefer! We have heard the audition process at UA is already competitive and becoming more and more so…dance dept is incredible!
@TaylorsmomWI. Good luck with your trip! I am sure that even with the crazy schedule you’ll enjoy the time with your daugter. Hope there are lots of Starbucks on the way! I continue to be amazed at how dedicated these kiddos and their parents are throughout this process.
515am Sunday… 12 hour drive down. 12 hour visit. 12 hour drive back and just woke from a 12 hour nap. Lol. I wouldn’t advise anyone to adapt to a 12 hour lifestyle! But… It was soooo worth the trip! We left Racine after rehearsal at 9pm and made it to UAB campus at 845 am with one gas stop and two potty breaks. Just in time for D to meet up with the student they paired her up with and head to classes. D loves everything about UAB! The classes. The kids. The modern urban ( yet surprisingly calm and quiet ) campus. The dorms and rec center and especially the whole theatre and music department! Valerie was just as wecoming energized and enthusiastic as she was at Unifieds and we loved hearing about how the new-ish bfa mt program is evolving and growing. Watching the first dress rehearsal for Spring Awakening sealed the deal for my daughter! The kids are amazingly talented! And good direction and professionalism shows!!! My daughter bought 3 UAB blazer shirts and changed into one before the dress rehearsal… And everyone knew she was hooked And reeled in! It was great to leave with hugs and " see you in August " from so many people! It’s such a great feeling to know she is feeling so good about the whole experience and can’t wait until fall to start! She is already talking with two other girls on the Facebook page about roommates and starting to make her packing list ( lots of time to talk about it on the 12 hour ride home !) our trip next week to NYC to check out the three other schools has just turned into a mom-daughter 2 day NYC vacation. She is so sure about UAB that we will not even be touring the other schools… Seeing shows instead! Thanks for all the info here and in the PMs!
That’s so exciting!! After much research and several visits, I agree that the “Alabama schools” ( UA and UAB I know primarily) are underrated but producing amazing talent!! The word is getting out–Congratulations!
Wow! I’m so happy for you @TaylorsmomWI!!! It’s such a great feeling when the shoe fits! Wishing you a safe, very fun ride home together!
@TaylorsmomWI. So great to hear about your trip! Thank you for posting. I have really been looking forward to your feedback. I am thrilled for your D!! My D and I can’t wait for our upcoming trip.
Thank you all! @KnightGrad you guys will enjoy it! I didn’t sit in a ballet but I did sit in the back for the afternoon music class which was really neat. It’s students performances from all the different music classes so we saw a nice mix of classical and some MT too. Valerie did mention that there are quite a few musical theater prospects visiting next weekend, and she encouraged to her MT students to perform that day. So you really should have a nice time watching that class. The show is awesome… I so wish I could come back and see the full blown show. But even the professionalism I saw in dress rehearsal led me to believe that this program is really top notch!
For those of you looking at UAB, I just saw this great review of Spring Awakening: http://www.broadwayworld.com/birmingham/article/BWW-Review-SPRING-AWAKENING-Moves-Audience-20160414#
My D & one of her friends who was also accepted just landed in B’ham and will be touring campus, observing a class and seeing Spring Awakening tonight. Sad I’m not there!
Update: UAB just rose wayyyy up in the ranks for my kid. They have a Panera in their student union. Not sure there’s anything else to discuss. 
So D & DH got waylaid by weather on their way home from B’ham, so I haven’t gotten to talk about it with her yet, but it sounds like D was quite impressed with all aspects of UAB, including campus life, the theatre department, faculty, surrounding area/Birmingham in general, etc. She said she was very impressed with their production of Spring Awakening - when I asked her what exactly impressed her, she said “Vocals and acting and direction and costumes. The set was pretty minimalistic and the orchestra was on stage. It was pretty cool.” When I asked what she meant by the orchestra was on stage, she said they had a brick building background and the orchestra was in front of it on a raised platform, and the acting went on in front of them. They also got to observe a voice class and she said Carolyn Violi was wonderful, and she thinks Valeria Accetta is awesome, and my DH was also very impressed. All in all, it sounds like UAB is a program to keep an eye on…
We just got back from a visit to UAB after my D was accepted into the MT program! Wow! The performance we saw was amazing, the faculty we met seem warm and wonderful, and the facilities are beautiful. The program is quite competitive (goal is 12 students per class), but the program is new and therefore they don’t get the massive number of students auditioning yet. I think this is going to change soon! We absolutely loved it!
Ditto! My D and I visited and saw the show on Saturday night. The show was fantastic! And, oh my, the theatre… So beautiful. My D loved everything Valerie, the faculty we met, the school, and the program; she is very excited to attend UAB in the fall. I am thrilled as I am past ready to get off this carnival ride. Bets of luck to all! I hope every student finds a perfect fit and can move forward.
Anyone know if double majoring/minoring is possible/common for BFA MT students at UAB?
@gmo913 - I’m not sure but think it might be pretty difficult to double major/minor, just based on what my daughter described (from Valerie Accetta’s discussion of the program). You might shoot Valerie an email - she’s very responsive (I believe her email is on the UAB Theatre website).
@KnightGrad - I’m with you! D was very excited after her weekend in Birmingham, but we’ve urged her to take a couple of days to marinate on it, and if she’s still on fire, make her final commitment. Would love to get off this carnival ride by the end of the week!!!
So excited everyone is getting the same impression we got at UAB when we visited in February! I so wish we could have made it down to Spring Awakening. Unfortunately, it was an insane week ending in Prom that week, even though we are only an hour away it was impossible for us to make the show time. Super Bummed.
For any Juniors or younger out there there is a College Audition Intensive at UAB June 6-10 with Carolyn, Valerie and many others. It is not a residential program so it is under $400. The program promises a song, monologue, master classes, headshot and audition video 9-3:30 everyday. So if you wanted to come and hang out in Birmingham we will be there :). Kristen Chenoweth will be in concert at the facility on the 12th if you wanted to stay through the weekend. Not sure about posting the link, I think it may violate rules so if you go to artplayasc DOT org BACKSLASH middle and scroll down to Theater UAB Audition intensive Carolyn’s email is listed for more info. Feel to PM me if this doesn’t make sense.
I am in no way affiliated with the school I just wanted to share the info in case anyone else has a child like mine that can’t take 2-6 weeks from her summer for a residential program because of their insane schedule :).