<p>Glad to see a discussion board for Coastal’s program. I used college confidential my junior and senior years of high school in search of a program for me. I am now a junior MT student at Coastal. If anyone has any questions that they want answered from a student’s perspective just let me know.</p>
<p>My daughter is wanting to major in MT but we want her to dual major as the theater industry is so fickle and jobs are short. She would also like to major in Education. Is that possible there at CCU? Do you have a strong program?</p>
<p>What do the graduates do? Any on Broadway beside Elle?</p>
<p>How many productions do you do a year?</p>
<p>GOod with dance and acting?</p>
<p>Senior showcase?</p>
<p>Graduates and current students are working professionally in theatres across the country and on cruise lines. Current students go to SETC every year and always show up strongly with booking jobs.</p>
<p>I believe we are doing 5 main stage productions and 2 second stage that are put on by the students.</p>
<p>Top of the line acting teacher in both straight acting and musical theatre.
Top of the line with dance with our teacher also serving as the choreographer for SETC for many years.</p>
<p>We did a showcase strictly at our university last year in our first trial run. We plan do also do one this coming year with possible invited agents brought to the school.<br>
Coastal will make the transition from BA to BFA in 2010.</p>
<p>I believe that it is possible to double major. However, my personal opinion is that with the theatre industry slumping at the moment, it is still competitive as ever. If you want to compete and be successful you must be all in. </p>
<p>(SETC - South Eastern Theatre Conference – It is a conference held each year where close to 100 companies come to audition college students from all over.)</p>
<p>I hope this answered some questions and I hope to possibly see your daughter at Coastal.</p>
<p>Hi theatrejock
I wondered if you could elaborate on the quality of the dance program. D and I visited CCU this spring and it is high on her list (having her SAT/ACT test score sent there so in the top 4). When we were there we did not get a chance to do anything specific in the MT department and all the other schools she has visited thus far she has taken a dance class during her visit.
Since so much about a school’s strengths and weaknesses is dependent on what an individual’s own background I wondered if you could provide some context around your previous dance experience, and may be the level of dance experience of the majority of MT majors?</p>
<p>Here is some of D’s dance background and her desires - she has been in a pro-pro ballet program since 9, been en pointe for 5 or 6 years now, has been accepted to several big ballet dance intensive, did Ailey’s dance summer program last year and was in the second highest level of all her classes, except MT dance where she was in the top level. She has been dance captain for several MT productions in the last few years, and is serving as the dance captain in her theme park job this summer.</p>
<p>D does not want to go on to college as a dance major, so she is not thinking that she needs to make huge improvements. She would like to be able to maintain - although not really concerned about staying on with pointe work. </p>
<p>In terms of your own experience and others at CCU, do many of them consider themsleves beginning dancers, intermediate, or advanced?
And do you think the program is able to address dancerrs across all these levels?</p>
<p>For D the dnace is not fully the make or break for a program, but she knows it is her strength and wants to be able to maintain.</p>
<p>Joe is opening in “The Light in the Piazza” tonight. But I’m sure he’ll get back to you in the next day or two.</p>
<p>Keepingcalm,
I was a 3 sport athlete growing up and did not start dance classes of any kind until I entered Coastal. I came in with athletic abilities but, no training. I have booked 3 summers of work at professional theatres where I have served as an ensemble dancers in some of the shows during the season.</p>
<p>We have it all. Beginners, inter mediate, and advanced. We have classes that serve for all of them. Ask KJGC, but I believe our dance teacher studied with ABT. Or, one of the big time companies.</p>
<p>Jazz I and II
Ballet I and II
Tap I and II</p>
<p>For advanced we have a group called Dance Company. A class and performing group that does tap, jazz, and ballet and also focuses on choreography.</p>
<p>Theatrejock-
thanks for your input and congratulations on your success in summer work. This helps and we will look more into the specifics as time gets closer, which I guess is this summer.</p>
<p>hi, i’m a junior in HS and really want to go to college for MT and was wondering what kind of tips you could tell me to help get ready for auditions and such my senior year. in all honesty, im kinda doing alot of this on my own, like without my parents, because nether one of them really want me to go into theater, they want me to do nursing or something like that. did you do it by your self or would you recomend me ask my parents for some help?</p>
<p>I did some on my own but a lot of help I got from two coaches that helped me in the audition process.</p>
<p>Visit this site and contact Ellen Lettrich. Tell her TheatreJock referred you to her.</p>
<p>Let me know what she says.</p>
<p>TJ</p>
<p>thanks, but what site? i don’t see one…</p>
<p>It may have been edited because external links are not allowed generally speaking.</p>
<p>you probably should post your question on the main MT forum as well… you will get more responses :)</p>
<p>brielelaness, TheatreJock is an excellent resource. PM him. If you want a wide range of answers you are more than welcome to post on the main page. If you would like answers about the CCU program, post them here or just PM me. For that matter, I’m happy to answer any questions you might have without bias. Heck, I don’t even read the other school’s individual posts.</p>
<p>kjgc - TheatreJock mentioned the great things happening at CCU. Just wondering if you could talk about the change from a BA to a BFA program. And can you tell me a little more about the opportunities CCU students have with Atlantic Stage?</p>
<p>Austinmom,
Sure. I’ll do my best to be brief. We will migrate from a BA in MT to a BFA beginning in the fall. The BA, which is already fairly close to many BFA’s in terms of intent and credit hours, will cease and be replaced by an even more intensive BFA. The degree will have 87 credits of music, dance, acting, history, lit and criticism classes. The faculty we’ve assembled over the past four years is really quite excellent. We will be adding two more over the next two years. </p>
<p>We will audition our current BA students for entry into the BFA so the first class will actually be in place prior to the fall, but our first NEW class will be fall 2010. The program is four years in the making, including new hires, new spaces, many new classes and resources that will make us competitive with even the biggest programs. </p>
<p>As Joe mentioned, we have partnered with a new professional company in the area. Atlantic Stage is an SPT (Small Professional Theatre Equity Contract) in its relative infancy. However, with the start of the second season the quality of the performances have started to really draw in audiences. We see a fabulous partnership unfolding. Current students are auditioned for Atlantic Stage shows at the same time they audition for departmental shows. Some will be cast each season, and some will be asked to understudy. Right now Atlantic Stage cannot give EMC points, however we expect that to happen within the next couple of seasons. (Not a promise, just an expectation - it is dependent upon growth of the theatre and the equity contracts the company can provide.) There are several students working with Atlantic Stage now both on and off stage. </p>
<p>When I started three years ago we stated very clearly to the University administration that we wanted to be among the best professional training programs in the Southeast. Even in these economic times they continue to provide us resources to attain that goal including new faculty, new staff, and over $100,000 in new equipment to open a third performance space. And things are still moving forward. We are very, very excited about the future.</p>
<p>Please let me know if you have any questions whatsoever. Our auditions are the first and last Saturday in February this year - and if absolutely necessary by appointment.</p>
<p>Ahhh, the waiting game. Does anyone know how CCU will notify of acceptances this year? Phone call, email, snail mail? Just curious ;)</p>
<p>They told our group that they would prefer to call the excepted students, and indicated might be after the spring break. I know Elon does phone calls, and has already made those.</p>
<p>Thanks padanceart. That’s great to know. Since they are on spring break now it sounds like it may be next week. Oh well…what can you do but wait and hope :)</p>
<p>Good luck to all who are also waiting!</p>
<p>We have completed the discussions and calls and emails will begin today. I hope to have them completed by the end of the week at the latest.</p>
<p>Thank you kjgc. But now I will be on pins and needles…</p>
<p>Just got an email!! :-)</p>