<p>I teach and JMU and would be happy to answer any questions about the program. JMU is a BA program but with strong training and the opportunity to take classes in specialized areas such as voice/diction, stage combat, movement, etc… Students in the MT program take all levels of acting (including classical acting), are cast in both plays and musicals. Students in the Theatre program may take voice classes, and certain MT courses, are cast in both plays and musicals.</p>
<p>I also think looking at American would be a good idea. I have seen very strong graduates of their program.</p>
<p>Shenandoah is a great program, but it is a conservatory program, so may not fit what you are looking for. </p>
<p>Elon is also a great program, but my understanding is that the BA students do not have the same class and casting opportunities as the BFA students. I am also not sure how available MT opportunities are to Theatre students.</p>
<p>If you want to take a college visit trip to visit a few different types of programs take a drive from MD to NC. Look at UMD-CP, American, Shenandoah, JMU, Elon. All are great schools with very different programs. </p>
<p>Thanks everyone for their input. That is true that you can study all the “specialized” training after college but will you want to? Will you want to invest further or do you want to hit the ground running after graduation? And I have seen that BA’s do have some of the more specialized training but since you are also fitting in more gen ed’s something has to give somewhere. Specialized classes maybe available but you may not be able to fit them into your schedule. I am not trying to argue either…just trying to make the point to OP that the programs are different and to really look at what you will be able to take in both.
I think we all have our preferences and what we are looking for and my preferences are probably showing. My D is a very strong academic student who I know will keep reading and learning throughout her life. She’s worked really hard in high school and even as a junior now can easily complete college level work. She is very eager to get on with as much performing arts training as possible. That’s where she wants to focus. I guess the question really isn’t does traditional academic learning enrich you as an actor because of course it does, but is - Do you as the student want to include more or less traditional academic learning in your performing arts education?</p>
<p>dramamom0804, I can’t remember if I posted on this thread before, so if I’m being redundant, just ignore me. My daughter was in a similar situation last year (she is now a freshman) and her thinking evolved during the course of her application year. Initially she was looking mostly at BFA programs, but ended up choosing Fordham’s auditioned BA program for a few reasons-- it is close to a BFA in terms of the intensity of its theater course, but she also takes academics. It’s a lot of work-- first semester she had 19 credits, and the courses were pretty intense, and she also had tech and other theater department requirements to fulfill and was working on a show. This semester she is taking 4 theater courses and one academic class (Italian.) She will take 2 core academic classes first semester of summer school and spend the rest of the summer doing more theater-related stuff. She was just home for spring break and reiterated how glad she is to be at Fordham, that it’s the perfect place for her. She is a double-major in acting and playwriting and will have her first Fordham play produced next semester.</p>
<p>Yes. Whether or not you pursue specialized training after college per se, the professional actor’s training does not end with college. Actors typically continue to take classes and participate in workshops and the like throughout their career. It is sort of similar to the world of ballet…even top ballerinas who are members of companies take “dance classes.”</p>
<p>In addition, college students in theatre programs with a limited curriculum could supplement their training during the summer.</p>
<p>REALLY good stuff here guys!! A lot for my academic S to think about. I can tell, as well as everyone around him, how much he loves acting…and I mean everything about it. But, I think he is trying to decide how much academics he is willing to give up in order to pursue his art. It is a tough decision that may or not be made for him next year. But it is a VERY hard decision to make. What I am afraid of is if he decides to do the strong theater BA route like Fordham’s that he will be so intrenched in the theater stuff, that he will hate having to fulfill all the other academic requirements. I have a friend whose DD is having this problem, and is now wishing she just did a BFA. I am sure my S will always continue to do theater training/work in the summer.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all the amazing advice! To answer a lot of your questions, I think I might be able to compromise academics for the right theatre program that would give me the training I would need to excel. To give you a little more information about me, I have been singing and performing in musicals since I was five, and about two years ago I started performing in Shakespeare, and fell in love with it! That’s why I am more interested in a “classical” training per say, but I don’t want to give up singing. That’s why the post about the JMU program from one of their staff interested me so much, because they said MTs get the same training but still get voice lessons. I really thought I didn’t want to go into musical theatre but with the right program I could. And what some of you said about stage combat and clowning is exactly why I wanted to go into acting, because I thought MTs didn’t get that opportunity. I know I do have to make decisions about what I want, and hopefully I can do that soon, and but I am still trying to figure that out so I can really choose a program and school that fit me.</p>
<p>Lots of great information and discussion here for prospective college actors. I’ve got one thing to emphasize and perhaps another point to add to the mix.</p>
<p>I think it bears repeating that not all BFA or BA programs are the same. Each and every one of them will have a different ratio (if you will) of training to academics. Figuring this out is probably more art than science, starting with departmental statements, curriculum evaluation, AND research (gasp!) with real live students who have actually gone through the program. With the BA programs, there is also the issue of how involved a student needs to be with the department (perhaps to the exclusion of meaningful involvement with other ECs and outside interests) in order to get a fair shot at casting and/or have “insider” status (whatever that might mean).</p>
<p>Perhaps a point that has been missed is that BA students frequently exercise quite a bit of initiative to create the education/training mix they want, by tailoring training in a way that suits them best. Most of my daughter’s high school theater crowd went the BFA route (and most loved it), but she never saw this as HER direction. She wanted a thorough immersion in a college liberal arts curriculum, plus as much acting/theater training as she could get, plus as much performance opportunity as she could get. She wanted conservatory training as well, but for her personally (with classical theater in mind), she wanted this when she was a few years older and in theory wiser, and coming out of it with an MFA. During her BA days, she supplemented the BA style training with two semester long conservatory experiences – one in the fall (LAMDA) and one over the summer (Moscow Arts at Harvard). This particular mix was her own design, but that general concept of creating her own idiosyncratic path was not at all unusual in her BA theater world, either at her school or at her friends at other unis.</p>
<p>Unlike law, medicine, and engineering … there is absolutely no “one” or “best” path. Perhaps just YOUR “best” path. Best of luck to the OP and all!</p>