<p>I want to point out extra and background actors on movie or tv sets have a totally different experience and job then a supporting or lead actor in film or tv. </p>
<p>Film and Tv acting is absolutely not mindless take after take. It is 100% about connections to others in the scene and the material. Each take affords an actor the chance to try different things, go deeper into character and keep it fresh. With many directors there is the same level of collaboration between actor, director and crew, going on as in theater. </p>
<p>These are all statements made from my own observations over the years being on professional big budget and indie movie and tv sets as well as within the context of my child being a part of a Broadway show workshop.</p>
<p>shacherry, I realized afterward that my post gave the wrong impression but was unable to edit it on my mobile due to its length. I was trying to remember exactly what my teacher had said and misconstrued (not sure if that’s the correct word, I was learning SAT vocab earlier!) the meaning in doing so. </p>
<p>By no means do I think that film/tv acting is in any way inferior to theatre acting. I still thoroughly enjoy screen acting (as well as theatre), even when in the background. For example I am an extra in a TV pilot and we’re filming a scene later this week.</p>
<p>Many of the students (all older than me) in my theatre acting group have agents and are active in the film/TV industry. One of them has just finished filming an indie movie in which he plays the lead. Another is playing a small speaking part in the TV series I’m an extra in. I consider both of these people to be extremely talented. </p>
<p>I do agree with my teacher that it is easier for an actor trained in theatre to make the transition to screen acting than it is for an actor trained solely in screen acting to appear in a play. I guess that was the main point I was attempting to make and the reason I will not be applying for the screen acting degree at Chapman. Again, I would like to stress that the graduates of the BFA in screen acting are just as talented as the graduates of, for example, the BFA at Syracuse. They are just more highly skilled in certain areas, and vice versa.</p>
<p>Wow this thread has taken so many different turns now!</p>
<p>dpn, welcome to the group. Great to have a student’s perspective!!! USC sounds like a great choice for you if not on your list. It has a BA in theatre with lots of options, at least for coursework. plenty of acting classes, very flexible in what classes are required for BA so there is lots of room in your course schedule to take other classes outside of the drama dept. Academics at school are solid. And they have both stage and film options. As I think of other choices, I will list them. I’ve heard that Northwestern may be similar and BU has a BA option too and BU is also a very academic school. BU has both a BA and BFA option as does USC.</p>
<p>ctl987, there are more students than you would think who read this forum and never post - so I thought I would be one of the first to do so. </p>
<p>You seem to understand me well even after reading a few posts!
My first choice is NYU followed by all of the other schools you mentioned: USC, BU & Northwestern. I’ll be applying for both the BA and BFA at USC and I am interested in the theatre arts track of the BFA at BU. (I also have several safeties too, bearing in mind the valuable phrase that I have seen repeated so many times on this forum: “no auditioned program is a true safety”).</p>
<p>I’m not sure whether I should post this in a new thread as I seem to have hijacked this one… but I was wondering whether anyone could provide me with some more information about the BFA acting program at University of Michigan. Whilst I have seen the name of numerous programs mentioned here in the ‘theater drama majors’ section, I have never seen anyone mention UofM. My impression used to be that it was more for MTs, until I spoke with an admissions officer at a recent college fair. Of course she was keen to promote UofM (she mentioned several times that Darren Criss had attended!) and I didn’t really get a sense of how reputed the program is in the world of theater as a result.</p>
<p>if you mean Minnesota, it’s considered a great program. This probably would be a good one to move as other kids will have your questions too. i will write more later.</p>
<p>ctl987, I meant Michigan (I’ve edited the post now as UofM could stand for several colleges). </p>
<p>I’ve seen Minnesota Guthrie mentioned here frequently and understand that it’s a great program but have decided not to apply as it is conservatory-style.</p>
<p>I’ll move the post about University of Michigan as you suggest
thank you for all the advice</p>
<p>I know what shacherry is saying I didn’t mean to trivialize screen acting. My D’s experience was bit parts in a movie and a music video and webisodes. Cerntainly nothing like a big budget movie or tv show. I bet if my D was offered a movie or sitcom she would jump at the chance. :)</p>
<p>. . . that is assuming your parents will be OK with supporting you at 25! LOL! We have told both our kids that we love them dearly, believe in them totally, are glad to support them through college (as long as they’re “succeeding” - however we may end up defining that) ---- but after college graduation, they are expected to support themselves. Tough love maybe, but we’re setting the expectations early!</p>
<p>Ctl987, I love your enthusiasm. However, if you are not sure of the information about a school, you might want to check it before posting. Boston University does not offer a BA in theatre. It offers two varieties of performance BFAs, Acting and Theatre Arts.</p>
<p>mountainhiker, I’m with you. Although for me it’s less tough love and more just plain “I can’t afford it.” Plus, I have this master plan that once they’re all in college/graduated, I’m going to go hiking around Europe for the year! What do you all think?? :-)</p>
<p>Anyway, dBPMw99U and other lurkers, bets of luck with this process!</p>
<p>Hi everyone, looks like it will be Temple for my kid. Has not ruled out other options but Temple is making lots of sense for his freshman year anyway. He may transfer out to Los Angeles at some point and Temple actually has some type of internship for something in LA so he may get his LA experience in that way. He’s also hoping and dreaming of at least some time in Rome before he graduates. Glad this part of the journey is closing down Careerwise, he eventually sees himself in LA unless he can find options for what he wants elsewhere but he thinks moving to LA at 18 and starting college simultaneously may be too much to take on at once, especially since LA is several thousand miles away from where he grew up. He is also thrilled that wherever he goes to college, he for the first time in his life, gets to pick where he wants to live!!!</p>
<p>(The idea of “minoring in Law” came up hear earlier. I am writing to really state that for an undergraduate to minor, or even major, in Law or Pre-Law is a waste of time. I am a lawyer, admitted to the Bar in Michigan, and I don’t think I have EVER met another lawyer who majored or minor in Law or Pre-Law as an undergraduate. There does not have to be any connection between the subject you major in as a grad student and the subject you majored in as an undergraduate. When I was 17-18 I didn’t know that. There is NO obstacle to becoming a lawyer when your undergraduate degree is in theatre. I did it, many others have done it.</p>
<p>(If someone applying to undergraduate college is working towards an ultimate goal of being a lawyer, I would suggest majoring in something fun for the four years of undergrad. Because the three years of law school are not much fun at all.</p>
<p>(Since there does not have to be any connection between undergrad major and grad school major, when you choose your undergrad major you are NOT making any kind of life commitment.)</p>
<p>totally with therealkevp on above post. pm me if you want to discuss further. I can vouch that law school …, one key to getting in to law school is a great GPA so do what you love as an undergrad as one, it will be fun, and 2, you will likely have a decent and possibly great GPA by doing what you love. if you want to be a lawyer, practical skills for being a lawyer include learning to think well, argue well, be an excellent writer, and have good and persuasive oral skills; those skills can be picked up in a wide range of majors, coursework, and life experiences.</p>
<p>Echoing RKEVP’s post. I too am a lawyer. My law school had as many different majors as you can think of. A B.A in Theater would be perfectly fine. Personally, I think a BFA would be fine as law preparation particularly for someone who is looking to be a trail lawyer though I don’t know how law schools would view it. One of my colleagues teaches trial advocacy within our firm and tries at least 10 major litigations a year (that is a lot by the way for a large firm – real life isn’t like LA law) and I was struck by the similarities between some of things he was teaching and the things my daughter was describing she was being taught in her voice and movement classes.</p>
<p>To be honest, there are many graduate/professional options you have while majoring in whatever. The only fields that are restrictive would be PhDs, which would require specialization in your undergrad work. Even becoming an MD is possible for a theatre major if he/she takes the core classes required for med school (bio, physics, etc); these could be taken in the summer if you were really driven about it, or after you graduate. Countless people do this. The fact is in America (at least now) you can decide - sometimes with additional credits, sometimes not - to go into countless professions often no matter what your undergrad degree is in. </p>
<p>It’s another thing that makes a BFA or BA degree in theatre so valuable, to my mind, in that it trains you to be an actor – it directly trains you with craft skills - and furthermore gives you skills that you can use in any number of other professions.</p>
<p>I don’t know how I missed reading all of these comments!</p>
<p>mountainhiker: just to clarify that my parents do expect me to support myself following graduation, and likewise I expect to support myself. I was discussing the worse case scenario in which I would be unable to afford to pay rent, but this is extremely unlikely because, as others have mentioned, theatre majors are also employable in other fields. The point I was attempting to make is that, as you are all aware, a career as an actor is extremely unpredictable and not many are successful. I think that anyone going into an undergraduate program with the intention of pursuing acting as a sole career needs to be aware that they are unlikely to have a solid, regular income. This is one of the deciding factors when considering taking a double major/minoring in e.g. economics/only taking theatre as an extracurricular at college. So I guess I was saying that I’d rather be one of those actresses who has to work as a waiter in-between jobs than taking that minor in economics and becoming a banker with the occasional acting job on the side. </p>
<p>5boys: my understanding is that the BA at Minnesota is largely theory based and that the performance opportunities are often given to the BFA students. I was under the impression that if you decide to do a BA it is better to take it at a college that does not also offer a BFA (such as Northwestern and Fordham), as generally colleges that offer both give priority to the BFA students. Please correct me if this is wrong, particularly as the tuition at Minnesota is extremely good value. </p>
<p>KatMT: I have already crossed James Madison, Elon & Temple off my list (for reasons I would rather not disclose). I haven’t looked at Penn State before but will certainly do so - if anyone has more information about the program/safety of the surrounding area then please share. </p>
<p>TheRealKEVP, ctl987, ActingDad & connections: I agree with all of you - my Mom is a successful lawyer and majored in English with a minor in archeology. Law was probably the worst example I could have used. However, whilst it is true that most undergraduate degrees have little/no correlation to your career - this does not apply in all cases, such as engineering. For some careers, such as acting, it is not essential to study the subject as an undergraduate (some famous actors have had hardly any training at all) but it can certainly be helpful. I hear stories all the time of actors that have moved to LA at 19 instead of going to college, have initially been successful playing teenagers in TV series and then by the time they’ve reached 22 and are competing against college graduates with BFAs from reputable programs they end up unemployed.</p>
<p>Here’s a very general comparison of the BA versus BFA at Minnesota (and this applies to USC also):</p>
<p>-BFA is a very small, ensemble-based troupe of around 20 students. They take classes together, and perform together, generally as a class. Emphasis is on training, not on presenting lots of productions. A few of the required theatre classes (production classes, dramatic literature) include BA as well as BFA students.</p>
<ul>
<li>BA is a completely different (not lesser) track. Different faculty, different classes, different focus. Students have the ability to participate in productions outside the BA program (at USC, lots of student-run theatre; less in comparison at Univ of Minn).</li>
</ul>
<p>But . . . if your heart is set on being a part a school’s BFA program, it could be difficult to attend there in the BA. (YOU could feel like you were settling for something “less” than what you really wanted.) But the PROGRAM is not “less” - just very different, and sometimes the exact right fit for a student.</p>
Careerwise, he eventually sees himself in LA unless he can find options for what he wants elsewhere but he thinks moving to LA at 18 and starting college simultaneously may be too much to take on at once, especially since LA is several thousand miles away from where he grew up. He is also thrilled that wherever he goes to college, he for the first time in his life, gets to pick where he wants to live!!!</p>