Bard Theater, etc.

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
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<p>My daughter is an actor and playwright and has been accepted into some auditioned programs, including NYU (unknown studio) and the performance and playwriting tracks at Fordham. </p>

<p>She also applied to some non-auditioned schools, and is now particularly interested in the theater program at Bard. She wants to be at a school where she can study both acting and playwriting. She is also interested in social justice issues. On the surface, Fordham seems like the perfect program, but they offered her less than half the financial aid of any of her other schools.</p>

<p>Any thoughts on Bard (or Sarah Lawrence) for a very devoted theater/playwright? Does anyone know if it is possible to study playwriting formally in any of the acting studios at NYU? She plans to attend classes/info sessions/new student days at the various colleges.</p>

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<p>Playwrights Horizons at Tisch, I’m pretty sure…</p>

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<p>She actually called Tisch to ask if you can study playwriting at Playwrights Horizons and the person who answered the phone said that there was a directing track, but he did not know if you can study playwriting formally in courses. He suggested she ask at the info session (but that will not be for another 11 days and we’re trying to process as much of this as possible, in advance.)</p>

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<p>huh? Playwriting is required the first semester of sophomore year, and there is a “head of the playwriting program” at PH (I discovered this online by looking up next year’s shows at the studio…* see below). There is also additional playwriting offered, I am pretty sure. PH and ETW studios at Tisch are big on devised theater – one of the tracks at PH is “Creating Original Work.” (In PH, all students have to pick a track beginning the second semester sophomore year.) I’m pretty sure they all combine acting training with the additional discipline. </p>

<p>I also looked up for you, and there is playwriting offered through Open Arts which can count as a Theatre Studies elective. (Open Arts are selected courses open to all NYU students. These generally are NOT taken with the Tisch majors; eg., Open Arts acting classes will not have Tisch Drama students in them.)</p>

<p>It is also possible to double major with Dramatic Writing (one of the few double majors allowed within Tisch); but I believe that the students have to apply for this in sophomore year and meet the portfolio requirements. THis probably would be incredibly demanding time-wise and restrictive of other elective and class choices, though.</p>

<p>There may be other options as well. </p>

<p>Once she knows her studio assignment, she can ask more specific questions about this at the accepted student days; they will break up into their studios and meet with some of the faculty. </p>

<p>For the required playwriting class this year (it was done in the context of studio), each student had to write at least a scene (i’m not sure entirely what the assignment was), that then was directed by an outside professional and performed by the other students in the class. (in-class, not put on as a real show).</p>

<p>*Bad Water Juju ~by Jeni Mahoney
Directed by Tomi Tsunoda
The Bad Water Juju Circus has hit hard times. Luckily, the clowns have a plan… the jokers are willing to do whatever it takes to push their extreme, and very final, solution all the way to it’s dramatic, and not-so-funny, end. Written by the head of the Playwriting Program at PHTS and directed by the Head of the Devised Theater Program, Bad Water Juju is a circus within a play, and a play within a circus. Actors perform alongside faculty professionals and recent graduates in an ensemble that enhances their training and heightens their professionalism. Looking for performers with “special skills” on their resume!"</p>

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<p>And you do not even know if Playwrights is her studio, right? Is the information session you’re referring to an accepted students event for all of Tisch, or something different? </p>

<p>When my son was accepted in 2009 (different studio), we attended the accepted students event thinking that representatives from all the studios would be there…but they weren’t, so it was kind of a waste of resources for us.</p>

<p>When a classmate of my son’s was placed in Playwrights and was investigating the studio, she was able to speak on the phone with a helpful gentleman who called himself Salty Brine. I don’t know if you could call and ask for Salty. :)</p>

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<p>One thing I would check out at Bard is how easy it is to get into the arts classes. I have heard – but not confirmed – that for popular majors it can be hard to get in them. Also, as you probably know, students have to “moderate” into the major, so I’d check into the requirements for that with theater; in most majors it’s really a formality, but for some it is quite a hurdle to get approved.</p>

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<p>At Tisch, there are also seven semesters required of Theatre Studies, an academic look at the field, so there is alot of study of playwrights that way; not a practicum for the student to learn how to write, but certainly to add to their intellectual background. </p>

<p>If you go to this page, you can find a link to the courses offered this spring semester. (It can be difficult to collect info from NYU I know!)</p>

<p>[Theatre</a> Studies: Tisch School of the Arts at NYU](<a href=“http://drama.tisch.nyu.edu/object/dr_registration_theatrestudies.html]Theatre”>http://drama.tisch.nyu.edu/object/dr_registration_theatrestudies.html)</p>

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<p>I hope that SoozieVT will weigh in on this,too. She doesn’t answer PMs for the most part, as she gets way too many, but her D wrote a musical while she was at Tisch.</p>

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<p>You can email Soozie by clicking on her name and following that option. Once you know your daughter’s studio, Soozie may be able to help you find a student in that studio for your daughter to talk to.</p>

<p>Soozie posts in the NYU subforum of the MT thread a lot. There might be other knowledgeable people who participate in that subforum too who could help.</p>

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<p>Thanks, NJtheatremom and SDonCC! I do keep up with Soozie’s posts on the MT forum (every time she write about what her daughter is up to I get vicariously exhausted and have to go take a nap :wink: but I am reticent to post there since my daughter is not MT. I’ll hang back to see if she weighs in here and if not maybe email her. Thanks for the advice!</p>

<p>SDonCC, my daughter is looking for craft writing classes, so the double major in Dramatic Writing is something she should investigate (this is what she would be doing at Fordham.) It seems hard to get info from NYU. Her appointment for the accepted students info session is several days after studio assignments come out, so maybe we can arrange in advance for her to meet with someone at the studio where she is assigned… or am I hoping for too much?</p>

<p>The thought of going to Bard and not being able to take classes in her discipline is worrisome, so she will address this when she visits the school to attend classes. She should probably also try to make an appointment with someone in the department. My sense is that they, like Fordham, are a smaller and more personalized school so hopefully she can get some clear answers.</p>

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<p>Your D did a wonderful job of applying to lots of interesting schools that would give her great options! I understand her quandary, as my D had a similar one last year.</p>

<p>The visits will definitely help, and being armed with the right questions will make them even more valuable. As for Bard, that was on my D’s list until very late in the game last year. She, too, really loved the intellectual atmosphere and the general vibe she got there. She also felt that the theatre and arts programs were exciting and rich - a very high quality BA experience. As for “moderating” into a major, we had a long talk about that with our two tour guides and the admissions people. You do not wait to start classes in the major; on the contrary, you take classes in that area so that when you moderate, there can be a discussion about whether they fit your needs or whether you might want to make changes based on what you have learned. We did not consider the moderation process to be anything but an opportunity for a student to grow and find the right path for him/herself. I do recall researching the “not enough room” rumor about Bard’s classes - mostly this is due to the high popularity of their photography classes; virtually every other major has plenty of space.</p>

<p>You will find out more than we ever did, since we did not revisit. But I will remark that the reasons my D decided against Bard in the end were personal, and because she was accepted to other schools that outweighed them. After a long, deep look at the Bard theatre curriculum, my D saw that while Acting, directing, writing, and of course theatre history and literature were plentiful, there were almost no theatre design classes (including in the visual arts dept). For her, design classes were very important, as playwriting is for your D. While you probably you learn some design by being involved in shows, this seemed to be a case where a smaller school sometimes just can’t provide everything. She also much preferred close city access, or at least a decent-sized town, and Bard really is quite isolated. She was concerned that if she didn’t feel comfortable there, she had no outlet and would feel trapped. But she ended up feeling this way about all of the LACs on her list - and all of them that we visited - so by the end of senior year it was very unlikely she would choose a small LAC in the country, no matter how good its programs were.</p>

<p>Eventually she had 3 larger schools as her top choices, all with good city access. But that choice also was very hard. They had varied costs, varied theatre offerings, and varied approaches to liberal arts. She chose not to revisit any of them - too costly and no time with school commitments - so she studied the curriculum, made potential 4-year courses of study at each school, and made lists of attributes, weighing each one as personally as she could. Finally all she could do was follow her heart, not think too far ahead, and ask the ultimate question: Where do you want to be in September? Which of these options seems the right one to try, even if you might decide to transfer?</p>

<p>She decided that the curriculum that called to her was the BFA (with the Honors College for liberal arts), and that she wanted to go to an auditioned program while she had the chance. It has been hard there, and it hasn’t been perfect, but now that we are almost through the first year, I would say that she has had the experience that was right for her. She always wanted a BFA, and the non-curricular deficits in this school (which were positives at the BA schools) have been eclipsed by the great work she has been able to do.</p>

<p>Of her last 4 choices, including Bard, another glaring issue was cost. It happened that for her, the BFA and one BA were extremely inexpensive, and the two other BAs were the opposite. While we urged her to make her choice independent of finances - and she was fortunate she could - she was well aware that she would be even more unhappy at a school that not only wasn’t a good fit but was also very costly. We have been able to make up for some of the lifestyle deficits of the school she chose because it is costing us very little for her to go there (since it’s not really in a city, we pay for her train tickets so she can to to NYC whenever she wants, for example). When she realized in the end that this decision is often as much a gamble as a studied choice, she felt better taking a chance on the school where the financial stakes were lower.</p>

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<p>Emmybet, thanks so much for this detailed answer. There are so many similarities in our situation this year compared to yours last year (except that you seem to be much more organized and methodical, so thank you for letting me reap the benefit of your experience.)</p>

<p>

My daughter had the same reaction at Sarah Lawrence and Bard, the two LACs at the top of her list, a fear of feeling trapped or isolated. </p>

<p>I have another item to add to the mix: she had her callback at Rutgers yesterday, a conservatory-only program but a very strong conservatory. It’s in the middle of nowhere (although close to the turnpike) but a big campus with a lot going on. She loved the classes she sat in on. She thought the faculty was great. They have an emphasis on classic theater that she was not seeing in other programs she visited. If she is accepted, it will probably be her top choice, because when else would she have this opportunity? There are so many possible paths in a lifetime.</p>

<p>I keep reading and hearing of people’s decisions about their programs, but in our case, the decision feels about as far away as it ever has. We will spend the next three weeks trying hard to figure it all out.</p>

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<p>Yes, they are similar - they both have a real interest in liberal arts and “regular” college, and they also have multiple avenues in theatre that they want to pursue. They both applied to a full spate of auditioned and non-auditioned programs (as opposed to kids for whom the non-auditioned schools are only as safeties). It seems that your D, like mine, wanted to take this year to think and to choose, and to have a broad spectrum of options until the very end. My D really needed her whole senior year to be able to make a decision. </p>

<p>My D didn’t have a last minute callback, but she did get in from a waitlist in April, so I definitely sympathize. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Don’t know if you have eliminated Fordham from list because of $ but, as a parent, I loved Fordham and really thought it would be a great broad experience for my s. He really wanted a BFA conservatory style school though and didn’t apply there. He also is interested in writing as well as acting but right now his heart is in the role. I thought Fordham was very interested in developing the student as a human experience, which I thought for writing made more sense. (I guess you can see I liked it better than my s!)</p>

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<p>Glassharmonica, I am so glad that your daughter is now very favorably disposed toward Rutgers! Hopefully they will let you know their decision SOON. Your family needs a break!</p>

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<p>When we visited Bard last summer I asked someone in the department how difficult it was to moderate into the theater major. She replied that as long as you showed up for your theater classes and did OK in them, she never knew anyone who had a problem moderating into theater.</p>

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<p>I just wanted to report that my daughter and I made a trip to upstate NY to visit Bard’s theater program last week. Bard is in an incredibly beautiful setting near the Hudson River. There are nearby charming small towns as well as larger towns with inexpensive hotels perfect for visiting families. The college itself is spread out on a lovely, large campus, so that it never feels crowded, even when classes are in full swing. We had an opportunity to visit two of the smaller cafes on campus and were very pleased at the vegetarian and vegan options-- delicious! </p>

<p>The theater programs is housed in the Fisher Center, a new building designed by the architect Frank Gehry:[About</a> the Center | The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College](<a href=“http://fishercenter.bard.edu/about/]About”>http://fishercenter.bard.edu/about/) It’s a very impressive facility. It’s actually quite a bit of a hike from the rest of campus, so that it would be very useful for a potential theater (or dance) major to own a car. (There is plenty of parking on campus, by the way.) There is also a shuttle. My daughter attended an Acting 1 class and a playwriting class. The latter was taught by a well-known playwright and was an excellent craft workshop. The former was taught but a very capable and experience professional actor. The students in these classes are not auditioned-- anyone can take an acting class-- so many of them had no prior experience with acting. </p>

<p>Every faculty and staff person we met seemed to be of the highest professional caliber and all seemed to be very excited about being at Bard. This was also true of all of the students we talked to. Nothing was set up in advance, other than permission to attended classes, so their enthusiasm seemed to be completely genuine, rather than a “sell” designed by an admissions department. I think that candid conversations with students and faculty can me much more telling than those on organized recruitment days. </p>

<p>One issue that kept coming up is that the program itself is changing, with a new, external chair coming in for next year. No one could say exactly how the program would change, except that there would no longer be individual tracks in acting, directing, and playwriting. Instead, it will be a single theater major, and there will be more emphasis on collaboration. Everyone seemed excited about the change, but it was hard for us to imagine what would happen without any details. Also, my daughter learned that there will no longer be faculty support for student playwrights’ senior projects. We saw one of these projects (the final year this will happen) in dress rehearsal the night we were there. The writing was impressive, as was the direction, which was done by a New York professional. But, this feature of their program is ending.</p>

<p>We also talked to a number of people about Bard’s reputation as a “druggie” school. Everyone we talked to had the same response-- yes, a drug culture exists, but it’s easy to avoid if you are busy and pick the right friends. One student pointed out that there are drug cultures at almost every school, and that there is a tendency to give sound-bite descriptions for every school, hence Bard’s sound-bite. FWIW, we spent about 12 hours on campus and saw no evidence of drug use. </p>

<p>My conclusion is that this is a very viable choice school for a student who wants to continue studying academics at a relatively high level while seriously pursuing a theater arts major. I would recommend students (who are serious about academics) to add this to their list of non-auditioned schools. Although we cannot foresee the direction they are taking with theater, it was repeatedly emphasized that there is no lack of arts funding at Bard, and that no expense is spared to support student initiatives in the arts. Every student we talked to said that the faculty they have worked with-- in and out of their majors-- has been dynamic and renown.</p>

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<p>glassharmonica, I had not read this thread until now. Your daughter has some excellent options, though they differ quite a lot. Bard and Sarah Lawrence are both great BA programs that likely would allow your D to study both acting and playwriting. And of course, that is true at Fordham. </p>

<p>I think if your D prefers a BFA path in Acting but wants one where she can also do playwriting, NYU/Tisch is an excellent option. While there is the double major in acting and dramatic writing, I don’t think it is necessary to do that in order to do both things. </p>

<p>One, you may want to contact AlwaysAMom, whose daughter studied acting in Atlantic Studio but double majored in writing in CAS and is a playwright professionally now. That is one example.</p>

<p>I know in both Playwrights Horizons studio and Experimental Theater Wing studio, there are lots of opportunities to study and create original works. There are also courses in Theater Studies that can be chosen in playwriting. </p>

<p>My D did not formally study playwriting. I recall a theater studies course with a Tony nominated playwright that was to do with writing adaptations and she did that as an elective one semester. She also was involved in productions at Tisch that involved writing original material such as NYU Reality Show and a workshop production with Moises Kaufman in ETW studio. </p>

<p>However, in ETW studio, an option exists for seniors to do what are called Independent Projects and these involve creating and staging new works. This was one reason my D chose to do ETW her final three semesters, in order to challenge herself to write her first musical and create work for herself to be in. She did not, however, set out to be a writer/composer as a career at all. She just wanted to do that before she graduated. She has always been a strong writer and is a creator by nature. She just is not trained in it. She did stage that musical before graduating. It has gone on now into professional workshops and productions and has led to so much! It is also going to be staged next year by a BFA program as well. </p>

<p>While my D is not formally trained as a playwright/composer, these experiences have led to more, even though she did not set out to pursue this at all. But she now is working on several major commissions to create new works. These include a large Tony nominated theater on the west coast, a major entertainment company, and a small theater in NYC, and actually also a YouTube channel series owned by a corporation. She is also a performer and so is juggling both. She also is in a weekly show in NYC with other Tisch alum and every actor in the show writes the material for the show and so she is actively writing and performing in NYC each week with that show too.</p>

<p>I think your D could do both at Tisch. Which studio did she get into there? Remember, too, that the assigned studio is for the first two years and there is the option to stay in that studio or do a different advanced studio while at Tisch.</p>

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<p>soozievt, Thanks so much for your detailed reply. My daughter was hoping to be put in ETW or Playwrights at NYU but was placed in Strasberg. We actually traveled there after Bard and spent a day talking to administrators and faculty and learning what we could about the dramatic writing program (it is possible to add the double-major, by application, after Freshman year.) We also went to Strasberg and talked to some very nice administrators and faculty. It seems like a great program for the right person, but my daughter doesn’t feel that Strasberg is the fit she is looking for, although she is aware that there are opportunities outside of the studio, and that there is possibility of changing studios after two years. </p>

<p>Your daughter sounds like a phenom. I really hope my daughter gets to meet her some day, as strong female role models are fantastic. What I like best about your descriptions of your daughter’s work is that she is a multi-talented, multi-level theater artist, engaged in so many aspects of performance, writing, and production. And, your daughter is a self-starter who creates her own opportunities. That is pretty much the same kind of path my own daughter is hoping for.</p>

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<p>I forgot about your D’s placement in Strasberg, and now recall that discussion on the MT Forum. Sorry it is hard to keep it all straight! I’m glad you got to visit at Tisch and garner more direct information. I don’t know where your D will land but she certainly has fabulous options. Congrats to her. </p>

<p>Thanks for the affirmation about my D. I will admit that my D is involved in several facets of the field, is driven and a self starter and creates many of her own opportunities. Honestly, in the last couple of years and most recently, many opportunities have come to her without her seeking them or applying for them. Your D sounds like a similar type and I will enjoy following her journey and career if you keep posting here past the college process!</p>