<p>HI everyone--I've been reading cc for many months but not posting. A friend of mine has a daughter that is a freshman at University of Washington. She was unable to get into any of the theatre arts programs that she auditioned for as a high school senior. She now really wants to transfer. This is what she would like: LAC about 5 or 6,000 or so kids, good theatre arts program, close to a decent size city. Her hs gpa was 3.85 weighted, 3.7 first quarter at UW, I don't know SAT scores, but I don't think she did well. Not interested in Sarah Lawrence or Kenyon, for reasons I'm not sure of. Any help would be much appreciated! (I know nothing about theatre arts). Thanks!!</p>
<p>My D is a theater/lit major at Reed (Portland, OR); the program is small and the school smaller than the suggested size, but I've been really impressed.</p>
<p>The smaller the department, the more stage time and personal attention, and the more opportunity to learn everything about theater. Reed's program is excellent, as is Whitman's.</p>
<p>Muhlenberg has a good theater arts program from what I have heard</p>
<p>How about Vassar? One of D's friends turned down the theatre arts program at CMU in favor of Vassar. I think Skidmore also offers theatre arts.</p>
<p>Skidmore has a great program. Like Whitman, it may be more remote than she thinks she wants, but it is probably worth more investigation. Kids often have set ideas (like size or proximity to a city) that interfere with finding a smaller kind of community that would more than fill their social/activity or training needs. It is often true that smaller school theater arts programs are much more inclusive (eg you don't have to be a drama major or upper classman to be have significant roles or involvement in the program--and there are often great facilities because the surrounding community supports the campus as an arts center for the area</p>
<p>Given the size requirement (and that's a very, very large LAC), I can only come up with one off the top of my head: The Claremont Consortium. The theater department there is nominally connected to Pomona, but is the common department for all the schools. Pitzer is the easiest to get into.</p>
<p>If you're willing to come down in size, I echo the recommendations for Vassar and Whitman.</p>
<p>I didn't think there were any true LACs that were that big. Bucknell claims to be the largest LAC with around 3300 undergrads (and 150 grad students) We have visited lotsa LACs, and they are almost all around 2000 students, +- 300.</p>
<p>A high school classmate of Ds, who actually now teaches drama at the school ( which has an excellent drama program) attended Occidental.</p>
<p>Its less than 2000 though-
I suggest becoming involved in all areas of production</p>
<p>3.85GPA and a 3.70 at UW is actually pretty good-
but other students who went to high school with D and were interested in Drama went to Pepperdine, Pitzer and the Strasberg Institute in LA</p>
<p>can you tell us a bit more about how far across the country she's willing to go? She might like Hampshire College in the Five College community of Amherst, Massachusetts because she could be in shows put on by any of the other schools, and they're not looking at SAT's as much as the kid's ability to handle projects with independence.
Vassar requires such high SAT's that you indicate she doesn't have, although yes they have a great undergrad theater dept (witness: Meryl Streep!!).
Then you have Geena Davis, who went to humble little New England College in Henniker, NH (which I do NOT recommend for this student b/c it is nowhere near a city and only has l000 students, but 500 SAT's there are perfectly the norm.)
There's Emerson College right in Boston. Boston U and Syracuse U both have nice theater departments but those are too large for what she's asked for.
Skidmore could be a good fit but it's only near Saratoga Springs, NY which is a small resort/theater town.
A different kind of place is Columbia College in Chicago. We shied away from it because we weren't sure if they taught kids enough skills, but they sure do welcome and affirm everybody on their website for wanting to be a performing artist.</p>
<p>I believe Meryl Streep was rejected by Vassar and went to Smith.</p>
<p>No, bethievt, she graduated Vassar and went to grad school at Yale. Both schools recognized her enormous talent:<br>
<a href="http://www.merylstreeponline.net/work.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.merylstreeponline.net/work.html</a></p>
<p>emeraldkity4 dropped a small pearl of wisdom in her post, I want to echo it:
"I suggest become involved in all areas of production."</p>
<p>Theater is teamwork, and it is only advantageous for an actor to understand the work of: costumers, stage managers, set designers, directors, playwrights... So be on the lookout for an LAC where she can get not only acting classes but chances to try every phase of theater. First, she might find she enjoys it even more than acting (this happened to one of my sons who outgrew acting and wants to write the plays now). Even if she comes back to acting as her favorite activity, she'll be a much better team member.
Here's one more story. My eldest, who graduated an LAC as a Theater major 2 years ago, phoned home once from college very excited that they had brought a person from NYC to talk to all a class full of actors. The visiting lecturer was involved in theatrical production and asked how many of them had tried to produce their own shows yet. Nobody had (well, okay the department hadn't emphasized that...). He said, "every hand should go up, because when you see how hard it is to audition your way into a good part, you might decide that by producing your own show, you get a few friends together, rent the performance space, do the advertising and by the way you get yourself onto the stage. Or maybe get with some friends and start up your own little theater company."
And actually he's taking a break from auditions and performing off-off-broadway in NYC this winter to work with two new theater performing companies, just getting off-the-ground. They rehearse, write new plays, are scouting out venues to perform next year, fund-raise...the whole thing. Who can tell where it all will lead? It's just good to keep open to all parts of theater, even for an actor or especially for an actor.</p>
<p>Actually, size-wise and, though a "medium university", really a LAC with a great theater program is Brandeis University. Debra Messer is a graduate.</p>
<p>DePaul in Chicago is another mid-sized university with a very strong theater department. Syracuse is a little larger, but also is excellent for theater.</p>
<p>Check out Drew. It's in a town in New Jersey but not too far from the city. It has an artsy draw, and I know a number of theater kids there who love it. It's on the small side, though.</p>
<p>Fordham is also a place to consider. Friend's son went there, had a wonderful experience both on campus and with the proximity to NYC--and he (gasp!) was hired right out of undergrad to a paid production position with a New York theater.</p>
<p>I can't thank all of you enough. I know the size she had mentioned was too big for an LAC--it is the smaller size that she really wants. She is willing to go almost anywhere geographically if the fit seems good. AND she IS interested in lots of different aspects of theater programs, so your suggestions have been very helpful. I think she has looked into many of these colleges and applied to a few originally, as well. Thanks so much again!</p>
<p>paying3tuitions--</p>
<p>Geena Davis actually went to BU.</p>
<p>That said, the School of Theatre program is a small program within the College of Fine Arts--a total of ~250 students (both undergrad and grad) are in the School. (The College has about 1,000.)</p>
<p>Little Mother, Turns out we're both correct! She enrolled and acted lead roles at New England College, where the community remembers her well...but actually graduated from Boston University with a bachelor's degree in drama in 1979 at age 23. Also studied as an exchange student in Sweden, so is fluent in Swedish. </p>
<p>BUT, for departments, BU has a very fine department. I don't recommend New England College for actors anymore, because in Geena Davis' day there was an extraordinary teacher there and he's just not there anymore.</p>
<p>I actually wanted my S to apply to BU but his interests are in playwriting, not acting, and I couldn't find enough courses for him at BU. It's also great to be in Boston as a student!</p>