My DD (junior) is looking for small liberal arts colleges where there are a number of theater performances throughout the year that she’d have the opportunity to participate in. She would not be majoring in theater, but she currently enjoys this as an extra curricular activity and would like to continue in college.
She currently has a 3.9 uwgpa and a 4.5 wgpa. She hasn’t taken her ACT yet. Her practice tests were anywhere from 29 - 33. Hopefully, with the prep she’s doing it will be closer to the 33.
She’s open to colleges in the mid-atlantic states, mid west, upper midwest and New England. We’re looking at both reaches, matches and safeties at this time so we’re open to a range of ideas as long as they are a small liberal arts college and in this geographic area. Any suggestions?
When you are looking at colleges, make sure you ask not only if non-theater majors can try out for productions, but how often they actually get cast in the roles. We found a lot of schools that allowed the try outs, but very few that could point to non-majors getting the roles.
Theater performance, tech, design, front of house, or other? I expect that tech or front of house would have more opportunities for non-majors. Performance and design are likely to be covered by majors and even by grad students depending on the institution. Competent techies who aren’t majors can sometimes manage to land paying gigs.
For performance, do ask about non-majors getting cast. Also, ask about student-run performance groups. Some colleges and universities have lively performance traditions that have little or no relationship with the theater departments. When I was a grad student at Cornell, the Vet School students put on musicals several years.
I would suggest that your daughter look at Williams College. It has a small but vibrant theater program with beautiful facilities and many performance opportunities for non-majors. The Williamstown Theater Festival which is one of the most respected summer stock theaters in the northeast is not administered by the college, but the influence rubs off.
It’s also fairly easy to double major at Wiliams, if that’s of interest.
Bard is another option, though I don’t know their policy on casting non-majors.
I note on your other thread that merit aid would be desirable. Unfortunately, a lot of northeast LACs (including Williams, Vassar and Wesleyan) only offer need-based aid, so run a few NPCs to make sure that they’re workable financially.
It would be a good idea to submit a performance supplement with her application, even if she’s not intending to major in theater.
Another thing to ask…do you try out for each production or do you join some sort of drama club?
My D belonged to a community theatre group for teens during high school. She didn’t act in college, but some other people from the group did. One girl went to a highly ranked SLAC without a drama major. She planned to act in college. She’s a “character actress type,” not a leading lady.
Well, it turned out that the college had a drama club. You tried out to be in the club in the fall of your first year. If you didn’t get offered admission, you weren’t cast in any role during that school year. You could try again at the beginning of sophomore year. If you didn’t get in then, you couldn’t be in any plays for the remainder of college. It was just like trying out for an a capella group–you made it or you didn’t. (She didn’t make it and was very disappointed. )
At other colleges, you try out for each production. So, even if you don’t get cast the first time, you can keep trying. Other colleges have competing drama troupes; you have to try out, but there are several of them, focusing on different kinds of productions, e.g., one group might do musicals; another,classics, another, comedies, and yet another, theatre for children. A few people may belong to more than one group, but most people just participate in one.
So, ask questions beyond whether non-majors can get parts.
The other thing to remember…at many schools students are expected to do things OTHER than perform. Often, there is an expectation that they will do tech or costumes or something BEFORE they are considered for performing spots. This is true for majors and non-majors.
And what is your D planning to major in? Seems to me you should choose the college for overall fit and strength in the academic areas of interest and then investigate theater opportunities at lacs of interest. Also for the best performance opportunities for non majors you might want to consider colleges that don’t have loads of theater majors relative to other majors. Because even if auditions are open to all, the reality might be that faculty run productions go to majors. What about Bucknell? Should be a pretty solid match if not likely for your D’s stats. My D was theater major there and had really great experience. Small department but vibrant and great community full of both majors and non majors and some double majors. With fewer than 10 majors in each class they really need non majors in productions. There are 5 or so main stage productions a year plus plenty of other opportunities in student directed projects. The music dept also puts on addl musical (not fully staged) regularly but don’t know specifics of those.
Thanks for everyone’s responses so far. To answer some questions:
Regarding number of performances, I’m not sure there’s an actual number, but more than 1, I guess. She doesn’t just want to have one chance to make a performance that year. She really liked Kenyon when we visited as they seemed to have theater productions constantly - at least that was our perception from what they said on our tour. So, she doesn’t necessarily need to be in the main stage production, although I’m sure she’d like to, but she’d like to be involved in student-run productions as well.
She’s planning to be a Psychology major, but Theater has become a more important consideration than it had been in previous months.
Merit is definitely a consideration, but I’m not ready to close any doors yet, and we’re still compiling our list. We may end up being eligible for more financial aid than I initially thought, but it’s hard to say right now. So, I may want to include a few non-merit schools on our list for now too.
Bucknell from a theater perspective sounds really promising, but it looks like almost 1/2 of the women are involved in sororities and I’m not sure how much of a big deal that would be if you’re not involved.
I appreciate the information about these “drama clubs” and how you have to be accepted into them. Would you mind sharing the school @jonri ?
I would look into Muhlenberg as she may be eligible for merit there and they have a lot of theater. What i don’t know is if only majors can perform. Agree about Skidmore. Also maybe Ithaca college.
Most colleges have drama clubs of some sort. I would honestly have her first find schools she is interested in for academics and then look at the theater options. She also may want to look at the quality of the performances, if that is something she cares about. Even at a smallish LAC, there may be a lot of competition for acting roles.
She may also at least look at some larger colleges, especially if she need merit aid or ends up at a state U. The advantage there is that there may be multiple performance groups. I was amazed at the quality of musical theater at my son’s state U from kids that are not theater majors.
I was just about to post the same thing. My daughter is in a theater club made up almost of all engineering students. They put on three shows/semester and they’re great!
I’d really rather not. Among other reasons, it was a while ago, and I’ve no idea whether things work the same way at that college today. I wasn’t trying to steer your D away from a particular school. I was only trying to point out that she should investigate how participation in theatre really works at the schools of interest to her.