College of Wooster might be a likely for her. Can’t speak to its theater program but it is a nice place.
Echoing @bromfield2, encourage her to look at Bryn Mawr and other women’s colleges. Like BM, they are often part of a consortium that can give her greater opportunities for performance as well as academics.
ETA: Also, because a self-selecting pool tends to apply to women’s colleges, they tend to have higher admission rates than other similarly rigorous schools. So she gets an admissions bump. Whereas at many rigorous LACs, boys get the bump.
@time4adventure “I’d love to find some colleges that have a number of theater productions each year, but don’t have a lot of people clamoring for the roles. I’m not quite sure how to find those schools!”
I’m not sure it even exists. There are theater kids everywhere! Yay for theater kids! I hope she finds opportunities to perform in college and for as long after as she chooses.
I think you have to pick the college for the major or academics, and the theater is an EC that is nice but can’t be the driving factor. There just isn’t any way to know if OP’s daughter would be cast in a production (except at schools that do NOT cast non-theater majors).
My daughter was excited to learn her school had a women’s hockey team. Had no way to know if she’d make it. It was an extra when picking the college, not a focus when looking for schools. I think it can be the tie breaker between two schools she likes equally. School A has a theater program but it is likely that only theater majors will be cast and School B has a lot of options for non-majors.
For my own kids, at the school with the theater program had 6 official plays per year and a number of student productions, it was very unlikely any non-major would be cast. They said ‘oh, non-majors can try out for any production!’ but the were never cast. At the STEM school with no theater classes at all but 2-3 productions per year, chances were almost 100% that anyone who wanted to participate could and would get a speaking role. The productions were well funded, involved experienced faculty and staff as well as students, and a lot of fun. Engineers can built fantastic sets and design special effects and costumes. Same with the school orchestra, which was made up of engineers and math majors who had had years of music lessons but wanted a STEM school that didn’t have a music department. Everyone got to participate.
My kid wanted to play an instrument in her college orchestra but not as a music major. It was a top criteria. She contacted a LOT of music department chairs to inquire about this.
Some colleges clearly told her that she would never be able to play in their ensembles…at all. Some said she could audition but no guarantees because music majors were considered first. Some said…terrific…we welcome everyone.
She went to a college with a music major, but not a particularly strong one. They welcome all students to audition for their ensembles…and take private instrument lessons as well.
I would suggest that the daughter email some college drama departments and ask about opportunities for those who are not theater majors. My guess is they will be VERY honest with you.
How small does she want? Ithaca College has around 6,000 students and a large theater program - lots of theater majors but also alot going on with the department, and she could always minor in theater.
Take a look at Denison, especially with the new Eisner Performing Arts Center opening. There is a theater major but the kids we know involved in productions are often majors in something else.
I could be wrong, but my understanding of Ithaca is that, like Otterbein that @soozievt
mentioned, because of highly competitive BFA programs it is extremely difficult for BA majors, minors, and non-majors to participate in productions produced by the department. There may be student producing groups outside, but I am not sure.
@thumper1 See my post #27. I can’t guarantee the casting policy at each of these schools, but they are worth a look.
Remember, that besides departmental productions, many schools have robust extracurricular theater opportunities.
The point isn’t competitive or not, but merely the opportunities in theater at schools that have a BFA program, if not in that program, are not the best place to look.
Tufts was founded by Universalists (the Protestant sect that believed all people are equal, that there is no hell and that everybody goes to heaven) so the culture tends to be inclusionary relative to schools founded by other sects.
In terms of theater, here is the information for Tufts:
The ratio of drama majors to the number of productions/roles can give an idea of the level of competition for roles. Note that these numbers vary from year to year, so take these as approximate numbers.
Tufts graduated 6 drama majors last year and 3 drama Phds.
To put that in context, Amherst and Williams graduated one drama major, Wesleyan graduated 12 drama majors, Vassar graduated 25 drama majors and Northwestern graduated 91 drama majors along with 8 drama masters and 9 drama Phds.
I saw a musical at Tufts and a majority of the students in it were majoring in something other than theater. That’s why I put it on my original post on this thread.
I would look at schools with several student run theatre clubs. For example, USC has 5 different student clubs for theatre, and they put on many shows.
Again, thanks to all that have responded so far. This is giving us lots to think about.
@Mastadon Where did you find the information about how many student graduated in theater for those schools?
Also, I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for some more matches/safeties? Lots of great schools were mentioned, but so many would be reaches for my daughter. We’re definitely going to include some of these in the mix of schools she applies to, but I definitely want to balance it with some more sure things.
@Midwestmomofboys Denison has been on our “maybe” list. We visited last summer and were so excited to hear about the new Performing Arts Center. But, my daughter didn’t feel like she really clicked with the students who were on campus. She’s more “alternative” and she felt that it skewed more preppy that what she’d feel comfortable with in terms of finding her tribe. Can you share any thoughts on that vis a vis theater?
There exists an on-line government database of college statistics called IPEDS. All colleges that participate in the federal financial aid program are required to report data on a yearly basis, and it is recorded in this database.
The limitation of this view of the data is that it only counts “first majors”. This means that when someone double majors, only their first major is listed. Some schools (for example Tufts, Bowdoin) will list some interdisciplinary majors (for example environmental studies) as “second” or “coordinate” majors which means that they will not be counted either.
Bowdoin’s theater (and dance) major is only 1.5 years old. Until then it was a minor only. There’s a handful full-time faculty and a variety of visiting faculty, mostly professionals in the industry. There’s also at least as many full-time professionals that support the program technically – running the shop, tech, etc.
The faculty produce one play per semester (every other one a musical) and one dance show per semester. However there are a couple different student-run groups that additionally each put on a show per semester. One of the groups do musicals, the other non-musicals. They usually get use of the school’s performance venues.
The college has a building dedicated to performing arts that includes two stages – a larger traditional theater and a black box theater, plus all kinds of rehearsal rooms, a shop, classrooms and offices. The main stage is used in the Summer by the region’s top musical theater company to put on equity shows.
It’s possible to major in theater and something else and pretty much everyone who does the major does so.
It’s also possible to get a job working tech for the faculty shows and maintaining the facilities. These pay like real jobs, even when you’re working a show, and they provide steady hours each week even between shows. During slower times, the technical staff does a great job of exposing the workers to the range of skills and providing training, all on-the-job.
30 minutes from campus, Portland Maine has a very active theater and music scene.
@time4adventure My daughter targeted LACs in roughly the same geographical area but in her case, her interest was dance not theater. We found that the easiest way to find out how open auditions were to non-majors was simply to email the head of the department and ask. Responses tended to come fairly quickly.
You also might want to consider Case Western. It’s not an LAC, but a good mid-sized research university that offers merit scholarships to strong applicants. Demonstrated interest is important. While often stereotyped as a tech school, it is also strong in liberal arts and there are performance opportunities for students interested in music, dance, and theater. I can’t say how open their theater productions are as we didn’t ask that question at the time. But it might be worth a look.
Thanks @mamaedefamilia for both your suggestion of contacting the department heads and of Case Western. It’s really a little too big for what my daughter’s interested in, but it has come up a couple of times in our searches so I’ll keep it in our list as a possibility for now as we continue to do our research.
There are theater kids everywhere! Yay for theater kids! I hope she finds opportunities to perform in college and for as long after as she chooses.