is anyone currently or recently in the BFAmusical theatre program and can describe what it was like? such as how difficult classes were, the atmosphere, performing opportunities and anything else you think would be relevant? thank you!
Hi, @Iloveyourlight. My D just graduated from Ithaca’s MT program. It’s definitely a conservatory (very few gen eds…almost none). Classes are hard…lots of papers, lots of work. The atmosphere is very supportive - the kids are like a big family. However, if a student is a diva or doesn’t pull his/her weight, it will NOT be tolerated. If your child is serious about the work and is a nice person, they will do fine. There are lots of performing opportunities. Only a very small number of freshmen get cast freshman year in the mainstage shows. But there are lots of student directed shows, and there are a number of professional theatres in the area that hire kids (e.g., Cider Mill) during the school year. Cornell also hires Ithaca kids to perform and pays pretty well. The quality of the productions is incredible. Ithaca has a great props, sets, costumes, etc. department, and they are phenomenally talented, so production value is high.
Acting and MT students are very close and take the same acting, movement, and dance classes. All kids, acting and MT, MUST audition for all plays and musicals. Ithaca routinely casts MT students in plays, and acting students in musicals. One of the graduating seniors from the acting class just booked the Rent National Tour. Lots of mixing between the two.
The kids dance a LOT. They have about 10 hours of dancing in class every week, and that goes up to about 25-30 hours/week if they are in a dance show or a heavy dance musical. Dance classes are leveled. I’m not sure why Ithaca has a reputation of not being a good dance school. It is. They put on a dance show every two years, but I think they are now doing it every year (I could be wrong on this…but my D was cast in two dance shows during her 4 years there). The dance teachers are phenomenal. Actually, all the professors are phenomenal. They push the kids HARD. But it works…they come out of Ithaca so much better than when they went in.
The 3 downsides to Ithaca are: 1) the weather; 2) the location (it’s hard to get to, but there are buses going to NYC every few hours, daily); and 3) the food. The food is pretty awful. But the town of Ithaca is fabulous…it really is beautiful when the sun comes out. Great shops and restaurants and bubble tea and waterfalls and the lake…really nice place to live.
Hope this helps.
@monkey13 D just heard through the grapevine that seniors are no longer guaranteed a showcase spot? Is that true? Has it always been true? She heard it third hand and, like telephone, the original message could have been very different! When we were on campus in late August, the department person leading the tour mentioned the “seniors go to showcase” but we did not follow up to ask “all seniors?”
@artskids, all kids who wanted to do showcase did showcase. I don’t think it has changed this year, but @MyPennyX2 or @maMTma have seniors there now, so they would be better poised to answer if anything has changed.
I have not heard this from my MT senior.
Neither have I from my senior MT. They’re not focused so much on showcase yet – both my S and @MyPennyX2’s S are in rehearsals for mainstage shows this semester so are crazy busy – but I’m sure we would have heard about this if they had!
That’s good news. I am not sure how the kids get information - some has been so wildly inaccurate it’s almost funny.
The information might be confused with Syracuse. When we toured there the head of the department (Ralph) and the student who did the tour were very clear that not all made it to showcase. That might have changed for Syracuse since then, as it was a few years ago.
Syracuse is also on D’s list - we have yet to tour - perhaps in October. It’s on the list of standard questions so I’ll be sure we follow up there as well.