<p>Hey, I'm new to College Confidential, and for fun I decided to scope out threads on my own department! The University of Evansville Theatre department (or as we fondly call it, UET) has been the best experience of my life. I grew up in Alabama (dead giveaway for anyone from Evansville since I'm the only one from AL there currently!), and I went to the North Carolina School of the Arts Acting program my senior year of high school. It was conservatory-style training, and it definitely was challenging. I thought I wanted to go to a conservatory during my senior year (in fact, I do have a lot of friends from NCSA who are now at Juilliard and NCSA), but Evansville changed my perspective. </p>
<p>The kids here are smart, cultured individuals (might have something to do with going to Harlaxton College in England sophomore year and thereby transforming your life forever). I've met talented kids, but it is very hard to find talented people that you want to work with. I remember how I was the smartest person in the room sometimes at NCSA. (I tutored friends in math---that's my WORST subject!). The teachers are more concerned with us growing up to be talented and responsible human beings than for us to "succeed" (whatever that means) in this business. I think that's why a lot of us are happier; we're not basing our successes in life on whether or not we get the leads. Because most of the time you're working as an actor, you won't be getting those jobs, especially just starting out. You need to base your self-worth on something more than this crazy business. That's been an important lesson I've learned here. </p>
<p>About the department from a BFA Theatre Perf's perspective:
Our classes are SMALL and you cannot get away with ANYTHING. There was a guy in my class last year who would never do his work and really ticked off the rest of us who were working hard. He was not asked back. We fly through material because if there are only 10-15 people in your class, a monologue workshop will only take two-three days to cover, not weeks other, larger classes might. I'm never afraid of being overlooked; in fact, I sometimes feel I'm looked at too closely! haha. You have to bring your A-game everyday because they'll notice if you're performing subpar that day. No flying under the radar. </p>
<p>Freshman year you study Dramatic Lit with DB (that's what we call her, D stands for Dr.), and it's a live-changing course. You'll study everything you never got to in high school or were afraid to. Like Brecht. Man, was I afraid to read any of his stuff! Now I just accept that the man was crazy and a genius :) </p>
<p>You have to take classes in Costume, Makeup Design, and Scenic Design. I found Costume and Makeup very useful (especially when you start to do summer rep theatre and they need you to do more than just act on the stage). Scenic Design was inspiring even though I have no interest in the field. We explore color, textures, and shapes and how they affect people on stage (audience and actors). </p>
<p>We do have things called Departmentals where you get critiqued from your monologues to your shoes. (yeah, this year I got scolded for wearing character shoes instead of normal heels by the Costume teacher. My bad) The point is that you build a repertoire of songs and monologues for auditions later, and you'll definitely lose any stage fright you originally had about auditions. Also, generals-the auditions for all the shows at the beginning of the semester- are done in front of everyone on the Shanklin stage. Some people think this is unfair, but I'm with the group that says that it is good practice for real life and takes cattiness out of who gets cast. We all see the auditions so we can usually tell who had the good ones and who had bad ones. </p>
<p>To anyone interested in MT:
There are a lot of students here who will work primarily in MT when they graduate (or after grad school). UET works really closely with the Music dept., and we even get a full orchestra for our musicals--something that's not always the case for some schools. Personally, I have finally found the best voice teacher I've ever had here at UE. She has helped me come a long way since freshman year a little over a year ago. Our musicals are mostly for the singer/actor kind (we've done Grand Hotel, Company, Into the Woods recently), but if there starts to be more students with dance backgrounds, then they'll choose more dancy shows. I'd be screwed if that happens. There is a required Ballet class for the Perf majors, but before this year there wasn't any other dance classes (hence the singing/acting musical bias). This year, there were classes at the fitness center in hip hop and modern/jazz. </p>
<p>Overall, I just wanted to reach out to anyone who has questions about UET, especially the study abroad program because that's where I currently am! So, I might be responding to threads at weird times.</p>