Part 3 (final)
So I know most of you are familiar with the saga…her agent (who interestingly enough has a BFA in MT from Pace) was steering her away from BFA programs very subtly…with certain comments she would make here and there (like: “she doesn’t need a BFA”). Then a couple of months ago she was in their office for an audition and a random actor overheard her talking about all her BFA auditions and he pulled her aside and advised her not to go to school for a BFA in acting. (He has his from BoCo and said he’s still paying it off and he’s in his 40’s). He told her she would be wasting four very marketable years and she should go to school for something else or just do a two year program and audition as much as she could. This really rocked her world…not in a good way! She started to doubt her path and really got us thinking about what would really be best for her in her situation. All along she had considered BA programs because she enjoys writing and history and wasn’t sure she could really see herself in an intense BFA. But on the flip side she was adamant about wanting great training. She has been considering both paths all along. Unfortunately there aren’t too many auditioned BA’s out there and she still really wanted to go to school in CA. She ended up applying to eight schools in CA but was only accepted to two and waitlisted at two. I was hoping for a better turnout than that. One was CaLARTS, an intense BFA that does not allow you to miss more than two days of school so auditioning was definitely out of the question if she went there. The other was Loyola Marymount University in the heart of LA, right near Santa Monica and the beach. While she was waiting to hear from many of the schools, she began to really fall in love with UNCSA and being waitlisted really kept things very up in the air.
We visited Cali for spring break a couple of weeks ago and she shadowed a student at CaLARTS and toured LMU. She liked CaLARTS a lot but she came out confused. She said she could see herself happy there, but she could also see herself getting depressed there. Not sure why…just a feeling she got. The director there was awesome though and spoke to her about the quality of training she would be getting compared with a BA which of course she realizes is top notch. They even emailed her the next day and offered her a little more money which was very nice! The next day we toured LMU…there wasn’t much not to like! The campus is absolutely gorgeous sitting atop a bluff overlooking LA. The school was closed for Easter break but the director of the theater department came in just to meet with us. He gave us a good hour and a half of his time and we came out of there feeling really good about the program. That being said, although it is technically an auditioned BA, it’s not exactly. They only accept video auditions and the way it works is that the theater dept watches the videos and then they give admissions a list of the students that they want in the program. As long as those students’ academics are in line with the school’s standards they will be accepted. However, if there is a student that has NOT been recommended by the theater department, they might still be admitted as a theater major if admissions decides to accept them for whatever reason. I got the feeling that the department head would prefer it not work this way, but it is what it is. So the level of talent is definitely not going to be anywhere near that of a BFA program. That being said, he explained it in a way that was very interesting and that I had never thought about. He said that he’s not just training actors, but audiences as well. Those theater majors who will most likely never make it as an actor are the future audiences. It’s a good thing that they see how hard it is to act and it will give them a greater appreciation of the art. He’s also an expert in stage combat and is still a working actor himself. And the most important thing is that he understands if a student needs to miss school for a few days here and there if they book a job. Of course if they book something that requires a longer commitment then they just have to fill out a form and take a leave of absence.
The negatives to LMU are size (much smaller than USC but much bigger than UNCSA and CaLARTS) so probably won’t be an issue and they don’t have a football team and in the beginning that was very important to my D although she’s gotten over that to an extent. They have a multitude of other D1 sports though so I think she will find the school spirit there despite not having football games to attend. Water Polo is big there lol! The HUGE negative though is cost…they gave her no money except an early action scholarship of $2000. I appealed and try as I might you can’t get blood from a stone. They said that they gave out more money than they had and they don’t anticipate any being left over. It’s a Jesuit school with no endowment so not much I could really do about that.
After the LMU tour our D was very excited and felt like she found her fit. Her agent called me the week we were in CA and reiterated how now is the “time to strike” and that she should go to a school where she would still be able to get her face into audition rooms and make connections. My D wants to minor in either Journalism or Anthropology or perhaps even double major so I feel like the price tag is worth it if she comes out with something to fall back on. They have a multitude of theater electives so if she chooses she can come out with as many credits as she would have if she had gone for a BFA. The week we were there she also got a self-tape audition and her agent arranged for her to tape it at their LA office. So she got to meet with their LA rep who works closely with the NY agents. I have an old friend who owns a casting agency in LA and we had dinner with him when we were there. He told us that he does the casting for LMU’s film school and that it has a great reputation so that put us at ease as well. It may not be on the list of “Best Theater programs” but it’s a great school and I feel a hidden gem. It’s very well known in CA but I had never heard of it before last year (learned about it on these boards as a matter of fact!).
So…
FINAL DECISION - BA Theater at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY!
So after all the coaching sessions with MTCA and thousands spent…mock auditions, Unifieds, practicing monologues, prescreens, 23 applications, umpteen essays…my D is ending up at a school she was accepted to in mid December before she had even one in person audition! Ha we could have just called it a day months ago! But she had to go though the whole process to make an informed decision. If she had gotten into say SUNY Purchase or UNCSA from the get go (we were emailed yesterday that they are not taking from the waitlist this year) perhaps the ending would have been different. As hard as I worked on the list I think we made some mistakes with it…which I did start to realize a few months ago but my D didn’t want to hear it. So maybe she will end up booking something big and then she’ll have to pull out of school…not what I want to happen at all but the goal is to work and this business is so competitive that it would be foolish to pass up a great opportunity. Her agent called us yesterday and we had a discussion about her future. I made it clear that we have to pick and choose her auditions wisely because the school is expensive and she can’t be pulling out of school for something that might never see the light of day. So hopefully this will all work out…I want my D to have a college degree and that’s important to her too. That being said she chose to go into a career where very few succeed so we have to be flexible and take life as it comes! Thanks to all of you who have been there to offer advice over the past year…I think I will be sticking around here to try to help others out in the future 