FINAL DECISIONS, THEATER/DRAMA MAJORS, CLASS OF 2020

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
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( Posting in 2 threads since I really don’t know where I am suppose to post)

Here we go…Today was decision day for our S.

Schools Applied To: Chapman, Pace, U Arts, Fordham, Whitman, Montclair State, CCPA (Roosevelt), Columbia College Chicago, DePaul, CMU, Rutgers, USC

Prescreens: Pace, (passed)

Artistic Acceptance: Chapman BFA Theatre Performance, UArts Bfa Acting, Montclair State- BFA Acting, CCPA Roosevelt- BFA Acting, Columbia College of Chicago BA Acting, Whitman BA Theatre

Audition Coach: None

Summer Programs: Shakespeare Theater Company

Training:
Acting: Various acting coaches starting at age 9 in LA,
4 years conservatory style training @ Arts High School.

Background:
S was pretty shy growing up so when he told us he wanted to pursue acting when he was 8 we didn’t really look into it until the following year. Of course we got sucked into one of those scam companies that seek you out at the mall, Thankfully we didn’t invest too much money into the school and got picked up by his manager about 1 year later at a showcase. That would be the only good that came from that experience lol. S is represented across the board and has been doing various projects over the last 6 years in tv and film.
S spent 3 years in junior high (6-8) grades doing drama and fell in love with stage acting. He came across the performing Arts HS in our area, ended up auditioning and was fortunate to get accepted. He’s been there for 4 years now working on his stage acting

I felt we were really behind the ball researching and visiting campuses as we didn’t start until summer. We booked a last minute trip to NY to visit Pace, Fordham and Marymount Manhattan to get an idea of the programs and what he was truly looking for. From there he had an idea and we ended up heading to Chicago in Nov. We spent 9 days attending two open houses for Columbia and DePaul, toured CCPA/audited a class and finished with a on campus audition for DePaul. At the time that was his #1 because of things he had heard from his teachers at school and after not getting a callback we left with a bit of a sour taste in our mouths. Looking back now What a Blessing that was! I think getting that rejection so early really put “reach schools” into perspective and he started looking at some safeties that maybe he wouldn’t have because we had no clue about this crazy process
D was fortunate to work on his monologues and get better prepared for Jan auditions in NY. We tackled the major storm and auditioned for Pace…got called back, then auditioned for Fordham, UArts and Montclair state. He did an on campus audition for Chapman in early Jan and finished off the rest at Unified’s in Feb with CMU, Rutgers, CCPA, and USC

At the time of his USC audition he felt the campus was too big for him but ended up auditioning regardless since you never know where you will get accepted, if you do and ultimately found out of his Chapman acceptance during their audition process. That’s was a big stress relief and his first BFA Acceptance.
Of the schools he auditioned to he was accepted into the BFA Acting/Theater program at Chapman, UArts, CCPA, Montclair State and Columbia College of Chicago.
We narrowed it down to 3 schools due to cost and scholarship received, did some major soul searching esp on my part since the school with most scholarship given that would by far be the least expensive wasn’t the school he wanted to attend. So with that his decision was made…… Hope he can stand the weather lol

Final Decision: CCPA Roosevelt -BFA Acting

I wish I had come across this board 2 years ago, I definitely think that would’ve helped immensely. Finding it in Jan was a little late IMO, Now its time to find a financial planner…Also likely a lit tle late but that seems to be how we roll :slight_smile:

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Congrats @svamom!!!

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Thanks @bfahopeful

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Today, 4/26/16, my daughter committed to her #1 choice.

Schools Applied To: Emerson College (BFA Theater & Performance - Early Action), Sarah Lawrence College (BA with Theater concentration), NYU Tisch (BFA Acting), U Arts (BFA Acting), Fordham (BA Theater), DePaul (BFA Acting), USC (BFA and BA in Theater), UNC School of the Arts (BFA Acting), UCLA (BA Theater), Savannah College of Art and Design (BFA Performing Arts), Florida State University (BFA and BA in Theater) and University of Central Florida (BA Theater) and the American Academy for Dramatic Arts Conservatory (AADA associates degree).

Prescreens: Florida State University (passed)

Artistic Acceptance: Sarah Lawrence College (BA Theater), Emerson (BFA Theater & Performance), Fordham (BA Film with Theater minor), University of the Arts (BFA Acting), SCAD (BFA Performing Arts), Florida State University (BA Theater), University of Central Florida (BA Theater), AADA

Rejection: DePaul BFA, FSU BFA, UCLA, USC, UNCSA, NYU

Audition Coach: Yes, summer prior to applying/auditioning. Used 2 coaches, one actor and one casting director. Took a class at the Paper Mill Playhouse on the process of auditioning for college (series of lectures).

Summer Programs: American Academy for Dramatic Arts, NYC 2 week intensive; Camp Eagle Hill, Elizaville, NY (not really a program but acted in their plays for years); The Performing Option summer camps

Training:

Dance: Jazz, Musical Theater, Ballet, Hip Hop for 10 years, performing groups all over the NYC area, competitions and charity since age 6 (until age 15). 1st dance lesson at age 3.

Acting: Trained in acting from age 11-18. 1st acting class at the Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn, NJ at age 11. Took one class at age 12 in improv and one class in Musical Theater at age 13 there. Had braces for 4 years so began commercial acting training in NYC at age 15. Was taught by top casting directors in NYC. Moved to Florida at age 15. Continued to train in NYC summers and weekends. Took on camera acting workshops in Tampa and Miami with a noted actress and a top CD, respectively. Joined teen acting troupes in Florida and got leads in theater performances in high school and competed and won awards in the Florida District and State Thespian festivals. Was in the Arts Certificate Program in both Theater and Music at her high school. Wrote an award-winning (superior-FL District Festival) play that she directed, cast and produced at her school.

Voice: One year of private voice training.

Instruments: electric and acoustic guitar (since age 6), tenor saxophone, mandolin, drums, harmonica. She has played these on stage in plays.

Background: My daughter is 5 ft even but has a presence on stage. She had been begging me to act since she was very small. She is now interested in using theater as a platform for social change. She pushes the envelope when it comes to roles, playing theater characters that are challenging as well as leading lady types. Her brother, now 15, started earlier at age 11 (quite by accident) and he is now a professional actor with a couple of national commercials and several NY short films. She also is interesting in learning to write and make films, (which could have discouraged some of the BFA acceptances (but who knows?)). She has a top NY manager, but so far no bookings-yet. She has a great academic record: Top 12 graduates in her class, 4.36 GPA, Cum Laude Society, National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta (math) Honor Society, International Thespian Society (Appointed), but just OK SATs (1810) and ACTs (27) for very selective schools. Don’t know if this worked against her at USC. SLC is test optional and we did not submit test scores but she is a great writer and the essay is important at some colleges, especially SLC. It and UCF were the only schools with no audition that she applied to. Others don’t care about any of this and the audition performance rules. Moving from NJ to Florida was the best thing that ever happened to her because Florida is strong in theater and there are more opportunities here. After the final process, she realized that her interests in theater were not only in acting, so a BA made more sense, since she is already well connected with professionals in NY. Also, she watched her sister toil through a BFA at MICA in Illustration (my oldest is an artist, hence my name, Satanic Rabbit Mom, my older daughter’s Deviant Art screenname-Satanic Rabbit -the attack rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail) and I think that she realized that she is not as focused on acting as the BFA requires. It took all semester, auditions and tons of college visits, many which she did not apply to, to realize that a BA was for her.

Final Decision: Sarah Lawrence College (BA)

With SLC’s design your own curriculum, conference style classes and high quality writing program, my daughter says that she can excel in acting, directing, producing, film making and screen writing. And perhaps music. There are plenty of theater performance opportunities and there is an option to do a year in London at BADA for more intensive acting training if she so desires. They do put on a musical and if she wants musical theater, she can do that too.

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@SATANICRABBITMOM congrats! That sounds amazing.

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@SATANICRABBITMOM, your daughter sounds like an amazing individual…best of luck to her at Sarah Lawrence.

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Stage Management - A cautionary tale

I am writing this in the hope that it will help other clueless parents.

Schools applied to:
BFA - Emerson, Boston Conservatory, Otterbein
BA - Willamette, Lawrence, University of Puget Sound, Beloit, Colorado State (accepted to all)

My D discovered Stage Management in 9th grade and has never looked back. She goes to a non PA high school with a nice theater program, and also volunteers at a good Community Theater. Frequently during the school year she would be working on a production at school from 3-5 and then head to the community theater from 6-10. The more stage management she did the happier she was. I know very little about theater, but I love that she has found her passion, though I sometimes felt like a bad parent allowing her to be out so late on school nights - especially when tech week rehearsals would go till 1am.

She was positive she wanted a degree in Stage Management, so we searched for all the schools with that degree and made trips to FL, VA, NY, OH and MA to visit programs. She fell in love with Emerson. We sat down with our college counselor and he looked at her stats and said she should have no trouble getting in, and she applied EA. I will add that she is the only person from her school who has ever applied to a tech theater program, and they knew nothing about the process. We knew there was an interview, so my D followed the guidelines and made a portfolio and went off for the review. She had no connection with the person doing the review and when decisions came out on Dec 15th she was rejected. She hurriedly applied to some BA programs, and went back to the Internet to look see if there were any SM schools we had missed. Like a shining beacon the new stage management program at The Boston Conservatory appeared on our computer screen. It sounded perfect. She promptly applied and anxiously awaited the review date. That one went much better. She loved the head of the department and everything about the school. I was convinced she would be accepted, but she kept reminding me they only take a few applicants. How could they not want my sweet successful stage management obsessed child?

It was about this point (mid February) that I discovered CC and exactly how competitive these BFA programs are. We also realized that most of the SM programs are listed under theater design/technology/production. We had missed about 2/3rds of the schools, including MI, CMU, CCM, Otterbein, Penn, TCU, etc. I also asked my D about her portfolio/resume and if anyone at her school had given her any help? It turns out she had essentially done everything on her own. Now that we were starting to understand the process, we began to look at schools to apply to for 2017, and were pleasantly surprised that Otterbein still had a portfolio review date available for this year.

I was crushed when we got the bad news from BoCo. I will add that the head of the program was very kind and gracious and actually called my daughter to say she was sorry my D had not been accepted. I’m not sure if that is the norm, but it made her love the program even more. With one chance left at a program for Fall of 2016 we realized we needed to figure out what we were doing wrong, and contacted Interlochen. They were incredibly generous with their time and reviewed my D’s portfolio/resume and tweaked a few things, and it felt like we were finally properly ready for a portfolio review. According to my D, the review at Otterbein was very fun. Everything that I had read about their culture of kindness and compassion was exactly what we experienced. She was accepted a week later.

I feel like we made every mistake in the book (and then some), and I hope this tale will help others to avoid our missteps. It wasn’t for a lack of trying, but out of nieveity for the process. We never gave up, and I think my D ended up in a great program where she will be successful and happy, and a program that would have been in her top two anyway, had we gone into this fully aware. What they say about kids ending up where they’re supposed to be is true, and I am very excited to say that she will be attending Otterbein’s BFA in Theater Design and Technology program this Fall!!!

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A hearty welcome to Otterbein, @Reckless ! I’m an Otterbein dad – my daughter is a BFA Acting major just finishing her first year. She’s loving it and learning a ton, and all the stuff you noted about the culture of the place – all true, in my daughter’s experience.

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@Reckless I am so glad to hear your daughter found a program. I am so sad about your experience with Boco. They actually cut the entire Stage Management program (it only survived one year) due to lack of applications. There were several students left hanging mid-Feb with little opportunity to do much about it, which left a few folks really raw. My D is in the Contemporary Theater program there, which she loves, but had made fast friends w/ the stage management majors.

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@2019theatremom that is such great information to have, and would explain the phone call. It seemed odd, but very kind, that they called to apologize for not accepting my D into the program. I suppose it’s par for the course that we missed the part about the program being cancelled. It’s really too bad because it was a great curriculum and seemed like such a wonderful opportunity, and my D really liked the head of the program.

@StringPop, thanks for the welcome to Otterbein. My D is super excited to be starting there in the Fall!

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@SATANICRABBITMOM Awesome! The journey seems SO worth it when they they figure out the right path to do what they love! Also, our kids did Spamalot last year, so your name brings back good memories. :slight_smile:

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@Reckless Wonderful end to the story! Best of luck to your hard-working D!

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@Reckless it is really unfortunate for Boco, because I think it would have been an incredible program (as your incredible daughter thought so, too). They did a piss-poor job advertising and recruiting for it, so it’s kind of their own fault. Then, they failed to communicate it until it was too late for anyone in the program to apply anywhere else (my D was good friends with most of the SM majors). I have heard nothing but raves about Otterbein on CC, so I bet you will know soon enough that’s where she belonged all along!

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@letterhead and @2019theatremom thanks for the kind thoughts. I agree that Otterbein was where she was meant to be. The whole experience around it was so positive. She is very excited to be going to school there and I am so happy for her. We have heard nothing but good things. Good luck to your children in their programs!!!

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BACKGROUND:

My daughter always enjoyed performing, but had some initially bad experiences with the elementary schools who said that they would give everybody an opportunity but somehow always ended up casting the same small handful of kids in their shows. On top of that, her grade 5-6 choral teacher was unpleasant to say the least, literally yelling at these kids who took the time to participate in an extracurricular activity that required them to show up 45 minutes early for school 2-3 days per week.

So, bless Mr. C, the middle school teacher who took over the theatre department just as my D entered that school, along with Mrs. L in Band and Mrs. K for chorus who made the experience fun, inclusive, and creative – even asking my D to choreograph a song for the chorus. Once that experience took hold, my D got involved in community theatre and went on to high school theatre and band (followed by chorus) as well. She started taking voice lessons her sophomore year and dance during her junior year.

Even at that point not all was smooth sailing. The community theatre in which she was involved shut down right after her freshman year due to financial issues. Our town’s high school is basically the opposite of a performing arts school. The previous high school director two years before her Freshman year and the replacement was only temporary, leaving after just one year. It was actually my D who found the director for the high school, because the administration is not supportive of the arts. That’s an understatement – the theatre seats maybe 200 and has the original seats from the late 1960s construction of the building. One of two spotlights doesn’t work, the lighting board occasionally just stops working, the sound board overheats.

So yeah, being involved in theatre took a lot of hard work and persistence: Passion.

SUMMER INTENSIVES:

Two years of summer theatre intensive with the community theatre she joined after her Freshman year. What an awesome experience, getting both training and exposure to two very different plays: one a drama about a school shooting (no, not “The Laramie Project”) and the other a comedy about theatre people (think "Noises Of"f but less well-known).

Then…Pace Summer Scholars Musical Theatre. My D also applied to the Wagner summer musical theatre intensive but was not accepted there. We had visited both schools multiple times before even applying to those programs, and that’s why we chose them. The reasonable costs (in comparison to BU, Emerson, NYU) didn’t hurt!

COACHING/TRAINING:

3 years of voice with the wonderful guy who runs her community theatre – if not for James Brown I would call him The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.

2 years of dance (tap, contemporary, ballet, jazz) at a local studio with wonderful teachers. They have a competition team that is successful, but also a very good program for kids who want to progress in performing arts. They are NOT a “pageant school”.

Prior to that, 4 years of drum lessons, 5 years of piano.

COLLEGES APPLIED TO:

Pace BFA Acting and MT, Wagner BA Theatre Performance, NYU MT/All Studios, Marymount Manhattan MT, CUNY Brooklyn College, CCNY Harlem, Emerson MT, Connecticut College, Holy Cross, Suffolk, Plymouth State (NH),

OTHER COLLEGES VISITED BUT NOT APPLIED TO:

Ithaca, SUNY Purchase, St. Michael’s (VT), UMaine, University of New Haven, University of New Hampshire, University of Michigan, Penn State, The New School, Dean College

REJECTED:

Emerson

Pace MT

WAIT LISTED:

NYU, Holy Cross

ALTERNATE:

Pace (academic acceptance, alternate for artistic acceptance to BFA Acting)

ACCEPTED:

Marymount Manhattan BFA Acting (not MT), Wagner BA Theatre Studies (not Performance), Brooklyn, CCNY, Connecticut College, Suffolk, Plymouth State

FINAL DECISION:

Pace BFA Acting!!! Marymount Manhattan was a close second, and Wagner would have been a good choice as well. But Super Excited for Pace! She loved it from the moment she took her first tour, and we loved it as parents as well – even more so after the summer program there.

COMMENTS:

What a long process. My D put in a lot of work (just as she had to work to be involved in theatre in the first place). She started the application process in August and it just ended today, 9 months later. Even before that we had visited many schools to get a sense of the kind of place and program she wanted (note, for example, that she didn’t apply to any conservatory programs like Hartt, CMU, and so on).

Also worth noting is the number of options and alternatives available. She went in looking at musical theatre and at multiple places ended up getting offered BFA Acting instead (acting is definitely her strong suit).

Finally, alternate and wait lists CAN work! We have been on pins and needles for the last few weeks hoping for her Alternate status to turn into accepted. (Pace has a system where they accept their target class, and then go to the alternate list if anybody goes elsewhere. Then there is a wait list after the alternate list). It finally came through today, just 2 days before the commitment deadline.

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@Delegator Congratulations on finishing this marathon! LOVELY to hear the waitlists are moving (they are for my D, too!).

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Congratulations @Delegator! A great ending to your story and a wonderful place for your D to end up!

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@Reckless Congratulations!!! I am still working on my S’s story to post but he is going to Otterbein this fall (BFA Acting) so I look forward to meeting you and your daughter along the way!

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@Reckless I think we made a lot of mistakes too (design, rather than stage management), but I want to thank you on behalf of future applicants for taking the time to share your journey with all its detours. So glad it had a happy ending!

@Delegator My D is also waitlisted for a top choice, so it’s good to hear that it worked out for yours.

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So wonderful to see the Otterbein family grow!! :slight_smile:

Congratulations to all on their final decisions!!!