Looking for some recommendations on the best schools for theater tech, stage management and production design - thanks!
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Northwestern, University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, especially with financial aid.
University of North Carolina School of the Arts
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If you haven’t already, you might consider joining the “Theater Tech Parents - High School to College” facebook group.
My personal opinion is that when selecting a college for Theater Tech, that the overall fit of the school, and the strength of the other academic programs of the school, are more important than the strength of the theater tech program itself.
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I would suggest you look at where graduates get techie jobs upon graduation.
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Maybe this will help ?
Check Evansville and SMU too.
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Budget? Academic credentials? Any geographic parameters or other things desired from the college?
This is a list from College Navigator (feds’ website) that shows all 103 nonprofit colleges that indicated they offered a bachelor’s in theater tech: link
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In addition to UNC School of the Arts already mentioned upthread, UNC-Greensboro flies under the radar a little but it has a great theatre department with grads who go on to work on Broadway and in Hollywood
https://vpa.uncg.edu/theatre/programs/bfa-overview/bfa-in-drama-design-and-theatre-technology/
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You can also check SUNY Purchase.
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SCAD is great for all of that.
I suggest drilling down into the actual curriculum for schools your student is considering. Oftentimes there is a big difference between a BA program vs a BFA program in theater tech.
Read each college’s catalog to see what majors are offered, and then compare curricula for each of the majors.
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That’s a broad list. Is there a particular specialty area of interest? There are programs for specialists (e.g., BFA in one design area or stage management) and programs that give students the opportunity to rotate through multiple areas, gaining all around hands on experience, and perhaps concentrate on one or two as they advance to the upper level classes.
Some great programs have been mentioned, and I’d add DePaul, Shenandoah, CCM, Western Michigan, Rutgers, Emerson, and Pace as great programs to check out (there are plenty of others as well!).
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You need to look at the number of productions also, and your opportunities to do various tech jobs as a student.
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Along with production opportunities, ask extra questions if the program also offers an MFA in the same area — sometimes the MFA students design/lead and the BFA students mostly assist.
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