Has anyone heard from CMU pre-college yet?

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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<p>NYTheaterMom, I got a chuckle about your line about your cooking! Ya know, this thing about the food at the program brings up an important point....these experiences differ for each kid, so when others ask others for references about a program, you really gotta talk to SEVERAL kids cause otherwise, you get just certain people's perspectives. I was thinking about what you said about the food for instance....my niece when to my D's theater camp, Stagedoor Manor, for the first time these past three weeks and she loved it but told her mother that she hated the food (though wanted to stay another session and go back next year). I was a bit surprised about her comment about the food as I had never heard a word about the food from my kid so I asked my daughter about it and she said she LIKED it! So, there you go!</p>

<p>Glad to hear your D is having a terrific experience at CMU!</p>

<p>Susan</p>

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<p>Bearcaaat:</p>

<p>My daughter says: on the callboard, they say the workshops and have
signups at the beginning of each week.
Hope that helps.</p>

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<p>NYTheatermom </p>

<p>Thanks, I will let my D know.</p>

<p>Bearcaaat</p>

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<p>Parent's Weekend:</p>

<p>Those parents off to Pittsburgh for the weekend, those of us not going expect a FULL report from you! Have a great time.</p>

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<p>Anybody else's kid have the stomach flu that seems to be going around at CMU's program?</p>

<p>My poor D called (having just thrown up) and said that she thought about 10 kids had it. Her singing teacher and directing teacher both told her to "go back to the dorm" as she was a sickly greenish-white. </p>

<p>And -she was sad because a whole bunch of parents came to take their kids to "Harry Potter" parties - and we are not coming..(can't make 3 trips from Oregon...)</p>

<p>Ah - she'll survive...</p>

<p>janenw</p>

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<p>My daughter says lots of kids are sick... a different wing of the dorm... not her (yet). </p>

<p>We are not up there this weekend, but she and a friend were going to the Harry Potter party last night at the nearby Barnes & Noble I think. But of course they had to leave in time to make curfew, which means before midnight. </p>

<p>By the way, our daughters have yet to meet. I hope yours feels better soon. </p>

<p>Hope your daughter feels better fast (and the germs clear away).</p>

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<p>Just got back from hot and humid Pittsburgh, and I am so happy for our kids! First of all, it is as hot as they say it is – lol - and whether the food is bad or not, all the kids who were able to get a meal away from school were glad to have it! I remember the nervousness and uncertainty on these kids’ faces three weeks ago, and you would all be so thrilled to see these same kids walking around the campus with pride, confidence and ownership of their place in the school.</p>

<p>We arrived on time about 11 am Friday, and went to CMU. Though my son had classes till 6, we made plans to surprise his sister and girlfriend by meeting him for his 1½ hour lunch. The plan worked, the girls were very surprised! We went to lunch in Oakland, just a few minutes from campus. We checked into the hotel, and met my son at 6. He toured us all through the dorm and around campus and off we went for the weekend. I had faxed a permission slip ahead of time to allow him to stay with us for the weekend. Many students did this. After a steak dinner the three kids ran through a fountain downtown to cool down. They laughed as hard as the small children who joined them!</p>

<p>On Saturday we grabbed breakfast at a local Einstein’s and headed over to school. We were glad we ate earlier, because there was a fire alarm in the cafeteria building, and it had been evacuated. My son’s roommate was showing his work from his art class and we enjoyed seeing him and meeting his parents again. They said their son was having a great time, there are only 11 in the industrial arts program. They feel the program offers amazing opportunities. </p>

<p>We then went to the theater to see the demonstrations. In the lobby, was a booth of sorts built by the tech students. In showed many stage building techniques, and contained samples of class work including sewing. </p>

<p>Then into the theater - first an introduction from the drama lit teacher/pre-college co-chair. The students welcomed “Doc” with wild enthusiasm! He said this was a remarkable group of kids in the support and nurturing they have shown to each other, no cattiness or nastiness. He said we would see 20 minute demos of some of the classes that were being taught this summer. </p>

<p>Several voice students gave performances of songs they were working on in class. I think we saw about 6. The teacher explained that in regular class, at least half of class time was spent on coaching, though we were seeing only performance. The students were talented and energetic, and really worked on performing and acting the songs. It was a wonderful 20 minutes! </p>

<p>The next demo was Speech. The students were led through a condensed version of the vocal class the actors take instead of singing. I would have thought it would be difficult to relax in front of an audience, but the kids seemed to do a great job. Though they are silly exercises to watch, and my sons says they are sometimes silly to do, over the weekend we did notice a new depth to his speaking voice, even in this short time. A few students recited poems to end this demo. </p>

<p>The next demo was acting. The students showed an exercise they do to work on receiving and taking, on acting and reacting. They first warmed up with, and then passed long (about 5 ft) sticks back and forth, first hand to hand, then tossing them, taking and receiving at the same time. I found it very powerful to see the concentration and cooperation they employed to complete the exercise. My son says they are now applying these lessons to acting scenes. </p>

<p>We then got to see a dance class work out. We saw energy, pride, joy and a range of talent. They finished with a finale of “Footloose” that got the house rocking! </p>

<p>Last was a selection of pieces from the Auguste Bole workshops(arghhh, I have butchered his name, just like I keep butchering the pronunciation! Sorry) The students developed the pieces in workshops. They were striking and powerful and are political in nature. It must have been exciting to give voice to the feeling expressed here. </p>

<p>Saturday evening we saw a play directed by my son’s movement teacher. It was great fun! We spent Sunday hanging out and enjoying the changes in our son. He LOVES this program, the classes, the work, the other students, his roommates, the freedom, just about everything. Every fellow actor we met through the weekend - and we met MANY- said the same things. </p>

<p>Well, sorry I went on so long. Please write me with any questions. I’ll be glad to answer.</p>

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<p>Wool4all:
Thank you so much for the wonderful description of the weekend.It's incredible that the program is more than half over.</p>

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<p>GREAT outline of your weekend. I don't have a student involved, but enjoyed your thorough capsule of the work they are doing. Sounds great!</p>

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<p>I'm glad you are enjoying my reports. I forgot to tell you that we took my son to a grocery store to buy non perishable snack food. The cafeteria closes at 7 and many times the kids are up late doing homework or watching movies and they get the munchies around 10 or 11. It is too late to go out, and they can't leave the floor to accept takeout. If you want to send a care package, they will really appreciate it. We saw many grocery bags being carried into the dorms on Sunday. BTW it is humid, so if you send crackers or cookies send ziplock bags to store them in. And it is really too hot for plain chocolate.</p>

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<p>I just got off the phone with my enthusiastic daughter, who said she was calling tonight because she expects to be ultra busy the rest of the week. </p>

<p>Apparently all week long in the evenings there are things going on that she is involved with ...another Shakespeare workshop (comes same night as a tap workshop, but she chose the Bard), and an assortment of other things (some of which she wasn't sure what they are but they sounded interesting).</p>

<p>Classes continue to be geared to helping the kids find and perform appropriate audition material. The teachers seem to be handing each student songs and monologues that the teacher thinks is right for that student. The kids are sent to the library to find materials, to read the complete plays that the monologues came from; they are sent to other places to research how their particular character might act. </p>

<p>The one-page resumes that will be part of the end-of-the-program audition (and are part of all college auditions) have been reviewed and revised both for format and content. My daughter who had played Peter Pan was told to make sure she listed "flying" as one of her special skills. She was told not to bother with the dates of shows, to add her voice range, etc. </p>

<p>For her directing class, she is supposed to be taking a play, mock casting it (with real actors), doing a break out of rehearsals, planning the whole thing. She hasn't yet decided what show she will "do," so she has a lot of work to do to get this project completed. </p>

<p>She wonders, by the way, how the kids whose parents came up this last weekend had time to get all their work done. (But she spent that same time reading Harry Potter!)</p>

<p>Weather remains terrible (but it is really bad here in NY as well). </p>

<p>Dance classes are good, although she notes that the pre-college CMU dance program is supposedly better than the CMU dance program. (There are no dance auditions for CMU.) Private voice lesson #2 was excellent, she says. </p>

<p>This upcoming weekend, she is going to a Pittsburgh Pirate game. Naturally, she will be wearing her Yankee cap.</p>

<p>That's all for now.</p>

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<p>nytheatremom - There actually ARE dance auditions as a part of the MT audition. The website states that applicants should be prepared to learn and perform 2 dance combinations taught by a faculty member. Just wanted to clear that up!</p>

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<p>Thanks for that info. I will let my daughter, who gave me the dance info, know.</p>

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<p>NYTheatermom, my D auditioned there in February and dance auditions were definitely a part of it for everyone. </p>

<p>The schools on my d's list that did not hold dance auditions were Ithaca and BOCO. NYU/Tisch had them only as optional for advanced dancers. While dance may not seem that big at CMU, actually it was a very decent dance audition, not the easiest one either. </p>

<p>Susan</p>

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<p>Thanks Susan, not sure where my daughter got that wrong info from, but thanks to all the CC-ers out there she will stand (or actually dance) corrected.</p>

<p>(Of course it is possible that I misunderstood her.)</p>

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<p>NYTheatermom, no problem. When the time comes to get organized for all her auditions next year, she likely will compile a master sheet of all the requirements per school and it will come out then. Each school has variations in terms of song requirements, length, types of monologues and lengths and number, and same with dance (jazz or ballet or both). Once you have all the requirements from every school on some master list, you can figure out the sum total of songs and monologues she needs to prepare and which would be plugged into which schools or modified in terms of length.<br>
Susan</p>

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<p>I am just curious.</p>

<p>How many of the summer staff are CMU teachers during the school year?</p>

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<p>Of the regular CMU faculty, Don Wadsworth (Acting) and Natalie Baker-Shirer (Voice and Speech) usually teach pre-college, as well as Gary Kline and Claudia Benack (two of the three MT voice teachers). I'm not sure if Natalie is there this year because she was on sabbatical for much of the school year. I think there are other regular faculty who occasionally teach pre-college, but those are the biggies - and Don, Claudia, and Gary definitely all are auditors for the regular school year auditions.</p>

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<p>My daughter has mentioned Don as her acting teacher and I think she may have him for something else as well. I'm not sure she has ever mentioned by name who her other teachers are. I'll find out and "report" back.</p>

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<p>During the theatre department orientation three weeks ago, the staff lined up on stage and introduced themselves. Though very few were on the school year staff, most were on the pre-college staffs for many years, and if I remember right, there were between 30 and 40 on staff in the department. Also, at least one member of the year round staff attended the theatre presentation last Saturday, and he enjoyed it!
Carole</p>