<p>Hello everyone, this is my first post here. I've been reading a lot of the 12 paged archived thread, it's a lot of help. I apologize if my question was covered there, or anywhere else, as I haven't been able to find it yet. </p>
<p>My general concern is that I've been out of school for a while. I did a lot of acting in high school, some my freshman year of college, and then just stopped (for personal reasons I'd rather not get into). However, I've found myself wanting to get back on track again. I've thought about it, and the best way I feel to do this is to immerse myself in the theatre world again. My community college only offers one class, and it is only one day a week. I feel my best option is to go BA/BFA at a university. Now, because I've been out of the game for so long, I'm afraid I won't fit into a BA/BFA program. Can any current students or parents of students enlighten me on how "beginner's friendly" these programs are? I don't want to be babied, I'm going to put in the work where ever or whatever I choose, but I'd be lying if I said baby steps aren't welcome. I know I have the capability, I just need a like minded, nurturing environment to get back to that point (It's been about five years since I took a theatre class).</p>
<p>I live in California and would prefer to stay in state, so if any theatre BA/BFA's in California could share their experiences with their programs I'd be so grateful. That said, I know every college and every program are different and to keep an open mind. </p>
<p>Thank you for reading, and I hope I didn't spam with a re-post.</p>
<p>tallTwin91, I’m currently a freshman at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) and there are lots of older students here. CalArts doesn’t really care about how much experience you had (they only care about how talented you are or how much potential you have), but they won’t treat you like a beginner, they will treat you like a professional. That’s why so many straight out-of-high school kids have trouble adapting, because they have the talent, but not the work ethic.</p>
<p>Now, as someone who’s been doing theater for a while, I personally feel like they take it easy on you the first year. I have a lot of free time this year to work on my personal projects (that I’ve been told I won’t have next year), but some people can’t even manage to do all they have to do with all the “free” time we have, so I guess it depends on the person and how fast you do your work. They give people a lot of individual attention, so don’t worry about not being able to keep up with the group. Besides (and I guess this is valid for all BFA programs) everyone is coming from different backgrounds and they will be in different levels of development and have completely different needs.</p>
<p>milksharespeare, Thank you for your reply, and directing me to your post. CalArts is definitely on the radar as something I could work towards. I actually have a friend in the MFA acting program right now and she loves it.</p>
<p>If you get admitted to a program, you can be sure that that program wants you and is going to be “friendly” to you.</p>
<p>But don’t expect any program to give you some sort of break that they don’t give other students. If you are applying for auditioned programs, your audition will be competing with all of the other auditions on equal terms.</p>
<p>Many programs prefer beginners because they will say that beginners haven’t picked up any “bad habits”.</p>
<p>And many programs are looking for a diversity, including diversity of age. They need someone to play the parents of the young characters. A good friend of mine started acting late in life, and he has played Lord Capulet (Juliet’s father, and a great role) at least twice now.</p>
<p>Thank you TheRealKEVP, that is definitely what I meant in my original post. If I get in anywhere, I definitely want it to be because I’ve earned it, and don’t want any sort of breaks when it comes to competing.</p>
<p>They’re more friendly than you might think-- because SOOO much depends on the audition. And maturity tends to make people much better at auditioning. LOTS of people starts BFAs a year or more late-- so you’ll be in good company.</p>
<p>Thank you Gwen. That is really reassuring to hear. </p>
<p>Do you guys think the audition/interview, generally, is the only important aspect of admittance to a BFA? Or do schools look at the whole academic picture (GPA, SAT, completion of units/etc) even for fine arts emphases? I’ve heard from several people now that CalArts only cares about the audition process/actor’s statements and that’s that, which makes me wonder if that’s true for other BFA’s out there. I guess I need to ask the schools that question :)</p>
<p>I know Chapman cares a great deal about grades. You can pass the audition but if you don’t have the grades and test scores they don’t let you in. I’m not sure about the other schools. Also, I would think once you are in a program the playing field is pretty leveled. Everyone is starting at the beginning and no one cares what you did in high school.</p>
<p>Bisouu and mom2gals, thank you for the insight. I actually hadn’t thought about AADA for some reason, but I’ll definitely look into it now. It does sound like I’m leaning towards more of a conservatory, so AADA and CalArts sound like good options right now.</p>
<p>Each program is going to have its own bases for its own admission standards. We can’t say “Every BFA program bases admissions X% on audition, and Y% on grades.” We can’t even generalize, because each program is so different. You will need to contact the programs individually and talk with them.</p>
<p>TallTwin-I know you are thinking of staying on the west coast, but my son is at The New School for Drama and he has quite a few older students in his class. The school stresses they are interested in the whole student and what they bring to the table (or stage!!!). I know my son is friendly with students of all ages.</p>
<p>I know when my daughter auditioned last year, the acting programs consisted of students of a variety of ages, especially the schools like Juilliard and the London schools. They normally take older students. I know that in my daughter’s program at LAMDA she is one of three her age, 18, and the others are older. She has found there has been no problem at all with respect to the other students and age. So I don’t think you have to worry too much about the age. I think in MT, you will find more first year students fresh out of high school.</p>