<p>Which one has the stronger theater department (or at least would be better for my interests)?</p>
<p>I plan on pursuing a BA in theater, so that way I can have another major (history or english). I love acting, and I am good at it, but I have a lot of other interests. I really want to get into writing (books, plays, screenplays, etc.), and I have intentions of getting an MFA (probably in screenwriting) of some kind after college. I have a feeling IWU puts on superior productions, but I would have to compete with BFAs to get into shows, while Trinity is only a BA program. Which one is going to be better for me?</p>
<p>I am a sophomore at IWU and have a BA in the Theatre Arts. I don’t know much about Trinity’s program, but we have an incredible program here at IWU! I am also a double major in business, so it is completely possible for you to double major and Wesleyan makes it really easy. </p>
<p>The great thing about our program here is that you get a very broad experience of learning in the theatre. You have so many opportunities to try so many different things and get involved. We have a play writing class and have had a number of students present their own works in our student run theatre. </p>
<p>You will have many opportunities to work behind the scenes here AND perform on stage. As a freshman, you could not audition for a main stage show, but we still have our student run theatre that a majority of the freshman perform in, because the upperclassmen are in the main stage productions. But don’t worry, you will still be plenty involved. And once Sophomore year comes around you have just as much of an opportunity to audition for any show that you want, just as the BFA’s are. </p>
<p>There is no preference between the BFA’s and BA’s. It’s more of a matter of the BA’s not wanting to audition, because they want to be involved in other ways. But you have just as much of a chance as anyone. We have plenty of BA’s audition and perform in main stage shows as well as be involved elsewhere. </p>
<p>The program here is what you make of it. If you want to be really involved in performance, you have all the ability in the world to take the classes that BFA’s are required to take. Also, because our program is so small and personal (we tend to have only around 100 in our school) there is not as much competition, as a bigger school, to make shows. </p>
<p>It really is a wonderful school and a wonderful program. I hope this helps and please let me know if you have any more questions! :-)</p>
<p>IWU is sounding pretty good…thanks a lot for the info. I guess now I just have to do some investigating into Trinity.</p>
<p>I’m going to chime in here to give a thumbs up to Illinois Wesleyan. Its program has an outstanding reputation and the theater department reps are really nice, encouraging and very proactive in reaching out to potential BFA students.</p>
<p>If it wasn’t so darned small, it would have been on my son’s top 5 list. </p>
<p>Can’t help you with Trinity. Sorry! Oh. and we’re not from Illinois; we learned about IWU at SETC two years ago.</p>