Impressions of CAP 21

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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<p>I posted these on the main board, but here are my impressions of CAP 21 now that the first full week of studio has passed.</p>

<p>Schedule for the week of a Freshman consists of 2 academic classes, Writing the Essay and Intro to Theater Studies/Intro to Theater Production (one per semester). I am in Intro to Theater Studies, which is Drama Theory, History, Play Analysis and the like. My friends in Intro to Theater Production have to do a crew assignment, and for the most part they seem to enjoy the class. You take both Writing the Essay and your Intro to Theater Sudies/Production Class twice a week, once on Monday, once on Wednesday. There’s the usual homework, (write at least one essay per week, reading), but then there is also the special homework. For example, this weekend we had to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for an exhibit that we have a lecture on. Last weekend, we had to go see a show not on Broadway for Intro to Theater Studies. It’s really nice to see that the teachers blend the different types of homework and make the homework centered around the arts.</p>

<p>Then there is studio, every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Every day you have two dance classes in the morning, (Ballet, Jazz, or Tap), and there are 4 levels of each. Your Jazz and Ballet level are the same, but you can be in a different level of Tap. For example, there is a kid in Jazz and Ballet 2, but Tap 3. These levels are determined by placements taken during the first week of classes.</p>

<p>Sometime before lunch on Tuesday, either after dance, or between classes, you have Music Theory. You have a placement test the first week of classes, and only 3 people tested out of the class. If you have taken the AP Music Theory Course (like I did) you should be fine testing out, but remember how to sight sing.</p>

<p>Then there is a lunch break, sometimes you have an hour, sometimes an hour and a half. Regardless of the length of the break, I can make it to my favorite dining hall for lunch without feeling rushed. So, the lunch break could be spent grabbing something at a deli near by, or you can make it to a dining hall.</p>

<p>Then in the afternoon, you have 2 or 3 classes. Two times a week you have Vocal Technique. This is my favorite class, and I love my teacher. You work on learning songs the CAP 21 way (which, frankly, is much better than anyway I’ve tried). You work on proper alignment of body, and proper vocal technique. They use Alexander Technique to help this whole process. What I like is how our teacher explains everything using physiology and technical terms. I feel like I am already learning so much. All our teachers have taught people of great notoriety, so that is always nice.</p>

<p>Then two times a week, you have Voice and Speech. This is an interesting class that focuses on learning to speak and talk properly. The class itself is interesting, but we haven’t really started working extremely hard on body and sound work yet, but I’m sure we will later. I was told we do IPA (international phonetic alphabet) next semester, so that is a taste of things to come.</p>

<p>Every studio, you have Acting for 2 hours. I really love my acting teacher, he makes us start with things very physically, which is great. This class will be basically an acting class, scene work, characters, but for right now, it is a lot about making your body the best instrument for acting it can be.</p>

<p>That’s it for classes. Your acting/vocal tech/voice and speech teachers are determined by another audition during placement week. It seems that from this 6 minute interview that the teachers really nailed it. Everyone I know loves their teachers, and feel that they really speak to what they wanted and will help them the way they need to be helped. So, I feel that the teachers are really personalized.</p>

<p>There is the thought that CAP is a large program, and it is. But, the CAP philosophy seems to be that this way, you can learn more from more people besides your teachers. I wholeheartedly agree. I feel like everyone here seems to be different in style and strengths, so it is nice to learn from different people and see what they do. We also focus on watching others a lot so that we can learn from them and apply their mistakes and corrections to our own work.</p>

<p>Besides classes, there is the whole educational aspect of the city. You can learn so much from just being in the city and walking around. The people here are great, I’ve made many friends in and out of my program, and even out of Tisch. The dorm situation is great, and my dorm is huge. The dorms are also in great locations (Washington Square Park, Union Square), so you never have to travel far for entertainment/something to do. And the food in the dining halls is also amazing. Sushi, Chik-Fil-A, Quiznos, the list goes on.</p>

<p>I believe that is all that I can think of right now. Hopefully this helps all of you in your search. Feel free to pm me with any questions.</p>

<p>Chris</p>

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<p>bump for belcanto07</p>

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<p>this probably sounds stupid, but what is CAP 21?</p>

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<p>Look at the thread titled what is the cap 21 program about 4 threads down. </p>

<p>But in short, its the musical theater program in the department of drama at NYU's Tisch School for the Arts.</p>

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<p>I'm planning to apply to Tisch (hoping to get into CAP21), but also looking at some smaller schools. My concern about Tisch is that the students would be too competitive. I know that theatre is a very competitive world, but I think it's possible to be competitive while still being friendly and helping your peers. Not everything has to be about cut-throat competition. When I visited NYU recently, I asked several Tisch students what they thought about the community there. The answers I got ranged from, "Oh yeah, people are definitely willing to help one another out. My favorite part of being here is how much you can learn from the students" to "Well, if you're here it's assumed that you want to be on Broadway. You have to know that that's a very competitive life, so of course it's competitive here!" It's very important to me to be in a school with a warm, tight-knit community, rather than somewhere where students are just killing each other over parts. </p>

<p>What was your impression of the community at Tisch/relationships between students??</p>

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<p>Chrisnoo, how much time per week is devoted to individual voice training? Is vocal tech a private or a group class? Do you have opportunities to work with an accompanist every week?
Thanks!</p>

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<p>Vocal Tech is a class and so is Vocal Performance. There are approximately 15 students per class. IN class, individuals work on songs with the accompanist too. They perform in class too.</p>

<p>ON TOP of class, for seven semesters at CAP, each student also gets private voice lessons (so they are in voice classes and private lessons at one time). </p>

<p>They are basically always working with accompanists.</p>

<p>Also, they can get their accompaniment recorded for practice. I think freshman teachers do that all the time. After that, the department lines up student accompanists such as my D who will record your practice tapes (which is not instead of individual work in class but just for preparing for class). </p>

<p>Students sing individually in all the various vocal kinds of classes. But they also work on their own technique in private lessons as well . They develop personal repertoire in class with the guidance of the faculty as well.</p>

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<p>Wow, soozie, thanks for all of that information! It sounds wonderful!
Something I've been wondering about, and maybe you know the answer. Why are the vocal auditions performed with a cd accompaniment instead of a live piano accompaniment?</p>

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<p>I can't answer the "why" as I don't work for Tisch and am just a parent (nor have I ever spoken to anyone at Tisch about anything of this nature). As well, the topic you bring up has been discussed on CC's MT Forum many times and you may wish to do a search. </p>

<p>I personally prefer live accompaniment. I feel that auditions in the theater world are done that way and should be at college admissions auditions as well. I prefer that an accompanist follow the singer rather than a singer follow the accompaniment. When discussed on CC in the past, some have said they prefer the CDs (not just at Tisch but in general) because they feel they know the accompaniment will be the way they want it to be. While that is true, I feel that a good accompanist, after a brief conferring with the auditionee, should work out just fine and it is how auditions are done in the regular world. It may be that Tisch has such a huge quantity of auditions for MT (I think about 1500), that it may be harder to provide but I have no inkling their reasons. I wish they had live accompaniment. My D had her piano teacher record the CD for the Tisch audition. Please realize that CAP21 does not run the auditions. NYU/Tisch does. I can assure you that live accompaniment is used at CAP21 for all of their auditions once in college, as well as in all classes, etc. My D was a paid accompanist for Tisch/CAP21 PreCollege. There are very good accompanists around like her and on the faculty but I am not sure why they do the auditions this way. It could be that all the auditions are done on weekdays concentrated in one month and the accompanists on staff are working in studio with current students on those days. I am totally guessing here and surely not coming up with an excuse or saying it is a fine reason. </p>

<p>While CD accompaniment would not be what I would choose, I can tell you that my D absolutely loves NYU, Tisch, and CAP21 and the issue of CD accompaniment never comes up again. Like I said, in discussions on CC about this, there are posters who actually prefer a CD over a live accompanist. I"m not one of them. However, I cannnot speak for Tisch or why they handle auditions in that way. You'd have to ask them.</p>

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<p>Thanks again, soozie. It would be my guess that the sheer number of students auditioning in such a short span of time, (during school hours, no less) would be the reason why cd accompaniment is required. Yes, singing with a cd could prove to be a little less stressful in an audition situation, because you know exactly what's going to be played. There just seems to be more life in the song, more energy, more...something!...with live piano accompaniment. I can't quite put my finger on it!
Thanks again for a wealth of information.</p>