“(Remember, Josh Gad was an Acting major at CMU…not a MT.)”
And Megan Hilty too, I believe!
Speaking of Josh Gad, here’s a HILARIOUS story from him about his disastrous Juilliard audition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvdtqYVM-VE
Funny and also very comforting: even if you have an AWFUL audition at one school, don’t be disheartened! You can still end up at an equally fantastic school AND have an amazing career!
@claire74, the kids who have moved from MT to Acting have all been very happy. The first Ithaca College show I attended was Spring Awakening. There was a cast of 17; 10 were MT students, 7 were Acting students. All the MT and Acting kids MUST (it’s mandatory) audition for ALL musicals and plays. During freshman year, it is fairly common for the professors not to know whether a student is in MT or Acting. They cast Acting kids in musicals and MT kids in Plays. All the time. So, there is absolutely no second class citizen thing at Ithaca. The MTs and Acting majors are very close, and they have all their classes together. Their acting classes, dance classes, and voice and movement are all a mixture of acting and MT students. In fact, junior year is hard for them, b/c it’s when they are split up…Acting majors go to London 1st semester, and MTs go 2nd semester. So they don’t see each other (basically) for the year. But then they are back together senior year, and they even do their showcase together. Most of the Acting majors are great singers, and some are phenomenal dancers. There are many programs where the Acting and MT kids are separate, and the productions are separate. This is not the case at Ithaca…they are all in it together. Hope this helps.
Just recieved word that I got asked to audition for acting, after prescreening mt… Glad I’m not the only one! It was bittersweet, but I’m hearing great things about their acting program.
We just saw A Chorus Line at Ithaca, and one of the Acting majors was in it…she was phenomenal. And we also saw As You Like It, which they added music too…there were several MT majors in it, and a VP major, but mostly Acting majors. There is so much cross over between the 2 programs…the Acting program is first rate.
This is good info to know. I often wonder about the acting and MT mixtures at schools.
@theaterwork, looks like Montclair is starting to mix it up a bit more. Just saw “Best Little Whorehouse” (musical) there and my kid, who is a dancer/singer MT BFA had more of an acting part, and her friend, in the BFA Acting program, had more of a singing/dancing part. Go figure.
Another question- how long do the Ithaca audition slots last? If my audition is at 1:00 then what time should I be finished at?
has anyone who submitted recently heard from Ithaca yet?
friend of ours heard today and sent in last week
Our friend heard today from Ithaca
@BeccaW444, it depends on whether you are at Unifieds or on campus. Not sure about a Unified audition, but for on-campus, allow a few hours. The students have a Q&A with you; there’s a group warm-up; etc., although your actual singing/monologue piece of the audition can last anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes, depending on whether they give you adjustments or not. We did Syracuse’s audition the day before, then drove to Ithaca, spent the night, got there around 8:30 a.m., and were done around 12:30 p.m.
I also received a message saying they wanted me to audition for acting instead. Perhaps they already filled the MT program? Personally, I want to be a triple threat and have heard that their dance training isn’t very prominent in their program and that even though acting majors have more room in their schedule for other classes they don’t have voice classes. I’ll consider an audition for acting, but I don’t want to hope to end up as an acting major trying to transfer into MT or another school to get the training I’d like. It would be a great opportunity though. Plus, I applied to NU early decision and have gotten into MMC academically so I have other options.
Anyone have any more details on Ithaca’s acting and MT BFA programs and the differences between them?
@monkey13, thanks for the insight! I might consider auditioning for acting. I just think it sucks you’d have to pay extra for voice. Tuition is already expensive enough!
@Lydiara For the acting BFA, there are about 10-15 fewer required credits. Pretty much all of the basic foundational courses (Scene Study, voice/movement/speech for the stage, etc…) are the same in both majors, but there are more acting foundational courses required for the Acting majors, while the MT majors choose just a few of those more specific acting foundational courses (acting for the camera, dialects, etc) from the list. Acting requires 3 dance classes while MT requires 13. Also, There are no required music courses for the Acting majors, while there are about 12 music classes required for MT. There is room for several electives for Acting majors, so they could supplement with some additional dance classes if that’s the direction they’d like to pursue.
A few years ago, my older child auditioned at Ithaca for the Acting program and all of the parents and students (Acting and MT) attended an info session with students from both programs. The students all talked about how intense their programs were but the MT students overwhelmingly talked about how much more intense their program is than the Acting program, as far as how busy and tired they are from all of their requirements.
@Lydiara, they have absolutely NOT filled the MT class. They haven’t had most of their auditions yet…don’t worry. If they want to see you for acting instead of MT, they saw something they loved in your acting. Go for it…really. Remember, Josh Gad was in an acting program. There is SO much crossover it’s really not a huge difference. Go audition and check out the school and talk to the students. Good luck…
I just checked…Ithaca’s first audition is tomorrow. They don’t start making decisions until the first week of February, and they don’t finish until March. So no worries…
My daughter’s friend was redirected to Acting a couple years ago and then preceded to get offers to several of the top programs and is at CCM now. My guess is Ithaca didn’t need her type for MT but really wanted her so they offered her an Acting slot.
Does Ithaca accept a larger Acting freshman class than an MT freshman class? It seems to be a lot of redirection from MT to Acting…so Im just wondering the numbers of acceptances in both?
I’m guessing a heck of a lot more people apply for MT than for acting, so Ithaca pillages the MT applications for acting candidates.
When we toured there two years ago, it seemed that they try to keep number of students the two classes (acting and MT) equal.