Kent State University (OH)

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

<p>Greetings Fellow CCers,</p>

<p>With Daughter being deep in the college auditions, it's been a couple months since I've had much time to spend on this forum. But after 7 straight weekends on the road, I'm very happy to say that she's finally done auditioning, and we actually get to stay home this weekend. Her journey, which took us to 10 schools in Ohio, Indiana, New York (the state), Pennsylvania and North Carolina, proved to be amazing, tiring, fun, humbling, exhilarating, scary, stressful and extremely enlightening. Although I’m glad this adventure is behind us, I wouldn’t have missed it for all the coffee in Seattle. The hard part begins now as we wait to hear some “good news” from at least a few of these schools.</p>

<p>So while I have a little free time, I’d like to share with you some information about a school in northeast Ohio that proved to be one of the most surprisingly impressive stops on our circuit. Kent</a> State University is located about 15 miles from Akron, 40 miles from Cleveland and 100 miles from Pittsburgh. We learned that KSU is Ohio’s 2nd largest state college with a total enrollment around 25,000. So our first surprise was the large size of the campus. Programs offered at KSU include BA Theatre, BFA Musical Theatre, BFA Design & Technology, BFA Dance Performance and BFA Dance Education. The enrollment at the School of Theatre and Dance totals about 340 with 34 of these currently in the BFA Musical Theatre program. The Musical Theatre Coordinator is Terri</a> Kent who also serves as the Artistic Director at Porthouse</a> Theatre in Cleveland’s acclaimed Blossom Music Center.</p>

<p>KSU has only 2 musical theatre audition</a> dates for the year (Nov & Feb) with about 100 students auditioning each year. The BFA MT freshman class enrollment is typically 8-12 students, but the unique thing about KSU is that they don’t have a cap on the number of students they invite into the program. According to Terri, they will accept all students who demonstrate the potential to be successful musical theatre professionals. She said that even though the number of acceptances will vary from year to year based on the talent of the auditionees, the entering class size remains in the 8-12 range. Their audition last weekend included a very informative Q & A session with Terri, several other faculty members, and a half-dozen current MT students. My overall impression from the discussion was that the school/faculty is doing everything it can to make the program the best possible, and the current students are extremely happy there. The word “family” was used innumerable times by both the students and faculty. I believe Terri said that they started their NY</a> Senior Showcase in 2002, and it’s become more successful with better attendance each successive year. We also had the opportunity to see their spring musical production of Hair while we were there. And I have to say that the quality of the production and the performances was on par with that of the better known schools we’ve had the pleasure to see this year.</p>

<p>So, all in all, this was one of Daughters more encouraging audition experiences and a very pleasant surprise for all of us. I realize this information comes a bit late for high school Seniors. But for all you Juniors and parents out there, KSU is definitely a school I’d recommend you check out for next year. I'll be happy to field any questions you may have.</p>

<p>SrMoment</p>

2

<p>My neice goes to KSU, and she's in the drama department. She's a freshman, who'd hoped to go to Rutger's, but couldn't get into the exact specialty she wanted after her audition, and, therefore, couldn't justify the out of state expense. Anyway, she hadn't, initially, paid a lot of attention to KSU because it's seriously in her backyard. She researched the Ohio schools, and everything she heard kept pointing her to KSU. After a semester there, she's very pleased with her decision. She's getting quite involved as a freshman, and already has a summer job/intership lined up with an excellent community theater group. Even though she still acts, she's realizing she's more drawn to the costume design area, and she's finding a lot of opportunities and good mentoring. Quite pleased overall. :)</p>

<p>zebes</p>

3

<p>I'm an alumnus of KSU and I loved every minute of it! It's a great campus with a lot to offer and have gone through an extensive building proram since I graduated. Their new student rec center is amazing, voted one of the best in the country. The sdtudent union is always bustling and there are many, many activities outside the classroom to suit anyone's needs/wishes. They have always had a "good" theatre program but from what I have read recently, they are really trying hard to lift it to the next level. In fact, they just recieved the single largest donation in the history of the University and it all went to the Theatre department! The seniors do participate in a showcase and it is a BFA audition program. I really wanted my D to audition there but they only have 2 audition dates and we couldn't fit it in our schedule because of conflicts. :(</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the additional information zebes and NanE. During the Q & A session Terri told us about the significant contribution by local arts patron Roe Green. $6.8 million is the figure I recall which will be matched by the university to build their new Theatre & Dance facility.</p>

<p>Ms. Green also sponsors the Visiting Director Series at Kent State which brings in a guest director for a mainstage production each year. The guest director this year was Vicky Bussert of Baldwin-Wallace who directed the production of Hair that we saw last weekend.</p>