I’d be curious to hear about liberal arts colleges that offer significant opportunities to perform in or direct musical theater productions. By “liberal arts college,” I mean a college that’s pretty small (generally 1000-3000 students) and focused on traditional academic subjects. Amherst, Bard, Bates, Beloit, Carleton, Earlham, Grinnell, Haverford, Lawrence, Lewis & Clark, Macalester, Milsaps, Occidental, Pitzer, Pomona, Puget Sound, Reed, Sarah Lawrence, Swarthmore, Vassar, Willamette, Whitman, Wooster, etc.
I’d also like to know which ones offer musical theater for credit and which merely have student run productions.
If there are very academically focused universities that should be in the discussion, I’d like to hear about them too, but they’re not the focus of this question.
@AmazingBlue – are you looking for Liberal Arts schools where you would major in Theatre that have musical theatre opportunities as part of the Theatre major, or schools where you would major in something else, all students can participate in theatre, and offer musical theatre opportunities as part of those available to all students regardless of major?
Amherst College is part of the Five College Consortium (with Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and the University of Massachusetts); auditions at any of these schools are open to students within the consortium. There are other forms of collaboration too.
Denison in Ohio would be another to add to your list… but you list seems really scattered right now- lots of schools, and ALL over the country. Other than LAC, what are you looking for? Are you planning to major in theater?
Very few LAC’s (going by the strict definition) offer “significant” musical theatre programs. Many with excellent acting programs do not offer coursework in MT nor do they stage musicals.
The only top 100 LAC with an MT program that I know of is #72 Illinois Wesleyan (BFA MT). Muhlenberg (#65) does not have an MT program but they do have a large theatre program that regularly stages musicals.
Top 100 National Universities with MT programs include (pretty sure these are “very academically focused universities,” but your mileage may vary):
12 Northwestern (MT cert)
23 USC (MT Minor)
24 UCLA
24 Carnegie Mellon
27 Michigan
32 William and Mary (MT courses)
36 NYU
39 BU (MT minor)
39 Northeastern (MT minor)
39 Tulane
39 UCI
44 Miami
50 Penn State
50 Pepperdine (BA in Music and Theatre)
50 Florida
56 SMU (MT Minor, does not stage musicals)
60 Syracuse
68 BYU
70 Rutgers (starting in 2019)
71 Baylor
74 American
82 Michigan State (MT minor)
82 TCU
82 Iowa (Music/Theatre double major)
86 Indiana
86 Tulsa
92 Florida State
92 Colorado
99 Auburn
Top 10 Regional Universities with MT programs include:
6 Ithaca
8 Emerson
1 Elon
4 Samford
6 Belmont
8 James Madison
2 Santa Clara (MT minor)
1 Creighton
3 Drake
I scanned down the lists rapidly, so I hope I didn’t miss any, but I may have.
Yes, my list is pretty scattered geographically, and all plans about things like whether to major in theater, music or musical theater–or something else entirely unrelated–are very uncertain. EmsDad provided very useful information, but I’m hoping to generate a different kind of list. Instead of focusing on where the best musical theater opportunities are, I’d like to focus on where the liberal arts colleges are that also have significant musical theater opportunities. If you took a list of the top 100 liberal arts colleges (and ignored the inevitable arguments about how that list is compiled), and then tried to sort it roughly by strength of musical theater opportunities, what would the list look like? Based on the responses above, it sounds like Illinois Wesleyan, Muhlenberg and Baldwin Wallace might be at the very top. Others have mentioned Amherst, Denison, Vassar and Wagner. I’d really like to hear about those other colleges and colleges like them.
It seems that some people are ending up in musical theater careers even though they went to Wesleyan in Connecticut instead of Illinois Wesleyan. I hear a Connecticut Wesleyan guy named Lin Manuel Miranda has found some success. But putting that aside, some people just want to do musical theater as a hobby rather than as a career.
Let’s say you played on your high school football team. You might prefer to play football at Alabama or Clemson, which have been the best two college teams lately. You might prefer to play for Stanford or Michigan, which aren’t as good at football but still produce some NFL players and have better academic reputations. You also might prefer an Ivy League college, even though the Ivies produce very few NFL players. And if you love football but know that the NFL is not in your future, a Division III liberal arts college may be your best bet. Many liberal arts colleges take football seriously, though far less seriously than Alabama, Clemson, Stanford and Michigan.
The same kinds of decisions present themselves to people who perform in musical theater during high school. Perhaps Carnegie Mellon, Michigan and NYU will all want you. But probably not! If you don’t have that level of talent, or even if you do have the necessary level of talent but you lack the necessary level of commitment to musical theater, you may want to participate in the liberal arts college equivalent of the Wesleyan football team (which came in second in the NESCAC conference last year).
So please keep the information about liberal arts colleges coming!
Amherst - The thing you always hear about Amherst is, “Oh, but you can always find what you want at the University of Massachusetts.” Indeed, out of ~10 current Theater and Dance faculty, four are cross-listed with the other 5Cs in the consortium. For comparison, Vassar lists ~20 all on one campus. While faculty strength alone is not dispositive of anything, the fact is, only about 5.5% of Amhert’s own majors are in the visual and performing arts, hardly the sign of a vibrant music and arts scene. Possibly, a good place if you want to be a big fish in a small pond.
Denison University - Couldn’t find their common data sets. Makes it difficult to compare apples to apples. They have a lively website.
Vassar - As noted, Vassar is one of a handful of top LACs people automatically associate with a strong theater and arts milieu.
Wagner - Interesting LAC in the classic tradition (but, beware - also VERY pre-professional), located a stone’s throw from Broadway. A striking 14% of the Class of 2016 majored in the visual and performing arts.
@AmazingBlue - just FYI- the MT at Baldwin wallace is very much an intense conservatory setting 24/7 type thing- not he sort of “explore many options” idea that you might be looking for. Sound like you should be focusing on schools with BA rather than BFA options - as those generally allow much more flexibility. That is true if many of the excellent schools on EmsDad’s list as well- many are places where MT majors eat/sleep/breathe their major.
Denison was one of the schools I suggested… my D really loved their theater dept. I remember them saying that they did straight plays, musicals and at least on opera every year- so there was a lot to choose from. Facilities were great- much newer than Kenyon’s (we toured both the same day as they are less than an hour apart). Newer doesn’t always mean better, but we liked what we saw.
My D turned down Amherst after doing an overnight with a theater major and learning that although yes the 5 college environment allows for awesome opportunities in terms of productions, but that it also means you are competing against a lot more kids for actual attention and opportunities. So this means if there is a production you want to audition for you are usually up against not 10 or 20 other interested students, but it can be 100 or more for the more interesting musical productions. So if you are not truly talented it can be difficult to score a role. Moreover, if you are a writer or interested director, the programs are cliquish so again unless you are amazing its unlikely you will get your magnum opus produced at UMass, and at Amherst because its smaller you are really limited to your senior year in terms of getting produced or actually directing. She is at Wesleyan instead and loving it.
Denison is building a new arts center named for grad and previous Disney head, Michael Eisner. It will house dance, theater and music. So that may indicate a push in that direction.
<-- mom of a musician here, @toowonderful . Just saying the data I posted doesn’t count second majors or minors. And “more practical” was in quotes for a reason.
Okay, so I’m only going to speak to Grinnell and Vassar as I am a current freshman at Grinnell and one of my good friends chose Vassar. I know that in the two years she’s been there, it’s been difficult for her to get involved in theater because the theater there is very serious and hard to break in to if you are not a major. That being said, if you are super good at theater Vassar may be a great option for you. At Grinnell, things are very open. There are not as many theater majors, but that means students of all backgrounds come together to make theater happen here. I am an English/Economics major and I plan on acting and/or singing in a production next year. My roommate who is a physics major works on lights and sound. This makes theater here feel more like an extension of the community. Since there aren’t as many theater majors, they can be almost guaranteed a role in whatever production they are doing. You can do something called a MAP (mentored advanced project) here for credit for writing, producing, or something else. You could also gain credit for teaching a theater class to area middle school students. There are for credit opportunities in the college’s singing groups as well. If you have more questions, feel free to contact me personally. If you come to campus, I’d even be willing to give you a personalized tour. Finally, even if you’re remotely interested, apply to Grinnell. There’s no application fee or supplemental essays.
