<p>We just got home from an audition trip to Ohio, PA and NY, and I thought I would pass along some impressions of lesser known schools we visited. </p>
<p>Marietta College is located near the West Virginia border in a small town that was the first founded in the Northwest Territories. A school has been at that location since the late 1700's. The campus is a small, beautiful collection of buildings clustered around what they call the mall. The school has around 1,300 undergrad students. The student body is regionally diverse for a small town school, and only 40% come from Ohio and the surrounding states according to the admissions counselor with whom we spoke.
Although Marietta itself is a small town, it is across the Ohio River from a much larger community; Parkersburg, WV that boasts a regional airport, a shopping mall and a population of over 100,000. The campus is around 2 1/4 hours from Columbus.</p>
<p>The BFA program in MT is around 6 years old, and they have a total of 25 students in the major. It is heavy on music, and light on dance, from my obesravations. They offer a total of 6 semesters of dance, and any additional dance classes would have to be found from the greater community. The dance classes offered are a year of Jazz, Tap and ballet. I spoke to one MT student who is a serious dancer who said it was not enough dance for her, as she wanted a minor in dance with the goal of opening her own dance studio.
We visited the Concert Choir rehearsal, and were impressed both with the calibre of most of the singers and the conductor, who is also head of the musical part of the MT major.
The curriculum for MT majors includes two years of music theory, and 4 years of private voice. There are three voice teachers, and the head of the department said they are quite succesful at matching teachings to a student's particular weakness. The vocal training is classical, and the students do juries every semester. There is both a junior recital, and a senior capstone project.
My D was there to not only visit the campus, but also to audition for a Fine Arts Scholarship. They were very kind, and let her audition on a date that was not on their schedule in order to accomodate our schedule.</p>
<p>The drama part of the program is headed by Dr. Stephen Rador (Steve to his students), and the students are enthusiastic about the training and performance opportunities they get. There is guest faculty that comes from NY to direct shows and teach classes.
In a given year, and including one acts and student run productions they do around 18 shows. All students on campus, regardless of major can audition, and non-majors are frequently cast. There are many opportunities to driect, and from our observations, the theatre is very student run.</p>
<p>The theatre facilities are not pretty, especially if you are comparing them to someplace like Muhlenburg or Otterbein. The theatre was built in the 1970's and is very rustic. There was a renovation a few years back that created a small studio space,where studio classes are held, as well as housing smaller shows.
I would say that it is very much student run. I don't know anything about lights, but our tourguide said that the students learn to operate all sorts of equipment, from old stuff to modern.</p>
<p>The students we spoke to were extremely enthusiastic about the training they recieve at Marietta. Some expressed intial disapointment with the facilities when they first arrived, but said that they now believe it was the best match for them.</p>
<p>My impressions of the greatest strengths and weaknesses of the program are as follows:</p>
<p>Strengths:</p>
<p>Personal attention. Not only did the school accomodate our travel needs, but in meeeting with Dr. Monek (the head of the music portion of the MT major) the day following my D's audition, he already spoke to her about her audition, and about tension issues in her upper register.</p>
<p>Student run theatre- It felt like the kids had the chance to drive the ship.</p>
<p>The students LOVE Marietta. We were there for hours over a two day period, and even the student who was disappointed by the lack of dance at the school,still said she loves it there.</p>
<p>Beautiful Campus- I know this doesn't matter one bit if the program stinks, but it is one of the prettiest campuses we have visited.</p>
<p>Weaknesses:</p>
<p>Very Few Dance Classes. </p>
<p>The theatre is not pretty. At all.</p>
<p>No Senior Showcase- I asked seniors whether they felt cheated by this, and they said no...that their senior capstone was their opportunity to show thier stuff.</p>
<p>The name Marietta is not familiar to people in the business. I know there has been a discussion on this forum about where a degree from one of the well known programs takes you as opposed to a lesser known one. This is another choice, as not every student is going to get into UM or CCM or BOCO.</p>
<p>I hope this gives an overview of this program to you all. If anyone wants information on the program, if you visit the college website, and follow links to the theatre department website, there is a place to ask students in the MT program questions.</p>
<p>The students were very nice and freindly. At one point my D joked about them stalking us, as they approsched us so many times.</p>
<p>If you have more questions for me about our experience, I would be happy to answer.</p>
<p>I will also give some info regarding two other lesser known programs in the next day or so, as I need to organize my thoughts.</p>
<p>Thanks for this update. Marietta has come up on the radar as a potential safety school for my S. Just wondering if you have a feel for the amount of liberal arts classes students take in this program. It is a BFA, not a BA?</p>
<p>It is a BFA- with more of a BM feel to me than some other programs. </p>
<p>I have the catalog in front of me and it lists the following classes as required for the BFA:</p>
<p>It lists a total of 79 hours of coursework in Theatre and related fields, 8 hours of music classes, plus 6 hours of music ensembles, 6 semesters of dance, keyboard competancy, and participation in productions. The Theatre required courses include 14 hours of acting classes, 12 hours of technical theatre and 6 hours of directing courses. It also inlcudes keyboard proficiency and participation in theatre productions.</p>
<p>The kids I spoke to said that as a BFA program, there is not much time to take lots of outside classes. It is possible to fit in a minor, but a double major in another field is probably not possible in 4 years. Admissions was encouraging my D to participate in their leadership program, which works like a minor.</p>
<p>I made a mistake on the total number of hours for music classes for Marietta in the BFA program. It is a total of 26 hours of various music classes.</p>
<p>For clarification, check the course catalog. I believe it is online.</p>
<p>We recently returned from a college tour that included a stop at Marrieta. We toured the campus and theater facilities, spending about 2 hours with the Theater program director (Steve Rador). In addition to the observations detailed by AnotherMom-W-Q, we found that the Marrieta productions are not attended by the community. They tend to be "edgy" per Steve and that may be part of the problem. There are currently about 25 students enrolled in theater majors (total, not just the freshman class), with plans to expand enrollment by 5 per year. Lots of individualized attention and performance opportunities, less focus on quality of those productions. The program runs on a very low budget (in general we found this to be a negative, but something can be said for kids learning to make due with recycling resources and being creative). The department is doing some interesting things with the choice of their productions. Steve has linked themes, characters, or period adaptations of plays in a series to foster analysis and dialog about interpretations. Next year there will be a collaboration between the History Department doing a course on Gays and Theater producing a gay play. Students from both majors will be taking these classes together.</p>
<p>The focus of this BFA program is acting and directing (not tech stuff). It is NOT a pre-professional program. The academic scholarships appear to be quite generous. They're revamping this currently to be able to give more $$, but we were told my S would receive a merit scholarship (he has a low B average). Also, the theater talent awards are in addition to whatever financial aid is given (at many places the talent awards are part of the financial aid package to meet the "demonstrated need").</p>
<p>Bumping for briansteffy - Also, on another thread, I found the below from anothermom-w-q (who wrote most of this thread, also, so she would be a good source for questions!):</p>
<p>I am so sorry to hear your news. That must be devistating for those kids. You have come to the right place for advice. There still may be some spots open somewhere. I don't know how you feel about small schools in Ohio, but Marietta is a non-audition school that may still be accepting transfers. Ohio Northern may also be an option. Call them on Monday to find out. Marietta has a BFA - with a definate pull towards the acting and music portion. the dance department is the weakest link. The strengths are very inidividual attention and many opportunities to perform. ONU is also a BFA but with a strong dance component too.</p>
<p>Students we spoke to at both schools were passionate about their programs.</p>