I’ve decided after a very long thought that I want to be an actor. I want to pursue a career in Musical Theatre, while also desiring to be an actor-actor. I’ve been looking at MT majors but they never really describe how in-depth their acting training is, while some MT programs focus more on singing and dancing. Does anyone know of any MT programs that have the same kind of dedication to the acting aspect as well as the singing/dancing?
Some suggestions to start would be Carnegie Mellon, Ithaca and Coastal Carolina. All are acting based programs.
Thank you so much!
Northwestern is another school with a heavy actng focus that may be worth investigating.
Syracuse is also an acting focus, and Boston University has a famous acting program that is going to begin offering an MT concentration- might be worth checking out as well. Just a note- every program listed in this thread is top tier audition competitive for admission (Northwestern does not have an audition, but is an extremely academically selective school) You will want to create a list that has a mix of schools, rather than choosing all programs that take less than 20 people!
I see from the similar thread you posted in Drama that you are in Australia- that’s an important piece of the puzzle. Is your family supportive of you studying in the US? American schools are very expensive for international students
Marymount Manhattan has a Musical Theater Minor which is usually paired with a BA in Theater Studies, but it’s also possible to pair the Musical Theater Minor with a BFA in Acting. So you’d have a BFA in Acting with lots of musical theater training as well.
UNCSA is a strong acting program that incorporates a great deal of vocal training and dance into the curriculum.
Add Otterbein to the list of schools where the MT program places major emphasis on acting. All performance majors, both acting and MT, take the same acting sequence and audition for all shows.
@jonahvark - are you my child? Kidding, but mine literally just said the same thing three days ago. We will both be excited to see the responses in this thread!
NYU/Tisch is yet another. You can train in a musical theater studio, but your BFA actually is called BFA in Drama.
James Madison University’s program has strong acting training.
Webster’s program for MT is almost like a double major. The MT’s take 98% of the same classes the acting BFA’s take…and then of course the MT piece i added.
thanks for all your responses guys! does anyone know about the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music’s acting training?
In years past (long past) it was considered “second fiddle” to MT and VP training. More recently, things have improved significantly- we have a very talented friend there- absolutely loves it. But while CCM offers fabulous dance and voice training, idk what is available to non MT majors. You didn’t used to be able to “cross over” much- not sure what the situation is now.
Shenandoah’s MTs spend their first three semesters of acting with the acting majors studying Meisner. The fourth semester the MT’s move to their own class where they learn to apply the Meisner work to song. We believe acting improves both singing and dance and therefore students are in an acting class every semester during their time at SU. This year author Larry Silverberg joined the faculty as well as Charles Goforth who is a company member at Labrynth Theatre in NYC.
~VT
@toowonderful , I assumed @JonahVark was referring to the acting training that MTs receive at CCM since that was the question in the OP. Maybe @ManVan can answer that.
@dusing2 - I was talking about acting training in my post.
I was also going to suggest that @ManVan may be an appropriate responder for this, but I also felt toowonderful’s answer was somewhat confusing, as to whether she was referring to the different majors or the training within the majors. Unlike some other programs mentioned on CC, there is no crossover in productions – if you are in MT, you will not be auditioning for plays, nor for operas. (And vice versa for those majors). And, if you are a student who wants that crossover possibility in college, CCM is not an appropriate choice.
However, there is a difference between stage time and training. I believe that you will not be sharing acting classes with drama majors, but you will have some of CCM Drama’s top faculty for your acting classes.
I would strongly suggest looking at those programs in which you are interested in, and examining their curricula carefully, in all areas. If the acting portion is of primary importance to you, by all means see how many different acting classes are offered/required, for any program you are considering.
You may also want to look into Emerson College in Boston. The MT program there is strongly focused on acting in all mediums, not just in MT. Students can act in film, student productions,musicals, plays, innovative productions.
Sorry if I was confusing in my post. I was at CCM 25 years ago- when the acting program was not well developed (compared to other aspects of the school) and there was no crossover between acting/MT/VP. As time has passed, I know the acting program has grown - but wasn’t sure about crossover rules. MT4LIfe says that you still can’t crossover in productions (which does not surprise me) but I have no idea if the curriculum allows/encourages it.