So my D is dead set on auditioning for colleges for theater. Acting is very important to her but she really wants to sing and dance as well. She’s been doing musicals all her life and she really wants a good musical theater program with strong acting. Her top schools right now are Carnegie Mellon, Webster, and UNCSA. UNCSA is actually an acting program but they give their students such a wide variety of training. They constantly are graduating people who go straight into musicals, right now Isaac Cole Powell who is playing the lead on broadway in once on this island graduated from UNCSA in 2016!! They also get a lot of experience in film work because they are able to audition for the school of filmmakings student films, the films are produced in on campus movie theater. The filmmaking school is ranked top 10 in the country so the films are always amazing!! I personally want her to attend UNCSA or CMU but it’s extremely competitive so we are looking to add to the list??? Does anyone know of schools that offer strong musical theater training and a lot of acting???
I’ve heard that Baldwin Wallace has just added an Acting BFA and have also heard good things about Fordham.
@BFATheaterMom221, Hopefully you’ve already found it, but if not, go to the main Musical Theatre Major page & research - there is a ton of information available. The schools you mention have acceptance rates hovering around 4-6%. Most students auditioning for Musical Theatre, especially girls, have anywhere from 12 (low end) to 20+ schools on their lists. There are schools all over the country that have fantastic BFA programs that also offer strong acting. Look at Wright State University - the Musical Theatre BFA is actual a BFA in Acting with Musical Theatre emphasis.
There are multiple posts discussing training - I found this in a quick search, but know there are more: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1933780-mt-school-with-emphasis-on-acting-p1.html
Ithaca is a hot school for MT. The MT and Acting majors are in the same acting classes, which is highly desirable.