<p>As a parent of a current junior, I will make an attempt to address several of the varied questions raised on this thread so far. </p>
<p>A general comment about the size of CAP21.....I often read on CC on other threads about how CAP21 is a bigger program and people thus assume more kids in a class and less individualized attention. But that is not the case. Everyone in your year in CAP21 is broken into sections of approx. 15 students and you take the core studio classes with those 15 students for the full year, except the students are mixed among groups for the three dance classes per year because those are by level (four levels of each exist per year/grade). These classes are still about 15 students but just not the same core 15 as your voice/speech, acting, voice/singing classes are with. Then, the next year, the kids are mixed up and you are in a new core grouping of 15ish. This class size is in the same ballpark as many of the BFA programs discussed on CC. The amount of attention is similar. If in a voice class, you work on your individual material in class. In acting classes, you work on your scenes with partners in class. The classes are a good size and the faculty come to know you very well. </p>
<p>Size is a personal preference and one to be weighed. I can tell you one advantage that some, including my child, see in a bigger program and that is that you have a larger social circle in your program (maybe 60 kids in your year as opposed to just 10-15 in your year) and get to mix with more types of people. As well, in a small program, there are just a few faculty members whom you work with all four years. In a Tisch studio, you will be exposed to working with a variety of faculty over the course of the four years. That has some benefits and I am just pointing it out. While NYU itself is a very large university, Tisch is a smaller college within it (you mix with other Tischies from other studios in the Theater Studies classes or in productions) and then your studio (ie., CAP21) is a small family within that and you spend at least three full days with that small family (not counting rehearsals). Some may like the idea of a family of ten for four years and some may feel stifled by that. It is a matter of preference. </p>
<p>I'm going to hit some questions raised here out of order....</p>
<p>The question about belting.....In CAP21, yes, it is true that during freshman year, they focus on the legit voice and on technique mostly (I'm just talking of the singing curriculum). Just as a point of reference, my own D's strengths entering college were that she has a very strong belt voice and that kinda is her forte. I often read on CC of people wanting programs that align with their strengths, such as if they are not really a dancer, they don't want a program with challenging dance. I know my D feels differently. She isn't at college to show off her strengths and keep doing those things but to learn in her areas of weakness and to be challenged. She did not mind not belting freshman year as she had to focus on her soprano sound and she learned by leaps and bounds to improve her legit soprano voice. In the next two years, those with the forte of soprano are challenged by belting and the pop/rock terms, etc. You get it all at CAP21 and you are forced to not keep doing what you are good at but to learn new things and be stretched. After the first year, they do work on all the genres in the MT repertoire which certainly includes belting (the various contemporary eras and pop and so forth). They work a lot on acting/performing songs. The curriculum includes it all. It is important that you can do it all, given the various types of musicals today. </p>
<p>About the academics....you go to studio for training three full days per week. On the other two days, you have a theater studies course (there are required ones for all freshmen but then you choose them the remaining semesters) and a liberal arts course (the freshmen ones are required ones in writing related to the arts but after that you choose from very very broad areas...liberal choices). Unlike Nocca above, my D loved the writing courses in freshmen year and she is an avid writer. She has also enjoyed all the other theater studies and liberal arts classes to date. One reason that Tisch was attractive to her (among many reasons) was that there was SOME (not a lot though) liberal arts because she values being a knowledgeable person and likes learning. These are NOT a necessary evil to her whatsoever. She enjoys them. If you only want to train and have hardly any other courses or hardly any theater studies classes, NYU may not be for you. She also values challenge and likes that NYU is a selective university and thus the classes tend to be more challenging than at some colleges that happen to house a BFA program but are not selective colleges overall. The choice of classes is not restrictive....it is not like you have to take math or science or stuff like that if you don't want. It is pretty wide open within some broad parameters. Also, all CAP21 students take private voice which they must fit in during the two days they are not at the studio. </p>
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with such a large number of students (both straight acting and musical theater students) auditioning for both mainstage musicals and plays (as well as other productions), I have heard it said that it is sometimes challenging to even get an audition for one of these productions. I remember reading posts in the past from parents of NYU kids who were upset because they did not even have the chance to sign up for an audition. Can someone comment on this?
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<p>It is not challenging at all to get an audition for a show. I know you may have read someone comment that their child did not know about an audition and didn't sign up but most kids stay abreast of this and this becomes a nonissue. In fact, I just asked my D about this a few days ago since I knew you wanted to know about it. She has always been able to audition for anything she has wanted to while at NYU so far, btw. She said that the fall Mainstage musical auditions started sign ups this past Monday and she just didn't realize it and maybe she wasn't paying attention to which day the sign ups went up but she also is not in CAP21 this semester where this would be a buzz among her CAP friends much more than her current studio pals. She said she went immediately to the head of who handles the sign ups that same day since she saw the sign up sheets were full and they said that anyone who wants to audition WILL be seen and she is to come and while she doesn't have an appointment time, she will be seen. All the other auditions she has attended, she has signed up. I have not heard this to be an issue with any of her friends and all have tried out for many shows without a problem. A student must keep on top of things as they don't hold your hand with this stuff and there are MANY productions all over Tisch and it is not like everyone is talking about just one at any given time. I think this is one question to check off the list as it just isn't an issue there based on what my D has said. </p>
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* does this larger size mean, in reality, that a large percentage of the drama students at Tisch are never cast in a mainstage production?
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<p>The short answer is that not every Tisch student will appear in a "mainstage Tisch production" during their time at Tisch. BUT (there is always a but, eh?).....a couple things to help you understand this......For one thing, this is apples to oranges when comparing BFA programs because at some small BFA programs the main shows available to the students are the mainstage shows...that is the core of production opportunties at many schools. But that is NOT the case whatsoever at Tisch. There are four or five mainstage shows per year that students from ANY studio can audition for and only one of these is a musical. We were not sure if our child would ever appear in the mainstage musical, though we were not worried if she'd ever appear in a show while at Tisch. This year, she was a lead in the mainstage musical and last year she was not cast in it. </p>
<p>Let me explain some of the MANY production opportunities at Tisch. For one thing....in CAP21 alone......there is always a fall musical (this year was Urinetown) only open to CAP21 students (much smaller group vying for casting than the mainstage musical) AND there is always a musical for JUST second year Cappies and another musical for JUST third year Cappies. So for the sophomore year musical, you may have 60 students eligible who could audition if they wanted and for the junior year musical, maybe 40 are in the class (the class gets smaller as some do a different studio their last two years which is common at Tisch). I remember asking your question of my D when she was choosing Tisch and I remember her answer...she said that the number of students vying for the soph or jr. CAP shows was similar to the number vying in another BFA program among four years/grades and she had a good point. The funny thing is, after all of that, my D has never auditioned for a CAP21 show because for each one that has been put on while she was there (not counting freshman year when you are not allowed to be in shows), she could not try out as she was already in ANOTHER show outside of CAP21 that would conflict! </p>
<p>That leads me to the many other production opportunities at Tisch. One kind of production are the GAP shows which are the student run productions for all of Tisch. They put on musicals and plays that are very high quality but on a smaller budget. My D has musically directed one of these (Into the Woods). Then each studio puts on many productions just for their own studio students. Some studios open their productions to other studios and for instance, my D was in a faculty directed musical at Strasberg. Then, in Playwrights Horizons, there are students studying directing and in their final year, they direct their own shows and my D has been in their musicals. There are student created original pieces such as at ETW and many of her friends have been in those casts (including musicals) and she musically directed one of those and hopes to write/produce/perform in her own musical next year at ETW. CAP21 also has readings of musicals that you can audition to be in. There are at least 100 productions per year at Tisch, and so the mainstage is NOT the only production arena. </p>
<p>As well, I can't begin to tell you of the performance opportunities that come some students' way by the nature of who you get to work with and come in contact with by being at NYU and so many faculty, alum, and current students are involved in projects in the city. My D has musically directed a professional premier in NYC which came about through a faculty member who is a Tony nominated composer/playwright. This same person has hired her now to be the musical director (as well as perform in) the original musical completely written by the cast each year for what is called The Reality Show (it is not a reality show though!). She is being paid a lot to musically direct, as well as help write the show with the rest of the cast and perform it at Madison Square Garden for all of NYU's incoming freshmen in August. I just thought of another opportunity that had crossed her path in freshman year. A Tony winning director came to direct a new musical at CAP21 that was not for CAP students (CAP produces new works and is not just for NYU) and the cast was made up of Equity Actors. This director had seen my child and a boy in her class perform before they had gotten to CAP21 and wanted to cast both of them in this production. They went to the head of CAP about it but understandably they could not be cast because the rule is that freshmen can't be in shows. Had they not been freshmen, she could have been and I mention this as another opportunity that happened at CAP21 (the male friend/classmate is in the original cast of Spring Awakening, btw, and left CAP21). </p>
<p>Also, if you love to sing, you can try out for NYU's award winning coed rock/pop a cappella group, The N'Harmonics. My D has been in this group since the start of her freshman year and it has been a significant part of her experience there. She is the musical director now of the group, as well as a performer in it. She writes many of their arrangements. They perform a lot both at NYU and at venues in the city and at other venues and colleges outside of NY. They compete in the ICCA collegiate a cappella competitions. In her first two years, they won the Northeast Quaterfinals and went to the Northeast Semi-Finals. This year, they just won the Northeast Championship and will compete in a couple of weeks at the International Finals at Lincoln Center! They also perform at Joe's Pub. </p>
<p>My D is also in a theater group that she and some of her fellow Tisch Scholars started and she put on a show with various types of artists last spring and her part was her own original short musical. She is putting on a street performance this month that is original with this group. She has turned down some opportunities in the city that have come up through networking with her fellow students and faculty as she can't take more on but I mention this to say that there are a plethora of performance opportunities. Some of the students are in summer shows that came about through various graduates who are now directing shows in the city....my D has done one in the city as have her friends. Then, on top of formal performance opportunities, the students perform IN class a lot.....they perform songs that are critiqued. They have demos. They perform choreographed dances. They put up scenes, both acting and also musical theater scenes. My D says she is very happy that they were not allowed to do shows during freshmen year as it allowed the entire focus to be on training and she feels she learned so much that she was more able to take on the challenges of the productions such as the mainstage one she just finished which was very challenging and was actually a premier and they were changing it all along the way. Another performance opportunity (and this is just my own kid and not all the other opportunities I know her friends have had) is tonight....she is performing in Boston. The writers/composers of the Tisch Mainstage Musical have taken three of the leads of the production up to Boston to be in a cast with professional actors where they are putting on a concert/excerpt version of the musical tonight and they only had yesterday and today to rehearse with the professionals. While being in the mainstage show was great, the number of performance opportunities she has had while at Tisch are numerous and she has constantly been in one show of some type at any given time (if not more) except the limitations of freshmen year performance (but she played piano in Full Monty that year). So, if you ONLY examine the Mainstage production opportunity chances, it is a very limited view at Tisch whereas that may be the main avenue for performing at another BFA program. Again, CAP21 alone puts on a few musicals per year. Mainstage is for ALL of Tisch. </p>
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* how does the senior year showcase work? I remember reading on this board or elsewhere that 12-15 students are chosen to showcase. Is this out of CAP21 only, or out of ALL Tisch drama students?
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<p>There are several different showcases.....I will explain. First, in CAP21, for JUST their own CAP students, for anyone who has stayed in that studio for 3 years, they can take the showcase semester their fourth year in CAP. During that semester, they bring in various casting directors and agents to work with the students in workshops on auditioning, etc. This culminates in a senior showcase for just those CAP students. There is one in fall and one in spring of senior year, depending which semester you do that program in CAP21. Any CAP senior can be in it (not by audition) as long as they have studied in that studio for three years. The OTHER showcases are for ALL of Tisch and are called Industry Nights. There are two industry nights.....one is for MT and one is for straight acting. These two showcases are by audition only. Conceivably, if you are a CAP student, you could be in the CAP showcase and an Industry Night showcase for Tisch. Again, not all get into the Tisch Industry Nights. I believe they just had the MT Industry Night as my D commented that her close male friend who is in N'Harmonics with her, got a lot of responses from agents from it. She will try out for that next year. On top of these showcases, agents can and are invited to any productions at Tisch because well, Tisch is right in NYC and so industry people can be and are invited to shows and you can do that yourself if you want. I even know of three of my D's pals who recently graduated (two have major credits) who put on their own showcase in NYC and asked my D to arrange one of their songs for it. There are just a lot of opportunities for exposure when you are right in the middle of the action as well as many industry folk get involved with NYU and many faculty at NYU are professionals in the industry in NYC as well. When my D musically directed a professional piece in the city this past fall, it was NOT affiliated with NYU at all but the composer/writer is on the faculty. </p>
<p>I hope that hits some of the questions raised here. I am just a Tisch parent, however. Do ask current students and if you go to Saturday in the Square, there are current Tisch reps for all studios whom you can meet and fire away questions. Enjoy!</p>