NYU vs. BU

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
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<p>BFA Acting Program</p>

<p>First Year – Acting I (2 semesters, 3 credits), Voice & Speech I (2 semesters, 2 credits), Movement I (2 semesters, 2 credits), Intro Drama Lit (2 semesters, 3 credits), Stagecraft (2 semesters, 1 credit), English Composition or Liberal Arts Elective (2 semesters, 4 credits.)
Second semester only: Theatre Ensemble, 2 credits; Alexander Technique, 1 credit.
Minimum credits: first semester 15, second semester 18.</p>

<p>Second Year – Acting II, Voice & Speech II, Movement II: 2 semesters, same credits as above. Substitute Modern Drama for Intro Drama Lit (2 semesters, 3 credits). Alexander Technique 2 semesters, 1 credit. Liberal Arts Elective, 2 semesters, 4 credits.
Stagecraft first semester only, 1 credit. Add Theatre Practice second semester, 2 credits.
Minimum credits: first semester 16, second semester 17.</p>

<p>Third Year – First Semester: Acting III, 2 credits; Voice & Speech III, 2 credits; Movement III, 2 credits; Alexander Technique, 1 credit; Rehearsal & Perform I, 2 credits; Classical Drama Lit Elective, 4 credits; Liberal Arts Elective, 4 credits.
Second semester: LAMDA Program (Study Abroad). Includes V&S, Acting, Shakespeare, Historic Dance, Movement.
Minimum credits: first semester 17, second semester 16.</p>

<p>Fourth Year – Acting IV (2 credits first semester, 3 credits second semester), Voice & Speech IV (2 semesters, 2 credits), Movement IV (2 semesters, 1 credit), Alexander Technique (2 semesters, 1 credit), Rehearsal & Performance II (2 semesters, 2 credits).
Acting for the Camera (first semester, 2 credits), Comm Film Lab (2 semesters, 2 credits), Senior Thesis (second semester, 2 credits). Liberal Arts Elective (first semester only, 4 credits).
Minimum credits: first semester 16, second semester 13.</p>

<p>Note: Theatre Arts is a BFA alternative after the first year. (The student gets to choose to pursue the Acting BFA or the Theatre Arts BFA.) Theatre Arts has many elective options in areas like design, management, production, internship, general electives, etc. Students design their own program, with as much or as little acting instruction as they wish. Theatre Arts students may do the LAMDA semester only if they have had sufficient acting instruction before second semester junior year.</p>

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<p>NJTheatreMom…so the issue earlier (or one of them anyway!) was that you thought NYU/Tisch had more academic course requirements than BU. </p>

<p>So…let’s see…</p>

<p>Again, here are the Tisch ones in a nutshell:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Let me see if I can attempt to extrapolate the theater studies and liberal arts courses from the BU list you have posted…</p>

<p>6 Liberal Arts electives/courses (inc. Eng. Comp) </p>

<p>9 Theater Studies courses (inc. Intro. To Drama Lit -2, Stagecraft -3, Modern Drama -2, Theater Practice -1, Classical Drama Lit -1)</p>

<p>**plus I am not sure if there are any theater studies courses while in London or if it is only training/practice coursework</p>

<p>I did not use the credit system but the total number of classes. From the looks of it, both schools require about the same amount of liberal arts and theater studies/production courses. I do not know with the BU theater study courses if they require exact ones or if there are options, though at Tisch, after the 2 freshman year theater studies classes, the other five are all by choice within general categories of theater studies, but not specific classes. </p>

<p>So, roughly comparing these…they seem similar to the quantity and types of required courses outside of the training course requirements.</p>

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<p>Then, at NYU, if your son were to stay in Stella Adler Studio all four years (which he would not have to do as he could do a different advanced studio such as Playwrights Horizons - directing or Classical Studio or Stonestreet Studio - screen acting), here would be the training curriculum:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>You may notice that the coursework is similarly balanced as BU, though may have some differences. </p>

<p>This is the kind of exploration that every applicant needs to do when comparing and selecting colleges.</p>

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<p>NJTheatreMom,
Here is a link to a section of the BU registrar’s office where you can use the course descriptions you’ve been given to put together something like what a BU schedule might look like. <a href=“An error has occurred.”>An error has occurred.; Actually, it’ll probably be easier to just call and ask about the number of weekly contact hours for each year. That’s the amount of time spent working directly with the faculty in class NOT including breaks, etc. You could also request sample class schedules for each semester in the program.</p>

<p>Another thing to look at is the faculty page to get an idea of the different influences their they bring to bear … [Boston</a> University College of Fine Arts](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/cfa/theatre/faculty/]Boston”>http://www.bu.edu/cfa/theatre/faculty/) Keep in mind that they also get a semester in London studying at LAMDA where there will still be more influences offered.</p>

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<p>I might be able to decipher the BU requirements a little. Here are the guidelines from the handbook that my daughter (BU BFA acting) has to follow to graduate:</p>

<p>BU Liberal Arts Distribution Guidelines
Both the BFA Acting and the BFA Theatre Arts programs require 28 credits (or 7 semesters) of Liberal Arts courses to complete the course of study for graduation. These 28 credits must include a 100-level university writing course (WR 100)<em>, along with a variety of courses that fulfill one of the following three tracks:

  1. A Liberal Arts distribution as follows:
    a. Social Sciences – 4 or 8 credits</em>*
    b. Language and Literature – 4 or 8 credits**
    c. Philosophy and Religion – 4 credits
    d. Liberal Arts electives – 8 credits
  2. A Minor through an approved CAS-designated program of study.
  3. An individually-designed plan of study (i.e. Arts Administration or Russian Literature) outlined in a detailed written proposal and pre-approved by the SOT faculty at the end of the first year of study.
  • Students who test out of WR 100 by taking the Boston University Writing Assessment (BUWA) must take an additional four credits of liberal arts elective(s).
    ** Students must acquire 12 credits (3 courses) from a combination of Social Science and Language and Literature courses. Students must receive at least 4 credits from each of these two disciplines.</p>

<p>The “stagecraft” classes that are taken freshman and sophomore year are crew assignments. (wardrobe, front of house, etc). “Theater practice” is your casting assignment second semester of sophomore year.</p>

<p>There are 5 semesters of Drama Lit required. The first 4 classes are set, no choices, but the 5th semester class can be either Shakespeare or Classic Greek Drama. The 5th class also counts as 1 of her 7 liberal arts required classes.</p>

<p>The biggest challenge she has faced is finding liberal arts electives that she is interested in that will fit in her schedule. Because her CFA classes have odd (compared to the rest of the university) start and stop times she usually only as one or two time slots open that line up with the College of Arts and Science (CAS) schedule. Also, the CFA building is on the west side of campus and it is a 10 or 15 walk to get to the buildings where most of the CAS classes are held. </p>

<p>Freshman year was frustrating for her because she ended up taking both a writing section and a liberal arts class that she really didn’t enjoy but had to take because they were the only thing that fit. This past summer she took some liberal arts electives at our local state university and transfered the credit back to BU. That not only allowed her to take classes she actually enjoyed, but it gave her flexibility in her second year schedule to take some extra theater arts and performance electives. </p>

<p>She is one of those kids who would be perfectly happy never leaving the CFA building so all in all it works well for her. If she wanted a broader college experience it might not be such a good fit. </p>

<p>Hope this helps a little.</p>

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<p>Wow, what a lot of good information! Thanks so much, Soozie, Fish and WasatchMom! </p>

<p>Very interesting, WatsatchMom, about the BU students possibly having to take unenjoyable liberal arts classes because of scheduling difficulties. This helps me see the possible big advantage of Tisch having days devoted to academic classes.</p>

<p>Yeah, we know about “stagecraft” at BU consisting of crew assignments. When my son shadowed a student on his visit last week, the kid grumbled a bit about how - for him - Stagecraft had meant cleaning costumes!</p>

<p>To add a little balance to this post, we have been hearing great things about both the Alexander technique of physical training and Linklater vocal training, both of which are emphasized at BU. A student who was in BU’s summer program raved about how Alexander helped her acting. One of the freshmen at BU was raving about how Linklater has helped his singing so much, as well as his speaking voice.</p>

<p>Tomorrow when we are at Adler we are going to ask whether they teach the Alexander technique and Linklater there, as we really don’t know.</p>

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<p>My Daughter finally talked to your son last night. Please keep us informed on his reaction to visiting Stella Adler. I think he can’t go wrong. Both programs are excellent.</p>

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<p>I also think your son can’t go wrong. Both are excellent options and it will be a matter of preference. </p>

<p>Be aware that for ONE semester during freshman year at Tisch, that they take Theater Production and will have to do two crew assignments as well. </p>

<p>I don’t know what is taught at Adler but at CAP21, my D had to years of Linklater.</p>

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<p>This discussion has reminded me of a conversation I had about various acting methods with a woman I had the pleasure of meeting last year. She is the granddaughter of Bertolt Brecht and she was invited to Toronto by a professor friend of mine who is somewhat of an authority on Brecht. She worked with the students here and directed them in a production of The Robbers, and she’s back in the city again directing one of them, who happens to be a friend of one of my Ds (not the actor D) in The Misanthrope. She made the comment in our conversation last year that, in her opinion, some people place too much emphasis on the importance of an acting method, and that she strongly believes that her grandfather, were he alive today, would encourage young actors to pay little attention to the acting theories of 50 years ago. I found that comment (and her!) very interesting.</p>

<p>Not directly related, but it popped into my head when I was reading this thread this morning. :)</p>

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<p>Typo in post 68…yikes…that should have been “TWO years of Linklater.”</p>

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<p>My son had a nice phone conversation with actressmom’s daughter last night (please thank your daughter, actressmom, for her helpfulness), and we spoke extensively with an Adler alumna, Stacey, at the Adler Studio this morning. We were not able to speak with current students or faculty members while we were there, but we feel that we now have a better feel for what the studio is all about.</p>

<p>The program seems truly excellent. It is one that my son would be pleased to participate in. We learned that the Adler Studio is known for “voice work and Shakespeare.” The majority of the students who are accepted to Tisch’s one-semester RADA program in London are Adler students. Many opt to do RADA senior year so as not to miss the instruction offered in the third year of the Adler studio.</p>

<p>Before we went up to New York for our visit today, we had a question as to whether the Alexander Technique (movement) and Linklater (voice) are taught at Adler. The answer is that they are not taught specifically. The voice and movement teachers at Adler incorporate them to varying degrees. </p>

<p>We were a little surprised by what the studio is like physically. It is in a narrow, multi-floor office building sandwiched between two other buildings in the middle of a block of 27th street between 6th Ave and Broadway. There is nothing on the outside of the building to indicate that there is an acting studio inside. Adler occupies the fourth floor of the building and also uses space on other floors. </p>

<p>The hallways in the main studio area on the 4th floor are narrow. People pretty much have to turn sideways to pass one another. The classroom spaces do seem nice (there are even two small “black box” theatres), but all the classrooms that we peeped into appeared to be rather dimly lit…perhaps partly because there are only windows on the front of the building.</p>

<p>We got to Adler right at 9:00 when students were arriving for class and teachers were walking around. People may have been sleepy. Everybody was quiet, and we don’t recall seeing any smiles. Stacey herself was very friendly and personable and charming, but I must say that her affect was in contrast to the general “feel” of things otherwise. My son commented after we left that that the atmosphere struck him as tense, like at an audition.</p>

<p>During our discussion with Stacey we talked about the personality of the studio. Stacey said that students who are placed there tend to be ones who have spoken, during their audition, about the value of theatre to the audience or to society at large.</p>

<p>We became privy to a “screwing in a lightbulb” joke about Adler. (Apparently these exist for each studio…I’d love to know them all.):</p>

<p>Q: How many Adler students does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: The Adler students are the light bulb.</p>

<p>There was a student lounge in one corner of Adler’s main 4th floor space. An hour after we arrived we had still seen no students in it. We left and went to the Shakespeare Bookstore across the street from the main Tisch building and purchased “Stella Adler the Art of Acting” and “The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre and the Thirties.” The bookstore had a fabulous selection of plays in a basement room and a resident cat.</p>

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<p>Enjoy! :)</p>

<p>How many Strasberg students does it take to screw in a light bulb?

  • I touched a light bulb once and it felt warm.</p>

<p>How many Adler students does it take to screw in a light bulb?

  • I am the light bulb.</p>

<p>How many Meisner students does it take to screw in a light bulb?

  • How many Meisner students does it take to screw in a light bulb? How many Meisner students does it take to screw in a light bulb? How many Meisner students does it take to screw in a light bulb?</p>

<p>How many Atlantic students does it take to screw in a light bulb?

  • ***** you and your *****ing light bulb.</p>

<p>How many CAP21 students does it take to screw in a light bulb?

  • I don’t do tech.</p>

<p>How many Stonestreet students does it take to screw in a light bulb?

  • It’s not about the light bulb.</p>

<p>How many Experimental Theater Wing students does it take to screw in a light bulb?

  • Purple.</p>
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<p>^^^From the mom of a “purple girl who does not do tech”…best wishes to your son, NJTheatreMom on his adventures at BU the next four years.</p>

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<p>Hahahahahahahaha</p>

<p>Thanks very much alwaysamom…I knew you guys on CC would come through for me. LOL!!</p>

<p>Actually, somebody sent me a PM with a slightly different version of Adler’s:</p>

<p>How many Adler kids does it take to screw in a light bulb?
I AM the light bulb! Bzzzzzz</p>

<p>:-D</p>

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<p>Thanks very much Soozie, and thanks so much also for all your helpful advice.</p>

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<p>My daughter enjoyed talking to your son and thought he had a beautiful speaking voice. It sounds like he didn’t like the studio. Just to let you know I freaked out when I first went there. I was scared to death. I could not imagine my daughter going there. But now I am use to it. She loves it and thats all that counts and I am sure your son will love BU. The one thing that I did like about the studio is that it has a lot of history. It is located one block away from what was Tin Pan Alley. I think its been there a long time and I can picture Stella and her students all taking classes in the 40’s and 50’s. If I could do it over again I would of loved to be able to take acting classes there.</p>

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<p>Actressmom, it’s not exactly that my son didn’t like the studio. But the tension he sensed there today contributed to his feeling that maybe he isn’t ready for New York yet. New York will still be there four years from now, we trust. My son is thinking that right now he may not be mature and assertive enough to pursue some the opportunities available through Adler by cultivating the right connections.</p>

<p>BU has a superb program as we understand it, and the people there are so winningly cheerful and friendly. My son really feels that that is what he needs right now. He is very fortunate to have the choice.</p>

<p>I must admit that when my son addressed questions to both your daughter and Stacey about whether the Adler students are close and mutually supportive, they both seemed to hesitate and didn’t really address the question. Stacey said, “Hmm, I knew MOST of the students in my class…”</p>

<p>Interesting about the Adler building and the history of the area. I’m glad my son came across well over the phone. He used to be terribly phone shy, for years. But as an actor, one works hard on so many aspects of oneself. It’s a beautiful thing. :-)</p>

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<p>Well, it’s BU for me too! NYU gave me a small talent scholarship from Tisch, but not enough to keep me out of debt for a million years! </p>

<p>I’m excited. I think it will be better get a more well-rounded, toolbox theatre education.</p>

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<p>Congratulations, Becca! Seems like your going to BU is something that was “meant to be.” Hooray, another “terrier”! :-)</p>

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<p>congratulations becca</p>

<p>it must be great to B U</p>

<p>ahahahahhahahaha</p>

<p>i hate myself</p>