Ohio Northern University

<p>Does anyone on the board have any information about Ohio Northern University and their theatre program? I did a search on the board but didn’t find anything.
Rhonda</p>

<p>ONU has a fantastic theatre department, just not a good website for it. You can find out some information at <a href="http://www.onu.edu/a+s/comm_arts/%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.onu.edu/a+s/comm_arts/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>International partnerships, a degree in musical theatre, opera workshop, etc.</p>

<p>My D audtioned there and was accepted two years ago. I did write something about it at the time, and will try to bump it for you.</p>

<p>In a nutshell, the positives for my D were;</p>

<p>The small campus, and small department and the opportunities that could offer her. (Freshmen usually do the holiday spectacular - not sure if I have the name right or not, but it is big in the community)</p>

<p>Pretty campus, personal attention.</p>

<p>The biggest negative was the location. You really need to like cold weather, and small towns. We are from California, and it was very different from what she was used to.
The campus culture seems more athletically inclined than performance oriented. You don't have as good an idea of what the competition is like out there within such a small department in such a small town. At Muhlenberg, where she does attend there might be 100 people auditioning for a role. You get a more realistic idea of the cut throat industry. I can't speak to the training, but my D did attend a few classes. We heard the college choir and were inpressed.
We did meet students who had auditioned at the big name schools who told us they were happy they had chosen ONU rather than a more cut throat school.</p>

<p>Thanks so much for the responses. I spoke to Lin in the Music Dept. today and she seemed very nice and very helpful. I think we will go for a visit so we can get a real feel for the school. I think the small school would be great for my D since we live in a small town. Also since we are from Michigan the cold is not a problem.
Rhonda</p>

<p>We met some others from Michigan at the audition. We visited campus twice, and the second time it was bitterly cold with the wind coming off the plains. Definately not what my D is used to!</p>

<p>The students were very friendly, and when my D and I ate lunch in the cafeteria, many of the theatre students came over and asked if they could sit with us.</p>

<p>When it came time fo her to make a decision, she was really torn, because she liked the school so much.</p>

<p>One other suggestion. I just looked on the main CC site, and clicked on colleges, then clicked again on the letter O, and found that within the last year there have been discussions regarding the school. One parent posted that her D is an MT student there. You migh want to send her an email to see if she can add anything.</p>

<p>I will definitely try the search again and see what I get. Thanks for letting me know. I think we may go down for a visit on the 24th and then we can see the Beauty and the Beast production the school is doing.</p>

<p>My D will be attending ONU majoring in Comm Arts this fall. It remained her #1 choice thru out the college search. ONU productions are very respected and students seem to LOVE the program. My D's roomate will be majoring in Chemistry and International Theater Production - interesting combo huh? </p>

<p>My D is majoring in Public Relations but it is housed in the same building as the other Comm Arts. The theater is quite beautiful and is a highlight on campus. Please let me know if I can answer any other questions....</p>

<p>(we live in Northwest Ohio)</p>

<p>Hope you made it through all the flooding okay, abasket. We stayed in Findley on one of our campus visits and every time I have turned on the news in the past two days I have seen shots of that area.
The theatre is indeed gorgeous at ONU.</p>

<p>Thanks - Findlay is about 45 minutes from me - I'm in Toledo. We ourselves have had PLENTY of rain, but nowhere near what they had or the problems they had...</p>

<p>ONU is doing Beauty and The Beast this week (through Labor Day weekend) I think and it is getting great reviews - if the OP reads this, this would be a GREAT opportunity to see the program in action!</p>

<p>My D and I went to visit ONU on Friday and the theatre is absolutely beautiful. I wish we could have stayed for the show but my D had rehearsal for a show she is doing. We had the opportunity to talk to a graduate of ONU while we were there and it was interesting how the more she talked about the school the more excited she became. You can tell she really loved it there. Also our tour guide is in her last year and told us she does not want to leave because she loves it there so much. The school is still on my Ds list but she is a little worried about the location of the school since it isn't in a large city.</p>

<p>I can understand your D's thoughts - Ada itself is next to nothing! But we too have got that feeling over and over from students there on many occasions - the atmosphere is one that makes them not want to leave!!! </p>

<p>It does appear that the campus offers many,many activities to keep the kids busy and offers many activities. True, shopping and such is not available, but then that's less $$ to spend!</p>

<p>Does anyone know how many people they take a year, and how many audition? Is it very selective? Also, how much emphasis do they put on dance? Thats definitely my weakest part.</p>

<p>bumped....</p>