<p>Hey, I’m a sophomore MT at Pace…I came from a prominent performing arts boarding school, and got into 6 other schools.</p>
<p>-What is the relationship between the theatre students like? It’s a medium sized department, 100 students and there’s a lot of camraderie. since it’s in NYC we have more opportunities to bond and go out together.</p>
<p>-What is the relationship between the theatre students and faculty like? the faculty has an “open door” policy, which means you can go and talk to them about anything. they really are the nicest people and they’re very knowleadgable. they make everyone feel very welcome and form a close relationship with almost all the students. </p>
<p>-How much of the required currculum is Theatre/Music/Dance related? How much of other academics? 68 credits are arts related, 60 are academics but there are alot of academic credits that can be swung into the theatre realm.</p>
<p>-What is the average format of the courses in the program?(class size, one-on-one student attention, performance, written work, home work, etc.) acting, voice, music, dance, movement, rep classes, production are all very different. no class is bigger than 14, they all require written work, and all include one on one attention. the teachers are very good about knowing how to give the right exercises to the right students. exploration is encouraged. there are 5-6 voice teachers that are assigned at the beginning of freshmen year and can be switched if the student is not happy with the teacher they were assigned. </p>
<p>-What is the most important thing you learned about Acting in your time here? in my first year i had an amazing acting teacher. he regularly brought in guest directors and teachers to inform us about cool, new methods or about different movement techniques or to give us a fresh, experimental take on a scene or monologue we’d been working on. the most important thing i learned was very effective, experimental ways to approach material.</p>
<p>-What is the most important thing you learned about SInging in your time here? the most important thing i learned about singing was that i should just have 1 voice. there should be no difference between a belt, head voice, chest voice, mix, all i should hear is one sound that is effortless and powerful.</p>
<p>-What is the most important thing you learned about Dancing in your time here? i have had dance training since i was 2, so dance had really been about keeping up my technique and learning more styles. but at Pace the wide array of dance teachers they had taught me about the nyc mt dance world and how to show what i need to show in auditions.</p>
<p>-What are your school’s theatre productions like? since it is a new program they have very limited budgets. they have to choose what they want to spend their money. althought the sets and costumes might not be professional quality, the artistic values are very high and the guest directors that are brought in are very top-notch. just this past year a broadway director and ex-bway performer direct “all shook up” and a very prominent nyc casting director direct “bare”.</p>
<p>-What are the three most encouraged characteristics of a Musical Theatre Actor in your school? i’ve only been at pace for one year and haven’t had the opportunity to learn to learn what the 3 most encouraged are, we’ve learned alot but i don’t know if i could narrow it down to 3. but i do know that there is a big stress on individuality and letting who you are inform the way you perform.</p>
<p>-What are the three most encouraged characteristics of a Human Being in your school? kindness, respect, and tolerance</p>
<p>-What is the one thing about your school’s MT program that makes it unique from any other? the director of our program calls pace’s musical theatre program the “island of misfit toys” which i think is a very accurate depiction of the program. we have very unique, different types of people that are being geared to work in the modern musical theatre. so what makes our program unique is that we have teachers who know how to help students grow as their own unique selves and teach them technique that will supplement their talent not stifle it.</p>
<p>-How many and what performing opportunities do you have at your school? There are 6 mainstage productions every year. Freshmen are allowed to audition for shows. Outside of mainstage there are over 40 other performing opportunities such as director’s festival, 501 [a student run production company], directing major shows, new works, and alot of others.</p>
<p>-Are there oppurtunities for studying abroad? Yes, one girl went to Australia for 6 months for joint instruction in theatre and ecology. A junior MT is going to London in the spring to train at RADA, LIPA, or another school. There are countless opportunities for studying abroad.</p>
<p>-Talk about your most recent Master class…our most recent masterclass was with original Chorus Line cast member Donna Drake. It was a dance oriented class, she taught us the opening dance and gave us direction, had a long q&a about “making it”, taught us alot about the evolution of bway, and gave us alot of great advice. </p>
<p>-Any things you wish your program had? i wish we had loads more straight acting training.</p>
<p>-Any things you wish it didn’t have? production requirements</p>
<p>-Are you having fun? SO MUCH FUN…it’s in NYC and they provide us with a ton of free tickets to bway shows.</p>
<p>-And lastly, describe how your time at your University affected yourself.
Pace is very much about taking advantage of NYC and using it to grow. If you want to do something artistically at Pace, they will try and usually succeed at helping you do it. Along with growing as a performer you can explore directing, choreograpy, musical directing, and alot of other things. I have learned how many different facets of creativity go into making productions, and have discovered that I also want to be a director one day and am starting to flex that directing muscle at Pace. With the support of my teachers I am learning how to be me as a performer in the musical theatre.</p>
Our program is expanding so much and it really is a joy to be apart of. Coming from someone who started three years ago (wow! time goes by fast) the program is now considered one of the Musical Theatre Programs to watch in our country which is a big honor. </p>