Hi-
My girl will be a junior next year. Musical Theatre is her passion but also straight up Acting. She is doing Emerson pre-college MT this summer and in love with it. She is very talented, a great student and lovely (also lots of dance training).
Reading the parent testimonials who have been through the process of auditioning is really wonderful but also totally freaking me out. We will be doing the whole enchilada and though money is an issue we will get a coach (coaches). Single parent, small HS…need the help.
Question: I am looking for safety schools in the North East. Non-audition schools to visit and have on her list. I think any BFA program would be lucky to have her but of course I’m her Mom! Reading about all the rejection and competition is so daunting. Non audition schools with great theatre.
She’s a great student. Any idea’s? I’m not sure how to post specifically in the MT thread as some do…
Muhlenberg College in Pennsyvlania has a fairly well regarded non-audition BA in theatre, and for students interested in MT they recomend minoring in dance and music along with it. Massachusetts College of the Liberal Arts has a non-audition BA in performing arts with a concentration in theatre, and if you live in Massachusetts or New England you can get relatively inexpensive tuition. One of my voice teachers students went there and double majored in theatre and arts management, which was very smart on the long term career/finding a steady job front, as it could open doors for her in the business side of theatre as well (MCLA is also located near WIlliamstown which hosts a large theatre festival in the summer and some mcla students can intern at it). I also suggest you look at smaller/less well known audition programs that do not attend Unifieds and pull from a more regional pool (for example University of Southern Maine has a BM in mt that professionals in the New England area say very good things about, yet is rarely talked about on websites such as this), and audition programs that admit a large number of people (Marymount Manhattan accepts about a third of people auditioning, while still having a very good program and reputation). They provide sort of a middle ground between non-audition programs and extremely prestigious ones that have single digit acceptance rates. Hope this helped!
These are great and very helpful. Thank you so much MThopefu99l. Marymount and Muhlenberg are going on the list
for sure. I will look into MCLA. It’s early on but I can see that this next two years will be quite the journey. Any opinion on Bates College in Maine as safety ?