<p>abparent: You’re correct. BA students are eligible but not required to audition.</p>
<p>My son is a rising junior actor at CMU, where they can’t perform in mainstage productions until junior year. This has not bothered him. They have other performance opportunities - cabarets, scene studies in front of other students etc. Then there is Playground, an amazing three days of student produced works. The kids are in charge, choosing their material, cast etc. Playwrights can act, actors can direct, techies can dance,and they produce something like 70 shows in those three days, each half an hour or 45 minutes. My son and several classmates have formed a theater troupe that writes, produces and performs their own shows. I’m not sure if he could have fit in this opportunity if he had also been auditioning and performing in mainstage shows the first couple years. Just something else to keep in mind when deciding on schools.</p>
<p>Hey - I’ve been quite absent from CC, as I’m busy myself in graduate school! You all were so important to our process that I try to check in when I can…</p>
<p>I’m going to step out on a limb here and give my thoughts, about 4 years after my son started his college audition process. Back then it seemed that whether or not one could be cast as a freshman was a big deal, so I understand the questions and concerns of this thread.</p>
<p>Now that my son is a senior, it seems that the very most important thing one gets from a BFA college program is excellent training in all areas of MT. Without a doubt, my son feels he has grown in all areas of acting, singing, and dance. He’s also been able to compete very well for summer work and is hopeful that this very good training will benefit him when he gets out into the “real” world. He feels he’s learned much about the business that will help him going forward.</p>
<p>Elon provides numerous opportunities for the students to be on stage, and yes, freshmen and all students are required to audition for all shows. They not only have mainstage shows but also many student produced shows and variety shows, where all students can shine. Students are often in shows several times a semester. These may not always be in leading roles, as there are many talented students and few such roles, but they still get very good experience participating in professional quality shows. </p>
<p>The point I’m trying to make is this - whether or not the student can be cast in shows as a freshman will mean very little to you in the end. Going to an excellent program for fabulous training will mean everything. I mainly just wish all of your students luck in finding just the perfect program with the competition that’s out there! Tell them to break a leg! Choose programs you like for the training, not for their casting policies.</p>
<p>ericsmom - Well put.</p>
<p>Thank you for that advice. :)</p>
<p>Thank you Ericsmom for posting and it is so good to see you here again. I am glad you posted as another parent who has a child who has almost completed a BFA degree program because you were trying to give the perspective that I also tried to impart earlier in the thread that is hard for a prospective student to really realize. But it is so true that picking a program for the training more than the casting policies and freshmen auditions for shows is the most important thing and the amount of freshmen production opportunities are not going to matter to a student once they graduate and they will realize that eventually. But I always understand why a high school kid who has always been in shows finds it hard to imagine if freshmen are just in cabarets, in class shows, demos or showcases but no major musicals. In the scheme of things, they will find out that it is not what they really thought it would be like. My kid was fine and so were all the kids I know who had been in numerous shows prior to college but no major musical for 8 months of their first year of college (but were in them over the summers). They love performing as much as the next kid but came to realize the importance of training the first year of college and it all was more than fine. That is why I was trying to point it out to prospective students so they can realize what kids who have been through it are saying. Pick a program for lots of reasons but I would put freshmen performing/auditioning for the main shows as a lower criteria on the list and certainly not knock out such programs that don’t allow it at the point of application but see where you get in first. If you love two programs equally and are admitted and one allows freshmen to audition and one doesn’t, then it may be a deciding factor. But it ideally should not be the main factor in choosing where to apply or even where to matriculate over the many other important criteria such as the program itself.</p>
<p>Hey, Soozie - good to hear from you. too! It’s funny how one’s perspective changes big-time when you are on the other end of the college process! Time really does fly by!</p>
<p>PS - you also made me aware of Stagedoor Manor, and my niece really enjoyed her 3 weeks there recently!</p>
<p>Ericsmom, glad to hear it about your niece. Stagedoor is a truly special place. I’m always delighted to pass it onto some other youngster.</p>
<p>The University of Oklahoma requires that freshman audition for productions. Freshmen are often cast in the shows. It’s a very good program.</p>
<p>One thing that students should realize is that even when they are not cast in shows, per se, if they are enrolled in BFA programs, they are nonetheless pretty much always performing. Musical theater training is, for the most part, a <em>doing</em> thing, and not a “reading from books and listening to lectures” thing. In other words, students are constantly performing in their dance, acting and singing classes.</p>
<p>Main Stage performances require a lot of hard work. More than most students (freshman) have ever experienced before. Rehearsals are after class and run late, every night, 6 days a week for a solid month or more. BFA programs are grueling enough for an incoming freshman. Your morning teachers don’t care if you are in a show or not and your directors don’t care if you are in class all day or not. Some kids do very well in this environment and some don’t. I don’t think there is a right answer. Both arguments have merit.</p>
<p>beenthereMTdad, I agree completely that both policies (freshmen can’t audition/freshmen can/have to audition) have merit. That’s why someone above wisely suggested that kids not let a school’s policy make or break their decision to go there. Frankly, for kids who did not attend an arts high school and who are thus not used to hours and hours of intensive actor training, a school that doesn’t let freshmen audition might be a good thing, as studio classes in acting, dance and singing are quite taxing both emotionally and physically, and take some time to get used to. Having to deal with after hours rehearsals that go late into the night on top of that and the adjustment to college might be a little too much for a first semester freshmen.</p>