Technical Theatre - Class of 2021 starting out

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
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As I read all the news of the Class of 2020 finding out where they are going, we are at the starting line. My son is a junior interested in technical theatre, particularly costumes.

For Spring Break, we just went to Carnegie Mellon, Point Park, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and Otterbein. We have also visited Virginia Commonwealth a while back, but need to go back to see more of the theatre program. Also interested in seeing Rutgers and SUNY Purchase.

I would love to hear the pros and cons that people have for any of the BFAs in Technical Theatre. Any tips, etc. Experiences with the portfolio review would also be interesting to hear.

Thanks in advance!

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You might add DePaul to that list–they have both costume design and costume technology majors.

First, I have to say that the college admission process was twice as hard as for kids without interview/portfolio/auditions. It turned out to be a great confidence building exercise for my daughter. I helped her with making the appointments and meeting the deadlines, but her portfolio work was all her. It helped that she took an honors art class her senior year that helped her with portfolio preparation and gave her some more traditional pieces to round out her portfolio, because most of her work before that was digital, and many of the programs were relieved to see that she could draw and paint on paper.

In her case, her portfolio was more than a notebook. She had a notebook of digital art, an oversized portfolio of fine art, and a suitcase with some actual costumes and a puppet. The puppet was always a big hit. At one school (where she got in) they teased her about how costume people are always schlepping bags of stuff around, so she fit the bill.

We found that the same portfolio worked for all the schools she applied to, but be sure to carefully read the portfolio suggestions on the schools’ websites. She sometimes got so excited talking about her work, that she forgot that the interview was, well, an interview. So there will be questions like, “What’s your GPA?” (My daughter never knew hers), “What do you like about this school?” “What do you see yourself doing after you graduate?” “How will you overcome X weakness?” Her favorite interviews were not necessarily places she got accepted. She had one interview where the interviewer was a blank slate–should could not read him at all. She got accepted. She had another where she really fell in love with the interviewer, and danced in the elevator afterwards, but got waitlisted. Overall she found them to be really positive experiences. Be prepared to have the interviewers make suggestions on how to improve your work–she really liked that.

Several schools had a scene or lighting design person interview her rather than a costume design person. She didn’t enjoy those as much.

My daughter’s grades (B average) were a problem for some schools and not a problem for others. She had good SAT scores, but I don’t think they helped her at the schools that didn’t care about grades, and they didn’t help her enough at schools that did.

There are a few other costume types floating around here. They may have different perspectives. Good luck with the journey.

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One other thought: Almost every school asked her where else she was looking/applying/interviewing. She didn’t actually want to disclose that information. They seem to be very competitive with each other. A few times she slipped and ended up telling them sort of by mistake. By her last interview, she had the self-possession to say that she really preferred not to say.

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Hello @costumetechmom My daughter is currently a freshman BFA Costume Design major at the Theatre School at DePaul University. It should definitely be on your list, especially if he’s interested in costume. It is a conservatory program with 4-6 students in each technical area. Your son would get very specific training in his field with the added bonus of working on the crew of 3 shows freshman year and then delving into assistant tech work the following year on various shows. https://theatre.depaul.edu/conservatory/undergraduate/Pages/default.aspx .
It is an intensive program but amazing, especially with it being in Chicago. There is a lot of theater! My daughter absolutely adores it. She has learned so much on so many levels and is getting great exposure. Nan Cibula-Jenkins runs the costume design program and is amazing. My daughter is also incredibly impressed with Deanna who runs the costume tech program. (She has to take an entire year of costume tech before starting design classes next year.) https://theatre.depaul.edu/about/faculty-and-staff/design-technology-staff/Pages/Deanna-Aliosius.aspx
I’m biased but thought that I’d give you a bit more info since DePaul is not on your radar as of yet. :slight_smile:

Your son has a nice list of tech programs started. My daughter applied and was accepted to Pace, Emerson, SUNY Purchase, CalArts and waitlisted at CMU. It was an intense time however so worth it in the end. I agree with much @supergirlsmom 's info. Definitely add information to the portfolio that the schools ask for. My daughter also added other disciplines of theater and art that she was interested in-art, short films (many schools have online portfolios as well to upload), solid designs (she took one of the hats that she made). I know that the diversity of her portfolio was popular with those that she interviewed with. As for Unifieds, we chose to go to NYC and Chicago because she was interested in two schools that were actually in those cities. However, she completed the majority of her auditions in Chicago and it was great because she could spread it all out over a few days, it was over when it was over. The audition process at the actual campuses is usually more intensive and you get the added bonus of touring and chatting with students.

Many schools give GREAT AID. My girl received a lot of money from many of the schools that she got in to. If your son’s grades are in the A/B range he should be just fine as well. They REALLY love the combo of talent and hard work and if grades are decent it makes them think that they are a good candidate. My daughter has a 21 credit per quarter load plus crew times. It is INTENSE in a BFA program. However, if that is what your son wants he will LOOOOVE IT!! The great thing about the BFA is that classes are ALL associated with the degree program. Her history, writing, literature classes have all been taught by theater school profs and are integrated into what she is learning in all areas. Good luck with the process. LOOKING IS THE BEST THING!! The more schools that you visit the more that he will find what he really wants, and when it comes time for Unifieds he will know who he wants to audition with. My girl realized that she really didn’t like CMU and botched the interview on purpose because she was put off by their attitude quite frankly. However some people love CMU! BUT, she wouldn’t have known unless she asked questions of the program and got a feel for what it was like. GOOD LUCK with the process!! Send me a pm whenever you’d like if you’re interested!

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Thanks @supergirlsmom and @vogelpitts. Lots of helpful things to think about. Great to hear more about the portfolio and interview process.

I have heard a little about Boston U, but there isn’t a lot of chatter on this board about it. Was BU on your kids’ radar at all?

@vogelpitts Did your D like SUNY Purchase?

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@costumetechmom my husband is a BU alum and we toured and she chatted with the department. She wasn’t thrilled that the theater was so far away from campus and the theater is very old at BU. Considering what you’re paying to go to school there, she decided not to apply. She LOVED Emerson (Boston). However they didn’t give her any money-they aren’t known for giving scholarships/aid and the $60,000 per year price tag was frightening. She was so disappointed with the SUNY Purchase interview. They were all over the place, and an acting teacher interviewed her, not a tech teacher. DePaul hired away their Stage Management director because she was fleeing their program. It’s not the most organized and from what I’ve heard from other parents, a campus that is far away from most everything.

I’ve heard raves about UNCSA, Penn State, CCM and Mason Gross (Rutgers). Some of them have BFA Costume programs, some are Design/Tech Theater degrees. They also seem like good programs. It really is what you want out of a program.

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@vogelpitts Thanks for the post. A mom whose D interviewed this year (performance not tech) told me that they are building a new theatre at BU, but I don’t know when. Will look at that issue. Mine doesn’t really want to go that far north/cold anyway. Looking forward to seeing Mason Gross.

What I have learned so far is that programs are very different from each other. It will be an interesting year.

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I’m adding what I know about BU here in case others who come across this thread in the future find it useful. My D did apply and interview at BU.

I thought we were at an MBA school the way the kids were dressed. (Full disclosure–I have an MBA). My pink-haired daughter in the pastel print skirt stood out like a sore thumb. About 15 kids were in a room together around a table – parents where seated in chairs behind them. There was kind of a pep-talk quiz - presentation by the interviewer. The interviewer talked about how if they got in the kids would be working MUCH harder than their colleagues in other BU majors, 80-90 hours a week. Then he looked at my daughter (this is in front of the whole group) and said, “Supergirl, how do YOU feel about that?” She didn’t realize the correct answer was “Bring it on, baby!” and mumbled something about it sounding intimidating.

Then he called the kids into their portfolio reviews one by one. They were scheduled to last 15 minutes, but many were longer. Supergirl was last to go, and this was her first interview and she was not in good emotional shape. She had uploaded all her work to the portfolio system in advance, but didn’t have physical copies of everything. When she went into the interviewer’s office the online portfolio system didn’t work. The interviewer started telling her other schools she should apply to and that her grades weren’t what BU likes to see. Then he told her that artistically she would fit in and he would love to admit her to the program. He asked her how it made her feel, and she said, “Pretty good.” Then he said it shouldn’t–she should have confidence in her own abilities, and her self worth shouldn’t be determined by someone else’s opinion.

In the meantime, I was the only parent left in the other room, and the two BU people with me were gossiping (as people do). I was very turned off when a BU student started belittling an applicant that had had a speech impediment in her own interview group as a prospective freshman a few years earlier. Left a bad taste in my mouth.

BU has announced they are selling the Huntington Theater. The facilities are old, but kind of cool and spooky and historical. They will be building a more modern theater space on the main campus, so future classes will probably have much more modern facilities to work with. They hadn’t announced the details yet, but they had committed to acquire rights to mount mainstage productions somewhere else in Boston.

The news about The Huntington was big news in the Boston arts community this year because Emerson had announced plans to turn another historic theater, the Colonial, which is dark much of the year, into a student center and dining commons. Emerson has since walked back that plan and I think are now planning to restore the Colonial.

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Wow @supergirlsmom . So glad that my girl didn’t bother. Your poor daughter! She would fit right in at 99% of the other schools. Pink hair? Amazing skirt? Yes! I can not stand snobbery. Even if they built a new theater the new kids may not get to use it much anyway. Wow. It took DePaul almost 3 years to finish theirs from start to finish.

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It was a great learning experience for her. She actually was more excited about BU after the interview than before. Lessons learned: 1) Be prepared and have backups for your backups. 2) It’s not a good sign when somebody gives you college selection advice in a college interview. 3) FIt is everything. 4) Take encouragement where you can get it. The thing about fitting in artistically really bolstered her confidence for subsequent interviews. She had no idea until then that her skills would even be competitive for costume design.

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Hello, @costumetechmom! Welcome to this wild and wonderful process. What an interesting path your son has chosen. I absolutely agree with @supergirlsmom: the college admission process was twice as hard as for kids without interview/portfolio/auditions!

Of course your family will customize the process, but I see commonalities in all the design & tech people’s experiences. It’s true that the portfolio is, if not ALL-important, the MOST Important Thing, at least in costume design. But what that portfolio looks like? It looks like your son’s experiences distilled into whatever form best represents his work. There is no one recipe for the portfolio. Bringing a costume piece as the designers above is great (love the puppet). My daughter took a binder full of budgets, costume plots, and all kinds of pre-production stuff, and she received great feedback for that. She also included her set design work for a show her HS put on last fall. She had very little artwork to show that wasn’t design-related; others could have quite a bit. She included photos of some side projects she had done, however. Photos of her pieces in realized productions, alongside copies of research, sketches, and watercolors were very well-received. If you have access to photos of the clothing “in action,” rather than just on a mannequin, it shows really well. She mounted her pieces on thin black boards, 20"x30", I think (huge). They were about $3 apiece, but they will last for years and they look really great! I think they will keep their looks much longer than foam core, and I really wanted them to last for this very long portfolio review season. We got them at an art supply shop.

We visited Rutgers, BU, and Emerson junior year, Penn State over the summer, Montclair St. fall senior year, and VCU when she went for a portfolio review. We also visited U of MD, as we are in MD. They have a gorgeous theatre and a BFA for acting, but only an MFA in design. The BA in Theatre seems solid, but undergrads rarely get any design work, they told us, so she did not apply. UM Baltimore County (UMBC), by contrast has a BA in Design and Technical Theatre and it looks like an excellent program. If she hadn’t been set on a BFA, it would have been high up on the list.

We intended to visit more schools, but time seems to fly senior year, plus of course they are IN THEATRE, so that is the number one priority in everyone’s lives every second! In hindsight, probably would have visited a few more junior year or seen if any schools had open houses in summer. Generally, I had been trying to avoid visiting in summer, since that student vibe is toned down so much, but when we went to Penn State, we had a quite nice visit. A lot of theatre faculty were present and we still got a nice sense of the campus and the town.

My D started with about 13 programs on her big list. She was almost entirely East Coast focused, and she displayed an admirable consciousness of our relatively shallow pockets. Both my husband and I followed our own liberal arts passions and have a great quality of life but not an enormous income. We do have college savings for the kids, and we told her she could certainly apply to CMU, or NYU, or BU, but she needed to understand going in that she’d be to a degree dependent on their generosity. Last summer she narrowed down her list, striking off CMU, sight unseen, and both BU and Emerson. I asked why. Well, one feature of BU really stuck out (to all of us): the students seemed great. But at one point, they were telling us very enthusiastically how their professors are often away working and they communicate every few days via Skype, and how cool that is. Fantastic! How much money are we paying for this privilege?? She said she wanted to be in a program where she’s going forward. She has been in a great theatre program during HS and has learned a tremendous amount from her theatre teacher. But as far as actual costume design—and sewing—she’s taught herself quite a bit. In college, for her core courses, she wants professors who are there, on campus, to TEACH HER THINGS! Not every second, but she would not think it was cool to skype for a whole semester. Having heard about supergirl’s experience, I’m just as glad it dropped off the list. As for Emerson, everyone was very nice. We were there with probably 50 other kids, almost all actors and stage managers. The tour was extremely student led, and with such a large group and such a spread out campus, I think maybe it just seemed a little casual and unfocused. She just didn’t fall in love with it.

Rutgers she loved right off. I think the idea of a traditional campus appealed to her, once she saw it. Here are your performance and design spaces, here’s an actual dorm, here’s a dining hall, here’s the movie theatre, here is your bike rack, this is College. I think for her, it’s appealing to say: this is a neatly defined space that will be your laboratory and academy for the next four years. Montclair, VCU, Penn State all looked like that. She clicked with the faculty at all four of those schools, too. As a parent, I would have been thrilled to send her to learn from any of those teachers, too. They all seemed beloved by their students (at U of MD, too) and went out of their way to speak to the parents. This is something I never would have expected, but I have to admit I enjoyed! Purchase we never got to, DePaul we never got to.

I agree with the need for fit. Academic, financial, geographical, and I guess I would say philosophical fit. I felt as if each of the schools she applied to had a strong culture of career preparation. She did not want to be in NY, but she definitely realized along the way that she wanted to be near a strong theatre city. That being said, UNCSA is far, far from NY, and its design and tech graduates are in great demand. It’s all about fit!

So my best advice is nothing new: Show ‘em everything you’ve got. Do as much reading and research about schools as you can. Plan your senior year travel to Unifieds or wherever so you can pack in additional fact-finding. Oh, one another helpful thing: my D qualified for Nationals at her state International Thespian Society festival. She raised the money to go to Nebraska last year and was adjudicated by college professors and/or working professionals. Between that experience and the state festival, she had a great idea of what portfolio reviews would be like. It was a GREAT experience. Also—apply to YoungArts or similar competitions. My daughter received a merit award, which brought no cash, but was a wonderful thing to put on a college application AND makes use of the same material you’re using for your portfolio anyway.

Not sure how coherent this sounds, but hope it helps! Best of luck to your S and you, and I’m sure I’ll be chiming in again!

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I just remembered something–may be too far north for your son, @costumetechmom , but Dalhousie in Halifax Nova Scotia has a fabulous costume production program. They have really nice facilities, too, and have just recently become associated with the theatre and dance programs there. We visited. Supergirl didn’t apply because they didn’t have design, but it was really something.

There is a list of costume programs here: http://costumesurvey.info/. It doesn’t look like it has been updated for a couple of years, but it may help.

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Thanks! I love Nova Scotia, but it is a little cold!

That list is at least confirming that we have heard of most schools already, thanks.

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We had a wonderful visit a few weeks ago at Mason Gross. I think we loved everything about it. If I could blink my eyes and make it happen, this year would be all over, and Mason Gross would be it.

We had stopped talking about the pure arts schools, but a couple weeks ago he started contemplating SCAD and UNCSA again. Any thoughts about those?

He is now at CMU for the pre-college program, so I imagine discussions will change again…

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I am always a fan of UNCSA. (Have a drama student starting there).

I haven’t seen them but hear the facilities for production and design majors are wonderful. The school has many connections in both the theater and film industries The Tony winner for best costume design this year went to UNCSA (designed for Hamilton).

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So glad you had a good visit at Mason Gross! We were there for parent and student orientation last week, and we all had a great time. Be careful—that YEAR will fly by, although certain weeks and months will take FOREVER! :wink:

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I’m so late to this party haha

I’m a costume designer and I applied to schools this past year (I got into several- but for personal reasons not related to acceptances, I chose to take a gap year).

I do not have any first hand knowledge of SCAD or UNCSA but I know people who just RAVE about the schools! A professor from SCAD actually wrote my supplement recommendation for college.

I applied to Pace, NYU Tisch, Rutgers Mason Gross, Marymount Manhattan, Northwestern, and DePaul. I got into all but Northwestern and Tisch. Schools that looking back, I wish I had looked into more thoroughly are Point Park University in Pittsburgh and Penn State.

If you have any specific questions- feel free to ask me!

The best advice that I can offer is fill your resume and portfolio with quality work. As for the portfolio review- really work to put together a clean portfolio with good work. I recommend investing in a nice, small professional portfolio (I used an 11 x 14 which was NOT necessary, 8.5 x 11 would have been perfectly adequate). I also brought garments that I made and the reviewers seemed to be impressed by that. The most common questions that I was asked were general things: what do I want to accomplish in my career, what other schools did I apply to, what does theatre mean to me, etc etc) Schedule your top schools in the middle so you have some experience interviewing but you’re not burned out either. Relax and answer honestly, if a school wants you, you will probably know by the time the interview is over (and by that I don’t mean they will outright tell you haha but you will have a feeling).

My big question I had a year ago about the portfolio process was WHAT DO SCHOOLS WANT TO SEE? The answer ended up being: whatever you want to show them (within reason). My portfolio included production photos of costumes I did for Cabaret, fashion illustrations, still life art, a collage the represented me and my design aesthetic and general things that interested me (favorite movies, quotes, images, etc), photos of garments I’d made (fashion and theatrical), and as I mentioned before- I brought two garments in person. As you can see, most of my portfolio was NOT theatrical and that ended up being totally fine. These things were not particularly well organized (I had some things in the portfolio, some things on 11x14 boards, etc) but ultimately it was the quality of the work that got me in… it was probably not the organization or quality of the display (I definitely recommend being more organized than I was). Good luck!!