The Freshman Experience

College Majors Musical Theater Major
21

<p>Haha I know right? Our classes are awesome.</p>

<p>Honestly, I have no idea. I know a lot of us have written the administration requesting that the classes be leveled, and hopefully they will take that into consideration for next semester. Obviously, since it’s a brand new program, there are a lot of things that need to be worked out still–this is one. However, the classes are all taught at a relatively advanced level, so the beginners grow really fast, which is one perk of this system. So I can’t say for sure, but I’ll let you know when/if we switch!</p>

22

<p>quick intro to this semester:
Monday: LING 115 discussion section, 11-12. CTCS 190 discussion section, 1-2.
We talk about last week’s class.
Tuesday: death day. Really.
8-9:15: WRIT 140. USC’s mandatory writing class. So far, it doesn’t seem too bad, but it is at 8 am twice a week. :stuck_out_tongue: I seem to have a good professor, though.
Then I take a break, read the play for THTR 210, grab something to eat, etc.
11-12:20: LING 115. Language, Society, & Culture. Paired with WRIT 140, this is a gen ed. It seems like it will be pretty easy. It has the potential to be interesting, especially for an actor, but it is not being presented in such a way.
12:30-1:50: THTR 210. Theory & Practice of World Theatre I. We pretty much cover the entire history of plays in three semesters. This is the first semester, the Greeks up to Shakespeare, Wycherly, Ford, et al. This is the same fantastic professor that taught Text Studies for Production last semester. We all love him, he’s a great lecturer.
2-5:50: CTCS 190. Intro to Cinema. This is kind of a legendary class at USC, taught by Prof. Casper. He lectures for about half the class about a topic, like this week was literary design, and then we watch a film. They’re really great films and it’s a great class. I’m taking it for my film minor.
Wednesday: no classes. Once I get my car out here, I will try to use this day to work as an extra in LA.
Thursday: same as Tuesday until 1:50 pm.
4-4:50: MPVA 301. Private voice lessons. This is for my musical theatre minor. I actually start these on Thursday so I will keep you posted about them. :slight_smile:
Friday: THTR 210 discussion, 12-12:50.</p>

<p>And then I expect weekends will be similar to last semester.</p>

<p>I auditioned for a bunch of shows this week, but was not cast in any of them. However, I plan on auditioning for a bunch more student productions as those auditions come up. :)</p>

23

<p>^^wisdomsomehow: that was my biggest suprise after my son started his MT year. They were not allowed to try out for a show first semester - had to work backstage. But second semester, I kind of figured they would find “something” for ALL of the MT kids to perform in. Not so much.</p>

<p>They had one main set of auditions for each of the main-stage shows (4 total) and if you didn’t make one of those, you were on your own to find performance opportunities, be it civic theatre in town, small student-directed productions, or whatever. </p>

<p>And just being an MT didn’t guarantee a spot in the musical productions, either. Some of these spots were filled by acting students, etc. while some MT students were left out. I know…like the real world, right? The best actor for the job, regardless. It was just a suprise. Luckily my son has three projects lined up for next semester…but some semesters he may have none…</p>

24

<p>I already posted a detailed version of last semester, but this one is even crazier so I thought I’d post a SUPER SIMPLIFIED version of it. Here we go…</p>

<p>Monday:
9:00-9:50- Basics of Musicianship 2
10:00-11:50- Acting 1 Studio (with the beyond brilliant John Woodson)
12:00-1:00- Lunch
1:00-1:50- Masterclass
2:00-3:00- Hour of Private Voice Practice (required by my personal instructor, 1 hour/6 days a week)
3:00-5:00- Homework/Laundry/Whatever
5:00-5:30- Dinner
6:00-10:00- Music Man (later in the year “The Philadelphia Story”) rehearsal</p>

<p>Tuesday/Thursday:
8:00-10:30- Work in the Box Office (me personally)
10:50-12:05- Intro to Costuming
12:00-12:30- Lunch
12:30-1:30- Private Voice Practice
1:40-2:55- Intro to Ethics (my core class)
3:05-4:20 (or whenever you chose to leave the studio)- Ballet 1
5:00-5:30- Dinner
6:00-10:00- Music Man Rehearsal</p>

<p>Wednesday:
9:00-9:50- Basics of Musicianship 2
10:00-11:50- Acting 1 Studio
12:00-1:00- Lunch
1:00-1:50- Recital Hour
2:00-5:00- Work in the Costume Shop (20 hours and crewing a show or 50 hours required by my Intro to Costuming class)
5:00-5:30- Dinner
6:00-10:00- Music Man Rehearsal</p>

<p>Wednesday:
9:00-9:50- Basics of Musicianship 2
10:00-11:00- ACTUAL, Weekly Private Voice Lessons
12:00-1:00- Lunch
1:00-1:50 or longer: Common Hour (Theatre Seminar)
2:00-Weekend: DIE (no rehearsals Friday or Saturday, long rehearsals on Sunday)</p>

<p>Less detailed and less annoying. But terrifying. :slight_smile: Love all the others being posted! It’s great to see how different every program can be between BFA and BA, and even between schools if they are all still technically “BFA Musical Theatre”.</p>

25

<p>mema123, Thanks so much for giving us a full itinerary of the NSB MT curriculum. My DS has been home for a month and has not given me nearly as much of a review, lol. By your description, you and he are not in the same section–he had Eskrima this semester, for instance, and absolutely loved it! Still, everything you stated sounds exactly like his personal experience with the program. Your info will certainly help a lot of candidates who are auditioning for Tisch. Good luck in your second semester. My son is literally biting at the bit!</p>

26

<p>nicksmtmom, yeah, it certainly is different going from my small public high school, where maybe 60 people were trying out for the shows, and I was always cast, to USC, where there are something like 600 theatre students I think? Obviously, not everyone tries out for every show (not so many guys going out for House of Bernarda Alba for some reason… ;)), but it’s still a lot more competition. It is like the real world, though, and I’m determined to perform somehow. I’m having show withdrawal and I need to remedy it! But I do really love SC and all that it has to offer. It’s such a great school all-around, and it’s definitely possible to be an acting student and still have a “normal” (stereotypical) college experience–I’m in a sorority, a delegate to the Panhellenic council, explore LA with my roommate, go out to movies, shop at the dollar store, hang out at the campus center, cheer on the Trojan football team (and I went to a basketball game tonight! That was a first), soak up the sun (it was 77 today! A tad on the warm side, but I can’t really complain too much) etc, and of course go see tons of shows, minor in musical theatre & film, work on sets, study voice under an awesome teacher (I just had my first lesson today, my teacher is great, and I’m really excited for this semester), talk Broadway shop with my professors, incorporate Broadway into every possible class/paper, and so forth. I feel like USC offers the best of all worlds, and I am SO happy here. :D</p>

27

<p>@nicksmtmom - I’m about to do the write up about Ball State, I’ll include all the info about Generals/Muncie Civic auditions/Cave shows as well :slight_smile: It’s important info to know!</p>

28

<p>classicalbk, I have news! they have officially leveled our ballet classes for next semester! They are offering "ballet"class for students with experience, and a “foundations of ballet” for beginners, which I am in. I’m definitely happy they made this switch!</p>

29

<p>^^Sounds good! Back when my D was in CAP21, the dance classes in all disciplines were leveled.</p>

30

<p>mema123!!! Thanks for the update! That is good news and I appreciate you sharing it! :)</p>

31

<p>So that’s what all the buzz was about with NSB students today on their first day back to school! My son is not a trained dancer and will really benefit from the beginner’s ballet technique class. For those students who have had years of training and are especially gifted dancers, they can now get the indepth attention they deserve. Sounds like a logical next step for the New Studio.</p>

32

<p>Hey everyone!</p>

<p>FRESHMAN - Ball State University BFA MT</p>

<p>MONDAY
8-8:50: Piano Lab - Half of the freshmen MTO class meets for class piano on Mondays, half on Wednesdays. This way, we are able to have more one-on-one time in class. We also have short, private piano lessons with our fabulous instructor biweekly. On the week we don’t have a private lesson, we have in class quizzes on the material we’ve covered!</p>

<p>9-9:50: Basic Musicianship I - This class is fantastic. It is taught as an intro level course, for those of us who had no previous theory classes. However, our professor is amazing, and helped those who had taken theory in the past reinforce what they already knew, and improve! It’s definitely been great for all of us.</p>

<p>11-11:50 OR 12-12:50: Acting I -This class was an introduction to the many different styles of acting we will study with the different acting faculty over the next four years. The class was focused around the idea of abstract sound and movement as a way to approach and motivate text. We worked a lot with abstract sounds rather than written text. We did, however, work on monologues for General Auditions, as well as personal monologues we all wrote as a final project. This class definitely taught us a lot about ourselves as actors as well as who we are as people. I loved it.</p>

<p>2-2:50: Sightsinging I - This class covered sightreading rhythms, intervals, major and minor melodic exercises - it was definitely tough for some of us who hadn’t had any sightsinging experience, but we have all improved IMMENSELY in this class.</p>

<p>3-3:50: Aesthetics I - This class covered script analysis through Aristotle’s Poetic Elements. We read and took quizzes on eleven different plays, as well as having one large group project focused on one of the plays. We had to write a research essay on the play as a group as well as create, pitch, and perform a modern 10 minute adaptation of our group’s assigned play. This class was a late-night library class for sure, but definitely taught us all a lot. It was also really nice to get to work with freshmen in all areas of the department, rather than just the MTs!</p>

<p>4-6: Studio Master Class - Each Studio has it’s own master class day, either Mon. Tues. or Wed. depending on which voice faculty’s studio you are in. They are all run differently but meet once a week!</p>

<p>TUESDAY
8-8:50: Performers Instrument Practicum - This class was essentially a hardcore workout class designed for performers. It was designed by an acting faculty member to improve our alignment and physical strength. We all saw definite changes in our bodies after this class, and it got a lot of us into good gym habits!</p>

<p>*After this I had my Gen. Ed. Honors College course - everyone’s core classes were scheduled differently based on what they needed to take & when we had breaks in the day to fit them in!</p>

<p>11-11:50: Freshman Experience - This class was for ALL theatre & dance department freshmen. Faculty directors came in to talk about the show they were directing during the season, and students came in to do preview scenes/songs from the shows. Before General Auditions, all of the next semester’s directors came in to talk about their show and what they were looking for. It was a great introduction to the faculty as well as to how the process works once you are cast. It was a really fun introduction to the department.</p>

<p>12-1:15: Ballet I - This is the introductory Ballet class that all MTs are placed in automatically. However, there was a placement dance call for us at the beginning of the semester, and the really strong dancers in our class were moved up to a dance major level Ballet class. It taught the fundamentals, and helped out those who had no prior dance training for our second semester Ballet class, which is significantly more challenging.</p>

<p>4-6: Studio Master Class</p>

<p>WEDNESDAY = same as Monday!</p>

<p>THURSDAY = same as Tuesday without Freshman Experience!</p>

<p>FRIDAY = same as Monday/Wednesday without Piano!</p>

<p>Throughout the week, everyone has their 2 hour master class as well as a half hour private lesson with their assigned voice teacher. They are all amazing teachers. We also have ten minute rehearsal times with our master class accompanist to go over the songs we will be performing in class/record accompaniment to rehearse with/whatever you want to go over in that time! Our private piano lessons are also during the week, based off of the free time in our schedules!</p>

<p>And now, auditions!
During each semester, we have general auditions for the next semester’s season - as most schools do! There is a vocal/dance call on one day, and then the monologues are seen the next day. Callbacks are posted later that night and take place over the next three days so that everyone who is given callbacks for multiple shows is able to make all of their callbacks!</p>

<p>Once the mainstage and studio shows are cast, callbacks are posted for three student directed plays called the “Cave” Shows - they take place in our smaller black box theatre - the “cave” theatre.</p>

<p>Students are also given the chance to audition for Muncie Civic Theatre, a community theatre that works with a lot of Ball State theatre students & faculty members!</p>

<p>Second semester is essentially the same schedule - just the second level of each course! A lot of us are also taking extra dance classes, either jazz or tap, because we were able to fit them in our schedule through the dance department!</p>

<p>It’s crazy, but we all love it :)</p>

33

<p>I am bumping this up in hopes that some more freshmen will share their experiences here. So far we have (BFA MT) Ball State, Coastal Carolina, NYU/Tisch New Studio on Broadway, and Otterbein, and (BA) USC. A nice representation of schools and hopefully good info for those in the search process.</p>

34

<p>This thread might be of interest to folks about to choose between multiple programs.</p>

<p>It would also be great if additional current students are willing to add their experiences!</p>

35

<p>Monday, Wednesday, and Friday</p>

<p>-Acting 9-11:20. Your freshman year first semester especially you spend a lot of time working on exercises in class and out of class as well as doing two scenes a semester. Your first semester only your class and teachers can watch you to help build a sense of trust within your class, and then second semester they’ll open your stuff up to anyone who wants to come support! Second semester you do something called play projects where the faculty member chooses a play thats about 90 mins and then distributes the parts. Everyone usually gets about 3 scenes. We did The American Plan by Richard Greenberg by Freshman year.</p>

<p>-Interp and Argument 12:30-1:50- a required English elective that’s a semester long where you basically write about 5 papers through the course of a semester on a designated topic. Second semester this becomes Critical Histories of the Arts, which is an Art History course. Both of these are REQUIRED that you PASS. If you don’t you wont be placed into the acting pool your junior and senior year.</p>

<p>Music Skills 1:30-2:20- It’s a basic music theory course. You get out the amount that you put into it. For advanced musicians, its really boring.</p>

<p>-Ballet 3-4:20- Your first 6 weeks of ballet is designated to learning the basics anatomically. Then they split you into two levels and you’re on your merry way!</p>

<p>-Conservatory Hour-5-6:20- This class is only on Mondays and each week you discuss and critique whatever play or musical is going on at Carnegie Mellon. Every school of drama freshman student is require to attend.</p>

<p>Tuesdays and Thursdays:</p>

<p>-Speech 9-10:20- This class is designed to teach you the international phonetic alphabet. Each week you do a poem as well, for the professor to hear you and to try and teach you to properly execute a Standard American Dialect, so that you’re essentially a blank slate when it comes to taking Accents and Dialects your Junior year.</p>

<p>-Voice/Alexander 10:30-11:50- This class deals with how to approach your body and keep it healthy when you are hopefully in a long running show and to keep up vocal health. You also will do some monologue stuff in it which is great.</p>

<p>-Movement 3-4:20- This is essentially another acting class. You learn INCREDIBLY useful things such as viewpointing, as well as laban and bartenieff (sp?) techniques.</p>

<p>-Text for Actors 4:30-5:50- This is an 8 week mini on how to score your text and give you an INCREDIBLE grasp on text work. Everyone will eventually do their text work in how it best suits them, but it gives you all the important terminology, and you use it with a scene you’re working on at that time. It’s great</p>

<p>-Computing at Carnegie Mellon 4:30-5:30- This is also another 8 week mini. it sucks but you have to pass it or you can’t be put in the acting pool. You just basically learn about CMUs internet and such.</p>

<p>And then the dreaded crew. For anywhere from 2-4 weeks depending on the show, you have crew from 6:30-10:30 (usually later) every weeknight and from 10-2 on saturday. You can’t bring anything with you. haha</p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>

36

<p>SHOOT! I forgot your individual voice lessons which is once a week, and then a class on Thursday called Voice Lab which is from 12-12:50 where each week a different class will individually sing something theyve been working on in their lessons. It’s a great supportive environment that just keeps you performing, and to basically say if you can perform in front of your peers you can perform in front of anyone!</p>

<p>You will also have Foundations of Drama second semester which gives you insight into how to Dramaturgically research your plays without any help.</p>

<p>:)</p>

37

<p>@CarnegieMT2012 – Many thanks to you and all of the other MT students who have so generously taken time from your busy schedules to share a slice of your life!!</p>

<p>So far I think this thread includes MT’s at;</p>

<p>…USC (BA w/ MT Minor) – Posts #2, #22
…Coastal Carolina (BFA MT) – Posts #3, #24
…Otterbein (BFA MT) – Post #13
…NYU/Tisch New Studio (BFA MT) – Post #16
…Ball State (BFA MT) – Post #32
…Carnegie Mellon (BFA MT) – Posts #35, #36</p>

<p>The more the merrier – including students at already-covered schools who have different schedules!!</p>

38

<p>This thread is PHENOMENALLY helpful, even for those who are still deciding which schools to apply to next year! I wish students from more schools would participate! has anyone posted a request in the various school forums asking? This is GOOD STUFF!</p>

39

<p>amazing that these kids still manage to have a fun social life! soooo different from their non-theatre counterparts. I give it up to them…I wouldn’t be able to be this disciplined. Its a good reality check for students who are “on the fence” about whether this major is for them.</p>

40

<p>Hey y’all! So PPU freshman and sophomore year are technically BA track, but I think the schedules are pretty similar to BFA schedules. Keep in mind that no two freshmen have even close to the same schedule. It’s really very individualized, since there are a lot of us this year. Here’s my week as an MT major!</p>

<p>MONDAY
8-9:30 - Ballet
Our class is split into three levels of ballet classes that meet Monday through Friday. I’m in the intermediate level. Point Park is known for its phenomenal dance program, and that’s definitely reflected in the ballet classes. Getting up for 8 AM five days a week can get to be a drag, but everyone in our class has improved their technique a lot since the beginning of the year. While this is the only dance class you take for credit your first semester (some people can fit tap in their schedules second semester), a lot of freshman MTs audit and drop in to jazz classes for both MT and dance majors. Point Park also offers community dance classes in all styles that university students can take at a 50% tuition reduction.</p>

<p>10-11 - Sightsinging
Basically a class that teaches you how to sightread, for those times when you’re given a song to go out in the hall and learn at an audition. We also cover some basic music theory. Depending on how strong their musicianship is, students either find this class extremely challenging or pretty easy.</p>

<p>3-5:30, first semester - Musical Theatre History
A class designed to teach the history of Musical Theatre so you have a better understanding of how the artform developed and what kind of material is out there. Each class, we pretty much read a chapter, reviewed notes the professor sent out, and took a quiz on the last week’s chapter. We wrote a midterm paper on an influential figure in musical theatre. Our final project was to find a character we were right for in a musical we weren’t familiar with and perform a song of that character’s with accompanying character analysis.</p>

<p>3-6, second semester - Musical Theatre Techniques
A class that addresses how to act a song. My teacher is really big on knowing the given circumstances exactly as they’re given in the libretto of the musical. We do paperwork for each song we work on, and every week almost everyone gets up to work on their material. A lot of the work is focused not only on playing actions, but also on breaking any bad habits that we came into school with. Most teachers teaching this class direct shows at the Conservatory, so they give really helpful feedback about audition attire and song selection.</p>

<p>6-9:15, first semester - Sociology
A lot of Conservatory students take Monday night academic classes because our schedules are so full and there are no productions or rehearsals happening on Monday nights. Point Park is a really big school for people returning to education with night courses, so these classes can get a really interesting mix of Conservatory kids and adult learners.</p>

<p>TUESDAY
8-9:30 - Ballet</p>

<p>9:40-10:40 - Piano/Music Theory
We have a really nice piano lab with about 15 pianos. We learn scales and selections from a piano book. We work on theory, which is usually pretty similar to the theory we’re learning in Sightsinging. We also do a transposition project, in which we transpose 16 bars of any musical theatre song into any other key.</p>

<p>11:20-12:50, second semester - Academic Elective
I came into school with a ton of AP credits, so I only have a couple more academics left to take. Most people take another of the required academics in their second semester. I opted to take a language I took throughout high school.</p>

<p>3:30-4:30 - Sightsinging</p>

<p>WEDNESDAY
8-9:30 - Ballet</p>

<p>11:20-12:50 - Voice and Speech
A voice class that focuses on the Linklater progression for producing natural and free sound. We don’t do any IPA work until the sophomore year. The first year, we just work on releasing the voice from any habitual or learned tensions. I think this is one of the most important classes any first-year theatre student at Point Park takes. We learn how to emotionally connect with the speaking voice through text and exercises. We also learn the Linklater progression to develop our own vocal warm up. The really cool thing about Voice and Speech classes is that Acting and MTs are mixed within each section, since the school sees us all as actors. The classes are also usually under 12 people.</p>

<p>1:30-3:20 - Acting
Like Voice and Speech, Acting classes have both Actors and MTs and are kept really small. It’s hard to explain what a typical Acting class is, because we have a lot of Acting teachers on faculty. Every semester, we switch teachers and we aren’t allowed to have the same teacher more than once. The theory behind this is that if we have enough teachers with different styles, we’ll take the approaches that work best for us from each teacher we have and create our own unique approach. With both teachers I’ve had so far, we’ve worked on about two scenes and one or two monologues. Both teachers have focused on really different things in their classes.</p>

<p>4:20-5:20 - Private Voice
The voice faculty here is just as numerous and diverse as the acting faculty. My teacher is new on faculty this year, so her entire studio is made up of freshmen. What you’ll do in your lesson is really dependent on your teacher, but there is a big focus on legit musical theatre rep.</p>

<p>THURSDAY
8-9:30 - Ballet</p>

<p>9:40-10:40 - Piano/Music Theory</p>

<p>11:20-12:50 - Academic Elective</p>

<p>FRIDAY
8-9:30 - Ballet</p>

<p>11:20-12:50 - Voice and Speech</p>

<p>1:30-3:20 - Acting</p>

<p>In addition to all of these classes, you have a crew assignment each semester. You can be backstage or front of house for either a Conservatory or a REP show, which is the professional company associated with Point Park. Crew takes three or four weeks, depending on the run of the show. You aren’t eligible for casting until you’ve passed crew. It’s a pass/fail class and you have to REALLY mess up to fail it, so no worries!</p>

<p>Freshmen aren’t able to be cast in any mainstage shows, but we are eligible to audition for the May shows, which are children’s theatre, Starmakers, our annual gala performance, and for the Student Directed One-Acts. Not being able to audition was really a blessing in the first year. I was glad I was able to get acclimated to school its demands before I had my first auditions of the year.</p>

<p>If anyone has any questions about Point Park, feel free to message me!</p>