theater and musical theater at these schools?

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
1

<p>I am applying as an undergrad for the fall of 2008. I am very interested in theater and musical theater (but i would be getting a BA not a BFA) and I am also very academically driven as well. I am looking to double major in theater and psychology. I was wondering if anyone had opinions on the theater and/or musical theater opportunities (classes and performance opportunities) at any of these schools:</p>

<p>Barnard
Brown
Columbia
Drew
Harvard
Kenyon
Middlebury
Northwestern
Oberlin
Pomona
Scripps
Vassar
Washington University in St Louis
Wellesley
Wesleyan
Whitman
Yale</p>

<p>thanks a lot in advance for your advice. This message board is such a great resource!</p>

2

<p>Looking at your list of schools I am wondering if you have considered Williams College. It is similar to the schools you have listed in terms of academic selectivity, and is home to the Williamstown Theatre Festival in the summer. Also Amherst in MA -- they are part of the Five College System with Smith, Mount Holyoke, Hampshire and UMASS Amherst. There is quite a bit of theatre going on in the area. </p>

<p>I think that many of the schools you have listed above have strong Theatre and Music opportunities. They may or may not have musical theatre opportunities. That is relatively easy to find out by looking at the productions that are done on campus.</p>

<p>Yale has a very active student theatre group that does musicals. I lived in New Haven for a while and went to see some undergraduate student productions. I was impressed by the quality. Yale School of Drama is the graduate program and Yale Repertory Theatre is the professional company on campus -- so, students have the opportunity to see a lot of wonderful high quality theatre as well. </p>

<p>Vassar is the home of the Powerhouse Theatre in the summer... Vassar students (and others) may intern there in the summer. The town is somewhat run down, but the campus is very nice. </p>

<p>Oberlin has strong music and theatre -- I have been impressed with students with whom I have worked with from Oberlin.</p>

<p>Brown, Weselyan, and Kenyon have reputations for strong arts programming.</p>

<p>Middlebury is the home to a summer Shakespeare festival, I believe. </p>

<p>Northwestern has a wonderful Theatre program and a Musical Theatre Certificate program for which students can audition. </p>

<p>Columbia and Barnard are in the city, so you have access to all of the resources that NYC has to offer in addition to the fine programs at these schools. </p>

<p>Whitman has a good reputation as an arts school. I have been impressed with the graduates I have worked with from there. </p>

<p>That is just my stream of consciousness response. I am sure that other will have more direct and specific experiences with these schools.</p>

3

<p>i have also been looking for strong BA theatre programs. i've observed that the balance between "academic" and "practical" theatre classes/opportunities/etc tend to tip to the "academic" side at a lot of LAC-type schools, which frustrated me a little. </p>

<p>i ended up looking at a lot of these schools, actually...these are some of the things i found really informative to ask:
-the number of students and faculty in the theatre major
-the required curriculum for a theatre major
-how the productions work (whether your performance opp's are mostly from student-run extracurricular stuff or mainstage, department productions)
-how the interaction between grad & undergrad works (whether the grad program pulls resources and such, or you can work with them, etc.)</p>

<p>simply based on various college books, CC posters, etc-- i've heard oberlin, drew, vassar mentioned in the same sentence with "good theatre programs." i know yale and harvard have strong extracurric theatre scenes, and i've heard uniformly good things about northwestern. both oberlin and northwestern have music conservatories, i know. don't take any of this as fact though; this is just my personal experience.</p>

4

<p>Re: Theatre at Pomona and Scripps (same program, for the most part)</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pomona-college/352655-theater.html?highlight=pomona+theater%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pomona-college/352655-theater.html?highlight=pomona+theater&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/scripps-college/335663-theater.html?highlight=pomona+theater%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/scripps-college/335663-theater.html?highlight=pomona+theater&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Just to add: I don't believe that either school offers a Musical Theatre major (I could be mistaken), but I do know of a recent Scripps grad who designed her own. </p>

<p>Good luck :)</p>