<p>Hi Folks. My D is a junior in HS considering Brandeis where she would plan on majoring in Theatre and English. Our greatest concern from reading other posts is that as an undergraduate, my D might not receive as much attention in the Theatre Dept as the graduate students, that the professors’ attention is often geared toward the graduate students, and that the grads take many of the important roles in the Department productions. If true, then it would seem that our daughter would be better off looking at LAC’s without graduate MFA programs attached, such as Vassar. (Also, any thoughts on the social life at Brandeis?) Many thanks in advance!!</p>
<p>Hi, I’m a senior and was just accepted to Brandeis. In a very similar situation-- hoping to double major in theater and history. Any info is appreciated!</p>
<p>I can’t speak to this exactly from firsthand experience, as I wasn’t a theater major, although I was friends with people involved with theater.
But from what I have observed, undergrads get plenty of attention from professors. I myself was in an an undergrad class on American Musical Theater that is quite popular. The Graduate theater program is also not that large and particularly with budgetary issues going forward, the goal is to engage undergrads more than has already been done.
The MFA program only has about 10 students per year, while there are on average 16 majors and 14 theater minors on the undergrad level per year (according to university report released in '09). All the department shows I attended usually had involvement of usually at least 4 or 5 undergrads, and there are a couple of department shows a year.
But I also would not discount the undergraduate theater clubs, which are entirely student run and very popular and each semester put on several plays and musicals. There is one devoted to mainly Shakespeare productions, one exclusively devoted to musicals, Hillel Theater Group, which does both but has one musical in the spring I believe where everyone who auditions for it gets some sort of role and other groups devoted more to plays). Over my four years I saw several great performances including Seussical, Once Upon a Mattress, Into the Woods, Brighton Beach Memoirs, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,Thorougly Modern Millie, Julius Caesar, Comedy of Errors House of Blue Leaves and more.
They are generally well-attended and reviewed in the student newspaper. There’s also something called the 24 Hour Musical at the beginning of the year where students put together a production based on a famous musical in 24 Hours.
One of my recently graduated friends who was very involved in undergrad and department shows recently had a role in small theater production in New York City and has otherwise had some opportunities in local/regional Boston area productions. You can check out some reviews of productions in back issues of The Justice:
[The</a> Justice](<a href=“http://www.thejustice.org/home/archives/]The”>http://www.thejustice.org/home/archives/)
Here’s a listing of undergrad productions this semester, perhaps if you have an opportunity to be in the area while one is put on, go check it out:
[This</a> Season - Brandeis UTC](<a href=“http://brandeisutc.■■■■■■■■■■/this-season.html]This”>This Season - Brandeis UTC) Looks like there will be a production of Rent later this semester.
Here’s information on this year’s department shows:
[2010-11</a> Season | Brandeis Theater Company | Brandeis University](<a href=“Theater Arts Productions | Brandeis University”>Theater Arts Productions | Brandeis University)</p>
<p>Also, somewhat random but there’s a 2001 Brandeis Ba alum currently starring in the New York production of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying with Daniel Radcliffe:
<a href=“How To Succeed 2023”>How To Succeed 2023;
and who has also been on a couple of TV shows
and a 96 Ba alum who has also been on Broadway and several Tv shows
<a href=“http://www.theatermania.com/cast/sean-dugan.html[/url]”>http://www.theatermania.com/cast/sean-dugan.html</a></p>