<p>Any feedback from current students about the theatre major (or minor) at Smith?</p>
<p>Smith has a great Theatre department. You can get more information at: Smith</a> College: Theatre</p>
<p>Yes, we saw the website. Just wanted more personal feedback.</p>
<p>I don't know if there are any theater major/minors who frequent this forum, but I do know of at least one poster who's been involved in productions at Smith. Hopefully she'll stop by. :)</p>
<p>(I did take a theater literature/history class my first year, and I enjoyed it. It's one of the required courses for the major, and despite the fact that I knew I would not major in theater I liked that I was exposed to a bunch of plays that I would have never read otherwise. Some of them were later staged at Smith.)</p>
<p>I'm not a theatre major, but I was involved in theatre my first year and my good friend is essentially a theatre major (she's really majoring in American studies, but her focus is theatre from the Harlem Rennaissance). </p>
<p>I'm not sure what you want to know specifically. The department is great, obviously not as large as one you might find at an NYC college or a theatre conservatory, but high quality. </p>
<p>The facilities are excellent, in fact, I fell in love with Smith's theatre on my first visit and it was a major influence in coming to the school. Smtih has a large proscenium theatre, a black box, and a television studio that they use as a theatre (it hasn't been a working TV studio in years, I'm afraid) for the One-act festival. We make all of our own sets and costumes on site, and you can do tech-work as a work-study job, or as a 1 credit course. They do a very professional job in the tech shops, I'm constantly amazed by what student-professor team-work produces. </p>
<p>As far as acting goes, auditions are held very regularly, not just for Smith productions, but for productions across the five-colleges. Cross-campus casting is very common, and most of the serious theatre students participate in shows outside of their own campus as well as in. Rehearsal schedules can be demanding and also a little erratic. I auditioned for a play the first week of my first-year, got the part, and quickly realized that doing a show right off the bat was hard, especially because I had a full slate of other extra currics and classes. </p>
<p>If musical theatre is your thing, you should know that there's no theatre department musical program, not at Smith or as far as I know any of the 5 colleges. At Smith, there's a student group called Leading Ladies that stages musicals regularly, but you don't have the support or production values that the theatre department can provide. </p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>Thanks proud smithie! Love your screen name. My daughter is interested in directing and the lack of musical theatre options is not a big deal. Now I have to convince her to open her mind to a woman's college.</p>
<p>The directing curriculum is pretty good at smith, I know several people that made that as their focus. The playwriting classes are also good if she wants to dabble in that as well. </p>
<p>There are directing classes, using students from the class "Acting for Directing" as your actors. There's also a one-act play festival of student-directed work every winter/spring and seniors can apply for the chance to direct an official theatre department production, such as the commencement show. There are also various opportunities to assistant direct, helping a professor with a department show, or working on a student project. </p>
<p>If you come and visit, make sure you ask your guide to take you into the theatre building, so you have a chance to walk around and ask questions. You might be able to sit in on a directing class, if you come on the right day.</p>