<p>Does anyone know anything about U MAss Amherst theatre program?</p>
<p>Hi. I got obsessed last weekend and read this thread all the way from the beginning and it has made me think more pragmatically about what I want to do next year. I go to a high school for the performing arts and had been planning to audition for conservatories this winter. My fallback college is my states flagship university where I will qualify for a full scholarship. I looked at the their undergraduate bulletin last night like Thesbo suggested and found out that I should have enough AP classes to graduate from there easily in 3 years if I go to summer school after first year. The problem is the undergraduate drama department sucks and I will more than likely major in history or political science and minor in dramatic literature if that is where I go. They have a masters program, but it is just okay and I think I could build a pretty good performance resume there because you dont have to be a drama major to audition for shows at the college and there are some good community theaters and a small time regional theater in town. Past drama kids from my h/s that were not recommended for conservatories by our teachers or didnt get accepted anywhere good and went there as a fallback have never had a problem getting cast in something every semester if that tells you anything. Obviously, I would need to go to graduate school if I went there. I have 3 options the way I am thinking right now. They are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Audition for all the conservatories and go to the best one I get accepted at using the state university only as a fallback.</p></li>
<li><p>Audition for only the TOP conservatories (Julliard and Carnegie Mellon) and go if I get lucky and get in but go to my state university if I dont planning to graduate in 3 years and go for a masters degree in acting after I finish.</p></li>
<li><p>Not bother with auditioning for the conservatories this year and just go to my state university with plans to go for a masters after I graduate. This would give me the option to audition for conservatories the winter of first year if I hate it and take classes that would get me out of all the general education classes at the conservatories in case I transfer. That way, if I did transfer I could ONLY concentrate on acting which would be super cool.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My question is if there is a REAL advantage in going to to an undergraduate conservatory over waiting and getting a masters in the long run? If I can get in a conservatory now, would that mean I would have a good chance to go to a good masters program in 3 years if I get coaching and dont let my acting skills slip? I will be 17 when I start college and I could have a conservatory degree by the time Im 21 or 22 but I could also have a masters degree by the time Im 23 if I play my cards right. Im going to corner my drama teachers about this but I would also like to hear any advice anybody here can give.</p>
<p>Anyone in the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio area, this is for you. Friday, I went to Northern Kentucky University, which is 7 miles away from Cincinatti, and I was absolutely impressed. I was given a tour of the campus which I must admit was a bit industrial looking, but I also met with the chair of the theatre department who gave me a complete tour of their facilities. Everything was modern and very well funded. They have a summer dinner theatre program that apparently rakes in a lot of cash. I passed by several practice rooms and was extremely impressed with their talent. They have a proscenium theatre with more lighting equiptment than Cincinatti's performing arts center and a huge flyloft. They also have a very reasonably sized blackbox theatre, also well equipt with lighting. The costume and prop makers are extremely skilled and I was able to watch a few working. That night they performed The Importance of Being Earnest which was nearly flawless. The acting never missed a beat and not one of Wilde's clever epigrams was lost on the audience. It is a growing program and I am extremely impressed thus far. I will next be visiting the University of Kentucky, Berea College, and CCM. I will post reviews after visiting.</p>
<p>after graduating from a conservatory and receiving your BFA, you wouldn't need to get an MFA. It would be much of the same. Assuming, you would be trained and ready to work!</p>
<p>Good luck,
Mary Anna</p>
<p>After meeting with my S's high school theater teacher tonight, I have some questions for this esteemed group. He (the teacher) has suggested that S attend the best BFA program he can get into (vs. BA program). Also stressed the need to develop voice (singing) and dance. He is going to work with S on developing an appropriate repetiore of monologues, etc for audition. However, he doesn't seem well versed in the schools or the process.</p>
<p>My big question at this point, is whether there is a need to work on singing and dancing. My S is not fond of musicals and has avoided singing since grade school. I can certainly see the value in having competence in all of these areas, and we do have access to voice and dance instruction. However, with SAT prep, theater rehearsals, math tutoring, exploring monologues, and improving grades in core classes, I'm just wondering if the singing/dancing development should be on the list of priorities since this is not an MT kid. </p>
<p>Advice on this topic is most welcome!!</p>
<p>Hmmm... interesting post. In my humble opinion, I know that re: summer/other employment, the ability to sing/dance is valued. It allows the troupe the greastest flexibility if the actors are versatile. That being said, if your son really doesn't care to do ANY singing on stage, even in the occasional chorus, I could still imagine that he would benefit from some dance/movement training. Actors who move well are important in musicals and non-musicals alike. For this goal, however, dance technique (as in ballet) may not be required. Anything that promotes physical flexibility, balance, use of momentum, body comfort and expressiveness would be helpful.
For my son, dance has given him great posture and physical poise as well as a feel for stage choreography and ensemble work.
It is hard to figure out where to allocate that valuable time. Good luck.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to 6 conservatories last year ( and only that - no liberal arts schools at all and no safety schools either -just high level conservatories -talk about stress on the parental level :-) !! ) She is quite good at moving though has studied little dance. She woudl love to sing but is just not very blessed in that area. She is now at De Paul in their BFA acting program. Having said all of that both NCSA ( North Carolina school of the arts) and SUNYPurchase required a song at their auditions despite neither of them having a musical theater program. NCSA specified that it be from the standard musical theater repertoire - SUNY Purchase said you could sing whatever ever you wanted. My daughter worked with a singing teacher and managed to pull it off but i tell you listenign at the auditions some of those people cn really sing!! Both of these schools say that your singing ability will not make or break your chances of getting in but i"m sure it can't hurt. They are both well- known and very reasonably priced and very competitive. None of the conservatories she applied to required dancing in their auditions. De Paul did have a group movement class as part of theirs but it was definitely not based on dance ability. So that was our experience. Good luck in sifting through everything! I'm sure you and your son will find what is best for him.</p>
<p>ElliotsMom,
Yes. Singing and dance are important even if hes not into MT. The point isnt so much in becoming a great singer or dancer as it is in working to free the body and voice (one-in-the-same, really) and both are great beginnings in that direction. If youll look at the curriculums for most BFA programs, youll find that a great deal of singing and dance are incorporated into the voice & speech and movement classes. Hell be doing himself a big favor if he goes ahead and gets started now. The dance will be especially important if he doesnt already have an extensive athletic or martial arts background. Otherwise, the movement classes will kick his butt once he starts in a good BFA and he could find himself extremely fatigued to the point that he may have difficulty concentrating on the mental aspects.</p>
<p>Actressfosho,
I feel ya on the temptation to go fo fwee fo sho and be a big fish, but the question you need to ask yourself is if you think you can go through three years of performing with students from a program which youve already acknowledged sucks. Are we to surmise that the students from your school who go there are usually the less motivated or less talented ones? Why were they not recommended for conservatory training? Do you think youll really be able to grow as an actor and not develop a whole slew of bad habits performing with them? Its impossible to just tread water with your growth, ya know. One big advantage of a selective BFA program isnt so much the teachers as it is your fellow students. They will be every bit as motivated as you and will push you to grow. It doesnt sound like youd get that at the state school youre considering. Do the community and professional theatres in your state schools town often choose plays with roles that would be age-appropriate and even more important do they cast age appropriate actors in those roles? Im assuming your state university is a BA program. I personally think that if youre going to do a BA, you should do the best one you can get into unless finances are a big problem. Another thing to consider about MFAs is that you will be competing for admission with people that went to top BA programs, others that went to BFAs, and still other older actors who have already been out working professionally for years. Just a few things to think about
</p>
<p>Are there unified locations that pick up the west coast schools, or the southern schools? I can only seem to find the grouping the Dr. John notes.</p>
<p>UNFIEDS are held in L.A. and San Francisco, also Las Vegas. Does that answer your question?
Also, NY and LA and Chicago</p>
<p>No UNIFIEDS in the southern states.</p>
<p>xxx,Mary Anna</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. It does help. I think I am trying to find something that doesn't exist. I have the unified schools from the site that Otterbein links to. It just seems that there are not really any west coast schools, or many of the southern schools.</p>
<p>I would like to know if there are other regional sites where groups of schools hold auditions, and how you find them. Maybe they just don't exist! For examply, in La, is it the same schools that are part of the unified site, or are there other schools there?</p>
<p>Let me suggest this:</p>
<p>In the same town where the UNIFIEDS are held there are many colleges who hold auditions the same days either in the same hotel or nearby, kind of "piggy-backing" if you will, on the UNIFIEDS.</p>
<p>You might compare other college audition dates/locations with the UNIFIEDS and see if they are the same</p>
<p>Good luck,</p>
<p>xxx, Mary Anna</p>
<p>Here are the schools that were at the Chicago Unifieds last year. All of them weren't offically with the Unifieds, but were auditioning in the same hotel on the same date. Add Juilliard for this year. Some are also MFA programs or two year programs.</p>
<p>American Academy of Dramatic Arts
American Conservatory Theatre (ACT)
American Repertory Theatre Institute (Harvard)
Boston Conservatory
Boston U
Brandeis
Cal Arts
Carnegie Mellon
Chautauqua Schools
Cincinnati (CCM)
College of Santa Fe
Cornish
DePaul
Emerson
Evansville
Hartford (Hartt School)
Illinois
Ithaca
Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts
Miami
Michigan
Minnesota
National Theatre Conservatory
North Carolina School of the Arts
Northern Illinois
NYU (Tisch)
Oklahoma
Old Globe Theatre in San Diego
Otterbein
Penn State
Roosevelt (not at the hotel, but their school is across the street)
Royal Scottish Academy for Music and Drama
Rutgers
SMU (Meadows School)
SUNY Purchase
Tennessee
UC Irvine
UCLA
UC San Diego
University of the Arts (Philadelphia)
USC
Utah
Washington
Webster
Yale</p>
<p>That information is a huge help! I didn't realize that there were other schools outside those listed on the unified list. We will be taking a look at some of the other schools also.</p>
<p>Many thanks!</p>
<p>Help! I'm new to all of this. I have a jr d committed to scenic design specifically. Which is more important in her portfolio-computerized "stuff" or artsy? Have been told two different things by 2 diff professors. Do all tech programs require students to rotate through all design areas? Which programs are the "best" for scenic design specifically? Should she include small scale models in her portfolio as well. Any help would be appreciated. Have visited ccm and very impressed. Webster my choice but in our town so she's not interested. thanks!</p>
<p>SMU and CMU are both excellent for design. Contact them for more info.</p>
<p>good luck!
xxx,Mary Anna</p>
<p>mommymouth, here's a link to Tisch's tech program. It's a very well-respected program and is housed in the drama department at Tisch. The requirements they have for prospective students' portfolios are - a written statement of purpose and samples of work (designs, drawings, photographs, or stage manager's book). Most undergrad tech programs will provide students with a good foundation on which to build for specific graduate programs in their area of interest, such as set design. Tisch has a graduate design program and this is the type of program which many of the very successful set designers would have taken.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nyu.edu/tisch/drama/tech.track/%5B/url%5D">http://www.nyu.edu/tisch/drama/tech.track/</a></p>
<p>thank you for the info. we have visited ccm-very impressed. any opinions out there on that program or nc, u conn, depaul or bu--these are our "official" short list for scenic design. thanks!</p>
<p>My son and I attended the production of Measure for Measure by the traveling company from Shakespeare's Globe Theater yesterday at UCLA. It was an awesome experience. The mission of Shakespeare's GLobe Theater (in London) is to further the experience of Shakespeare in performance. From May to September they perform is a re-created theater that Shakespeare helped to form. It is an open-air theater, so during the cold months they travel to perform.</p>
<p>This company performs in authentic costume, does period dances, with live music created by musicians/actors on-stage. The seats we had were front-row on-stage. The company is accustomed to playing to a theater nearly in-the-round. The assistants do some of the dressing of the actors on-stage so that you can see what the costumes/wigs consist of. Additionally, the actors and musicians mill around on the stage. The actor (yes, this is an all-male cast in the tradition of S.) playing the brothel mistress "Mistress Overdone" explained to us in the stage seating area about the real person the character is presumed to be based upon. He also showed us his outrageous 5" platform shoes and demonstrated how he could glide across the stage in them!! </p>
<p>This was a truely remarkable experience and I mention it hear because there are still three venues left on the tour. Next the company travels to PA to play in Phili and Pittsburgh. Last, they end up in Brooklyn, NY. If you're at all close to these locales, I encourage you to check this out.</p>