<p>In college, how do you juggle classes, work, and rehearsing for plays? Wouldn't work and rehearsal collide with each other? If you were cast in a department performance, how often do you have rehearsals for it?</p>
<p>In BFA programs, a lot of the classes don’t have homework. Rehearsals can be scheduled for every weekday evening and can include weekends. During tech week, the rehearsals can be very long indeed.</p>
<p>Probably there is some variation among schools. My son’s BFA program has guaranteed casting starting sophomore year. From that time on, everybody is in a production every quarter. Evening rehearsal time is set aside as a block of time in all the BFA performance majors’ schedules.</p>
<p>The juggling act is undoubtedly a bit more tricky in BA programs. If you are considering schools with BA programs, you might ask about typical rehearsal schedules, if this concerns you.</p>
<p>At the colleges I have attended (undergraduate school and grad school),and those I have taught at rehearsals are generally in the evenings on weekdays and on weekend days. At some of the schools one of the weekend days has been a day off. At others we rehearsed both weekend days and had one weeknight off per week. Often the day or night off did not happen during tech and/or production week.</p>
<p>When I was in college working and in shows I worked on the night that was off and on a couple of mornings a week when my classes did not start until later in the day.</p>
<p>Where I now teach students who work on campus often work during the day in the scene, electrics, and costume shops, in offices, libraries on campus, or in the food service area and arrange their class schedule to be able to work, leaving evenings available for rehearsals. Others schedule jobs at evening times when they know the will not have rehearsals except during tech and production weeks… ex. Delivering pizza between 10PM and 3am on Friday and Saturday nights. I know at some schools student workers are sort off like doormen at dorms signing visitors in and out. At this type of job or some office or library jobs it is possible to do homework then. </p>
<p>Homework generally happens at night after rehearsal, on nights were there is no rehearsal, weekends when not in rehearsal, and in between classes. The hardest thing to schedule is scene rehearsal homework for acting class. In this case you are trying to find times that work with both of your schedules. Can be tricky.</p>
<p>Students are very busy and have to manage their time wisely. :)</p>
<p>The amount of homework in a BFA or BA program likely does vary. In my BFA undergrad we have homework… Much of it was practicing for class work (scene work, voice lesson repertory, etc…), but we also wrote papers, read plays, theatre history texts, and took some general education classes outside of the major that also required homework. The amount and type of homework is likely influenced by the classes required for the degree program. </p>
<p>As NJtheatreMom suggests above this is. Good question to ask of schools you are considering.</p>
<p>Sorry for some strange grammar and punctuation above… typing on my phone. ;)</p>
<p>LLA, strong time management skills are critical to successfully navigating the demands of a BFA program and daily life. The number of actual classroom hours can be significantly greater than the “credit hours” and as indicated by KatMT, at many programs, there is significant “homework” or out of class preparation ranging from reading dramatic works and texts on theatre history, preparing written assignments including papers, script and scene analyses, to practicing scenes and other performance pieces with partners. Add in rehearsals and performances if cast. Then add in the time needed for daily life chores like laundry, and cleaning an apartment and food shopping if living off campus. Without a lot of self-discipline, focus and smart prioritization of time usage, the time demands can be overwhelming.</p>
<p>Like KatMT, at my daughter’s school, all rehearsals were at night during the week and during the day on weekends. Mondays were “dark”. What my daughter did was look for jobs that provided flexible scheduling and an hourly compensation rate that enabled her to earn a viable student income on limited hours. She worked for an entertainment company that provided DJs, MCs and dancers (party motivators) for corporate and social events (such as Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, Sweet Sixteens and weddings). She also worked as a “day of” assistant for a wedding planner. These jobs were limited to weekends and are per diem jobs in which industry practice is for the workers to advise when they are available and when they are not. The weekend work generally avoided conflicts with normal class responsibilities and when scheduled for rehearsals, my daughter would advise that she was available for weekend night jobs only. During the run of the show, she would list herself as unavailable as needed to conform with call and performance times. She also got certified as a spinning instructor and was hired at 2 gyms, another job where it is customary for the employee to structure their work hours around their availability and employers simply fill spinning class time slots from a pool of part time workers matching class times and instructor availability. These are jobs that pay substantially above the $8-10 range of retail sales and other entry level student jobs and as a result my daughter was able to earn a very viable student income from the limited hours she had available and was able to control her scheduling so as to not interfere with her school related responsibilities. Even under these conditions, however, she was scheduled virtually 7 days a week and had very little down time (Friday nights) when not in a show and no real down time when in a show.</p>
<p>In looking at schools, one of the most important questions we asked was to request current students at a school to provide us with the details of how they spent their days. It gave us some real insight as to what to expect at a school. We also gave a lot of thought to school location and our daughter chose a school in a major city influenced significantly by the resources available outside of the school community, including employment opportunities both during school and upon graduation.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! This definitely gives me a better idea on what the real schedules are like.</p>
<p>I think at many BA programs the rehearsal and class schedules are as intense as many BFA programs. I attended a program with both BFA and BS programs for undergrad. For grad school I attended a school that also contained both BFA and BA programs. I have taught at intensive auditioned-BA programs. All of the rehearsal schedules were similar, and students in performance classes had similar expectations for rehearsals outside of class. I think the biggest difference was that many BA program students were juggling more classes outside of the major. Although all students had reading and written work for major and non-major classes.<br>
I think the specifics will vary from school to school regardless of BA, BFA, BS, or BM. MichaelKat and NJtheatre mom offer great advice to ask schools directly and to speak with students in the program.</p>
<p>Glad the info posted has been helpful! :)</p>