Has anyone had any experiences with this program, if so could you provide a review/information on it? Is UNCSA a good school in general?
Hi @magictodo My D attended the UNCSA summer intensive in 2018.
UNCSA is a consistently highly ranked arts school. They run both a college program and an audition only arts high school on their campus. Since you asked this question on the MT board, I will say that UNCSA does not offer an official MT program, but they do include voice, singing and movement in their drama programs.
My daughter attended the 4 week summer drama intensive. She has said that it was “the best 4 weeks of her life”. She absolutely loved it. The year my daughter attended, the drama program had 100 students. I believe this year they are having to cut that number due to the school refurbishing some of the dorms they house the students in. They offer a variety of programs, not just drama, over the summer.
There was no audition to enroll in the summer drama intensive, unless you wished to be part of the MT group. Then a video audition was required. The 100 students were put into groups of roughly 20 by audition the first day. They were not separated by ability, each group had a variety of experience to make balanced groups. One of those groups was the students who were interested in MT, another one of those groups held the rising seniors.
The first three weeks were spent rotating, in their groups, through a variety of activities every day. If I remember correctly they had dance, voice, stage combat, acting, improv, circus skills, and text analysis (probably a few I am forgetting). My D took actual school type notes in some classes and even had homework (character study type stuff). Each evening and each weekend they had options of additional fun that changed depending on who was teaching. My daughter did “Play in a Day” activities each weekend and rotated from writing to directing to acting. One weekend she did "Dance in a Day’ and learned a complex physical routine that she loved.
This is not a competitive program. Probably my daughter’s favorite thing was that every single student was treated with respect and kindness. Every group had a variety of abilities, but the instructors never made anyone feel less than. Because it was not competitive, the students all encouraged each other. She learned more than she could have imagined.
The fourth week of the program was spent in whatever specialty area the student chose. Those areas change each year, I think, but they offered things like college audition prep (the the rising seniors), improv, stage combat, acting for film and TV, and MT. There were many choices, I just can’t remember them all. The students performed for each other during the last week, but parents did not traditionally attend those performances (my daughter said a few did, but not many).
The last day of the program was parent/family observation day. Parents got to rotate through the classes with the students watching whatever was on the students’ schedule. The only official show in the theatre at the end was the MT kids performing the duets/group numbers they had worked on the final week.
Clearly, I would recommend the program. Hope that helps!
Hi @magictodo I typed a really long reply to you, but it disappeared when I hit submit. If it doesn’t show up here by tomorrow I’ll retype it. Long story short, my D went and loved it.
Hi @BFAMom2024, I just saw your reply, and thank you so much for the detailed response! UNCSA sounds great, and I’m definitely considering it for this summer.
My D did UNCSA’s summer drama program this past summer. BFAMom2024 gave you a great description of what it was like. Before going into it, my daughter was unsure if she wanted a conservatory style BFA program vs. a BA or BFA at a more tradition university, giving her a more normal college experience. After her time at UNCSA, she decided she really did enjoy the conservatory style program. She truly loved the program.