University of New Hampshire

<p>Does anyone know what UNH's musical theater track is like? Is it up and coming? Competitive? What was the audition like?</p>

<p>I can answer to the dance track of theater at UNH not to the MT track. My daughter transferred there in 2010. At that time there was no audition to get into the tracks but that may have changed. For that reason, kids ran the gamut of abilities. You have to, of course, audition for everything else…dance company/show, plays, musicals, etc. The program is big and there is a lot of competition to get into the shows. She coming in as a transfer and then doing a semester abroad in Africa made her not well known in the department and was unable to get into anything she auditioned for. As a result, I would guess that some kids will say that they have had a great experience and lots of performance opportunities and others will say that they had little to no performance options. She also had difficulty with the schedule as was trying to do a double major at one point and there just kept being conflicts with some of the theater classes.<br>
I think there are good educators in the theater department and decent facilities. I think UNH is a great option if you are an in state student. I think that it certainly can be a great experience for some and probably worth exploring. I do not think that I would classify it as “up and coming” in comparison to many of the schools that are discussed on CC but certainly one of many schools that can give you some decent training at an affordable price for in state students. Hopefully someone familiar with the specific MT track will respond.</p>

<p>I know a very talented MT boy from NH who went there and transferred out. Don’t know specifics, but he did not like it. In the past it has been non-audition but I heard that they were changing that. Don’t know if that is true and if so, when that is happening, or even if it has already happened.</p>

<p>I’m pretty sure UNH was an auditioned program for the first time this year. My son applied there in 2013 as a non-auditioned safety; we visited in the summer and I liked the people, facilities, and overall structure of the theater program (lots of BA options) but there weren’t students there or classes to observe. My impression was that they were up-and-coming enough to begin auditioning for acceptance, but it wasn’t geared toward that tightly structured conservatory-style training at that time. </p>

<p>I live in NH, and I just want to say that if you’re looking at in-state schools for theater, Plymouth has the strongest program, bar-none. </p>

<p>My S had one of the Plymouth State directors at a summer Shakespeare intensive at St. Paul’s junior year, and he LOVED him. I think one of the boys in the program ended up at Plymouth State, too. (But that’s all I know about UNH despite living in NH.) </p>