<p>How far in advance do colleges plan their seasons, typically? Are the plans secret or are they discussed around the campus? I'm wondering if it is considered bad manners to ask about upcoming season plans at auditions/interviews. (Somebody out there must be planning on doing Phantom of the Opera since the rights are now available to colleges. :) )</p>
<p>The answer wouldn't be a deal breaker, of course. Just hope to see some shows that are dance heavy in the mix.</p>
<p>Perhaps this would be a question better left for after an acceptance arrives?</p>
<p>classicakbk, would you or your son or daughter make a decision about which college to attend based on what that college’s upcoming shows are? What is your objective in asking?</p>
<p>I’ve certainly seen it at local theatres where a season has had to be rescheduled because they weren’t able to get the rights to a certain show so I suppose it would be a difficult question for a school to answer with much certainty.</p>
<p>I know at Coastal Carolina the 2011-2012 season is under discussion right now. I can’t imagine it would be bad form to ask if they have the new season planned or at least what shows they are looking at doing. You might also ask how they pick the shows for the season.</p>
<p>I think your idea of asking “how they pick the shows” is brilliant. Thanks! Then we’d know if there is indeed a pattern of programming at the school. </p>
<p>Not Mama R- </p>
<p>It would be wonderful for my D to know that the school has plans for at least one dance heavy show every year. From looking at past seasons, not every school does. Also, some schools have an operetta now and then. Others seem to lean very heavily to the contemporary. One can’t be sure the next season will have the same mix as last year’s. </p>
<p>It would be useful to have an idea of the flavor of upcoming seasons<br>
(later in April) when one is juggling school choices with financial decisions and all the rest. Even for a school where students don’t usually work the main stage for a year or two. IF the kid has a choice. And it’s way too soon to tell.</p>
<p>And as a fan of the show, I’m just curious to learn who may be doing Phantom/Opera. Not a deal breaker! </p>
<p>Schools have to wait on license agreements so perhaps they won’t be able to say much anyway. Which is why Austinmtmom’s phrasing of the question is a gem!</p>
<p>Typically seasons are not announced prior to securing rights. Most schools are in that process now. By the time auditions are in full swing, many will know the season and it will be public knowledge. But please, don’t look at a specific season selection as criterion for choosing a program. You are going to school to be in the studios with the faculty. Performance on stage is a very important part of the training, but not the focus.</p>
<p>I can’t see picking a school using a consideration of the upcoming season. At most, you may only know the season for the next school year but not past that (and some may not even know the next year’s season by this March). Some schools do not let freshmen audition anyway or not first semester, and even if they can audition, a freshman may not be cast. So, you won’t know the season beyond the freshmen year one at best. </p>
<p>If the kinds of productions are important, the best thing is to look over the prior seasons over a 5-10 year period to get a sense of the kind and variety of work produced there. You can ask about what sorts of shows they seek and how they decide, etc. But specific shows won’t be known beyond the next season. </p>
<p>When we looked into schools, we did not look into specific shows. I think the main thing is to seek out performance opportunities and to find out what kinds are available…mainstage faculty directed musicals and plays and how many, student directed productions, new works, black box, musical revues/cabarets, showcases, etc. and if interested, view past production seasons. Remember to look beyond the mainstage as to what other performance opportunities exist.</p>
<p>“Look beyond the mainstage.” Good idea, Soozievt. That reminds me of a young friend at UMich who is doing a Gilbert & Sullivan show now; it’s a community-college venture, not a main stage event. She’s a freshmen in acting, I think. </p>
<p>However, I’ve decide that considering today’s minus 1 with wind chill factor temps, I’m campaigning for any school in Florida! </p>
<p>OK, seriously-
Kjgc- thanks for the reminder of the focus on training. That focus for my D has served her well. She made sure to spend hours in training every week rather than doing back-to-back shows as did many of her friends. Casting results as a result of this strategy have been very good locally. We’ll see what happens away from home.</p>
<p>We looked at the history of productions at the schools my D had on her list, all those many moons ago. This type of information is easy to obtain and is, in my opinion, an important piece of the puzzle that should be researched by applicants. It’s interesting to see the differences in the types of shows and how that can vary from school to school. Back then, and maybe still but I haven’t looked at these things for many years, some schools’ show choices were very traditional (and often boring, again my opinion) shows with no deviation into anything more contemporary or edgy or interesting. Those also were often the schools which never had any student-written productions. I wish I could find a folder we kept on the different lists of annual seasons for the different schools. I think maybe my D has that with her in her files. In any case, I don’t think that knowing next year’s season is a very useful piece of information.</p>
<p>By the way, is the release of the Phantom rights recent? How did Elon do it three years ago?</p>
<p>AlwaysAMom brings up another point…student-written productions. Now, this may not be important to all applicants. Some applicants may be content to only perform established work such as Oklahoma, Bye Bye Birdie, and Pajama Game. Others may wish to have opportunities to put on new works. And yet others may want to go further and actually CREATE new works of MT. And these opportunities differ from school to school. </p>
<p>Speaking of my own D’s college (NYU/Tisch), new works are put on frequently. When my D was in a mainstage musical there, it was a premiere of a new musical written by graduates of Tisch Grad MT Writing program and so my D got to originate a role, but also learn from the experience of the creation of a new work and that was different than working on a musical that had been done before. The whole process with the writers and directors was very different in this respect. </p>
<p>Taking it a step further, at her school, besides student run and student directed musicals of established works, there are many opportunities for students to create theater from scratch. There were many courses in this. There were different avenues for this to occur such as at ETW studio in what is referred to as Independent Projects (creations of new works of theater by students). She performed in others’ new works and wrote her own. She had the opportunity to write a musical there and put it on. That was where her musical got its “seed.” Now, it is going further and being produced as a professional production. Many involved in it while in college are still involved. She is not unique in this regard as she has many friends who created theater while at Tisch and beyond and lots of work happens through this. Same with faculty who create theater. </p>
<p>So, if your kid is into new works and/or creating new works, see what opportunities exist at each college for that or if she/he is content in only putting on established musicals, then seek schools that focus on that mostly. Everyone has different things that appeal to them. My kid believes in creating theater for oneself to be in, and not just waiting for opportunities to come knocking. This was very supported at her particular BFA program and this type of thing likely varies between these college programs, as to the availability of this range of performance and creative theater opportunities. It all depends what you are looking for, but one should go beyond simply viewing the mainstage season and ask about other performance opportunities, new works, student run productions, and student created works of musical theater. I would say that more than half of my D’s performance work in college was either new works others wrote, being part of creating new works, or student run productions. Come to think of it, I just realized she was just in two established works of MT in college, one of which was student directed. The others fit into the category I mentioned…new works written and directed by faculty, other students, or herself or a group.</p>
<p>I believe the rights to produce Phantom of the Opera were released this past June just for high schools and colleges to begin productions this past September.</p>
<p>In the school year '07-'08, Phantom was a pilot project (by R&H Theatricals) at two colleges (Baldwin-Wallace and Elon) and four high schools.</p>
<p>alwaysamom - Elon and Baldwin-Wallace along with several high schools (including one here in central Texas) were given a special license to do Phantom. I guess like a “try out” of how the production would translate to high schools and colleges. The rights became available to high schools and colleges overall in summer 2010.</p>
<p>I think we could have a game show - for parents of MT kids - quizzing about school applications, auditions and musical theatre! This is a bunch of smart people! :)</p>
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