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« on: Jan 24, 2012, 10:42 am »
I would leave the foreign language requirement to whatever the universitys Gen Ed requirements are. Could be a 4th level language... could be no language. "(insert language here) for singers" could be a good elective if the school of music offers such classes, but having rigerous language requirements might detur some students from the program.
Drafting - I would require hand drafiting and make CAD an elective perhaps. I'm a believer in learing the concepts behind something before throwing technology at it, and my memory of my CAD class was that it was not a class about learning how to draft, it was a class about learning how to use VectorWorks. If I hadn't known how to draft by hand going into the class, I wouldn't have made it through.
Directing/Design/Acting classes are all useful. That's how you learn to effectively communicate with your team. Lighting/Sound classes are especially helpful since in many small theatres, the SM may end up being either the lighting or sound board op (or both).
Reading music is useful when stage managing musical theatre, opera and dance, but a traditional music theory course offered through the school of music probably is not going to teach someone that has no music experiance how to follow a score because even 1st level music theory courses are designed for freshman music majors who know how to read music (or if they don't know, they shouldn't have passed their audition). See if they offer a music fundamentals course, or if not, develop one. If that is not a possibility, see if you can work a brief lesson on reading music into another SM course. As an undergrad, I taught a brief "how to read music" seminar for a class. It was two lessons, 50 minutes each. By the end of it, the students couldn't identity what key a piece was in or analyze the chord structure, but they could follow along in a piece with multiple time signatures and tempo changes.
Definitely some sort of seminar course that involves discussing the current productions. This gives a chance for the SM's in the program to discuss their productions and get feeback and advice from their peers. For me, it also always served as a place to vent and relieve stress with people that understood the frustrations.