Onstage > College and Graduate Studies

Undergrad schools for SM

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hilary25:
I'm a city girl so the schools that I just applied to are all in the New York City area. However, all of them have different style theatre programs, and all have specific stage management tracks

`SUNY Purchase
`NYU
`Marymount Manhattan
`Pace

You really have to think about what kind of program are you looking for, but also about things like location, size of campus/classes. MMM has classes with maybe 10 people in them whereas other schools you may be dealing with more. SUNY is a conservatory style program which some people don't like because it is too specific. NYU, MMM, Pace are all in the city, which makes them more appealing to me since I want to live in a city environment.

There are plenty of other programs out there, many with great reputations but it really comes down to the other things that effect a decision, finances, location, class size, proram style, etc..

good luck with your decision!

jazminhupp:
My personal advice is NOT to pursue a BFA program.  About half of the students change their major halfway through and you have to start college all over again because you'll have missed all of the general education requirements.  You'll learn theatre everyday if you work, you've only got 4 years of college to think about something else.  Learn how to think!  If you can afford it, (I couldn't) NYU's SMs seem to work a lot.

I went to SUNY Purchase and at first thought I had found the holy grail of theatre but unfortunately it didn't work out.  If you are considering Purchase, feel free to e-mail me and I'll answer any questions you have (jazhup@mac.com).

A couple of things...
1. They only graduate about a third of their theatre students.  The school is not interested in teaching you, they are interested in upkeeping their reputationd.  So they kick out or pressure out anyone who they think isn't molded in their image.  You won't really get what I'm talking about until orientation where they tell you to look to your right and look to your left and at least one of the those students won't graduate.

2. The campus is super inconvient.  They advertise it like it's a quick trip into the city, it's not.  You can't walk to anything off campus.  I've never been to a college that didn't even have a liqour store within walking distance.  Get a car or make friends!

3.  Only go there if you have in-state tuition.  My friends who paid out of state will NEVER be able to pay off their student debt until they're Equity.

4.  It is a good place to make connections, if you can graduate you will most likely work.  My room mates graduated as LDs and they work consistantely, I even still SM because of Purchase kids.

5.  The department head can be abusive, in fact I've known kids that thought about sueing for harrasment.  They play favorites, they're unfair, they're mean, they think it's all for your own good.  Who knows?

centaura:
I went to a state university and I think I did pretty well.  They had a very good theatre program, and while they didn't have any stage management classes, I got the experience of stage managing good sized shows.  One of the things that I will never regret from my years in college is the other classes that I took.  I never declared a minor - I considered myself minoring in 'life'.  I even got a BS instead of a BA 'cause it let me have more options in the gen ed classes that I took.  I took everything from First Aid, to Self Defense for Women, to an intro to car mechanics class (where we did shop work on our own cars), to a Bussiness management class (to see a different side of management than the theatre side)  These all counted to my degree and I can say that I use a lot of what I learned in them in very practical ways.  And while I've never used my self-defense for defense, it has come in useful for some stage combat situations.

Though, I think I'm the only person who I know who can say that they have a Bachelor of Science in Theatre instead of saying that they have a Bachelor of Arts.  At the end of the day - it really boils down to you get what you put into it.  The quality of the program does have some affect, but you can still get a quality education without killing yourself with expensive conservatory student loans.

-Centaura

teddiekeet:

--- Quote from: "Libby" ---I agree with the Boston University. I am just graduating this year, and I have loved it. A word of warning though, you should be sure you want to be a stage manager to go here. There really is no oppurtunity to do anything else, so if you want to work in all avenus of theatre, look elsewhere.
--- End quote ---


Libby!?

Yeah, she's right. I'm in my second year at BU. It's great if you know this is what you want to do.

ESM_John:
The stage manager at my high school applied/was accepted to   NYU, Emerson, Boston University and SUNY Purchase. They are all great colleges for Theatre Tech.

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