Emerson

[Tikki]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 12:18pm

hey everyone
Im in high school and while i was looking for colleges, emerson just popped up everywhere i looked - so why is that?
how big is the theater program? do you get a lot of hands-on experience? how's boston, and what's campus like? the food? anything you know about it, please tell me
thanks for your time
-Tikki

[missmezzo88]

Posted: 8/27/08 at 12:23am

hey girl-
I am a screenwriting major at emerson but I am really involved in the musical theatre side of the school, so I thought I could help.
The theatre program is broken up in to the following majors:
BA Acting
BFA Acting
BA Theatre Studies (you can choose an emphasis track in education, tech, etc.)
BFA Musical Theatre

There is ONLY a BFA in musical theatre (just like most conservatory style schools) so essentially all of your classes are dance, voice, and acting. You can't have a minor in something else, there just isn't room.
In the Musical Theatre major there are about 28 students per year. So 14 girls and guys are accepted to each class.

The Theatre program is quite good, I'd say the acting and vocal side is much stronger than the dance program, though. I've worked with the vocal coaches, who are fantastic, and I've heard amazing things about some of the acting professors.
Emerson stage does one musical and three plays in the fall and spring, and various other theatre organizations do several musicals and plays per semester. The Musical Theatre Society does one musical in the fall, one in the winter, and one in the spring.

The campus is sort of non-existent as it is a city school. If you are happy living directly downtown in Boston, then it's an amazing school. It's right on the common. It's really just high rise buildings all consolidated on one block. The food is actually good, especially considering it's a dining hall. There's a grill, deli, home cooking station, salad bar, soup bar, and vegetarian station. There's also always pizza and a dessert bar. So a lot of options.

Let me know if you have any other specific questions. I am going in to my junior year and LOVE it there.