BEST COLLEGES BFA MUSICAL THEATER — Page 10

^^^
Annaleigh Ashford went there.


Just wondering, OP, if you still check these boards... which school did you choose?

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The Charleston,
What is messy about a program that produces leading men and women on a regular basis? IC's MT and Acting programs are practically the same program. The MTs take all the same classes as the Acting majors.

You don't have to be thin to be into musical theatre, that is one of the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!

Anyone can make it if they have the talent and passion.

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so you dont have to be a size 2 to go on stgae?
and i have the passion i guess i just worry about the talent although my last director is at cuny college getting his doctorate in directing and he thinkds i can make it i still worry is that normal?

Ithaca is a Great program! In fact, the Ithaca BFA Class of 2009 Showcase is coming up this May 11th at Theatre Row Studios (410 W. 42nd Street) at 3:30 and 6:30pm.

Some Ithaca College Alumni include: Matt Cavenaugh (West Side Story, Grey Gardens,) Kerry Buttler (Xanadu, Hairspray,) Aaron Tveit (Gossip Girl, Wicked, Hairspray, Next to Normal, Catch Me If You Can,) Dan Petrotta (Tale of Two Cities, Ever After), Kevin Greene (Grease: You're the One That I Want, Tale of Two Cities) Eric Jordan Young (Seussical, Sammy & Me, The Look of Love, Ragtime, Chicago), Sarah Schmidt (Jersey Boys), Caesar Samayoa (Hot Feet), Jen Waldman (Titanic, Wicked) Jerad Bortz (Mamma Mia, Wicked, Pirate Queen), Q Smith (Les Miserables), Jeremy Jordan (Rock of Ages), Joe Aaron Reid (Chicago, Curtains), Michelle Federer (Wicked, Three Days of Rain), Mark Price (You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Mamma Mia!, The Rocky Horror Show, Dance of the Vampires, Wonderful Town, All Shook Up, Mary Poppins), Rebecca Rich (Zombie Prom), Erin Maguire (Forbidden Broadway, The Battery's Down) Steve Pacek (Walnut Street's Les Miserables), Bruce Warren (Cats, Oklahoma, Wizard of Oz tours) Brandon Andrus (Oklahoma tour), Casey Sweeney (Blue Man Group), Tricia Tanguy (Cats, The Producers, Joseph...Dreamcoat tours) Brooke Stone (Hairspray, Peter Pan, Grease tours), Kim Stern (A Doll's Life), Stacey Morgain Lewis (Wicked - Chicago Company), Zachary James (Coram Boy, South Pacific), Sal Mistretta (Cabaret, Sunset Boulevard, Evita), Ben Feldman (The Graduate, "Las Vegas," Friday the 13th), Amanda Setton (Gossip Girl) to name a few!

seemynameinlights---

As I understand, NYU is severing its relationship with cap21 in the coming years and attempting to build an in-house program....

Boston University (Not MT, but strong Acting and Voice programs) - Great acting school.

Boston Conservatory - Lovely.

Elon U - don't know too much about it.

U Michigan - their kids know how to market themselves, but recently UMich grads recently seem to all have less and less personality than those that are well-known.
http://www.youtube.com/user/UrInTown

Rutgers (For Acting) - don't know much.

U of the Arts - Strong musical theatre program, with great vocal and dance programs, but you won't learn how to act there.
http://www.youtube.com/user/UArtsTheatre

Emerson - Apparently it's gone downhill recently?
http://www.youtube.com/user/EmersonMusicalThea

Northwestern (strong vocal performance program) - Apparently a great acting program as well - wonderful graduate program to be sure.

Ithaca - don't know much.

CCM - These kids are FIERCE, but if you're looking for a typical college lifestyle and not one that is fiercely competitive and in which you live in fear for your first two years to avoid being cut, than this school is not the best. No question that the results are unbelievable, though.

Hart School - Know nothing.

NYU (tish) - Depends upon which school. I know that CAP21 stresses uniqueness and acting over vocal technique and dance, not to say that the training is at all shabby in the latter areas.

Syracuse - Don't know much, used to have a really strong rep for MT, but not sure anymore.

American - Where?

Penn St. - Second best. Penn State grads are all unbelievably talented musical theatre performers. check out their youtube page.
http://www.youtube.com/user/pennstatemt

Brown (Acting) - Strong rep, to be sure.

Yale - I'm not sure about undergrad, but the graduate program at Yale for acting is still without question the highest regarded in the world.

Carnegie Melon - The absolute best in my opinion. every CMU grad/student I've met is fabulously unique, a phenominal vocalist, a strong dancer, and an unbelievable actor.
http://www.youtube.com/user/PopSensation87

Oklahoma City U - Heard nothing but good things about this school. The few kids I know from OKCU are amazing.

Wagner - Don't know much.

Also for your consideration:
Webster U (for Musical Theatre) - The kids I know from this underdog school are REALLY talented and really professional.
Worth checking out.

Point Park (for Musical Theatre) - Point Park is known for it's students who can DANCE - but they're not slouches vocally either. Not sure about their acting programs.

Temple U - Temple has an amazing acting program and a fast growing reputation. A production ("In Conflict") of theirs recently played for six months off broadway at the barrow street, and was incredible (check out Brantley's review). Their musical theatre program is VERY new, but is shaping up nicely.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TempleMusicalTheater

NOTE: For those I didn't post youtube links for, not trying to say those are any worse - you just have to search yourself because they don't have centralized pages - all of these schools are ALL OVER the tube, though.

Temple is awesome, my friend is a pharmacy student there and when i visited him we went to see their production of Damn Yankees and excluding the girl who played Lola the production was amazing. My friend also told me that their directing students musicals were awesome(Gloryday from See What I Wanna See and Avenue Q).

From those youtube videos everyone there seems to be really talented exluding maybe two of them.

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I DEFINITELY don't think UMich's talent has gone down. I just think EVERYONE from there works so there's a lot more of them you probably haven't seen. If you take only the grads from the last 2 years, there are over 15 of them who are working on Broadway or on major Nat'l tours. And they play the leads. You're not going to get those odds from any other school.
Let's be honest, the three top schools are CCM, Carnegie Mellon and Michigan. You're not going to find any casting director who disagrees. All three fantastic schools. Those are the three most attended showcases and the three with the most grads working straight after graduation.

Okay guys, it's NYU Tisch, not "Tish".

Let's keep it educated.

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I don't mean to diss UMich kids - no doubt the training there is fantastic.

Really, it truly doesn't matter where you go, at least from the schools mentioned thus far, because they all have great faculty who will really work to cultivate and motivate their students. The passion, hard work, and luck is up to you.

If your interested in a small liberal arts school in IL check out Illinois Wesleyan University. I've heard from many that they're program is quickly picking up steam and marketing itself as a program that isn't a machine. Apparently, it's also highly selective and there appears to be a lot of individual attention, there's about 35 ppl in the MT program. They don't seem to connect to much with their alum, but I know Richard Jenkins who was nominated for an academy award this past year went there for acting. My friend told me that Dave Clemmons taught a master class there and recommends. In fact, he sought out the school to take the class after he saw some great alum audition for various shows he was casting. Anyone else heard of it?

I'm far from a student, but I'll give my two cents as a season ticket holder for CCM and Wright State.
CCM is never a miss and is always a good show, Mainstage and Studio. The talent is amazing to me (in all departments). I always look forward to seeing their names in various Playbills for tours and Broadway after they leave.
Wright State is not on the same level for me as CCM. Some productions are great while others have been off. Next year will be interesting as the students playing most of the leads were seniors.
Like someone said college is what you make of it, and I have seen really great shows at both schools.

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