WHAT IS CAP21 — Page 2

hi, i was wondering if anyone knew about applying to this cap21 program @ the tisch school at nyu because i am thinking of applying there. do you have to apply to NYU the university and get accepted and then apply to the tisch school and specify cap21, or do you just apply to tisch? basically, do you have to meet the requirements that NYU has, as if you were applying for a liberal arts program there.

yes, i know that. but do you have to be accepted into NYU, or do you just audition for the tisch school. what academic requirements does the tisch school have? are they the same as nyu?

To get into Tisch, an application to the university and an audition for the school are both required. That said, the academic expectations do vary from school to school, and Tisch's are far from the most rigorous. (I don't mean that negatively, or to put down the school in any way, as I have many friends in CAP and other studios in Tisch, but the "cutoff point," so to speak, is lower than some of the other schools'.)

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FayWay, I auditioned for CAP21 and did not get in (and did not want to go into another studio) but I was accepted into NYU academically. This was almost 10 years ago now, but as far as I can tell the academic application to the university is separate from the audition for Tisch. You have to be accepted into the university academically as well as be accepted into Tisch based on your audition.

thanks, those posts were very informative. so basically, you have to be acccepted into nyu and then go from there with which specific department/school you want to go into. is this the same with other schools such as carnegie mellon and michigan?

The BFA from Tisch is in "Theater." Not the most descriptive of whatever you spent four years studying, which is probably why the "Training" section of my resume takes up much more room than it should just to describe what I actually studied (I was in the directing program at Playwrights).

It's been (oh God) 10 years since I auditioned, but it seems like the basic process hasn't changed much. You have an audition for the representatives of whatever studio you're applying to, and you also submit your regular application to NYU itself. Whether you get accepted will depend mostly on your performance/artistic abilities and not so much on grades, but you still need to pass the minimum academic requirements for admission to NYU as a whole. I remember when I was applying they required an SAT score of 1200-something. It's not Ivy-League or anything, but if you really don't have good grades it might be a problem. In my career I've met a few people who said they were interested in Tisch but didn't have the grades to get in.

I went to this program, and I will say that while there are some horrible students at CAP, there are also some really phenomenal ones.

That's the problem you run into when you have so many people in your class... with 60 people in my freshman class, I'd say 1/3 were amazing, 1/3 were mediocre but not completely terrible, and 1/3 WTF. By senior year, a lot of the bad people have dropped out, transferred, etc. Our senior CAP showcase had 20 actors. (Our NYU Tisch graduating industry showcase had 12... you have to be selected to be in the all Tisch one, not everyone is guaranteed a spot.)

There is some misinformation about the acting training in this thread. I did not LOVE LOVE LOVE CAP21, don't get me wrong, but the training isn't completely terrible. The structure of the training, however, is where you get such a mix of alumni with seemingly different skills. That's because there are 3 or 4 "sections" to split up the students, and each of those sections have different teachers. Sometimes they overlap, but unlike UMich or CCM, not all students will have had the same one or two acting teachers in common. It is "collaborative" in the sense that there are many different people working together to train, but there is only a very basic standard on training because of this. They also can't threaten to kick you out like other programs if you aren't performing up to standard. (NYU won't let them, except in 4 year for showcase.)

My advice going into this program is to choose to have the best education, because they will NOT do it for you. Make sure you are getting what you need, and let them know. They will not hold you by the hand and tell you what to do because there are just so many students to keep track of. I actually requested my acting teachers, not only because I connected with them and their style, but also because some teachers were, in my opinion, not so good. I'm not sure who's there now because my two favorites have moved on (Jay Goldenberg and Alix Korey, both genius), but I can at least recommend David Hibbard, Kate Guyton, and (even though she is slightly nuts) Eliza Ventura.

There was plenty of dance for me, but then again, dancing isn't one of my natural gifts. They often let people who are hardcore upperclassmen dancers come into other classes if they want for additional training. Same with voice training - I think the vocal performance classes are great. I also took double voice lessons and used one session as audition rep coaching and one as technique.

The girl saying that CAP kids are bad actors is just mistaken. There are a ton of CAP grads in film and TV and in straight plays on Broadway. There are a lot of actors from my class including me who have performed and are regularly cast in actual roles professionally - CAP does not just churn out chorus members. I think a better way of saying what I think she means is: there are so many graduates with different training experiences at CAP that some go out into the world and are less than stellar.

If you are a person who has their s#!+ together, who doesn't need to be held by the hand past freshman year, isn't afraid to speak up for yourself and your education, and wants to learn the ropes of NYC and makes those connections before you get your BFA, I'd say this is a great program for you.