Good Christian Drama College

[maxjack5]

I have a daughter who is a senior at The University of Oklahoma. She is in the musical theater dept. They accept 16 students a year by audition. I cannot say enough good things about the school and the dept. The head of the arts school is the retired President of Disney Worldwide and uses his connections to get graduating seniors the best possible exposure for jobs in the industry. They are considered one of the top 5 musical theater schools.
I would highly recommend them. Good luck!

[richnjesus]

Anybody have any more thoughts about good theatre programs at Christian colleges? Ten days to go to get applications in and wondered if there are more to consider.

[[Admin] skstarkiller]

Check out Cedarville University in Ohio... www.cedarville.edu. I am a grad

[njp30]

check out Huntington University. Go to huntington.edu/theatre. HU has been ranked for the second consecutive year by Forbes.com as one of their top 100 colleges/universities (not just private or Christian liberal arts--but all colleges in the US). As part of the CCCU, HU is also Christ-centered while having an excellent theatre program. Check out more on their website above. Great alumni stories, faculty bios and details about the program. Offering degrees in Theatre (general studies), Theatre Peformance and Theatre & Design. Two stages for performances, a proscenium stage and a black box/theatre in a round stage. Peformance and general studies majors will have the opportunity to direct their own one act festival on campus. Total campus is around 1100 undergraduates.

[KeckCreative]

Okay... I would offer a different thought process all together. What does your daughter specifically want to do in theatre? Direct? Act? Design? Stage Manage? Business Management? General theatre artist? Just like any profession there are many subsets of study. A good overall drama school will strive to be strong in all areas. The name of the school may look good on a resume, but if the program is not actively developing the student and giving honest feedback about strengths and weakness, the student will not successfully survive in the theatre world. And "successfully" means earning the bulk of income from the craft not just achieving "star" status. The more opportunities to perform or direct or design or work in dramaturgy or work in business aspects of theatre will do more for her career than the name or type of school. Having a committed and experience (meaning they have or still practice the craft professionally) faculty is critical for understanding the reality of the business. The faculty's willingness to honestly share those expriences will prepare those completing their degree with the tools of survival.

I received my Master of Fine Arts in Directing from the University of Oklahoma School of Drama in 1996. I have worked in professional theatre, but no longer. I eventually had to make a choice between the continuing the profession or having/raising a family. A professional theatre life can be very tough, because to make a living, you will find yourself traveling from professional regional theatre to another or working in tour companies. Sometimes you are able to get a residency and travel less, this is more true for directors/designers/technicians than actors. Naturally there is more opportunities in places like Los Angelos, New York, Chicago, but there is also significantly greater competition.

One last thought, if she is pursing acting, look for a drama school that also teaches both stage and screen (film/tv) acting. There are definitely differences in technique required to do both. A truly good actor should be able to do both and without experience switching between the two styles is not always easy.

Okay, the truly last thought. An actor that knows how to hang a lighting instrument or sew a costume or run a sound board or build a flat or work the box office/house will have a leg up on someone who is just an actor. Learn any and everything about theatre. While in school, if not performing on stage, grab the opportunities to practice all the theatre arts and business aspects. An actor who not only understands other aspects of theatre beyond acting, will appreciate all the types of artists and by extension will become a better actor.

[Esoteric]

Totally Jon. That is why at UT actors must take design and technology classes, and design/tech students had to take acting classes. Everyone took basic Directing and Stage Management was available.

In addition, there were courses in contracts, networking, and basic work ethic was taught in every course.

Mike

[KeckCreative]

It was the same way at University of Oklahoma. There was very strong emphasis in truly preparing students to work in a very rewarding and collaborative art form and health dose of reality about what it takes to make a living in the profession (whether performance, design, or technical).

And I will definitely say that while I no longer work professionally in the industry, the leadership and project management skills I gained in the MFA directing program at OU have been very beneficial in my responsibilities I have in the business world that I now find myself. Luckily, since I am an artist at heart, I have found other avenues to feed my creative spirit as well as serve others at the same time.

[KeckCreative]

Sort of a funny side note. When submitting an acting resume, I had a small section included about other and unique skills. I always listed "Can drive a standard." Why? Everything else being equal, if a one person can drive a standard and the other can't, you can actually have a slight advantage in booking a job, because you can potentially drive a truck that transports scenery and equipment. And, if nothing else it subliminally reinforces that you are willing do other tasks not directly related to acting. Granted, because of unions this isn't alway applicable, I mean the IATSE guy isn't exactly going to hand over his job. But there's a great deal of high quality non-union theatres in the country.

[Esoteric]

One of the Directors that I absolutely adore that I work with now has her MFA in Directing from OU. Being a die hard Longhorn I hate everything Sooner (no offense), but I love her, and I am loathe to admit she got a good education at OU. You are absolutely right, in large resident companies (like DTC) or on equity tours (like the Broadway ones that come to town occasionally) it doesn't matter because an actor is an actor and a tech is a tech and a driver is a driver. But those are only about 15% of the jobs out there. In smaller companies you might be an actor/driver or actor/tech.

Not that we always took our acting classes seriously (and actors did nothing but complain during their tech rotations), but all techs graduated knowing how to break down a scene into beats, how to identify motivation, etc. Actors didn't graduate without knowing how to handle a wrench or a saw.

Mike

[waynehoskins]

Several of the people I went to college with have been on several tours as actors with Dallas Children's, and they've been actor/tech/driver.

There are lots of great universities out there, even OU (though I kinda hate to admit it, since I'm from the UT system too) .

[KeckCreative]

Being a die hard Longhorn I hate everything Sooner

Well naturally. I was floored when I learned the entire OU campus shut down a day early so everyone could travel to Dallas for the Red River Shootout. And there was always talk of shutting down the following Monday, so everyone could recover from the trip. I wasn't born & raised a Sooner (I was an Arkansas Razorback transplant) so it was all fascinating to me. I will say I was happy that the one and only time (in my 3yrs at OU) that I went to the OU/Texas game, OU won. The downside was I was in Dallas with a group of performers and we traveled in a large passenger van with University of Oklahoma blazened on the side of it. I was one of the drivers and it took 10 times longer to get anywhere in traffic. So many people were always showing us a "we're number one" sign, but it always was the wrong finger.

Sorry for the highjack of the thread. To pull it back to the original topic of the thread. Definitely don't over look state/public universities. Sometimes because of sheer history and student diversity, they have excellent programs that private and/or smaller schools must work harder to compete. And schools that are well known academically, may not always look on the performing arts (i.e. theatre/dance/music) programs the same way when it comes to resources and funding. There's tons of scenarios to take into consideration.