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hummingbird
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Posted: Thu Apr 12th, 2007 09:11 pm |
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My son has been very involved in theater in high school, and would like to continue acting in plays when he is in college, although he does not want to major in theater. Is it possible at most schools for non-theater majors to be in productions? Are there different levels of productions? Drama clubs or something like that?
Forgive my naivete, as H and I both went non-traditional routes (community college to public commuter schools) and are not familiar with how things work at traditional colleges and universities.
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Thu Apr 12th, 2007 09:35 pm |
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Never hesitate to ask questions here. 
This is actually a very good question. The answer, unfortunately, is: It depends on the college.
Some colleges have theater programs where participation is somewhat or completely limited to theater majors. In many cases, but not all, these tend to be schools where admissions to the theater program is audition-based.
At other schools, everyone who is interested can be involved, although theater majors might still get some preference in terms of roles and leadership at some schools.
So, if your son is interested in continuing his involvement in college, this is a very good question to ask of each college directly. Sometimes you can get this information from a website, but it's best to ask the theater department and current students directly if at all possible, because sometimes what is said on the website doesn't translate into reality.
One college your son might want to investigate, depending on what he's looking for, is Whitman College in Eastern Washington. They have a fabulous theater program with many productions each year, and all students can participate. A very high percentage of the student body apparently does.
Last edited on Thu Apr 12th, 2007 09:38 pm by CarolynLawrence
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jocelynDAD
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Posted: Thu Apr 12th, 2007 10:37 pm |
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H-Bird:
Carolyn is right it depends on the college/university/ It also depends on the number of students enrolled in the Theatre Arts. 
As a guess, Northwestern is known for its Theatre Arts Program as is Kenyon, Whitman and Muhlenburg (to name a few of the LAC's with strong T Arts).
Most likely Northwestern will have a lot of students in the T Arts program. An LAC (with a student population of 2000 + or minus) being smaller in student body most likely will have a smaller group. The odds of being able to participate would seem to be greater at a Kenyon, Muhlenburg or Whitman as at a larger University such as Northwestern or an Ohio State, Penn State etc.
Naturally, going on the web site for each college and gathering information and then emailling the Professor in that department for the 'inside' scoop is always the best approach IMO. 
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hummingbird
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Posted: Thu Apr 12th, 2007 11:42 pm |
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| Thanks, I'll be sure to have S ask when we visit colleges.
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CalifCarolyn
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Posted: Thu Apr 12th, 2007 11:58 pm |
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My D is a Drama Major at her Performing Arts HS (her school requires 6 Academic and 4 Conservatory classes per semester) and although she will not be a theater major in college it is an important part of her life and she eliminated schools that lock non-majors out of performing. Without exception the small LACs she applied to told her non-majors are welcome to audition for all performances. Larger public schools like CSUF however do to limit certain productions to their theater majors. My older D was a Musical Theater Major at the same HS and Northeastern University also opens all performing groups and productions to non-majors.
My D will be attending Valpo which has a very active theater program and she is looking forward to using her training to continue performing -she started acting at 4 and has been in an average of 4 productions a year since then so this is incredibly important to her---she is going to major in Political Science--looking at Political Communication or Peace/Conflict Resolution---great for a Drama kid 
make sure he asks and sometimes a way in is through working stage crew...
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Fri Apr 13th, 2007 01:33 am |
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| JocelynDad is right about Northwestern - there are 370+ undergraduate majors plus 50+ or so graduate students, and spots in auditions tend to go mainly to them, although non-majors are able to audition and the theater program puts on many productions each year. I'd lean towards smaller schools or at least smaller theater departments if he just wants to continue to participate for fun. But, even some of te smaller schools have fairly competitive programs - Sarah Lawrence, for example, attracts lots of professional-actor types, and making it into productions there can be tough if you are in a certain range of talent.
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mathmom
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Posted: Fri Apr 13th, 2007 01:51 am |
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Some colleges don't have theater majors, but have lots of theater anyway.
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mattmom
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Posted: Fri Apr 13th, 2007 12:02 pm |
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| Just wanted to add my son's experience: he was active in theater in high school, with lead roles or significant supporting ones. He did not want to pursue it as an academic major at the LAC he attended (he was a history major and has since graduated). He remained fairly active in theater and had a variety of interesting roles in both mainstage productions and smaller specialized productions put on by smaller groups. A few of his friends were theater majors but most of the the other students who were active in various productions were majoring in other field--including math, art history, and English. Based on my observations of his experience and of performances presented at my daughter's present LAC I'd say that at smaller schools you can certainly be very involved in theater no matter what your major. The theater departments at LACs generally aren't big enough to cast a production anyway. I imagine at larger schools or schools with strong specialized programs things might be different but even then there are probably smaller groups where a non-major could participate. Last edited on Fri Apr 13th, 2007 12:03 pm by mattmom
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pencilnpaper
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Posted: Fri Apr 13th, 2007 03:45 pm |
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| It varies. DePaul, with a very strong theatre department, does not allow non-majors to participate. They also have NO theatre clubs or EC opportunities for non-majors. We were told that the surrounding neighborhoods, however, have many community theatre productions where the students are welcome. Carnegie Mellon also has a very strong theatre program, but has a separate group (Scotch and Soda) for which majors are not allowed to audition. Since the theatre program is so strong at CMU, it gives the non majors a chance to participate in a significant way. In fact, some fabulous productions that went on to become broadway hits were developed through Scotch & Soda. This is the exception rather than the norm however. It is best to ask at each school.
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Fri Apr 13th, 2007 05:08 pm |
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| Thanks for the insights Mattmom and Pencilnpaper. That is really neat that CMU has a separate venue just for non-theater majors.
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yayamama
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Posted: Fri Apr 13th, 2007 08:04 pm |
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This is a question my daughter asks at college fairs. Some colleges are very welcoming of non-theater majors working backstage but not performing, some won't let anyone in, and some welcome everyone.
Ask!
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Fri Apr 13th, 2007 08:24 pm |
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| Hi Yayamama, nice to see you again. That's a great suggestion to ask the question at college fairs! Good way to get multiple answers quickly.
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jocelynDAD
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Posted: Fri Apr 13th, 2007 10:39 pm |
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Often the representative at a college fair is an alumna/i, often some years from the campus. I have seen parents representing schools.
Only if the representative is a current member of the Admissions Office is it realistic to expect that they will have a potentially accurate response. Even so, not all admissions personnel have that deep a knowledge of the workings inside an department including theatre arts. 
just a word of advise!
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yayamama
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Posted: Sat Apr 14th, 2007 01:25 am |
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| Hey jocelynDad, thanks for pointing that out. I would have assumed that the representative from the college answering the questions would know, but as you say, they may not have the inside scoop!
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CalifCarolyn
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Posted: Sat Apr 14th, 2007 01:45 am |
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If a student really wants the answer to a question about theater (or any program) they really need to contact the department directly. It would be a shame to have a student anticipate being able to participate in theater productions and then get to the school to find out that principal roles were reserved for majors only or only for upperclassmen.
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toobusytoday
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Posted: Sat Apr 14th, 2007 12:41 pm |
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I agree with all the posters that it can vary widely by school. At my daughters tiny college (less then 600 students!) theatre majors are the only ones in the productions, with just a couple of exceptions for truly talented non-majors. A local college to me, DeSales University, has an excellent theatre program that is extrememly popular and does an unusual amount of productions. They usually have four shows a year and all are very well attended and often sold out. I know a senior music education major that has only been in two productions his whole time there but had had major parts in High School. http://www.desales.edu/default.aspx?pageid=681
Something else that you might suggest to your son though is to look for another avenue for getting on stage. My daughter never had a lead but was in every drama and musical in HS. Her college requires all ed majors to have a second major and she considered theatre but knew it would be too time consuming. Instead she chose Sociology/Anthropology as her second major and joined the comedy improv group. She had to audition for it and most of the other members are theatre majors but it's much less intense and always fun. The students write the scripts (it's really a combination of skits and improv) and hers have been the most popular the last two years. http://www.prin.edu/servlet/today.TodayServlet;jsessionid=02626F4820B4701B42F7AB56F7FCB912?showDay=2/16/2007:els That's my girl in the top!
I would never had guessed that my daughter would not be doing theatre in college since she really, really liked it in HS. She also decided not to sing in a group - something she had done since third grade. College is full of suprises!
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hummingbird
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Posted: Sat Apr 14th, 2007 05:19 pm |
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At this time, he is only interested in larger universities. Of course, that may change once we start actually visiting some. I will make sure that he contacts the theatre departments to find out the scoop, if he decides he is still interested in participating in theatre. I know that at least one of the schools we are looking at has a summer acting company in the small town where the college is located. That might be a good option for him too, if he decides to stick around over the summer and not come home, go abroad, or do internships. There's only so much time!
Thanks for all your replies. And hello to toobusytoday's d!Last edited on Sat Apr 14th, 2007 05:20 pm by hummingbird
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Consolation
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Posted: Tue Jul 17th, 2007 11:22 pm |
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I just stumbled across this topic again. I wanted to let you know that at Tufts the tour guide said that there are something like 20+ theatrical productions per year, but only a handful of actual theater majors, so the majority of the roles, onstage or off, go to non-majors.
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hummingbird
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Posted: Tue Jul 17th, 2007 11:57 pm |
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| Oh that's good to know, thanks! I'm also impressed with the number of community theater troups in college towns. So if he doesn't get in with productions at school, he might be able to do them outside of school.
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Astrid (Moominmama)
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Posted: Wed Jul 18th, 2007 04:49 pm |
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| If a school has a film/TV program, they are often looking for actors for the various student productions being filmed, and since the acting students are involved in college plays, the non-acting students (ie hobby/EC actors) have a shot at getting those roles. Check the bulletin boards in the film departments.
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