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[0:00] Charlie Murphy: Hello, hello, and welcome to Mapping The College Audition. I'm your host, Charlie Murphy, Director of MTCA. That's Musical Theatre College Auditions. Check us out at mtca.com. And today we have a very special episode for you. Another Live Pod! A Live Pod from Pittsburgh Unified. You know, just like we each year we show up at the National Unified in Chicago, New York, this year at Anaheim or LA in the West Coast, where it is. And really have a presence there. We also have a presence at Pittsburgh Unified. We've done this now for the last six years. And, you know, just like at those National Unified, we really try to be a presence for all. We try to be a supportive presence for all. Yes, we have tons of MTCA students there, we're there supporting them, but we are equally here for all the other PUA families who don't happen to be MTCA families.

And it's really fun to get to do what we do. We demystify the process, just like we do on this pod. We have meetings about that. We have meetings about financial aid. We help all of the students by pumping them up in a pump-up room, where really if students are feeling a little nervous, we kind of talk them through some of the stuff that we do on the pod to sort of the psychological competitiveness of what it is to walk in a room if you've never done this before. And then some of it's also some very basic help and stuff that they need. So that's something that we're like really proud to do, is to be able to help all the families and be there for all the families, whether or not you're an MTCA student.

And honestly, it's one of my favorite things about this weekend is, you know, meeting people, some of whom have been podcast listeners for many years, very sweet, even many of whom you're not MTCA students, whether you have outside help, whether you're doing it alone, however it is, to be able to meet them and hear that we've been able to be helpful as a podcast, that's wonderful. But then also for new families hearing, hey, that this was helpful to get to learn a little bit more about the process. And they go, I wish I met you a year ago. I go, great, that's fine, you're meeting us now and we can help you now. And, you know, I hope many of you will become, really join the MTCA family for whatever that means, right?

Maybe for you joining the MTCA family means listening to some of these podcasts and following along for some of the free resources that we offer, reading our blog, those kinds of things. For some people here at PUA and some listeners, that might mean, hey, you're going to start doing a couple of webinars or, you know, maybe try to do some of our events. You can jump into a mock audition with very little coaching. You might take some masterclasses. You might try to drive into our private auditions, which have some minimums, but it's pretty low minimums in terms of what it is from a coaching perspective, if that's something you want. Maybe you want some supplemental help and we are going to offer you some coaching in a discipline or two.

Or maybe you realize, oh my gosh, I think I do want some, you know, overarching help and I want some comprehensive work and MTCA can offer that for you too. You know, something that we're really proud of, like we offer help across the board. We offer help in all disciplines, anything that you need. Basically, if it has to do with this process, we can help you with it and we're happy to help you with all of it or we're happy to help you with just what you need. If you have a lot of resources in one area or in a couple areas, then we'll fill in those gaps. So that's really exciting for us. I will just say, you may hear my voice a little scratchy. That's because this is the night we just did that after many meetings.

I did about, I think, three meetings today where I was belting. And then this meeting itself, as you'll hear, I am in a full belt most of the night. So we'll see. I got to do this again tomorrow and I got a full day of junior classes tomorrow. So we'll see how my voice handles it. What I will say is that room was really crowded. I apologize for anyone who was at PUA. If you were in the back and you had trouble hearing, you'll hear us commenting on it a couple times ago and we're doing our best to get back there. You know, we're doing this in a hotel conference room. Those are not, that's not an MTCA choice to be in that particular hotel conference room. And I wish we were in a huge room that could fit all 500 people who wanted to be in that room at the time.

I'm sorry. You know, we can only do our best. And I will really say this was a reaction from last year. Last year we really tried to accommodate the room and it was also a full sweaty room, but I like moved the mic pretty far away. I had like one kind of like area mic. I tried to move it far away so that it would be, we could really be loud and be in the room. But the experience of what, at least I heard back when I listened to the pod was that the audio was not great on the pod. So this time I have everyone using microphones, which of course the microphones aren't helping the room. You're going to hear that in a second, but hopefully you all can hear us pretty well. And I told that to the people live a couple of times, I said, you'll have to catch it on YouTube if you can't hear it.

I really encourage the faculty to be as loud in that moment as you could. And that does mean you'll hear some unnatural shouting. Of course, the audio quality would be better if we were all just here with a mic and talking into it, but you'll find the balance of it all. I think it actually came out really well. You can see everybody, you can hear everybody a little better than last year. So overall, I think a big improvement. Always happy to hear that feedback, but one of our podcast favorites, our podcast listeners did mention, Hey, the audio wasn't good. And I said, I know I already have the note for myself. But we really tried to make that adjustment equipment wise and situation wise, and we'll do our best.

Maybe next year we'll be in a bigger space. Who knows? Okay. I will say I did a little takeaway. It's like a 30 second takeaway at the end, mostly just so that I don't have to record another takeaway and we can just get this thing edited and get it up because Kelly is doing a really quick turnaround. So we get this all out for you on this coming Wednesday. This will be only a couple of days after this was recorded. I'm recording this on a Saturday. We're going to release it for you on a Wednesday. As I say in the episode itself, the next part, part two, which will be 20 more different faculty members. I think it's a couple fewer than 20, but a whole nother panel of faculty members you're going to hear next Wednesday that we're recording tomorrow, but we'll get it out next Wednesday in terms of a pod and we'll have that one a little more edited.

I'll probably do a little bit of a longer takeaway back on my fancy mic, but I'll be back in New York by then for the next Wednesday episode. So this is part one of the Pittsburgh Unified's faculty panel. I hope you really enjoy. 23 schools in about an hour and 20 minutes. It's a pretty good, you know, we try to do speed dating. This feels like pretty good speed dating. I think you got a pretty good sense of these things, about as much information as you pack in. It's fast. We try to have fun with it. We're definitely furious with it, but I hope you really enjoy the faculty panel from Pittsburgh Unified's. Okay, PUA, are you ready to do this thing? All right. We're going to in a second here introduce five faculty and then we're going to keep cycling them through throughout the night.

I just want to prepare you a little bit for what I've prepared them for. So they're prepared with a little elevator pitch about their schools and some really specific questions that I've asked them in advance. We're going to try to fly through those questions, so we're going to kind of let them do that, and then I'll open up the floor for questions from all of you. Here we go. Are we ready to welcome the first panel? Come on in, come on in, come on in. All right, so can I first off have you all introduce yourselves and then can you give in your introduction your 30-second elevator pitch of who you are?

[6:49] Ryan Scoble: Oh my god, I chose the first seat. Okay, hello everyone. My name is Ryan Scoble. I am the head of the musical theater department at West Virginia University. Short pitch, we are a conservatory-style training program with all the benefits of a large traditional campus experience. So sports, campus life, Greek life, all of those things that you're looking for, we have. We have small cohort sizes, 10 to 12 students, and a beautiful campus nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. So that's my pitch.

[7:21] Carla Cash: Hi, I'm Carla Cash. I'm the director of theater at Heidelberg University. We are a consent-based program in Ohio. We offer degrees in musical theater, acting, and theater production. Our cohorts are usually about 16 people, and we pride ourselves on prioritizing mental health, prioritizing mental health in our department.

[7:47] Jessica Humphrey: Hi, I'm Jessica Humphrey, assistant professor of theater at TCU. Similar to West Virginia, we are a conservatory-style training program within a liberal arts institution. Big sports school, big Greek life, big everything because it's Texas. We're located in Fort Worth, Texas. If you've seen Landman, that was filmed on our campus. Musical theater and acting, in addition to lots of other outside of theater experiences as well.

[8:19] Steve Clough: Hello, everyone. My name is Steve Clough. I am the director of musical theater at Brunel University. We are a small private university just north of Atlanta in Gainesville, Georgia. Quick pitch, we normally take around about 12 students. We have MT, acting, design tech, costume for film, and it's a small private college. It used to originally be a women's college, but now it is co-ed since the 70s, but there are still an elevated level for fem presenting students in the college as well, such as Greek life and everything like that.

[8:49] Danny Loftus-George: Hello. Hi, everyone. I'm Danny Loftus-George. I'm here from the Norwalk Conservatory of the Arts. We're about 45 minutes outside of New York City. We have a train station on campus, which is really cool. We're a little bit of a Broadway factory school. We currently have 68 alumni on Broadway, which is great. We encourage our students to work while in school. We have 23 on national tours who come back into the program based on the semester. Three-year Bachelor of Fine Arts. We offer degrees in musical theater, musical theater dance, television and film performance, and commercial dance. Go Trees. Nice to meet you.

[9:26] Charlie Murphy: You guys were wonderful with your elevator pitches and worth noting students, isn't it hard to slate? That was them doing a long slate, what you all have to do. They had to practice that slate. They did a really good job. Okay. Give me maybe a one word. We'll go backwards from Danny here. Give me a one word or a couple word focus from an artistic focus perspective. If you were to say, as a musical theater program, we mostly acting-based musical theater, especially for the MTs of it all. We really do all three. We're more dance-based. Whatever. If you have a focus, however you would say that, an artistic focus.

[9:54] Danny Loftus-George: Talent. Talent is a focus. Great. One word. I love it.

[9:54] Ryan Scoble: We are as triple threat as we can be, as even across all areas. Our one word would be individuality.

[10:03] Carla Cash: That's more words than one word to say a word. Okay. Good. Good. Fine. I'm English. I break the rules. We understand.

[10:10] Jessica Humphrey: We focus especially on acting. Acting is the one word. Great.

[10:10] Steve Clough: Career longevity.

[10:18] Charlie Murphy: Oh, love that. Okay. Great. Ours is mindfulness, training the artist and the human.

[10:24] Charlie Murphy: Okay. Great. Those are cheated a little bit. See, that's what you all can do on your pre-screens. When they say 60 seconds, if it's 63 seconds, it's like, oh, they're really cutting you off. Anyway, just kidding. A little bit of cheating. Who cares? We love them for cheating.

[10:31] Charlie Murphy: Same idea there. Now with academic focus. So this could be a sentence, right? But if you're going to talk about, we're about 80-20 artistic versus academics. We do allow minors. We allow double majors. We discourage. How much academics would be in the program?

[10:44] Ryan Scoble: West Virginia University, 75% artistic focus, 25% gen ed. You can definitely minor some double majors, though it is challenging. And you'll be very busy.

[10:59] Carla Cash: Actually, it's pretty much the same. It's about 75-25 with your gen eds and your performance classes and music and all of that. We do have a lot of minors and some even double majors. It is hard to double major with musical theater, but we've had students do it.

[11:16] Jessica Humphrey: Love it. We're at about 60-40. Double majors, probably not going to happen. Minors, definitely. And study abroad.

[11:24] Steve Clough: We are 75-25. However, that's slightly going to change next year where your lib ed will actually include a minor specifically as well. So there are students that will then be able to double minor as well.

[11:38] Danny Loftus-George: I love it. We're two-thirds artistic, one-third gen ed. In terms of our gen ed, really unique because our gen eds are geared towards your discipline. So instead of the history, you take the history of dance. And it is a practical course. So you're actually dancing through history, which is really cool. What was the other question? Oh, and you have to declare a minor. So you can do a minor in television, film, musical theater, commercial dance, or business.

[12:06] Charlie Murphy: I love it. And you'll hear different answers throughout the hour. It's something like 75-25, 80-20. Those are very typical, normal-ish answers for a BFA. That's not surprising.

[12:10] Charlie Murphy: All right, Danny, we're going to make you go first with our fun facts. So this is your choose your own adventure. You could give me a fact about your campus. You could talk about study abroad. You could talk about any special scholarship opportunities, certainly, if that's in there. Partnerships, you've got anything that you want that's sort of like something people don't know or something you'd like to share about your school.

[12:28] Danny Loftus-George: Yeah, I think, oh, god, fun fact. I guess everyone has to take television and film. So you're always taking on-screen classes. One of our buildings is shared with Netflix, which is really cool. So that's a really unique opportunity.

[12:42] Charlie Murphy: Oh, god. Period. That's a fun fact. Okay.

[12:48] Carla Cash: Oh, I lost it. I've been... Come back to it. Lost his chance. There it is. God, he's not getting another chance. I heard Netflix, and I was like, ooh, I want to go on Netflix. Ooh, fun fact.

[12:57] Jessica Humphrey: That's what I heard. I was like... We should have that about Netflix.

[12:59] Charlie Murphy: And then I was completely gone. Okay, Jennifer.

[13:05] Jessica Humphrey: They got these questions in advance, too. Like, they could have practiced. Anyway, keep going.

[13:09] Carla Cash: We have, what, 300 and something.

[13:09] Jessica Humphrey: That's fair. That's fair.

[13:12] Jessica Humphrey: So DFW is the fifth largest theater market in the country, and we do a lot of co-productions with local theaters in our market. So we do, like, literal co-productions, but then we also encourage our students to go work outside and be working while they're in school as well in the DFW theater market, because there's so much to offer, not just from theater, but also film and voiceover and print and commercials and things like that.

[13:37] Steve Clough: I love it. We do a lot of professional work. We just brought the A1 pre-screen, happened at our school right before I left. We go to SCTCs every year. We do a showcase in New York every year, and we bring in guest artists every year. So we put a lot of attention on prepping them for the professional world. Beautiful.

[13:59] Ryan Scoble: West Virginia University has partnered with West Virginia Public Theater, which is one of two equity performance theaters in the state of West Virginia. So that's our fun fact.

[14:08] Charlie Murphy: All right, now here's Steve's second chance.

[14:08] Steve Clough: Yeah, we'll give it to him. I appreciate you all. Thank you so much. No, I want to take the myth out of private college. Everyone hears private college and like, oh, cha-ching. No, actually, we offer a merit-based scholarship based on your GPA just for applying, and then also we can stack that with a talent scholarship on top.

[14:27] The College Audition: Welcome back to the Faculty Panel at PUA.

[14:49] Unknown speaker: That is a great question. So we love students that are good humans and who know who they are. High-achieving students do really well at TCU. We're a pretty selective school when it comes to academics. And so if you're a really bright student and you enjoy learning about the world, then you're going to enjoy TCU.

[15:07] Unknown speaker: I love it. Okay. We got a two-minute warning. Two-minute warning. Yes. Another specific question?

[15:11] Unknown speaker: Norwalk. What theatrical opportunities do you provide for freshmen? I'm just saying it into the mic.

[15:15] Unknown speaker: Yeah. So you can audition for everything starting in your first year, first semester. We have several students who are, again, working. So we have students that are doing eight shows a week on Broadway and freshmen in college at the same time, which is kind of crazy. Agents come out. Agents Senior Showcase starts in your freshman year. So the expectation is that you're signed before you graduate versus after you graduate. You would think that would have been a unique, fun fact that we could have shared. That was an example of a fun, unique fact, I think.

[15:40] Unknown speaker: Okay. One or two more questions. Yes, please. Go for it.

[15:43] Unknown speaker: Can you take any business classes or minor in business? I'm just going to read them so that people hear.

[15:46] Unknown speaker: Yeah. Sure. Yes. You can minor in business. Totally a possibility. And when you minor, you take classes like business administration, economics, contract law. I'm forgetting some, but yes, definitely.

[15:58] Unknown speaker: And did I see a question down on the floor? Yeah. Go for it. What does the word acting entail is the question for TCU?

[16:03] Unknown speaker: So we just we have a big emphasis on our acting development. But I also think that our what's really cool is our acting classes are not separate for musical theater or acting students. So we take our BFA acting majors and our BFA musical theater majors in that first acting one class and we mix them all together and we make two sections. So there's not acting for musical theater and acting for acting. It's just everybody learning it side by side together. But then we also take acting out of just being on stage with voiceover and acting for the camera and things like that.

[16:35] Unknown speaker: OK, great. I want to give 30 more seconds to everybody here. You get to do your own. Choose your own adventure. So you can answer for me either what you look for in a student, what you're looking for in auditions and what you look for in students. You can tell me about your showcase prep for launch of the business, that kind of stuff. You can give general advice or anything that you missed from before. And a fun fact. Feel free. Why don't we start?

[16:52] Unknown speaker: Yeah, we'll start with Ryan first. We do a New York City showcase and we prep our students through four different classes in their senior year and junior year as they're heading towards the industry. Also doing a lot of what Heidelberg said with professional auditions being required starting in sophomore year. Fun fact. I think that is our students are really great people. What we're looking for is authenticity. And I like to work with really good people. I don't know if you guys know this, but I spend more time with students than my own family. So I and I've been doing this for 22 years. I want to work with really good people because I can teach anyone to act. Do you hear that quote? Did I not say that in one of the parent meetings or I said they're going to tell you because that's how I feel.

I could teach anyone to act. OK, if you could. Oh, yeah, definitely. Good humans. Good humans first. But also we're a school about having that college experience, a traditional college experience. And so on Saturdays when there are football games, we don't have rehearsals. We don't have shows when there are home football games because, one, everybody's at the football game. And two, there is nowhere to park. Good answer. I like that.

[18:08] Unknown speaker: OK, I think and this is me personally. I just want you to celebrate you. I want you to come and be yourselves. Yes, you will learn all the techniques that any of the universities. But if there's one piece of advice that I can give you, if you're up right now, if you're not up right now, just keep remembering who you are in yourself and keep putting yourself in front of your training, because that is the only thing that is going to make you different out in the industry. Well said. Danny, take us home.

[18:31] Unknown speaker: Oh, God. A piece of advice, I think, is maybe not as wholesome. But in terms of what you're putting out there in terms of content, right, you all have to talk. You all have Instagram. Make sure that the content that you're putting out is great. I don't know about the other schools. We're certainly watching your social media. Right. And I think many other schools do. It's really helpful for us to see all the other things that we can see. We get like two minutes in this room. And if we want to explore further, typically that's the first place that I'm going to go to outside of acceptance. So just a word to the wise. Unwholesome advice. And it's why we have microphones for the sake of the YouTube and the TikTok.

There we go. This very podcast. OK, let's get a big thank you to this. Oh, what a good looking group. OK, now, how much did you watch of that? Do you guys feel like you have a sense of what to do? I'm going to ask less questions. No, you still need it. OK, they still need it. OK, here we go. So you're going to start off. You're going to introduce yourselves and you're going to give us a 30 second elevator pitch. All mixed into one. I'm going to hold you to 30 seconds. Go for it, Terry. You want to start us off?

[19:32] Terry Ken: OK, I'm Terry Ken. I'm head of the musical theater program at Kent State University. No, no coincidence. And I'm the producing artistic director of Porthouse Theater. We offer a rigorous conservatory style training program within a major university setting. But here's what sets us apart. Lots of programs prepare you for the professional arena. But at Kent State, you live it. We own and operate our own equity theater, Porthouse Theater. And that experience is built into our curriculum. Every musical theater student is guaranteed at least one professional credit before they graduate. So we don't just teach you about the business. We put you smack dab in the middle of it. Boom. Very good.

[20:20] Christiane Roll: So, hi, I am Dr. Christiane Roll. I'm the head of the musical theater program at Florida Southern College and the chair of the Department of Theater and Dance there. And our program not only allows double majors, but we support it. And not only within our program, but also in other disciplines like STEM and the humanities. We are located in central Florida. So our students love Disney World and Universal. And also not only the social aspect of that, but the connections that we have with that part of the industry. But most of all, I love our individual approach with our students. We know our students and we really get to know them one on one in their four years. And for me, that's just the best part.

[21:06] Maya Brown: Hey, y'all. Hey, I'm Maya Brown and I am the director of undergraduate studies for the School of Theater at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. I also am the BFA and acting coordinator. And something that's really unique about our program is that our BFA actors and our BFA musical theater students all work together in their acting progression. So they are one cohort of 20 total, 10 MT, 10 acting, and they all matriculate together from acting one all the way through acting four. Another thing that's unique about us is that our students go out on national Broadway tours. They work on Broadway and they can still get their degree from us. All we have to do is figure out how we work that out. But our students are doing that.

[21:51] Bill Dignite: Hi, everybody. My name is Bill Dignite. I hope this is going to be really loud in here. I'm the department head and artistic director at Northern Michigan University as well, of theater and dance, as well as the director of the Innovation Institute. Northern Michigan University is in the UP on the shore of Lake Superior. We do 16 shows in our season fully produced. We guarantee that every performance student is in at least one main stage show a year. We'll actually have 17 shows next year because we're crazy. We include a MacBook Pro in our tuition. We have voice lessons. We have all the things. Every one of our faculty and the performance faculty has Broadway credits, which is pretty exciting. And there's a lot of other things, but I'm going to beautifully done self-policing. I love it. Go for it.

[22:37] Greg Helms: Hi, I'm Greg Helms, and I'm the head of musical theater at Wright State University in the School of Fine and Performing Arts. Wright State University's program is a BFA in acting and musical theater. So similarly, we have both sides of that program working together. They take classes together for the first two years and then they split into their separate cohorts. We believe in full training. So everybody dances, everybody sings, everybody acts. They do all the things. I love it. And you answer my next question already. And what are the chances that Greg and Bill would be seated next to each other? These are two of my showcasing showcases. I did three showcases that I showed off and it happened to be the two of yours. That's so funny.

[23:15] Unknown speaker: Okay, let's go back from Greg now and let's try to give a one-word answer. We'll see if they do it. On your artistic focus. So is there more acting, singing, dancing, triple threat? We'll call that one word, et cetera. How would you talk about your artistic focus?

[23:27] Greg Helms: Artistic focus is acting.

[23:28] Unknown speaker: Acting, one word. Love it.

[23:30] Bill Dignite: Artistic focus is triple threat.

[23:32] Unknown speaker: See how they're using more words to say. You could just say triple threat. You don't have to repeat the question. Fine, Maya.

[23:36] Maya Brown: Triple threat.

[23:38] Unknown speaker: Damn, I love it. Go.

[23:40] Greg Helms: Singing.

[23:41] Unknown speaker: Singing.

[23:42] Unknown speaker: Individuality.

[23:43] Unknown speaker: Individuality, I like it. That's a good word.

[23:45] Unknown speaker: Okay, what about now we're going to go backward. Let's talk about academic focus. So are you a 75-25, 80-20 from artistic and academic of it all? And then talk about how possible minors, double majors are. Where are you in terms of the focus academically?

[23:57] Unknown speaker: Okay, we're a BFA, so we're definitely artistically focused. Roughly 70% artistic training and 30% academics. But we're also part of a major university, so students get the best of both worlds. Minors are possible with thoughtful planning. Double majors, well, it's possible, but there are only so many hours in a day, and we do occasionally encourage our students to sleep.

[24:24] Unknown speaker: Hey, now, I love it. Okay, go for it.

[24:26] Christiane Roll: We are also a BFA program, so, again, it's our artistic focus. But because so many of your students have AP, IB, dual enrollment, we really help them mindfully use those extra credits to get that double major or a minor pretty easily.

[24:42] Maya Brown: Yes, we are a BFA as well. And for us, in the acting progression, it is absolutely possible for you to do a double major. We have had a couple of our MT students make that possible as well, but it is through having early college or AP courses that come in with them. But we are able to do minors very easily, and lots of our students do minors in, like, dance or some other form of, like, performing arts. We also are, like, 80-20 when it comes to artistic versus academic.

[25:13] Bill Dignite: We absolutely can do double majors. We have BFA programs as well as a BA program. Students can definitely double major. I just had physics and musical theater. So however weird you want to get, we're willing to figure it out.

[25:30] Unknown speaker: However weird. Some of these kids want to get pretty weird. Go ahead, Greg.

[25:33] Greg Helms: We're a BFA as well, and a lot of our students minor. In fact, a lot of the MTs do a dance minor. And you can double major. Again, it depends on how much you want to sleep, and it depends on how long you want to be in school if you want to do classes in the summer. Because the classes are the class.

[25:52] Unknown speaker: I love it. All right, now we're going to keep going backward now. This is your fun fact, so it could be anything. Tell me something about the campus you haven't told me. Tell me something about scholarship opportunities. Tell me something about study abroad. Tell me something about partnerships. Anything you want, fun facts, something people don't always know about your school from the website.

[26:06] Greg Helms: I will say this. One of the main things that students like about Wright State is that we have what we call the directing lab. That is a student-run space. So they have their own board. They create their own season. They direct, cast. They do all of it. Faculty only advise. So that is an opportunity that a lot of schools would not be able to give you.

[26:28] Bill Dignite: We have a national partnership with Playhouse in the Square. And we produce one world premiere every year. So we do a full player in competition that's fully endowed. So it's funded. And our students go down to Memphis to produce down there. And then they take it up here. So they get those professional acting as well as design credits.

[26:48] Maya Brown: Two things. First one is that we go to London every other year, which is really exciting. We spend two weeks there. Most of our students will hop off and go over to Paris or Amsterdam or somewhere else while we're out there in London. And the second thing is we have the university concert and lecture series. Through that, we have master classes for our students as well as concerts that will accompany it. This year, we already had Leslie Odom Jr. in January, and we had Alex Newell just a couple weeks ago. See, I said one fun fact. She's got two fun facts in. That's why you always cheat. No one's mad about the second fun fact. Go ahead, Christiane.

[27:22] Christiane Roll: The college has a program called the Junior Journey. So every student is assured an international trip as part of their tuition. And it's held over fall break, spring break, or the summer term. You can do it with the theater program. I took students on a cruise. I promise we did do some learning on the cruise. But you can do it in any discipline that you'd like. Excellent.

[27:42] Unknown speaker: So we're a big university with a small program heart. Our students aren't numbers, and they're certainly not just casting types. We know them. We challenge them. We celebrate their victories. And occasionally, we give them a little kick in the pants. We take the work seriously, but we don't believe you have to take yourself seriously every minute of the day. I love it.

[28:06] Unknown speaker: We'll do a couple questions. Specific questions. Who has specific questions for one of the people on this panel? Ooh, now you're intimidated. Ooh, ooh. Yes, please go ahead in the yellow shirt.

[28:16] Unknown speaker: The question about the function of the Wright State Directing Lab. That functions in any of those ways. So it can be something that you're self-producing. It can be cabaret. It could be something that you've written. It could be something that you're licensing for yourself. You have a choice of any of those things.

[28:31] Unknown speaker: I love it. Another specific question. Go for it.

[28:34] Unknown speaker: Do any of the other schools but Wright State have directing opportunities for students?

[28:39] Unknown speaker: All right. A question for four of you. You've got to be quick. You've got to be quick if you're saying yes or no answers.

[28:41] Unknown speaker: Yes, we do.

[28:42] Unknown speaker: Yes, we do.

[28:43] Unknown speaker: We just workshopped a new musical with our students, and we have student organizations that produce work every time.

[28:46] Unknown speaker: Cheating, cheating, cheating.

[28:47] Unknown speaker: Yes or no.

[28:48] Unknown speaker: I'm a cheater.

[28:49] Unknown speaker: Yes, Maya.

[28:50] Maya Brown: Yes, both student produced and produced through us.

[28:52] Unknown speaker: She's cheating, cheating, cheating. Everyone cheats.

[28:54] Unknown speaker: Yes, we have a class, and you can attend.

[29:25] Unknown speaker: This is what I look for in auditions. I look for authenticity, curiosity, and most importantly, potential. I'm not looking for a finished product. I mean, if you were already a finished product, why would you need me? I want to see you, not your idea of what you think I want to see. Make bold choices. Take risks. Tell me a story, and for heaven's sakes, have some fun. I can teach technique. I can help you develop your skills, but I can't teach you to be somebody else, and frankly, why would I want to?

[30:04] Unknown speaker: At Florida Southern, we are looking for students who are smart and who are kind, and the philosophy of our department is giving somebody else a compliment does not make you less talented. At UNCG, we are looking for confident folks who are wanting to go out and create opportunities for others, who understand how to stand in their agency, and that is why we teach theatrical intimacy education's best practices to all of our students. I am guiding faculty with them, and we use intimacy choreographers on all of our productions that require it. Boom! So we do all the things they do, so there we go.

[30:45] Unknown speaker: Next question, next question, go ahead. And you should definitely check out the podcast we did with Charlie, but our showcase is about meaningful relationships with industry partners from film, voice acting, TV, as well as the theater industries, and beyond. We trap them on an island called Mackinac Island. There are no cars, there's only horses and bicycles, and Charlie was there, he knows it was fun. Let's give Bill a couple more seconds, and he's going to talk about the podcast, of course. Give him some more time, of course. Please like and subscribe, and if you don't cut that, I swear to God. But no, yeah, we have a showcase where we make sure that you're connecting and you're not just showing what you did in 90 seconds and your talent, but definitely having a meal with them and having a real relationship.

[31:31] Unknown speaker: The compliments got you some extra seconds, that's too many extra seconds. Okay, Greg, go for it. Yes, all of those things. Also, I would say what we're looking for is I'm looking for somebody that can be authentically themselves, is confident about that, and then we're going to work on helping you develop into an individual artist that you can be an artist within the industry and express those values that you have that represent you. I said this last year, but just clock for yourself. When you start hearing answers again and again, like when you hear stuff like authentic self again, when you hear confidence, just notice the things that get said again and again. That's probably true. That's probably true in this process if you hear four or five, six different people say it.

That's probably pretty darn good advice. Okay, big thank you to round two. Thank you, everyone. Okay, round three, here we are. Okay, did you feel like you guys watched enough of that that you know what you're prepared to do? You've done this last year to some extent. No, they all want cues. We're wasting our time with me giving cues. All right, we're going to start off with who you are and your 30-second slate slash elevator pitch of your program. I think Joe has the mic there, so we'll actually start with Joe. You can start it off then.

[32:36] Joe Domencik: Hi, my name is Joe Domencik. I'm from Seton Hill University, 45 minutes from here. We're a small liberal arts college, and it's a rigorous training program in a very dedicated liberal arts environment.

[32:49] Elisa Hauser: Hi, I'm Elisa Hauser. I am the program director of the BM at Florida State University. We also have a BFA. It's one program. Okay, here's my pitch. We are a conservatory-style training in a big liberal arts university. If you want small class sizes, we take MT classes of eight, but you want to go to big football games, that's FSU. Super strong alumni network, working all over Broadway, national tours, casting director-led showcase prep, new musical workshop every year, caring professors with strong industry connections.

[33:21] Unknown speaker: I love it. Beautifully said, but if we could say it louder, it would be better, but everything else is good.

[33:25] Joe Jackson: Well done. So prepared. Hi, I'm Joe Jackson from the University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss, excuse me. We have a dedicated four-year program where you can get a BFA in acting for stage and screen because we are the department of theater and film. So you're going to leave with a great education so that you can walk into any room that your agent hopefully sends you in for and be able to conquer that audition. If you have more questions, I'd like to talk. Thank you.

[33:49] Unknown speaker: Beautiful. Love those 30 seconds. That was excellent. Go for a ride.

[33:52] Ryan Kaspersak: Good evening. I'm Ryan Kaspersak. I'm the head of musical theater at Montclair State University. I'm repping for the BFA musical theater program, but also the BFA acting program at Montclair State. Mid-sized university, 24,000 students. Both of the programs are relatively small. The musical theater program is 20 to 25 students a class. Acting is somewhere between 15 and 20. Conservatory style, that means 93 of your 120 credits. And we are 12 miles from midtown New York. We really rely on New York as an extension of the campus. And the majority of the faculty are working Broadway professionals who commute out to lovely suburban Montclair.

[34:26] Unknown speaker: So well said. They're still not loud enough. Go for it.

[34:29] Danny Gerwin: Hi. I'm Danny Gerwin. I'm the head of musical theater at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, which is a suburb of Detroit. It's a beautiful campus. It is a four-year program of BFA musical theater. We also have a BFA in acting for stage and screen. We also have a BFA in design tech. It is a beautiful campus. It's a hidden gem, I would say. A small program, about 14 students in it per year in the musical theater program. Acting, we take even fewer. And what else?

[34:58] Unknown speaker: Period. That's it. You get more questions. And you're going to get the very next question. We're going to challenge you all to be as one word as possible. The closer to one word, it's like you sink the putt if you get to one word. Tell me about your artistic focus. So is it an acting focus school, a dance focus school, a singing focus school for UMT especially? Or is there some triple threat or some other word that you want to say? One word if you can, Danny.

[35:17] Danny Gerwin: Opportunity.

[35:18] Unknown speaker: Opportunity.

[35:19] Unknown speaker: Makers.

[35:20] Unknown speaker: God, one word. Geez, performers. They had the questions in advance. I want to be clear. They had the questions. Do your homework. Okay, Elisa.

[35:38] Elisa Hauser: Triple threat.

[35:39] Unknown speaker: Triple threat. Multi-faceted theater artists ready for an unpredictable world. Boo. Boo.

[35:47] Unknown speaker: Okay, very good. Now, Joe, we're sticking with you. Now, tell me about your academic focus. So are we 75, 25, 80, 20 from academics in terms of artistic and academic focus? Talk to me about minors and double majors, how possible that is. What do I need to know about academics? Go for it, Joe. Give me multiple words.

[36:02] Joe Domencik: Roughly 75, 25, liberal arts. What was the other part of that?

[36:08] Unknown speaker: Minors, double majors.

[36:09] Joe Domencik: Lots of opportunities and encouraged minors, some double majors. We really want people to take advantage of a lot of opportunities. Those are our students that really thrive, that come out with a lot of different skills.

[36:22] Unknown speaker: Love it. Elisa?

[36:23] Elisa Hauser: We are 65, 35. 35 being the state core Florida requirements. Minors, yes, possible if you come in with some accelerated credits. Double major, not really possible. If you want a double major, we have a BA that's non-audition and you can still be a part of the theater program, so that's a great option for double majors.

[36:42] Unknown speaker: Love it, yeah.

[36:43] Unknown speaker: Great. Yes, so we also have a double major for the BAs. The BFA is too rigorous. It is about 70 to 30% with 70% being your artistic classes in the BFA.

[36:57] Unknown speaker: Beautiful.

[36:58] Unknown speaker: We're probably 80 to 85% artistic and we try and cheat whenever we can, so acting counts as a communication credit. Hamilton history counts as a history credit. Personal finance for creatives counts as a math credit, so it's probably even less than that. We do have a lot of minors from the BFA acting and musical theater programs. If you're interested in double majoring, we do suggest the BA in theater studies and you can have a concentration in acting or musical theater.

[37:26] Unknown speaker: Beautifully said. I'd say about 70, 30, about 80 credits in your major in musical theater or acting, and then you get about 40 credits in gen eds that you need to fulfill.

[37:38] Unknown speaker: That's bad math. Everyone did the math there. That's two-thirds of the credits.

[37:38] Unknown speaker: Two-thirds of the credits.

[37:42] Unknown speaker: I'm just saying. I mean, we're going to do math. That's beautifully said. Okay, here we go. Your fun fact, which you've all prepared so well. I'm ready for this. Tell me about the campus. Tell me about something that people wouldn't know about your school. Study abroad. Maybe we haven't talked a lot about scholarship or cost opportunities. If there's anything to keep your costs down, that would certainly be information people would want to know. Do you have any special partnerships? Any fun fact that people wouldn't know about your school from the website? Go for it, Danny.

[38:04] Danny Gerwin: We have a study abroad program in Greece, which is really exciting, and students love it. We're also one of the most affordable schools in the country. Tuition is about $18,000.

[38:13] Unknown speaker: Two fun facts, but we'll allow it. They were quick. We really have a secret funnel getting associate directors and choreographers from Broadway shows to come out and be part of our creative teams. This year, we had the associate director from Six. Last year, we had the associate director from Last Five Years. The year before, we had the associate director choreographer from Fosse-Verdon. That's kind of our secret funnel.

[38:36] Unknown speaker: Why on earth would you keep it secret if you have such a funnel? It doesn't make any sense. Yes, Joe.

[38:40] Joe Jackson: Not so secret. We're a large SEC school. The secret is that we are in Oxford, Mississippi, which is this gorgeous little cultural gem in North Mississippi. It's really lovely. A lot of culture and arts. We love it.

[38:55] Unknown speaker: I love it.

[38:56] Elisa Hauser: FSU is super affordable. If you're in-state, it's $7,000 tuition.

[39:00] Unknown speaker: Say it for the people in the back, $7,000 tuition.

[39:03] Elisa Hauser: $7,000 if you're in-state. If you're out-of-state, I think it's $21,000-ish, but we can almost always get an out-of-state waiver for our MTs.

[39:11] Unknown speaker: That was an out-of-state waiver for people in the back. Yes, you're doing great.

[39:15] Unknown speaker: Which is like half.

[39:16] Unknown speaker: Half. Half is good, Joe.

[39:19] Unknown speaker: Private university, but sometimes with our financial aid and scholarships, we beat state schools.

[39:25] Unknown speaker: Beat them. I like it.

[39:27] Unknown speaker: Okay, let's do questions. Specific questions. Yes, please.

[39:31] Unknown speaker: The question was, how does the program focus on musical theater, voice, given the classical background?

[39:38] Unknown speaker: I'm the voice teacher for all the juniors and seniors, and when they come to me, I mean, I can teach classical, but I don't. That's not my job. I'm here to teach you to sing what you need to sing.

[39:47] Unknown speaker: Your first two years, you will get another faculty voice teacher who is a hybrid, so they teach both classical and contemporary and MT, so it's really the best of all worlds.

[39:57] Unknown speaker: I love it. Okay, other questions. Yes, please.

[39:59] Unknown speaker: The question is, does the artistic acceptance override the academic, or do you have to be, say it again?

[40:04] Unknown speaker: Well, it's really hard to get.

[40:05] Unknown speaker: It's really hard to get in Florida State, she says. Okay, Lisa, go ahead.

[40:09] Elisa Hauser: So, the answer is no. You do have to be accepted to the university, so we can sometimes give a little bit of a push, but it's sometimes. You got to be smart. Okay, one more question. Questions, questions, questions. Okay, let's let them do your little wrap-up. So, you can grab a fun fact that you missed from before, or other things you can answer in your own CYA, choose your own adventure, is what you're looking for in a student. So, what you look for in students, you can tell me that. You can give me general audition advice. You can talk to me about your showcase or, you know, how you prepare people for the launch of the business, anything you want, or anything else. Let's start with Joe and come back this way.

[40:44] Joe Jackson: We are starting our first showcase this year. We're excited about that. Boom. But one of the things that I want people to know is because we have so many opportunities, a lot of times our students discover a second passion. Sometimes it's a different career path. Sometimes it's just another thing that they do in addition to their performing.

[41:02] Unknown speaker: Well said. Okay, Lisa.

[41:04] Elisa Hauser: So, as a voice teacher, I'm going to give you some advice, and the advice is higher and louder is not always better.

[41:11] Unknown speaker: Except tonight. Tonight, higher and louder is better. Okay, no, I'm just kidding.

[41:15] Unknown speaker: Higher and louder.

[41:16] Unknown speaker: Come on, come on.

[41:18] Unknown speaker: I'm so sorry, so sorry. So, yes, we do a BFA showcase in New York City that we've been doing for a long time. We have a great group of casting directors and agents that come to support. And then the final thing, I just lost it because I was trying to be funny.

[41:33] Unknown speaker: That was the final thing. You didn't need to have a final thing after the final thing.

[41:35] Unknown speaker: That was the final thing. Ryan.

[41:36] Ryan Kaspersak: We're good.

[41:38] Unknown speaker: At Montclair State University, we are seeking open-hearted collaborators, and that calls back to my one word, which was makers. We're doing a ton of new work at Montclair State, and we're interested in discovering who you are as an artist and what you can bring to the process. We're not trying to plug and play and make you into some kind of cog that fits into a universe of Broadway that you won't even know what that is in five years. So, come see us.

[42:00] Unknown speaker: How cheeky. How cheeky that he takes his one word and finds a way to do multiple words on his one word.

[42:05] Unknown speaker: I read the question.

[42:06] Unknown speaker: Good. It's very good.

[42:07] Unknown speaker: Okay, go for it, Danny.

[42:09] Danny Gerwin: We do have a showcase in New York. It's our 20th anniversary, actually, of the showcase, so we're doing a big celebration this year. We also do a co-production with Meadowbrook Theater, which is a professional lore theater on campus. So, we do a co-production every year, and students get to join Equity if they want to. So, it's very exciting, and last year we did All Shook Up. This year, it's Curtains. So, it's a fun opportunity.

[42:31] Unknown speaker: I love it. A big thank you to our third panel. Thank you, panel.

[42:35] Unknown speaker: Okay, let's welcome our fourth panel.

[42:40] Nicolette Hart: Hi, everyone. Nicolette Hart. Is this on? Hello?

[42:42] Unknown speaker: No.

[42:43] Unknown speaker: It doesn't sound like it is, but it is.

[42:44] Nicolette Hart: You have to be loud. No, put it down.

[42:45] Nicolette Hart: Hi.

[42:46] Unknown speaker: Yeah, but keep it.

[42:47] Nicolette Hart: Perfect. Now, back to the back. Now, the back to the back.

[42:51] Unknown speaker: Testing.

[42:52] Unknown speaker: Yeah. No, it's not on, but it's on.

[42:55] Unknown speaker: To the back.

[42:57] Unknown speaker: Be strange.

[42:58] Nicolette Hart: Hi, everyone. I'm Nicolette Hart. I'm the program director of the BFA Musical Theater Program at Nazareth University. We're located in Rochester, New York, which is halfway between Buffalo and Syracuse. So, it is north. Our campus is completely connected by underground tunnels, so you won't freeze. So, we are a conservatory-style training inside a liberal arts institution.

[43:23] Sean Morrissey: I'm going to take a course in seven other areas. We like smart actors. And the rest of your time, the other 75% of your time, you're going to be taking courses in the disciplines: music, singing, dancing, acting. Period. Five seconds less for everybody else.

[43:39] Tim: Oh my God. No, I'm saying you'd be faster. No, you have to give it on. We're done. You're negative five seconds. We're over time! Over time! Over time!

[43:46] Sean Morrissey: Here we go. I'm Sean Morrissey. I'm from Millican University in Decatur, Illinois. Millican is a small, tiny university of about 1,700 students. Students can run, but you cannot hide. So we know where you are and what you're up to all the time. So that's great for parents and very disconcerting for the students. Liberal arts, again, same thing. About 91 credits in the major and 34 credits in liberal arts. And we've got all kinds of other stuff, but...

[44:18] Tim: Awesome. Hi there. I'm Tim. I'm from Rockford University. Rockford is about an hour and a half west of Chicago. So we're close to Chicago. Also, private liberal arts university. We're a little smaller than Millican. We're about 1,000 students. We have a really thriving performing arts department where we offer BFAs in musical theater, acting, directing, design and production, and in theater management. We have a professional equity theater that is in residence at the university and a second professional theater there also. We really preach our students getting professional credit starting sophomore, junior year, that they're auditioning outside of the program. So, boom, a lot of little things.

[44:58] James Boger: Hi everybody. I'm James Boger. I'm the director of undergraduate studies for all the theater and dance programs at the University of Buffalo, which is the largest public university in New York. So it's part of the SUNY system, and we love to talk about the abundance of the largest research university in the New York system, and we are a small department within that. So you get everything you want in a big university, and Buffalo is the second largest city in New York State. We also have tunnels because it does snow.

[45:30] Sean Morrissey: Oh gosh. They're mad at you. You need to be louder. You have five more seconds.

[45:36] James Boger: Content, creativity, craft, and culture. Wow, way to take a note. The man takes a note. Okay, Rebecca.

[45:42] Rebecca Overton: Hi you guys. I'm Rebecca Overton. I am the head of recruitment for the musical theater program at Malloy CAP21. We are a musical theater triple threat BFA program. We don't have acting. We don't have all the different ones. It is purely a musical theater training program. We are located also in New York. We have two campuses. One is on the south shore of Long Island in Rockville Center. Our Manhattan studios are in Manhattan as Manhattan would suggest. Our students go back and forth two days a week as a first-year student, three days a week, sometimes four days a week into the city, and then you do your academics on the main campus. Lots more to talk about, but I'm sure that was fantastic. And you said Manhattan four times. We're impressed. Now your one word. You keep it. We're coming back this way. We're snaking. One word. Artistic focus. You could tell me acting, singing, dancing, triple threat, or a different creative word about your artistic focus. Rebecca.

[46:42] Rebecca Overton: Can it be more than one word? No. Okay, great. Collaborative musical theater. That's one word. You could tell me acting, singing, dancing, triple threat, or a different creative word about your artistic focus.

[46:48] James Boger: Yo James, versatility.

[46:48] Tim: Nice. I would say growth.

[46:55] Sean Morrissey: Love it.

[46:55] Rebecca Overton: Collaboration.

[46:55] Tim: Okay. Flexibility.

[46:55] Sean Morrissey: Okay. I love it. These are much better panel. You guys weren't cheating as much. I like it. Okay. All right. Now you get a couple of words, like a sentence. Tell me about the academic focus. Some of you already mentioned in the credits. So, are we 75, 25? You can give me the credit numbers if you don't want to do the math.

[47:15] Nicolai: Yeah. So you can minor or double minor in our program. We have a lot of minors like communications and media, arts management, business minors. Those are the kinds of things that are sort of tangential that a lot of students tend to choose. And you can do a double and it's not difficult. Anything between 12 and 18 credits really gets you that minor. So, and we encourage it for sure.

[47:37] Sean Morrissey: I love it. Yeah. Millican, you cannot double major in a BFA program, but you can double major in a BA program. So if you're really interested in that, we have a BA in theater along with a musical theater, acting, stage management, and design and production.

[47:53] James Boger: Another one of those answers you've heard enough times. It's just worth clocking. That tends to be the truth.

[47:55] Nicolai: Not true. Everybody tends to be true.

[47:55] Sean Morrissey: Yeah. Please go. Keep going.

[47:58] Nicolai: One more thing. Oh, no, no, no. I'm not going with you. No, no. And you're done? Minors in dance and theater. There you go. Okay, good.

[48:02] James Boger: Yeah. Yeah, that's it. All right. So we have 48 hours of gen eds, 75 hours of credits in the BFA musical theater program. We encourage a minor, whether that's dance or music or business or psychology, in or out of the department. And you can double major. It particularly works if you come in with a lot of AP credit or dual college credit. Period. We love it.

[48:35] James Boger: In our department, you can do a double degree. You can do a BA dance plus BFA music theater. That's new-ish. You can't double major in BFAs and finish in four years. If you want a fifth year, you can do that. You can minor in dance or theater, and you have concentrations within theater. And you can double major outside of the department as well, with the caveat that not all degree programs will finish in four years, but you can do it with several degree programs. There is one MTCA student who's a freshman who is somehow a double major in computer science and music theater, and I don't even know how she got it approved, but she's brilliant.

[49:09] Sean Morrissey: We gave James an extra time because he's talking about MTCA students. Very good. Just like Bale. Very good. Okay. Yeah. Rebecca, please. That's a joke.

[49:16] Rebecca Overton: Okay. So we have 76 credits in musical theater, 40 general education credits, and nine elective credits, which can be used in the department to make it even more musical theater credit heavy. Very difficult to double major unless you're coming in with a ton of APs, a ton of dual enrollment. Some people come in with an associate's degree. They're the ones who could potentially double major. And yes, you can minor. I would say maybe 40% of our students do choose to minor.

[49:48] Sean Morrissey: I love it. Rebecca, we're going to stick with you, and we're going to do our fun fact. So this could be something about the campus you haven't said. This could be something about scholarship opportunities or how you bring the costs down that you haven't said. Partnerships. It could be about showcase. It could be any fun fact. Things that people would like to know about your school they wouldn't necessarily know for your website. Rebecca.

[50:08] Rebecca Overton: So CAP21 used to be a part of NYU Tisch. And CAP21 actually stands for something. I did not know that. I was like maybe recruiter for like four years. I didn't know it actually stood for something. It stands for Collaborative Arts Project for the 21st Century. And CAP21 broke away from NYU in like 2011. They were out on their own for like two or three years. Malloy took over CAP21. Many of the faculty members from NYU are actually still at CAP21. So it's kind of sort of like getting like an NYU CAP21 degree for like two-thirds of the price. That is a fun fact. That was fun.

[50:52] James Boger: Okay, James. Buffalo has a shockingly large theater community. And so we have established professional partnerships with many companies. So at any given weekend, you can find our students performing not just in our 15 productions we do a year, but in probably five other productions around town. And I have just accepted an artistic director position. So we have a pipeline direct to a summer stock now also. Boom, boom, boom. Fun fact again. These are very fun.

[51:20] Tim: I'm going to say our fun fact is we are super intentional in our small program about mental health and about being a community. And I think that it takes being intentional. We do two open forums a semester where students talk about the things that are working, the things that need to be fixed. And so we're intentional about that. I love it.

[51:38] Sean Morrissey: I can't decide now. Too many fun facts. They're all too fun.

[51:46] Tim: Okay, in 2020, we opened our new facility, which is a $30 million building that was designed specifically for our curriculum. So we're no longer in dusty, moldy, horrible spaces that theater people are so used to working in. And it's actually a really, it's a game changer. So it's really re-established how things work at Millican. Beautiful.

[52:08] Sean Morrissey: Oh, yes. A collaborative fun fact. All right, fun facts. I'm stringing them together. We have two London study abroad programs, if you're interested. We have a partnering class, which I think is really important, theater business, a class on industry preparation. We have five partnerships out of Rochester with other theaters, and we showcase in New York City. And we did also just get a $3 million grant for mental health, which is really important. Oh, a little snack of fun facts. Those are snacky.

[52:40] Sean Morrissey: All right, let's do questions, specific questions for this specific panel. Yes, please go for it. The question is about the BS in early childhood education. And for those at home, this question asker has a brochure in her hands that she's using. It's very well done. Okay, go for it.

[52:55] Nicolai: That's great. I wish I could speak in detail, but I'm not the program director for that program. But I will tell you that, yes, everybody in our department can take part in the productions and in all of the offerings that happen in the department. But those students are going to do a lot of hours of teaching, right? So by the time you're a junior, you're going to be very busy working outside of the institution.

[53:13] Tim: I love it. Yeah, right here in the front. So the question is how performers opportunities, how common you can be in local productions.

[53:23] Nicolai: Okay, so our freshmen do not perform. There's a little caveat to that, but there are no curricular performances for our freshmen. We consider it to be a skill building year. Sophomore year, you have two sophomore specific, only sophomore, we call them the projects. So it's sort of like low tech, high technique. We're really focusing on your skills in those. And that's kind of devised like student work. One is a devised project. One is like more like a musical review. And then all of our juniors and seniors are in the pool for the main stages. We are currently with four main stages moving up to five main stages. Yes, you can perform outside of the school, but the curriculum is really intense. And I think that you will find when you get there, like our kids are always doing like concerts and cabarets on the weekends at like green room 42, and at like don't tell mamas and you know, all of those kind of like...

[54:25] Sean Morrissey: It's too long of an answer. It's a great answer, but it's too long of an answer. Both Rebecca and Jane said the word caveat, which I'm very impressed by.

[54:28] Sean Morrissey: Let's give them all a chance to do their last choose your own adventure. If you've done your homework, where you can talk to me about what you look for in a student, you can talk to me about showcase if you haven't mentioned it, you could give me general advice or any of the fun facts and stuff that you've just missed. You can pick your own answer to your own question, whatever you want. Rebecca, you can start off.

[54:47] Rebecca Overton: Oh God, can I give it to someone else?

[54:47] James Boger: Yes, you can start somewhere else.

[54:50] Rebecca Overton: Go start with James. Thank you.

[54:50] James Boger: Great. Fun fact, theater and dance is one of the largest out of state populations of students in a state school. And these out of state tuition is significantly higher than the in-state tuition, but there are 15,000 to $22,000 scholarships for out of state students. And they are not automatic, but there are $15,000 to $22,000 scholarships for out of state students. And I don't know anyone without one.

[55:19] Sean Morrissey: Hell yeah. Okay. I love it.

[55:25] Tim: I'll mention scholarships also. We offer every year, we have presidential scholarship and a trustee scholarship. If your GPA is 3.75 or above, you're eligible for a full tuition ride at Rockford University. Every year, three or four performing arts students get that scholarship. You have to apply to the school by end of November. I also want to say that freshmen do get on stage because we're a small program. So if you're a BFA, if you're accepted into that select program, you're required to audition for all the shows. We had a freshman play one of the principles in Ride the Cyclone this past year. Doesn't always happen, but it often does.

[56:03] Sean Morrissey: I love it.

[56:03] Sean Morrissey: Yeah, Sean. We have five signature programs that sort of make us different. We do a study abroad semester in London. We have a thing called Shakespeare Corrected where our students go into a local prison and produce a Shakespeare play with the offenders. And then it spills out to other organizations in our community. We've got a student-run theater company called Pipe Dream Studio Theater. They do everything from securing rights to designing posters and putting the whole show up. We have a new musicals project. Adam Guan was on campus two weeks ago to work with us on ordinary days. So we bring in all these really great emerging composers and lyricists every year to work with our students on brand new projects. Designing Disney. We get an unprecedented backstage access to Disney with our students. So they get to see and work with Imagineers and see the design studios and do all those kinds of things that nobody ever gets to do. Was that five?

[57:03] Nicolai: That was four, but truly pushing the boundaries to do five when I said one.

[57:08] Nicolai: That was very good. Very good. I think the financials are important to talk about. So I'll say we do talent and merit scholarships at Nazareth. Also, every first and second year student gets a Spark grant. No questions asked. That's $1,500 for experiential learning. So most of the MT students use that money for the London 10-day, which is experiential. It's not accredited. It's not for grades, but it's a 10-day program in London where you're training on the West End. We do spend a day at the Globe. We see a lot of theater, but essentially you're training the whole time.

[57:42] Sean Morrissey: Is that it?

[57:42] Nicolai: That's it.

[57:42] Sean Morrissey: But now here's a question. Should we give Rebecca another chance or should she miss her chance? What do you think?

[57:47] Audience: Give her another chance.

[57:50] Unknown speaker: We are really looking for students who are curious and excited to learn, who are excited to train, and who are excited to learn how to be good colleagues in this industry. We are looking for good humans, and all of our professors are working professionals. We are in New York City, so they can also be working while they are teaching. So we have so many folks who are on Broadway, Broadway adjacent, doing stuff, but we look at our students as our future colleagues, because in four years, you're going to be our future colleague. So that's what we start training you to do as first-year students. You don't have to be best friends. You have to be good colleagues. I love it. Big hit there. Another applause for our fourth panel. Thank you.

[58:48] Unknown speaker: Okay. Our very last panel of the night. You're going to introduce yourself and give me your 30-second elevator pitch about your school. Go for it. Amazing.

[58:57] Lindsay Cummings: Hello. My name is Lindsay Cummings, and I'm the Associate Program Director of Musical Theatre and Musical Theatre Dance at Roosevelt University in Chicago. We offer musical theatre and musical theatre dance. We're one of the only ones in the country to offer musical theatre dance, so we have an amazing program. And our program is amazing because we're literally in one of the best theatre cities in the country, Chicago. Period.

[59:18] Unknown speaker: I love it. We'll land that point. You have a truth.

[59:21] Richard Beaver: Hi. I'm Richard Beaver. I'm the Music Director of Music Theatre at Baldwin-Wallace University, just outside of Cleveland. And my 30-second pitch is that we're housed in the Conservatory of the Performing Arts at Baldwin-Wallace. So that means all of the collaborative spirits that make musical theatre are housed under the very same roof. Theatre, music, musicians, everybody's all housed together, and we collaborate together. And we have a huge number of performance opportunities because of that. Not only theatre, musical theatre, opera, dance, but now we have more of an expanded program of musicals, up from three musicals to now five musicals a year.

[1:00:01] Unknown speaker: Boom.

[1:00:02] Justin Packard: What's up, everybody? I'm Justin Packard. I'm at FIU, Florida International University. Some of you have never heard of that. Welcome. We like to keep things secret down in Miami so that when we're ready, you'll know. About half a decade ago, the Musical Theatre Program started, and they hired three of us to come as working actors from New York City or other environments to build a current, up-to-date, modern curriculum for musical theatre and acting artists. And that's what we've been doing. So you guys have been dope for the past two days, so congratulations on all of that.

[1:00:35] Unknown speaker: Okay. That's so good. But don't all start giving them compliments at the end of the night. You're still talking about your schools.

[1:00:39] Justin Packard: We're focused on the schools.

[1:00:40] Unknown speaker: That was very good. Good for the end of the night. Okay. Now, you're going to try to give me your one-word answer on your artistic focus. So it could be acting, singing, dancing, triple threat. It could be any kind of different word that's creative or anything you want it to be. One-word answer on your artistic focus of your program.

[1:00:55] Unknown speaker: Individual integrity and flavor.

[1:00:57] Unknown speaker: That is not one word. What is wrong with these people?

[1:00:59] Unknown speaker: Okay. Ben, did that answer your question?

[1:01:01] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[1:01:02] Unknown speaker: I'm going to say acting.

[1:01:03] Unknown speaker: I don't have more.

[1:01:04] Unknown speaker: I would say acting truthfully like a real human.

[1:01:06] Unknown speaker: But you don't have more.

[1:01:07] Unknown speaker: Acting.

[1:01:08] Unknown speaker: Okay. Great.

[1:01:10] Unknown speaker: They got more words, so I'm going to have more words.

[1:01:11] Unknown speaker: Triple threat.

[1:01:12] Unknown speaker: Triple threat, but also social justice. We have a big social justice focus at Roosevelt.

[1:01:15] Unknown speaker: You see how the competition raises the level? We talk about that, that your competitive peers make you more competitive.

[1:01:21] Unknown speaker: That's true. They're making each other more competitive. It's very good.

[1:01:24] Unknown speaker: Okay. Now, let's do the same thing for academic focus. You can have a sentence here. Tell me about, are we 75-25? Are we 80-20? Are we 90-10? And remember, in terms of how much academics versus artistic, are minors possible or double majors possible? Go for it, Lindsay.

[1:01:37] Lindsay Cummings: Amazing. We are 90-10, I would say. And you can-

[1:01:41] Unknown speaker: Oh, they like that answer.

[1:01:43] Unknown speaker: How high can the others go now?

[1:01:45] Lindsay Cummings: You can absolutely double major. You can minor. We really encourage-

[1:01:48] Unknown speaker: With the 10 credits, you can double major?

[1:01:49] Lindsay Cummings: The 10%?

[1:01:50] Unknown speaker: Yes.

[1:01:51] Unknown speaker: Fact check.

[1:01:52] Lindsay Cummings: You can.

[1:01:53] Unknown speaker: Fact check.

[1:01:54] Lindsay Cummings: You can do anything you want. Thank you, guys. It's at the end of the night. You can feel the end of the night.

[1:01:57] Unknown speaker: Okay.

[1:01:59] Richard Beaver: Yeah, go for it.

[1:02:00] Richard Beaver: You can double major within your major. You cannot double major unless you do more than four years. They would be very happy to have you for more than four years if you'd like to do that. But you can minor, and you can minor on anything that's a major at the university. You can minor and a major.

[1:02:14] Unknown speaker: I love it.

[1:02:15] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[1:02:16] Unknown speaker: About 20% academic, 80% within your major, and that 20% is given to you as early as possible so that as you're heading into the industry as a junior or senior, your main focus is on your art, your skills, and your trajectory.

[1:02:28] Unknown speaker: I love it. You guys are doing great.

[1:02:30] Unknown speaker: Okay. It doesn't have to be fun or particularly anything like that, but you can grab a bag from Tell Me About Campus Life if you want to tell me something about that. You can tell me about cost, if there's anything you do to bring scholarships in or bring cost down, you can tell me about that. You can tell me about Showcase if you want to, any special relationships, anything that's sort of like ... You wouldn't necessarily know this from the first click of the website.

[1:02:49] Unknown speaker: Great.

[1:02:50] Richard Beaver: I'll do all three, but I'll do it real quick.

[1:02:51] Unknown speaker: No, he won't.

[1:02:52] Richard Beaver: I'll do it real quick.

[1:02:53] Unknown speaker: I said one.

[1:02:54] Richard Beaver: Go for it. A massive public university with a conservatory-style training.

[1:02:59] Unknown speaker: You should have done one.

[1:03:01] Richard Beaver: 55,000 students at the university. We do have a showcase at the end. I forget your other question.

[1:03:10] Unknown speaker: One of the things.

[1:03:11] Richard Beaver: Yes, Richard.

[1:03:12] Richard Beaver: Right. We are 20 minutes outside of Cleveland, one of the best artistic cities in the world, next to Chicago, of course. We have a world-class orchestra, ballet, opera, but we also have Playhouse Square, which is the largest conglomeration of theaters west of New York City. There are 12 theater spaces there, five restored theaters, and every year, Baldwin Wallace performs their spring musical in one of the spaces at Playhouse Square, so you automatically get a regional theater credit.

[1:03:36] Unknown speaker: I love it.

[1:03:37] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[1:03:38] Unknown speaker: Whoa.

[1:03:39] Unknown speaker: That's hard to follow.

[1:03:43] Lindsay Cummings: We are right downtown Chicago. We partner with all of the amazing theaters in Chicago, Goodman Theater, Steppenwolf, the Lyric Opera. We have students performing all over the city, all of the time. We have a lot of internship opportunities also for our students to be performing and actively involved, not even just performing, but behind the scenes, working in costumes, working backstage. We really believe in a well-rounded education, and we want you to experience everything because I know when you're 17, 18, it's hard to make that decision. It's hard to just do one thing, so we really want to experience everything. We want to give you as much as you can so you can make a great decision.

[1:04:22] Unknown speaker: I love it.

[1:04:23] Unknown speaker: All right.

[1:04:25] Unknown speaker: All right. We'll try to do some extra questions here. The question is about Chicago opportunities. Go for it.

[1:04:30] Unknown speaker: Absolutely. We have the brand new Princess Bride musical coming to Chicago 2027 by the Lopez Duo, and we'll have open auditions there, and any student is welcome to audition for that.

[1:04:41] Unknown speaker: All right. Great.

[1:04:43] Unknown speaker: Other questions?

[1:04:44] Unknown speaker: Yeah, please go for it.

[1:04:45] Unknown speaker: The question is, can you do shows while doing school in Roosevelt?

[1:04:47] Unknown speaker: I have had students who have done that before. Yes, it's an individual journey. While double-majoring with a 10% ... It's unbelievable how they do it, these kids.

[1:04:56] Unknown speaker: Do it all.

[1:04:57] Unknown speaker: Yes, go for it.

[1:04:58] Unknown speaker: The question is about the BM and what the focus is in terms of music. Go for it, Richard.

[1:05:01] Richard Beaver: Correct. BM in musical theater is a BFA with extra music classes. It's on steroids. You have four semesters of ensemble, which is awesome. You get to sing in a choir for four semesters, which is only helpful to your musical theater performance, plus extra theory, extra ear training, and extra keyboard skills.

[1:05:18] Unknown speaker: Students themselves are not on steroids, though.

[1:05:20] Unknown speaker: No.

[1:05:21] Unknown speaker: To my knowledge.

[1:05:22] Unknown speaker: To my knowledge.

[1:05:23] Unknown speaker: Hard to not agree with that double-major, and they have to. I saw ... Did I see another one over here?

[1:05:25] Unknown speaker: No.

[1:05:26] Unknown speaker: Okay.

[1:05:27] Unknown speaker: Yes, go for it.

[1:05:28] Unknown speaker: Correct. Do the musical theater students participate in opera at Baldwin-Wallace? This is the question.

[1:05:31] Richard Beaver: They do, and they can audition for anything on campus. Period.

[1:05:33] Unknown speaker: I love it.

[1:05:34] Unknown speaker: Yes, go for it.

[1:05:35] Unknown speaker: You got to get in first, but the question is, can you take classes at Baldwin-Wallace and other instruments?

[1:05:39] Unknown speaker: Okay. Given getting in, yes, you may.

[1:05:42] Unknown speaker: Yes, you may.

[1:05:43] Unknown speaker: I love it.

[1:05:44] Unknown speaker: In the back, please.

[1:05:45] Unknown speaker: Now, which school?

[1:05:46] Unknown speaker: Is that for all?

[1:05:47] Unknown speaker: Oh, we have our first general question. We'll let it.

[1:05:49] Unknown speaker: It's a good question.

[1:05:50] Unknown speaker: We're talking about opportunities from Gabrielle Guy. This was the person.

[1:05:53] Unknown speaker: I'll start. Of course, we have a showcase in New York. It's New World Stages, but we start the industry prep right away, the first semester of freshman year. We have 10 agents, casting directors come in every year, do master classes, and you're singing for those folks every year, and they see you. We've had freshmen to sophomores get called in for everything from 29-hour readings to national tours to Broadway shows, and get signed before showcase.

[1:06:19] Unknown speaker: We'll let everyone else answer it.

[1:06:20] Unknown speaker: Industry prep, you want to go for it?

[1:06:21] Unknown speaker: Yeah, I said before, we have a showcase. The trajectory is really important to us. We have a student who's going to be in the Grinch tour coming up. The Miami scene is also an important part of it, so we make sure that there's a local showcase as well.

[1:06:34] Unknown speaker: I love it.

[1:06:35] Unknown speaker: Miami scene.

[1:06:36] Unknown speaker: We also do showcase. I partner with all of our local Chicago talent agents. I actually bring them in to meet with the freshmen, give them advice as they're freshmen to make sure that they're really staying on track and they're ready to go by senior year.

[1:06:51] Unknown speaker: I love it.

[1:06:52] Unknown speaker: Other questions?

[1:06:53] Unknown speaker: Yes, please, in the back.

[1:06:54] Unknown speaker: Roosevelt, will you talk about social justice?

[1:06:55] Lindsay Cummings: Absolutely, yes. Every year, students are taking a class on theater for social justice. We have amazing social justice theater in Chicago. Free Street Theater is one of the oldest theaters that literally was based in a free street theater, radicalizing the fact that theater is for everyone. We have our students participate in those classes every year. They are like the true change makers in the city.

[1:07:21] Unknown speaker: Okay, maybe three or four more questions.

[1:07:23] Unknown speaker: Yes, please.

[1:07:24] Unknown speaker: Scholarships at Baldwin-Wallace.

[1:07:25] Richard Beaver: You can talk about scholarships too if you want to.

[1:07:27] Richard Beaver: Yes, there's a GPA scholarship, so depending on the GPA, that will lower your ... What is it?

[1:07:34] Unknown speaker: The sticker price.

[1:07:35] Richard Beaver: That's the thing I'm trying to get. You guys actually have it on your website, right?

[1:07:37] Unknown speaker: Yeah, it's all listed.

[1:07:38] Richard Beaver: You can go on there and see it.

[1:07:39] Unknown speaker: Exactly. If your GPA is X, this is how much off you get. There are other scholarship opportunities, including artistic scholarships.

[1:07:45] Unknown speaker: I love it.

[1:07:46] Unknown speaker: The two of you want to talk about scholarships as well?

[1:07:48] Unknown speaker: Sure.

[1:07:49] Unknown speaker: Yeah, go for it.

[1:07:50] Justin Packard: Being a state university in Florida, if you're a Florida resident and you got bright futures, you can go to school for free. And parents in the room, they can go to school for free. Even out of state residence is well under 20K, so you're going into the arts, anybody who tells you there's a guaranteed employment after this is selling you a lemon. Be smart about what you're doing financially as well as artistically.

[1:08:13] Unknown speaker: Beautiful advice.

[1:08:14] Unknown speaker: And I don't know why the parents would go to school again, but they can.

[1:08:15] Unknown speaker: Okay, great. Go for it.

[1:08:16] Lindsay Cummings: It's true. I don't know as much about the scholarship process at Roosevelt. Our admissions department really does handle that, but I know that they take all of the needs very heavily into consideration. The people at our financial aid meeting, how well did they just show that off for me? I was like, a ton of people are like, I know this, I know that, and some people had to say, I don't know of it at all. That was really beautiful for those people.

[1:08:36] Unknown speaker: Okay, yes, go for it.

[1:08:38] Unknown speaker: Are you all test optional?

[1:08:41] Unknown speaker: Do you know?

[1:08:42] Unknown speaker: They were, but I don't know if they still, during the pandemic it was. I don't know if it still is.

[1:08:45] Unknown speaker: I don't know if it still is.

[1:08:46] Justin Packard: Same answer, same answer.

[1:08:48] Unknown speaker: No, Justin's saying I don't know.

[1:08:49] Unknown speaker: It's adjusting on a year to year basis. I know we haven't been, but it might be at this point.

[1:08:55] Unknown speaker: I can't comment on that at this time.

[1:08:58] Unknown speaker: We've reached the stage of the night where we're getting no comment.

[1:09:01] Unknown speaker: Let's do maybe one more question.

[1:09:02] Unknown speaker: Yes, in the back of the green.

[1:09:03] Unknown speaker: Favorite thing.

[1:09:04] Unknown speaker: Let's end on this one, shall we?

[1:09:05] Unknown speaker: That's close enough to choose your own adventure. Your favorite thing about all three of your programs, and we'll end, and the encouragement to stand up is being given by the people in the back. Go for it.

[1:09:14] Richard Beaver: I think my favorite thing is our proximity to Cleveland. We have alums and all of the national tours, and many of them start here. In fact, we just started the Tommy tour, and right before that, Death Becomes Her. We had alums in both of those, and it's so fun to bring the students in and have interaction with our alums.

[1:09:32] Lindsay Cummings: I would say my favorite thing is working with all of my colleagues. We're all working artists. We have artist faculty, so almost all of our faculty are truly working in this industry, so we have a lot of hands-on things to tell you when you're coming to Chicago.

[1:09:51] Unknown speaker: The diversity of the student body that is teaching us new things every day in 2026, it's very important that we're listening to you and we're hearing your personal voices and we're forming and modulating our curriculums based on what the world requires of you and what we think is your trajectory forward.

[1:10:07] Unknown speaker: I love it.

[1:10:08] Unknown speaker: A big thank you to this panel.

[1:10:09] Unknown speaker: We'll do one little wrap at the end. The one little takeaway I'll give you just to think about, I sort of mentioned that idea of what are the things that you hear repeated again and again. That's worth knowing so that you learn about the process, but especially for the juniors out there, but even for the seniors who are going through this and you have a lot more in this journey to go, think about as you learn about the schools, what are you learning about yourself? What are the things that you like and allow yourself potentially to change from the answers you're hearing? You might have come in and thought, I know I like this school and only this kind of school, but hopefully as you listen to 20 schools and as you go through the audition process, you may discover about yourself, I'm actually starting to like this. I'm actually vibing more with this. That doesn't mean you all have to change all your opinions, but to allow yourself to change and grow as an artist is a good thing.

[1:10:52] Unknown speaker: Okay, period, end of sentence.

[1:10:53] Unknown speaker: I gave them 30 seconds.

[1:10:54] Unknown speaker: I gave myself 30 seconds.

[1:10:55] Unknown speaker: Thank you all for this wonderful...

[1:10:56] Unknown speaker: All right, that's it.

[1:11:04] Unknown speaker: I hope you really enjoyed that episode. As Bill Dignite says from Northern Michigan, he said, like, subscribe, who's given us some good podcast references, very sweet. Like and subscribe where you can. You know, if you haven't found us yet on Spotify, if you haven't found us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, we're everywhere. We're on the Broadway Podcast Network. Check us out.

[1:11:22] Unknown speaker: I hope you're subscribing to all the episodes, you can listen to all the deeper dives of these colleges. If you like these five minutes and you want to do a whole hour, hopefully sometimes it's only 45 minutes, but a longer episode with all these schools, please do check it out. And as always, you can check us out at mtca.com and follow us at Mapping the College Edition if you want to check out our Instagram and mtca.com is the place to go to schedule initial consultations so that we can help you with your individual college process.

[1:11:48] Unknown speaker: To my young artists out there mapping their journeys, please trust that you're enough for the right program exactly as you are right now. Keep striving. We'll catch you next week.