Theater Major
 

I had a good talk with my baby sister. She is 16 and starting to think about which college and major she wanted to go to. Well, she wanted to go into theater. However, not the acting portion, but the set design. Question is, which schools have a good set design program for the undergraduate? Will she need a portfolio? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The school I went to for undergrad, SUNY New Paltz, is well known for its theatre program. Don't know too many specifics about different concentrations. She'll have to check out their site www.newpaltz.edu. Good luck!

Pretty much any theater program you will need a portfolio. First off a resume type list of all productions that she has been involved in ever. Then if she has any pictures of sets or lighting designs. Any blue prints that she might have done up would also be good. I will ask some of my techies what are the good schools for set design, i know mostly the preformance side.

My DH is a drama teacher and he's had students go to Carnegie Mellon University on the East Coast. They are studying Tech theatre/stage management and getting some of the best education in this arena!

Lol, CMU is in Pittsburgh, PA. I guess to West Coaster's that's close enough to East Coast. Just laughed at the thought of CMU being "on the East Coast".

CMU is a GREAT school for this sort of thing, but VERY hard to get into. Point Park University, also in Pittsburgh, is also pretty well known in this field.

When I was thinking of becoming a theater major, I was really intrigued by the University of the Arts. It is a sort of liberal arts university, but it is really strong in the Fine Arts area (dance, theater and art).

LOL...Yes...being from the West Coast, any state that borders the Atlantic
Ocean is considered East Coast...Maybe CMU isn't ON the East Coast, perse, but it is MUCH closer to the East coast than I am! LOL

I was a theatre major in the beginning of my college career, then I switched to Communication. The colleges that I have seen that are good in all aspects of theatre are Northwestern, NYU, Dartmouth and Penn State. I applied to Northwestern and got in, received a scholarship, but couldn't handle the rest of the expenses. They gave me a shotty scholarship that didn't cover ANYTHING because Northwestern ain't cheap. Unless your parents are rich, be ready to pay big bucks for NYU, North and Dartmouth, because their scholarships don't cover much!

Just my recommendations!

I don't usually recommend NYU cuz the cost of living in NYC is so damn expensive, especially if you are an undergrad without major income coming in ;). Unless I meet someone who is in their grad school of SW I generally assume that the person comes from a well-to-do background or scored some really great scholarships.

When I was in HS I thought I wanted to be a Theatre major too, but making money won out.... Anyway, I can suggest a few colleges with great Theatre programs.

Emerson University in Boston - I have a friend who gradutated from here with a degree in Technical Theatre (pretty much what your sister is looking for).

Southern Methodist University (Texas)

Florida State University

Carnegie Mellon University

I am sure there are others, but these are the ones I am most familiar with.

Carnegie Mellon is an amazing school for theater and performing arts (and fine arts for that matter!)...but it has a HUGE price tag. It's an amazing university though, and I'd venture to say you'd get a lot of bang for your buck.

Not to toot our horn, but Otterbein College (where I go) has a very competitive entry process for theater. Productions are always amazing, we have lots of graduates working on and off broadway. (The guy Lindsey Lohan has a crush on in Mean Girls went to Otterbein). Quiet town, cheap living in columbus, small campus, lots of opportunities to get involved, tons of student directed pieces, etc. Our Design Tech program here is amazing too, I've heard that several go on to design major productions.

Co-sign, especially for dance.

/hijack

I was thisclose to going to Point Park. It was my top choice when I was in high school.

/end hijack

How is SUNY Purchase?

BYU is HUGE on theatre (they even mount a full scale opera every year which would be WONDERFUL set design experiance), but I don't know much about the enterance.