BWW College Guide - Everything You Need to Know About Loyola Marymount University in 2019/2020

With college theatre program auditions just around the corner, we're highlighting some of the most prestigious theatre programs from all across the United States to give you insight into what to expect from their programs, from audition advice to real world experience and more. Today we're chatting with faculty from Loyola Marymount University's Theatre Arts Program about their career development course, shadowing and assisting professors, and more. Check out info on the school and answers about their program below!

Loyola Marymount University's Theatre Arts Program offers a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre and is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre. The degree serve as a great foundation for those pursuing a career in theatre, film, and television, and for those pursuing MFA and PhD degrees in performance, design, history, and performance theory. The program focuses the production and study of both Western and world theatrical traditions.

What is the audition process for performing arts majors?

Aside from the general LMU application we require the applicant to provide links to recordings of two contrasting monologues of their choice. In addition, if the prospective student is a singer they should also provide 16 bars of a song. All audition and portfolio instructions can be found on the Theatre Arts page on the LMU Website.

What tips can you offer to auditioning students?

Choose pieces that you love doing and that help us know who you are as a person and a performer. The characters you choose should be relatively close to your age. The video should be more about you than any kind of production value. Above all have some fun with it.

What is the approximate average class size within an arts major?

10-20

Any notable alumni you would like to mention?

Linda Cardellini, Gloria Calderón Kellett, Tony Plana, Amber White (stage manager for Hamilton on Broadway), Chris Sullivan, Charlie Koontz, Natalie Sharp, Greg Reiner (Head of the Theatre Wing of the NEA)

Do you see more students interested in working on stage or off?

More students are interested in working onstage than off. However, we have a thriving and growing design and technical theatre area that many students love. Along with successful professional acting careers the LMU Theatre Department has helped launch many successful careers in design, production and theatre management.

What kind of real world experience outside of the classroom do you offer students during their program?

Most of our faculty continue as working professionally in film/TV and Theatre. Student are able to shadow and assist professors in various professional environments. Students also have the ability to do a wide range of internships from working with casting directors and agents on various film/TV projects to opportunities to work in the many professional theatre companies in Los Angeles. LMU also has an excellent career development center with a specific department dedicated to working with and mentoring students in all aspects of the performing arts.

What kinds of things does your school do for students to help them succeed after graduation?

During their time at LMU students can take, in addition to the other performance curriculum, classes in Audition and Cold Reading and Voiceover Technique among other professional development classes. In their senior year performance students can take Career Development that leads to an industry showcase in the spring of their senior year. This showcase is attended by Los Angeles casting directors and agents. The LMU Theatre Department is one of a very few Liberal Arts Theatre Departments that offers an industry showcase. In addition to this we have an extensive production season that prepares students in performance, design and technical theatre for work in the professional theatre.

How do you keep your program as relevant as possible to the current industry trends and how have you modernized it in recent years?

I would say we are always changing and taking into our teaching the what is currently happening in the industry. This is aided by the fact that many of our faculty are working professionals. Our Career Development Course is taught by a working Actors' Manager. This individual brings the students in contacts with many casting directors and agents that discuss with the students what is current in the industry at the time they are entering it. Recently we have added a panel of industry professionals to our audition process for the culminating showcase. Another thing we instill in our students is the fact that they need have some experience in every aspect of what goes into creating a production. It is our goal to have all of our students leave the program with the ability to create their own work and not just wait to be cast in something. We have students creating podcasts and theatre companies among many other creative endeavors.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your school and its programs?

The Theatre Department at LMU has recently launched an MFA program in Performance Pedagogy. This program is tailored to people who have been out in the world as working actors or in other areas of performance and education and who are looking to augment or alter their career paths. This program offers students a terminal degree so they can pursue part time or full time teaching in a university or college setting. This program is structured so the student can continue their current professional life. The MFA program exposes students to the many aspects of teaching performance at the university level. The program seeks to help the students develop their particular area of interest such as specific actor training philosophies, movement, voice, dramaturgy and scholarship.

Be sure to apply to Loyola Marymount University's Theatre Arts Program here: https://admission.lmu.edu/learnmore/apply/