BFA Conservatory for Lighting

[Twin]

Hello,

I am a High School Master Electrician and lighting designer with a decent portfolio. I am looking for lighting specific BFA programs?
I really like UNCSA, especially because it's in-state.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

 

[Footer]

UNSCA instate is your answer hands down. If you can get in there that is the only place I'd consider.

The second question is... do you have a path to pay for college that won't result in student loans? Current loan interest rates are 5%. That is very high.

 

[Twin]

do you have a path to pay for college that won't result in student loans? Current loan interest rates are 5%. That is very high.

Yes, I am able to pay for college that won't lead to student loans at all. I'd love to go to UNCSA but am looking at other schools in case I can't get in that are lighting specific.

 

[Footer]

Yes, I am able to pay for college that won't lead to student loans at all. I'd love to go to UNCSA but am looking at other schools in case I can't get in that are lighting specific.

Cool. Second question then... what do you want to do when you grow up? Want to be a Broadway or touring head elec? Or do you want to design? Do you see an MFA in your future?

SUNY Purchase, U of M, and University of Arizona are all good programs.... but it depends on what you actually want to do.

My 2 cents is if you don't get into UNCSA AND want to be an electrician primarily (I think you probably will, I don't think getting into this program is nearly as competitive as it used to be)... go get an engineering degree IF you must go get a degree at all. Do summerstock in the summers. Do the on campus student theatre. Work for local road houses and the local IA hall. Call up local staging/audio companies and get on call lists. Don't waste your time and money on getting a run of the mill BFA at a school that won't do much for you.

 

[Twin]

what do you want to do when you grow up? Want to be a Broadway or touring head elec? Or do you want to design? Do you see an MFA in your future?

Primarily Broadway or Regional Theatre Lighting Design. I don't see an MFA of Lighting Design in my future but it could be.

Thats partly why I like UNCSA because its an undergrad only lighting program that offers a lot of tech and design experience. I can DM you a link to my portfolio website, if you'd like to see it. I don;'t want it to be fully public but am happy to share.

 

[Footer]

Primarily Broadway or Regional Theatre Lighting Design. I don't see an MFA of Lighting Design in my future but it could be.

Thats partly why I like UNCSA because its an undergrad only lighting program that offers a lot of tech and design experience. I can DM you a link to my portfolio website, if you'd like to see it. I don;'t want it to be fully public but am happy to share.

Making your way and paying the bills as Broadway or regional lighting designer is harder then becoming a quarterback in the NFL. I'm legit serious when I say that. There are only about 10 designers working in the world and many of them have been at it for 25-60 years. Jennifer Tipton is STILL designing at 85 and she had her first Broadway design in 1969! There are a handful Broadway designers working that are UNSCA alum without a MFA, one of them I was roommates with forever ago (his degree is in lighting but he did projection deisgn on Broadway). To get the assistantships, to get the off broadway stuff, to get your foot into 829, you really do need that MFA if nothing else to build that network. Yale, Boston, Cal Arts, and NYU pretty much lock this world up.... and I can't think of a single professional LD who isn't also teaching at the same time.

 

[Twin]

Making your way and paying the bills as Broadway or regional lighting designer is harder then becoming a quarterback in the NFL.

So this might be controversial among this crowd, but because UNCSA is in-state and so cheap. I'd love to be able to get that BFA and then go to a Law School so I can work in regional theater and professional theaters while also doing law work.

 

[Footer]

So this might be controversial among this crowd, but because UNCSA is in-state and so cheap. I'd love to be able to get that BFA and then go to a Law School so I can work in regional theater and professional theaters while also doing law work.

That is not really controversial. Having a backup is a good thing.

My general rule for getting a degree in theatre is this.... Is there anything you'd rather do in life? Anything that you even think that would make you happy besides theatre? GO DO THAT INSTEAD. In order to get the degree in theatre you give up every having a normal life, normal family, normal friends, normal schedule, normal retirement, normal vacation, and normal housing.

If you want to be a designer you have to put 200% into it. You are not really going to be able to take a few years off for law school+bar exam+clerkship and jump back in. Your rolodex will dry up in that time. Plus, law school cost serious money and you won't be able to pay that off designing. Personally, I'd just go get that polysci/engineering/history/english/phylisophy/math or plain old pre-law if you want to get into lawyering. Then go find yourself a good community theatre to do in your time off. Community theatres are full of white collar professionals doing exactly that.

 

[calmartine1]

Hello,

I am a High School Master Electrician and lighting designer with a decent portfolio. I am looking for lighting specific BFA programs?
I really like UNCSA, especially because it's in-state.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Hi,
May be a little late for you but I am a current UNCSA D&P student and if you have any questions about the school or campus life, feel free to shoot me a DM.

Cal

 

[SteveB]

When I was a student at SUNY Purchase, there were, in the design and tech program, 55 freshman, 35 sophmores, 15 juniors and 1 senior. If you consider that no more than a third were lighting students (so, maybe 25) only 2 went on to a Broadway career. Thus I would not be setting your sights on being a Broadway designer, as Kyle stated, it’s like trying to become an NFL Quarterback. Not likely to happen. BUT, it’s a huge industry and there are countless other careers in entertainment lighting, many very, very rewarding.

I would hazard that the steps to a career are who you know and meet in the beginning stages. I know many graduates of where I worked spent the early years working with folks they went to college with. If you get a name for doing good work with them, you will keep working and who knows where a career will lead.

 

[TimMc]

So this might be controversial among this crowd, but because UNCSA is in-state and so cheap. I'd love to be able to get that BFA and then go to a Law School so I can work in regional theater and professional theaters while also doing law work.

You'd need a YooToob channel akin to The Lock Picking Lawyer... "The Illuminating Lawyer" perhaps?

"R80 looks so felonious..."

 

[chawalang]

I'm not trying to be abrasive when saying this, if you want to be a lawyer don't waste your time with a degree in make believe. A friend of mine who I went to undergrad with eventually went to law school. He has a degree in make believe just like me, when he got married he understood that to make his family life sustainable the life he was living in the non profit arts world was unsustainable.

I'm not sure if you have been seeing all the articles about how regional theatre is in an economic tailspin. I came into my career during the 07/08 recession and this is very similar. It is also compounded by, again not to sound abrasive, gen x and younger don't care about theatre. The numbers show they will spend money to go see a T Swift concert or go to Meow Wolfe. Shakespeare and Opera are not priorities for this age group. Boomers are starting to die so the attendance of regional theatre is plummeting. I'm not going to harp on Broadway, everyone here has made the same point I would have made. Though I would say, mathematically you have a better chance of walking on the moon one day than being a Broadway designer. Compounding regional theatre also, corporations are no longer donating to the arts. Coming out of the pandemic they are directing their donations towards medical research. That is how they see themselves making the world a better place, not through donations to the non profit arts sector.

Have you thought about working in themed entertainment, corporate entertainment, for a manufacturer, theatre consulting, architectural lighting design, a theatrical contractor, experiential entertainment design? The list does go on and on.

I had two really good chats with two friends of mine this week, one working at a major opera company and another working in a major regional theatre. Both of them were talking to me about how they are now going to pivot out of regional theatre and into something I mentioned above. They both agreed that things are not going to get better and, this will be a controversial statement, all the DEI talk that has been going over the past few years in regional theatre is literally just that, talk.

I would harp on what has been said previously, DO NOT GO INTO A TON OF STUDENT LOAD DEBT FOR THIS !!!! There are people who do that, they are called Medical Doctors and Lawyers, no one with any title in our industry should be going into the kind of debt those professions go into for their education.

Also, something to think about, over the past twenty years I have navigated my career one thing has always been consistent. I have always herd UNCSA referred to as University of North Carolina School of The Attitudes. Just something for you to think about.

I am more than happy to take any and all criticism for this post. Also, if you have any questions regarding the other parts of the entertainment industry I mentioned above please feel free to message me. I have quite a bit of professional experience in that.

 

[TimMc]

I'm not trying to be abrasive when saying this, if you want to be a lawyer don't waste your time with a degree in make believe. A friend of mine who I went to undergrad with eventually went to law school. He has a degree in make believe just like me, when he got married he understood that to make his family life sustainable the life he was living in the non profit arts world was unsustainable.

I'm not sure if you have been seeing all the articles about how regional theatre is in an economic tailspin. I came into my career during the 07/08 recession and this is very similar. It is also compounded by, again not to sound abrasive, gen x and younger don't care about theatre. The numbers show they will spend money to go see a T Swift concert or go to Meow Wolfe. Shakespeare and Opera are not priorities for this age group. Boomers are starting to die so the attendance of regional theatre is plummeting. I'm not going to harp on Broadway, everyone here has made the same point I would have made. Though I would say, mathematically you have a better chance of walking on the moon one day than being a Broadway designer. Compounding regional theatre also, corporations are no longer donating to the arts. Coming out of the pandemic they are directing their donations towards medical research. That is how they see themselves making the world a better place, not through donations to the non profit arts sector.

Have you thought about working in themed entertainment, corporate entertainment, for a manufacturer, theatre consulting, architectural lighting design, a theatrical contractor, experiential entertainment design? The list does go on and on.

I had two really good chats with two friends of mine this week, one working at a major opera company and another working in a major regional theatre. Both of them were talking to me about how they are now going to pivot out of regional theatre and into something I mentioned above. They both agreed that things are not going to get better and, this will be a controversial statement, all the DEI talk that has been going over the past few years in regional theatre is literally just that, talk.

I would harp on what has been said previously, DO NOT GO INTO A TON OF STUDENT LOAD DEBT FOR THIS !!!! There are people who do that, they are called Medical Doctors and Lawyers, no one with any title in our industry should be going into the kind of debt those professions go into for their education.

Also, something to think about, over the past twenty years I have navigated my career one thing has always been consistent. I have always herd UNCSA referred to as University of North Carolina School of The Attitudes. Just something for you to think about.

I am more than happy to take any and all criticism for this post. Also, if you have any questions regarding the other parts of the entertainment industry I mentioned above please feel free to message me. I have quite a bit of professional experience in that.

I was going to put some of your text in bold... and hell, it's all spot on.

Successful lawyers can donate to the arts, volunteer in the arts, and advocate for the arts. A law degree is seldom a 'back up plan' but a primary career choice (although I do know a plumber/lawyer - we joke that he makes sure drains obey the law of gravity).

I agree that an artistically rich and vibrant regional theatre scene is not a priority of youth. A local promoter's Halloween party had 100 folks in the hall at 10pm, at 1030pm the lobby was filled with ticket buyers, with a line around the building. They left the same way. Highly scheduled leisure seems at least a bit ironic, if not contradictory, but that's the way young folks want their fun. That mentality does not bode well for many traditional forms of live entertainment or recreational diversions, but could portend well for certain hobbies.

Finally a big DITTO for "don't go into debt for a degree in the arts." That's like buying a passage today, on the Titanic. In my area multiple universities have eliminated or announced elimination of multiple fine arts and liberal arts degree programs and individual tracks. The only good news in one couldn't go into debt for a BFA because the programs are gone. That seems to indicate the Board of Regents, along with private universities and colleges are not seeing value, demand, or financial support for these programs so they get eliminated.

 

[egilson1]

Counter point to some comments above, one of our members here went to Stanford and became a rocket scientist, at the same time he worked in the theatre. He eventually switch fields and went to law school and became a patent attorney, and was till working in theatre. He eventually retired and started working exclusively in theatre and events.

Point being is you can do both, but one has to be the ‘job” while the other is the “passion project”.

 

[TimMc]

Counter point to some comments above, one of our members here went to Stanford and became a rocket scientist, at the same time he worked in the theatre. He eventually switch fields and went to law school and became a patent attorney, and was till working in theatre. He eventually retired and started working exclusively in theatre and events.

Point being is you can do both, but one has to be the ‘job” while the other is the “passion project”.

One of my very good local IA LX heads is actually a top secret materials scientist for an aerospace manufacturer. Whatever these secret materials are, he's one of only a handful of people in the free world that does whatever it is he does. He can set his own schedule, apparently.

What's the difference between an extra large pizza and a BFA? The pizza can feed a family of 4.