College recommendations?

[Grohled]

I'm a junior in high school (I live in Georgia) and an aspiring technician. My main interest is scenic design but I also really enjoy lighting technology. I am considering quite a few options for schools:
Georgia institute of technology for civil or mechanical engineering
Carnegie Mellon for a BSA degree (scenic design and physics)
CalArts or UNCSA for strictly scenic design (and dabble in lighting technology)

my question is: what will be the different benefits for me in my future? My biggest aspiration is to work for cirque and hopefully design for them. What will help me get there? I've heard that they often hire engineers to design for them but would an engineering degree help me hinder me in getting work that isn't designing for cirque? (Obviously I won't be able to disingenuous for them right out of college lol) what other schools should I look into? I by no means care about location even if it is overseas. I really want to do work as a roadie or on cruise ships or such..

I'm sorry for this being so rambley! Thank you in advance for any advice

 

[Footer]

First, if you want to do that, better start working on your French. That should probably be your minor in college... and you better have a clean passport... and get used to cold and snow. Montreal is not exactly the most hospitable place in the world after you have lived in hotlanta.

Getting an engineering degree is not a bad idea. However, that is not going to make you a good designer. No schooling will ever do that. An engineering degree will teach you the limits... so you can later break them. It is going to teach you a lot of things you need to know and also leave a lot of holes for you to fill later. Any good education will do that.

Georgia tech is one of the best engineering schools in the country. If you can get in there... go. It will give you a real career and the ability to get into this industry if you want. CM is a great school as well, though they do offer a grad program so that can be both a benefit and a hinderance. UNCSA is still a standard, if you are into the conservatory style thing it is a great program.

Here is the biggest thing... what can you afford? Having taught high school at a performing arts magnet school in Georgia, the best thing you have going for you is the hope scholarship. If you qualify, and you get into the Georgia school of your choice that works with hope... DO IT. If you want a career in this world, you need to do it without student loans... and the hope scholarship is a big leg up to that. If you are going to rack up debt at CM or UNCSA your asking for trouble. Even if you graduate from Athens with a degree in theatre, you will still be ahead of people graduating with debt from the top programs in the country. I can not stress enough how important it is to graduate debt free... no other thing is more important in our current economic situation.

 

[Grohled]

Thank you! I have a European Union passport and will be getting my US passport soon so the traveling/language isn't an issue at all. Tech and UNCSA are my top choices. I believe that I have a good chance of getting into both since my high school is a performing arts/science magnet and I'm very active in both and have good grades. Money is a big factor since I'm on my own with paying for college. Will going to school for a non-BFA degree affect me negatively? I would still of course be doing theatre outside of college working as a shop rat for maybe SDI or interning at a theatre. Might I ask at which school you worked? Thanks again for your advice!

 

[chawalang]

My two cents, being a designer and someone who fills a role of a person who has an interest more in technology are two different jobs. Not to say if you go for a design degree over a technology degree is better then the other but if you want to say be a designer being your end game as oppose to a ME or programmer, those are two different avenues, you would eventually need to pick a focus so you can advance your self with continuing education and gigs that will benefit you. It's just something to think about as you progress in your career and as you get older as you begin to figure out what it is you want to specifically do. Keep in mind you said in HS your biggest aspiration is to work for cirque and possibly design for them but that may change. My ideas changed as i got older when I was younger i had the same idea but learned that working an install show doing the same thing everyday is not the environment for me. As far as your education, your degree really doesn't matter to an employer once your a year out of college, after that it helped you to get you going but your resume will speak louder then your degree after a certain point, as well as any continuing education you may have done at that point. I have had friends work for cirque in the past and to give you and idea one had an MFA in lighting design and was in a head of lighting position for a resident show, another had an undergrad in engineering and was on the automation crew for two resident shows and another had a HS diploma and is head of props and puppets for a touring show. So it shows you that there are many ways to go about getting to a point its just different for everyone.

A big thing i would like to add to is what footer said, try your hardest to not go into debt, yes UNCSA and CM have well regarded programs but I know they don't give out a lot of money. I was really lucky and when I graduated i was only $17,000 which I have paid off, most I knew had $50,000 to $80,000! I would do what he said and go where it will make much more financial sense. Your not going to learn everything in a 4 year degree and a lot of young people find that difficult to grasp but it will give you a good foundation and an environment where you can mess up and not get fired, essentially learn from your mistakes. Learning everything else you don't know from your degree is really for your post undergrad career and just getting out there and working or whatever gigs you get and what you can get in the summers.

As far as touring or cruise ships, if you want to tour you could try to work through your local and see if you can get on some calls for load in and what not for shows coming through, to see if that is something you may actually like, doing that will give you and idea of things. maybe if your lucky at some point they may want to pick you up. You could also look at VEE which does a lot of the Sesame Street tour of Feld which does a lot of the disney on ice shows. I know a lot of people who started touring with them and have worked their way up to bigger high paying touring gigs. For cruise ships here is a thread that i put a lot of info into as i used to work for CCL, I believe Footer contributed to it as well.
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/...-about-graduate-whats-my-next-move-print.html

 

[Footer]

Thank you! I have a European Union passport and will be getting my US passport soon so the traveling/language isn't an issue at all. Tech and UNCSA are my top choices. I believe that I have a good chance of getting into both since my high school is a performing arts/science magnet and I'm very active in both and have good grades. Money is a big factor since I'm on my own with paying for college. Will going to school for a non-BFA degree affect me negatively? I would still of course be doing theatre outside of college working as a shop rat for maybe SDI or interning at a theatre. Might I ask at which school you worked? Thanks again for your advice!

If you have to pay for it yourself, you really should be looking at a Georgia school and the hope scholarship. I can not stress to you how important it is to graduate debt free. A BFA is not worth anything to you if you have a thousand dollar payment to Sallie Mae every month... plus 3k in living expenses. In order to pay that off you will have to work like a dog, and you won't find any jobs in this industry that pay that right out of college. So, instead of working theatre you will be working 9-5 in an office or in a warehouse.

My advice is to go to the Georgia school and do as much summerstock as possible. Go work at Six Flags one summer. Entertainment Design Group in Austell hires a lot of summer help... and they have a big lighting, sound, and scenery shop (or at least they used to). Creative Staging Services up in Kennesaw also does a lot of touring type stuff and they hire freelancers pretty regularly.

I would much rather have someone working for me with a degree from UGA and a ton of summer stock and other experience then a person from CM or UNCSA with a BFA and no real world experience. So, don't look at it as a lesser degree. Look at it as the degree you can afford and layer on top of it as much professional experience as you can get.

I spent a year teaching at Cobb County Center for Excellence in the Performing Arts in Mableton. After deciding teaching was not the thing for me, I left and have never looked back.

 

[DGotlieb]

As someone who grew up and went through the GA university system. Hope is awesome, use it and don't loose it. If you decide to stay in GA I can tell you about 3 of the schools, listed in order of recommendation if you choose to go theatre design (can't speak much about other majors.)

Probably one of the best programs in the state for theatre is at Columbus State University, it is a large program with a relatively new and well done theatre complex. This program went from small (20 or so students) to large (100+) over about 5 years in the early 2000s so there were some growing pains at the time but I think most have been sorted out. One of the few places I know you can specialize in tech/design in the state at and undergrad level. There is also a theatre education program, in case you ever decide to become a teacher.

University of GA, I can't say I recommend this as a school for an undergrad theatre design/tech student. This school has a grad degree, so the grad students get all the attention and design opportunities. It's hard for undergrads to even work in the scene shop for more then 1 or 2 semesters in this school. the advantage of UGA is if you want to double major or have theater as a minor there is a HUGE amount of other high quality programs (hope has really helped this school become good). There are a decent amount of design classes and if you excell you can occasionally take a grad level class as an under grad. There are also a few student groups who put together their own shows but they don't usually have and design element, but that may just be no one has put forth the effort to offer them something, they may have $50 budgets.

Georgia State University, I can't say I recommend this school for an undergrad. There is very little social interaction to this school, most people come in come to classes and then goes home and lives randomly around the city. I know at one point they close their theatre program, I don't know if it has ever reopened. Great school for older people going back to school, not so good for a person coming out of high school who needs to get a good college experience.

Other schools to look into that I have no direct knowledge of, Valdosta State University, Savannah college of art and design (warning not a public school so hope doesn't help as much), GA Tech good school, maybe not for theatre. If you decide to do a couple years in a community college before going somewhere more expensive, GA perimeter college Clarkson campus has a decent theatre program.

 

[dbthetd]

Carnegie Mellon for a BSA degree (scenic design and physics))

More than happy to talk to you about CMU. Email me direct at dboevers AT cmu DOT edu

 

[museav]

Not be be discouraging but just keep in mind that the schools you noted are all very competitive and you may need to be realistic about your options. I'll also note that as a Physics major for two years before switching to an Engineering major, I found that keeping up with that work along with a part time job was sometimes a real challenge, including often conflicting schedules, to make work with the time effort associated with my theatre classes and at some point you may have to make a decision regarding your priorities.

Kennesaw State University also has an undergraduate performing arts program with a concentration in technology available if you wanted to go that direction and stay in the Atlanta area. Coincidentally, one of the people who was teaching some lighting classes there has his M.F.A. from CMU, but I do not know if he is still teaching.

Definitely out of state and focusing on the lighting side but Purdue offers a Lighting Engineeering program through the Multidisciplinary Engineering program (https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/Undergrad, https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/Undergrad/IDE/lighting.pdf and https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Newsletters/ENEws/IDEStudent). If you look at the plan of study you'll see that it is a true Engineering program. They also offer a Theatre Engineering Studies program as well as undergraduate theatre technology BFA programs, so you could be in an Engineering degree program but also get exposure to other areas of theatre.

By the time you get to a point in your career that something like a Cirque design position is realistic it will very likely be much more about who you know (or who knows you) and what you've done than it is about your degree.