College Help with Portfolio, Résumé, and Conceptual Studio Work

[taylors]

I am a senior in high school this year and will soon be applying to college this year. I have been working on creating a decent portfolio and resume. I would like to add some studio work to my portfolio of draftings and renderings and maybe a model of a play or musical that really will not actually be put on stage. What are some good plays - musicals that are open to good technical aspects? I would like one more smaller, intimate, black box style show and a larger scale show.

Also, I am looking to apply to SUNY Purchase, DePaul, and University of North Carolina School of The Arts, so if anyone has any college suggestions, tips, tricks for a portfolio, resume, or college interview, all of that is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

- Taylor

 

[standup]

Also, I am looking to apply to SUNY Purchase, DePaul, and University of North Carolina School of The Arts, so if anyone has any college suggestions, tips, tricks for a portfolio, resume, or college interview, all of that is greatly appreciated.

I'm going to let someone else answer the first part of your post, mostly because I am not a design student and don't have a lot of suggestions for you.

Start by contacting someone in the admissions office and maybe administrator in the school that your design degree falls under to see what you need to do to in order to get accepted into the school first, and then get accepted into the program. This information should also be online. Then make sure that you meet those requirements. If you do not need a Broadway sized musical in order to get in (which you likely won't for admission for an undergrad program), you don't need to send them one. Most of the schools will have different requirements, and you need to know what they are, then build your portfolio to emphasize those requirements. If you have time to do other designs, then move forward.

When I was applying to colleges, I auditioned in several schools to be a music major (I am not a music major btw, I'm getting a degree in audio engineering). The first thing I did was find a list of the schools that I wanted to audition for, and then I found the audition requirements and started practicing. Some of the schools wanted me to play anything I wanted, and others had very specific requirements. I made sure that I had all of the requirements before I started working on "encore" pieces (some school said they may ask for something else after the formal audition). Make sure you have all of the pieces that the school requires before you work on the extras that make you look good.

Best of luck!

 

[jpino]

Hi Taylor,

I can only speak for our admissions process (Carnegie Mellon University Drama School), though I suspect other schools would tell you similar things. A big portfolio is not expected or required for an undergrad admission. What we want to see it who you are, how you think, what sort of process you have from idea to execution and that you have a passion for theater and creating. It sounds like you are considering making up paper projects. That's fine though I'll bet you have other realized things you could include that would be more useful to an interviewer. Rather than creating a theoretical project, I'd suggest you include anything you've done that shows a process and/or problem solving. That could be photography from a class, sketches and notes on a class project you made, the work schedule you developed for getting the prom decorated, sketches, artwork compositions, jewelry, wood carvings, Arduino gadgets, etc. Be prepared to talk about whatever you include in your portfolio or on your resume in terms of how the project developed, choices you had to make, challenges you had to solve and what you learned from that project that you will use moving forward.
A paper project shows your craft skills (drawing, sketching, model making, drafting) but you're going to improve what you have and learn what you don't know when you're in school, so a great idea or creative solution speaks louder to us than mastery of a craft.
Hope that helps.
- Joe