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Are there any specific scholarships you can get for studying musical theatre?
I am a senior in high school and plan to study MT, but I need a lot of financial aid. Are there any specific scholarships I can apply to for MT?
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Michelle’s Answer
Hello, Josette !
I would be very happy to give you some advice about majoring in musical theatre. Firstly, most of the musical theatre scholarships are offered at colleges for their enrolled students at their specific colleges. You can look online if, after my advice, you still are set on getting the Bachelors Degree in the genre of Musical Theatre.
As someone who has a Bachelors in Theatre, I highly and seriously recommend getting your college degree in Theatre, not 'musical' theatre. You do not need a degree in musical theatre to audition for any show, including musicals, as auditions are judged on what you demonstrate. Musical Theatre is a genre, not a career. Theatre is the career. You can audition for all the musicals you want, but as a performer, you'll see that you'll want to be open for other kinds of auditions so that you can get work. Having a degree in Theatre will be a good foundation for learning all you'll need to know about the career. Also, you really just learn musical theatre by being in a musical as the director directs you.
That being said, college degrees are expensive and I feel strongly advising students to get the most out of their college degree and target it to a career, not a genre or a skill. You can take single courses in dance at a physical education department and singing at the Music department. You can also take a couple of single musical theatre courses if you wanted to. Not only that, a degree in Theatre will qualify you for non-performance positions in professional Theatre. Those can be as exciting as performance positions and, through my own experience, provide strong, important opportunities for performance jobs by the contacts you make. This is especially true in Los Angeles and New York City, NY where there's still a great deal of work and lots to audition for.
While honing your acting skills through a Theatre Major, you can also take dance and singing lessons in the community which I also did in addition to the ones I took at the music and physical education departments for singing and dancing. Since I am an older person now, I can also say that you will not want to be older and hold a degree in Musical Theatre, trying to get work outside the theatre world. Employers will look at it as useless. At least with Theatre, it is a professional career and shows that you are someone who can collaborate, are very organized, have keen insight, can work alone or with groups and you can always obtain non-performance work in various fields like Recreation, Teaching and coaching, arts administration, talent agent, or as a casting director. So really think about what you invest your time, money and efforts in for your degree. You can still perform as you get older, but sometimes perspectives change as time passes on.
If you are anticipating financial need for your college costs, apply for Federal Student Financial Aid and opt for the Work Study program for a job on campus in the Theatre Department which will carry weight on your resume for your first professional theatre administrative job. Speak with the financial aid staff at the college you'll attend about Work Study. You can discover many, many scholarships for Theatre Majors by doing a search online as well as asking your college which ones they offer. To save some costs, you can begin at a community college that has a strong Theatre Department and then transfer to a University for the next two years for your Bachelors Degree in Theatre. There are lots of nuances with being prepared for the future as a performer and it's valuable that you are well informed.
Even though this advice may not be what you've anticipated, I emphasize how careful one needs to be in preparing for a competitive, opinion based type of career. I like to see young people starting out take the best path towards their dream jobs. I hope this is something to think about and I wish you all the best moving forward !
I would be very happy to give you some advice about majoring in musical theatre. Firstly, most of the musical theatre scholarships are offered at colleges for their enrolled students at their specific colleges. You can look online if, after my advice, you still are set on getting the Bachelors Degree in the genre of Musical Theatre.
As someone who has a Bachelors in Theatre, I highly and seriously recommend getting your college degree in Theatre, not 'musical' theatre. You do not need a degree in musical theatre to audition for any show, including musicals, as auditions are judged on what you demonstrate. Musical Theatre is a genre, not a career. Theatre is the career. You can audition for all the musicals you want, but as a performer, you'll see that you'll want to be open for other kinds of auditions so that you can get work. Having a degree in Theatre will be a good foundation for learning all you'll need to know about the career. Also, you really just learn musical theatre by being in a musical as the director directs you.
That being said, college degrees are expensive and I feel strongly advising students to get the most out of their college degree and target it to a career, not a genre or a skill. You can take single courses in dance at a physical education department and singing at the Music department. You can also take a couple of single musical theatre courses if you wanted to. Not only that, a degree in Theatre will qualify you for non-performance positions in professional Theatre. Those can be as exciting as performance positions and, through my own experience, provide strong, important opportunities for performance jobs by the contacts you make. This is especially true in Los Angeles and New York City, NY where there's still a great deal of work and lots to audition for.
While honing your acting skills through a Theatre Major, you can also take dance and singing lessons in the community which I also did in addition to the ones I took at the music and physical education departments for singing and dancing. Since I am an older person now, I can also say that you will not want to be older and hold a degree in Musical Theatre, trying to get work outside the theatre world. Employers will look at it as useless. At least with Theatre, it is a professional career and shows that you are someone who can collaborate, are very organized, have keen insight, can work alone or with groups and you can always obtain non-performance work in various fields like Recreation, Teaching and coaching, arts administration, talent agent, or as a casting director. So really think about what you invest your time, money and efforts in for your degree. You can still perform as you get older, but sometimes perspectives change as time passes on.
If you are anticipating financial need for your college costs, apply for Federal Student Financial Aid and opt for the Work Study program for a job on campus in the Theatre Department which will carry weight on your resume for your first professional theatre administrative job. Speak with the financial aid staff at the college you'll attend about Work Study. You can discover many, many scholarships for Theatre Majors by doing a search online as well as asking your college which ones they offer. To save some costs, you can begin at a community college that has a strong Theatre Department and then transfer to a University for the next two years for your Bachelors Degree in Theatre. There are lots of nuances with being prepared for the future as a performer and it's valuable that you are well informed.
Even though this advice may not be what you've anticipated, I emphasize how careful one needs to be in preparing for a competitive, opinion based type of career. I like to see young people starting out take the best path towards their dream jobs. I hope this is something to think about and I wish you all the best moving forward !