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The Acting Program At...

Welcome to The Theatre School at DePaul University, one of America's oldest and most respected theatre conservatories. For more than 80 years, we have prepared students for careers in professional theatre. Our highly specialized programs employ a learning-by-doing approach, featuring student work in all areas of production in more than 40 plays each season. Our students learn their profession under the guidance of a diverse and talented faculty and staff of working artists. And all of this takes place in the heart of Chicago, acclaimed as one of the greatest theatre cities in the world. Forged at our founding as the Goodman School of Drama and strengthened by our move to the major urban university that is DePaul, our tradition remains — to educate, train and inspire those who will shape the future of American theatre.

TALENT. PASSION.  DRAMA. CONNECTION.

Acclaimed as “a legendary training ground” (Chicago Tribune), The Theatre School was founded as the Goodman School of Drama in 1925, joined DePaul University in 1978 and celebrates its 81st anniversary during the 2006-2007 season. A fully accredited school within a major urban university, The Theatre School is the Midwest's oldest theatre conservatory and is renowned as a one of the top professional theatre training programs in the United States.

The school accepts only a small fraction of the approximately 1,000 applicants who undertake the stringent admissions process of national auditions and interviews. Once admitted, students choose one of 14 specialized areas of study. The school offers B.F.A. degrees in Acting, Costume Design, Costume Technology, Lighting Design, Scenic Design, Theatre Technology, Stage Management, Playwriting, Theatre Management, Dramaturgy/Criticism and Theatre Arts; and M.F.A. degrees in Acting, Directing, and in a ground-breaking partnership with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Arts Leadership.

The current enrollment numbers approximately 300 students from around the United States and several other countries. The faculty/student ratio of one-to-six allows for the continuous interaction and supervision essential for professional theatre training. A majority of the faculty and staff maintain their connections and professional work in all aspects of Chicago’s renowned and thriving theatre industry. This distinguished professional faculty emphasizes not only the theory but also the practice of theatre.

As part of this intensive “learning by doing” philosophy, The Theatre School presents more than 35 productions each season in a variety of venues. These include The Theatre School Showcase, a four-play series of contemporary and classic plays, and Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences, a three-play children’s theatre series, presented at the historic Merle Reskin Theatre (formerly the Blackstone), a Broadway-style 1,325-seat house located in Chicago’s downtown theatre district.

Graduates of The Theatre School can be found working at most Chicago theatres, as well as coast-to-coast and around the globe in theatre, film and television. The list of celebrated artists with our training is long — just a few you may recognize include Gillian Anderson, Kevin Anderson, Theoni V. Aldredge, Bruce Boxleitner, Kelly Coffield, Scott Ellis, Melinda Dillon, Judy Greer, Gloria Foster, Linda Hunt, Harvey Korman, Eugene Lee, Karl Malden, Joe Mantegna, Lois Nettleton, Kevin J. O'Connor, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Perkins, Amy Pietz, Dunja Ramicova, John C. Reilly, Michael Rooker, Carrie Snodgress, Concetta Tomei, Ted Wass, Larry Yando and Adrian Zmed.

UNDERGRADUATE CONSERVATORY

The Theatre School 's undergraduate program is a highly specialized conservatory offering eleven Bachelors of Fine Arts (BFA) programs in all aspects of the theatre. Each of our eleven BFA majors is a four-year professional training program designed to provide our students with not only the skills but the experience necessary to prepare them for their career.

Individual Attention. We have strict capacities for each of our programs which are designed to provide each student with personalized instruction and ample production opportunities for practical experience.

Highly Structured. Each of our eleven majors has a four-year progression-based curriculum, with each quarter building on the previous quarter and each year building on the previous year. Responsibilities and expectations of our students increase each year both in the classroom and in production.

Learning By Doing. Learning does not stop in the classroom. Each year The Theatre School produces more than 40 productions - of varying shapes and sizes - to give our student ample opportunity to synthesize what they are learning in the classroom. Outside of the director of each of these productions - who is a member of the faculty, a guest artist or a graduate directing student - every other person involved in the production is a student doing what he or she is here to study. Student in some majors are also placed in professional internships a bridge to their chosen career field.

Working Professionals. Our students learn from people who know what it is like to work in business - because they do. The Theatre School has 27 full-time tenure-track faculty who are all accomplished theatre professionals and continue their professional work while teaching our students. We also employ more than 40 adjunct, or part-time, faculty who are hired right out of the Chicago theatre community for their individual expertise. Being a professional training program, it is important to us that our faculty has a finger on the pulse of what is happening in the profession and bring that into the classroom.

ACTING

The Theatre School ’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Acting is a highly truthful, yet expressive, physical acting program which prepares actors to work on both stage and screen. Informed by our Chicago roots, our program is a “toolbox” approach to actor training. The first year experience is about expanding the size of the actor’s toolbox. The subsequent three years focus on providing actors the tools – skills and technique - while helping each actor discover and apply those which work best for him or her.

Students learn from a distinguished and award-winning faculty of working professionals who possess a wide variety of backgrounds and expertise. Our faculty has spent many years developing successful, personal and powerful curricula that mine a diversity of ideas from Stanislavski, Spolin, Grotowski, Suzuki, Lessac, Linklater, Yoga, Tai Chi, Feldenkrais ®, Laban, mask work, and more. Students are inspired through unique points-of-view within a comprehensive four-year progression of acting, movement, and voice and speech curriculum.

Equally important to the training students receive in the classroom is the opportunity they have to synthesize that learning in the production process, with each student completing 9 production assignments – one each quarter – over their three years in the Production Phase of the program.

First Year. Structured as a one-year acting intensive, the first year is about exploration – not only of the craft of acting but more importantly self exploration by each actor of his or her tools – imagination, impulses, voice and physicality. Acting course work is primarily focused on Spolin-based improvisation work to increase and refine actors’ access to their imagination and how to apply their imagination to a theatrical reality both with and without text. Movement courses focus on helping actors explore their bodies and expand their range of movement through yoga-based and impulse and expression-based movement. Voice and speech curriculum focus on helping actors better understand and access their voice through breath support, pitch, tone and resonance. In support of the exploration focus, students also participate in three production crew assignments outside of their focus.

Second Year. Once students have a greater understanding of what is possible, the second year focuses on helping students build solid technique as actors. Acting course work focuses on contemporary scene study and text analysis – the theatrical reality of a playwright’s given circumstances and how to embody it. Movement work focuses on greater awareness and understanding of how actors use their body through Feldenkrais-based and contemporary style exploration. Voice and speech work focuses on refining actors’ use of their voice through Linklater-based technique. Students also take courses in stage combat and stage make up to prepare them for their production work. Second year actors are cast into their own production season called Introduction to Performance – full-length productions mounted in studio spaces and cast only from second year actors. Students are cast by the faculty in three productions during the year based each student’s individual needs.

Third Year. Advanced technique work and classical style is the focus of the third year. Acting course work focuses on classical scene study and heightened language – Shakespeare and first folio technique and text founded in poetic forms. Movement and voice and speech work continues to refine actors’ technique but also focuses on period style, period movement and dialect work. Third year actors enter the Casting Pool for their production work. Each student in the Casting Pool auditions each quarter for that quarter’s shows in our public production season and every student is cast each quarter in one of these shows. Our public season is a mix of contemporary, classical, children’s theatre, musicals and new works mounted in a variety of spaces from the Merle Reskin Theatre, our large proscenium stage, to very intimate studio spaces.

Fourth Year. The final year of the program focuses on preparing actors for the transition to the profession with a wider variety of coursework focused on helping actors integrate what they have been learning in the three previous years but also to prepare them for the profession. Acting coursework involves synthesis work in improvisation and scene study, film and television acting, audition preparation and voiceover. Movement coursework includes a return to impulse and expression-based movement and African dance. Voice and speech coursework includes musical theatre voice work and voiceover technique. Students also take courses focused on the business aspects of the profession which include marketing themselves as actors and working with casting agents and casting directors. Fourth year actors continue in the Casting Pool and are cast in three more productions in our public season.

Graduate Showcase. At the end of each year, The Theatre School hosts a series of events to showcase the work of our graduating actors. Under the guidance of the faculty, graduating actors prepare a showcase production – usually a series of scenes and monologues – which is presented in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles for casting directors, casting agents, producers and directors from theatre, film and television. The Graduate Showcase includes a series of alumni networking events in each city to introduce and connect our graduates to our large alumni network.

Liberal Studies. In addition to the acting training curriculum, actors complete 52 quarterly credit hours (13 courses) in liberal studies. Courses are taken in theatre history, English composition and rhetoric, quantitative reasoning, philosophy, religion, lab or quantitative sciences, world history, multiculturalism and electives. These liberal studies courses are scheduled during the first three years of the program.

Evaluation. Every student receives quarterly evaluation and feedback from the faculty each year. Students’ evaluations are based on discipline, collaboration, professional potential and progress in the program. The acting program is divided into two phases – the Probationary Phase (first year) and Production Phase (second, third and fourth years). First year acting students receive an Invitation to Return into the Production Phase of the program. The first year of the acting program has a capacity of 47 students. At the end of the first year, 26 students receive an Invitation to Return into the Production Phase.

HOW TO APPLY...

1. Schedule An Audition. An in-person audition is required for all applicants to the BFA Acting program. Applicants must audition on one of our scheduled audition dates and videotaped auditions cannot be considered. Visit the Online Audition Scheduler to view dates and to sign up for an audition.
More information about the audition process is included below.
2. Application. Submit the DePaul University Application for Undergraduate Admission, either by completing the hard copy application or by applying online.
3. Application & Audition Fee. The combined Application & Audition Fee is $50.00. Application fees can be paid by check, money order, or with a credit card on the online application.
4. Official Transcripts. Have an official copy of your high school transcript mailed to The Theatre School Admissions Office. The High School Guidance Counselor Recommendation Form included with the application is an easy way to request your high school transcripts. If you have taken college credit courses you wish to have considered for transfer credit, please have your college transcripts mailed to us as well. If you are a transfer applicant and have taken at least 30 hours of college credit or are 24 years old or older, high school transcripts are not required.
5. Test Scores. Either SAT or ACT scores are required. If your ACT or SAT scores do not appear on your high school transcript, request that the testing agency forward a score report to DePaul University. DePaul University's college code number for the ACT is 1012 and for the SAT is 1165. If you are a transfer applicant and have taken at least 30 hours of college credit or are 24 years old or older, ACT or SAT scores are not required.
6. Letters of Recommendation. Request three letters of recommendation from individuals who are familiar with your desire to attend The Theatre School. Note that your High School Counselor Recommendation Form can be one of your three recommendations. There is no form required for the letters of recommendation, just have your recommenders send us a letter.
7. Photograph. A photograph is required for identification purposes. Any photograph (school photo, snapshot, etc) is acceptable provided it looks like you. A professional headshot is not required.
8. Deadline. All of your application materials should be received by The Theatre School Admissions Office no later than two weeks prior to your audition date or January 15, whichever date is earlier.
9. Application Status Check. To check the status of your application materials call The Theatre School Admissions Office at 1-800-4-DEPAUL, x57999. Please allow at least three weeks from the time you send in your materials before requesting a status check. Send all of your application materials to: The Theatre School Admissions Office, DePaul University, 2135 N. Kenmore Ave, Chicago, IL 60614-4111

THE AUDITION...
Check-in occurs at the audition start time. After a short information session the audition begins with an individual monologue session in front of a panel of 2-3 faculty members. We encourage you to do your own warm-up for your monologue. Once the individual monologue sessions have been completed each faculty panel will take a small group of auditionees through a class experience. The class may include group improvisation and movement and vocal expression work. For the last part of the class session, you will be assigned a scene partner from among the other auditionees in your small group. Under the direction of our faculty, you and your partner will work on a six-line “open scene” that the faculty will provide you during the class. Once the class session ends you have completed the audition process. There are no call-backs. (NOTE: We encourage you to wear comfortable clothing appropriate for physical activity throughout the audition. However, if you feel the need to wear other clothing for your monologue there will be time to change prior to the class session.)

About the Monologue.
BFA Acting applicants should prepare one (1) contemporary monologue, a maximum of two minutes long. Please do not prepare a Shakespearean or classical monologue. Other guidelines for selecting and preparing a monologue include: 1. Your monologue must be memorized. 2. Choose your monologue from a play. Do not use poems, films, or material from a one-person show. 3. Do not use selections from teen reviews. 4. Avoid selections from monologue books, unless you read the entire play and understand the given circumstances of your monologue. 5. Choose material suitable to your true age. Please avoid characters that are much older or younger than you. 6. Choose a monologue in which you speak directly to one other person and in which you play only one character. 7. Avoid using farce, as it tends to lead actors into superficiality rather than inner resources. 8. Do not use a dialect. 9. Do not sing. 10. Because our goal is to see you, and not a character, we strongly suggest that you choose a role that is very close to your own life experiences in addition to being close to your true age. 11. Video-taped auditions are not accepted.

On campus auditions.
On campus auditions are held at The Theatre School from November through February on select Saturday mornings and begin with check-in at 8AM and generally end no later than 12PM.

Regional auditions.
Auditions are held regionally in select cities in the first two weeks of February. Each regional audition date includes two sessions. Session one begins with check-in at 8AM and generally ends no later than 12PM. Session two begins with check-in at 1PM and generally ends no later than 5PM.

FACULTY

The Theatre School is home to more than 100 theatre artists who serve as the professional faculty and staff of the school. They are known not only as respected and admired teachers and administrators, but also as some of the most recognized and in-demand theatre artists at work in Chicago and elsewhere today.

A majority of them maintain their connections and professional work in all aspects of Chicago’s renowned and thriving theatre industry. Just a small sampling reveals directors Lisa Portes, Dexter Bullard (Plasticene Physical Theatre Company) and Henry Godinez (Goodman Theatre); playwright Dean Corrin (Victory Gardens Theater); dramaturgs/authors Lenora Inez Brown and Rachel Shteir; and designers Nan Cibula-Jenkins, Linda Buchanan and John Culbert (who also serves as the school’s Dean), among numerous others. This distinguished group emphasizes not only the theory but also the practice of theatre.

MEET THE CHAIR, TRUDI KESSLER

Trudie Kessler, Voice and Speech, Chair of Performance, MFA University of California-Irvine, tkessler@depaul.edu

Trudie is a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, a specialist in the Lessac Voice method, and a teacher of the Meisner Acting Approach. She taught acting, directing and voice at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City for nine years prior to her arrival at The Theatre School in 1984. Her production credits at The Theatre School include The Last Night Of Ballyhoo, Ramona Quimby, The Fir Tree, The Diary Of Anne Frank, The Miracle Worker and Scrapbooks, a touring show for young audiences about the difficulties of teen pregnancy. In the summer of 2005, Trudie began a professional association with Actors Workshop Theatre in Chicago where she directed The Beauty Queen Of Leenane and was the voice coach for AWT's production of All My Sons. Trudie has directed over 30 plays for The Theatre School's Introduction to Performance and Workshop series. She teaches professional acting classes in Meisner Technique and private lessons in Linklater voice production.

CONTACT US...

Admissions: Jason Beck, Director of Admissions, The Theatre School at DePaul University, 2135 N. Kenmore Ave., Chicago, IL 60614 (773) 325.7999
800.4DEPAUL x57999 toll free, 773.325.7920 fax, email us at theatreadmissions@depaul.edu   

Administration: John Culbert, Dean, The Theatre School at DePaul University, 2135 N. Kenmore Ave., Chicago, IL 60614 (773) 325.7917, (773) 325.7920 fax email us at jculbert@depaul.edu 

VISIT US ON THE WEB AT THE THEATRE SCHOOL AT DEPAUL