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roguesenna

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Posts posted by roguesenna

  1. I have an MFA, but both NYU and Columbia have you go through an MA program first, I think. I'm not sure if NYU's MA is funded or not though. Columbia's program is fully funded. I guess I plan to worry more about the details if/when I get in. You should take a look at Columbia's program, at least. Especially since you're also interested in lit, Columbia's theatre PhD starts with an M.A. in comparitive lit.

  2. Do people really do this in the arts/humanities? It seems like science people are very strongly encouraged to identify with a professor who's lab they want to work in, but since my department (theatre/performance studies) obviously doesn't work quite that way I'm wondering if I should still contact profs and if so what I should say in my letter.

     

    I contacted the administrator at Columbia and she said "It is not standard to meet with faculty, but you can email individual Theatre professors to request an appointment." then added "They’ll be glad to correspond with you and, sometimes, they do meet with prospective applicants." and "It’s more important to communicate with the Theatre faculty than with me, after all." so I sense that is a "go for it," but I'm not sure how to approach without being annoying. What do you think?

  3. Yeah, I'm aware of the background of codeified language and I actually don't have a problem with the Stanislavski method, what I have a problem with are actors who feel they need to spend six months in prison before playing a criminal. There's a difference between research and self-torture, IMHO.

    And for me, personally, I am big on using body and movement to enter the mind of a character. I am largely influenced by Commedia Del Arte and to a lesser extent by the reading I've done on Gratowski.

    But this is sort of tangential to what I was initially talking about...

  4. So I asked my academic advisor from my MFA (who was also a member of my thesis committee) to write me a LOR and he asked me to write the letter so he could revise it. Now according to the googles, this is somewhat common, but I'm wondering how to approach it. I could discard this letter and ask someone else (perhaps my thesis advisor), but he is the professor that I had the closest relationship in grad school and he was also my academic advisor and the head of my department. should I buck up and write the letter or approach a different professor?

     

    also, I waived my rights to access my other rec letters, but I don't know if it's ethical to say I waived my rights to this one when I'll be the one drafting it. do you think that would hurt my app?

     

    finally, if anyone has any advice about writing your own rec letter, I'd love to hear it.

  5. I find it interesting that you mention Brecht because I definitely see a strong relationship between verfremdungseffekt's ideal of distancing people from the what they're watching in order to allow them to process it and magical realism's tendency to romanticise or fantasize a series of events with the same ultimate end goal. I'm definitely interested in that distancing effect and I share your distaste for naturalism. I hate "method" acting. I was always taught that part of acting is knowing where the edge of the stage is.

  6. So in my SOP I'm supposed to talk about what I want my dissertation to be. I have a few ideas, but no idea how to frame them into what the people reading my SOP are looking to see. What have you written? I'm a theatre major so I'm trying to decide between two topics, gender & sexuality in contemporary american theatre OR magical realism in contemporary performance. I have a few ideas for specific plays that I would discuss as well, but I'm not quite sure how to meld this all into what is essentially the baby form of a dissertation proposal. Help?

  7. I'm a PhD applicant with an MFA in Dramatic Writing and my advice kind of seconds what teethwax said:

     

    Apply for ALL the programs (if you can afford it). I only applied to one program (luckily I got in) because I had a low GPA and I wasn't convinced I could get in any where else. Nor was my academic advisor from undergrad particularly enthusiastic about my chances. I wish I had applied to some of my dream schools because now I never know if I could have gotten in. Futher more, though I got my MFA, my grad school's DWRI department was almost an afterthought and there were very few opportunities for me to take advantage of as far as career advancement. Nor did I get to do a lot of teaching, which was one of my main reasons for going to school in the first place.  I thought I'd done a lot of research on the school before I got there, but I was really surprised by how much I disliked it compared to my undergrad.

     

     I'll also say don't underestimate the value of being in a city that is central to what you want to pursue after you graduate. I.E. if you want to write plays just having access to the cultural resources in NYC or Chicago can really help you get a headstart. Trying to move from the south to NYC after my MFA program was such a pain in the butt and took WAY longer than my partner and I expected.

     

    To underscore this, it sounds like teeth has access to so many more opportunities than were available at my "renowned" grad school.

     

    And teeth I am so jealous that you got to chit-chat with Sarah Ruhl. I LOVE her work. If I get in to my PhD prog. I think I might include some of her stuff in my dissertation.

  8. When I applied for my Dramatic Writing MFA I just used my favorite piece that I'd written to date. It got me in, but I didn't touch anything like it again until the very end of my program. So I think just choose the piece that you love the most and that your classmates and professors tell you is the best.

  9. OUTDOORSY PEOPLE: how do you like living in NYC? My partner and I bike a lot—road cycling and bike touring are big parts of our lives, and so is rock climbing. I love NY and have friends there that are hip to the big bike culture there, but I am wondering how I would do studying there for 5+ years. Aside from Central Park and the expensive climbing gym in Chelsea.. would it be easy to get away to less populated/woodsy areas to do such activities easily (and perhaps, without a car?). I'm mainly trying to gauge if I would be able to live in a hyper-urban area and still get my fix. I'm from a major city on the West Coast, so I'm used to the city and like it—but I feel like NYC is another animal.

     

    I live in Washington Heights, northern manhattan, pretty affordable. We are within walking distance of the Cloisters park which is gorgeous and full of beautiful hiking trails. I work in midtown and I frequently walk through central park on the way home. there's no reason an outdoorsy person shouldn't be able to satisfy themselves in NYC.

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