Theatre Studies Programs... Do I stand a chance?

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I am presently doing my final year of Civil Engineering in India. However,

I have acted/directed over 10 plays over the last 4 years and have been

actively taking part in all the drama activities in our college. That

apart, I have done projects in the Humanities department on the theoretical

aspects of some of the genres of theatre. This is a very broad outline of

the projects I have done:

1. A six month project on "The Theatre of the Absurd". I am presently

working on publishing a paper on "Waiting for Godot" in a scholarly journal

but unfortunately, I won't be able to achieve that before I apply for the

universities.

2. A six month project titled. "A Critical Analysis of 20th Century

American Theatre".

3. I voluntarily did an informal summer project for a month and a half

under an excellent professor and noted theatre personality, Dr. Ananda Lal

(editor of the "Oxford's Companion to Indian Theatre")in Calcutta on

"Shakespeare in Performance".

4. I will be doing a six month thesis starting from the 6th of January,

2010 till mid may on some specific aspect of "Modern Indian Drama".

I made a 1390 in GRE(590 in Verbal, 800 in Quant and 3.5 in Analytical Writing) but I am scheduled to write a retest of my verbal section on the 10th of September. I am confident I will be able to pull up my score drastically. Owing to these

projects that I have done, I have 3 really good letters of recommendation too.

With this background about me made clearer to you, this are the things I

want to know:

Firstly, is it a problem that I come from an Engineering background?

Secondly, with this brief idea about my resume in mind, what do you think

are my chances?

I would give preference to an MA/PhD over a terminal MA program, mainly

because of the funding. What are the good universities offering such

programs?

What is the competition like for such courses as Theatre Studies/History or

Dramaturgy and do you think I stand a good chance at getting into some of

the top universites ?

Also, what are the GRE scores that the top universites ask for? (in both

Verbal and Analytical Writing)

I will be really grateful if you guys can render me some help in this matter.

[Tom Fish]

Greetings!

It may be hard for you to get directly into a MA/PhD program without any background in theatre studies within academia....not to mention the fact you will probably be in the same classes with PhD students that have been studying in the field for years.

Really focus in on your angle and area of interest in research. If you aren't sure, then applying directly to MA programs may be better for you anyway.

You seem like a unique candidate, which is a plus by and large.

Tom