Visual & Performing Arts

Program Description

Purchase College, State University of New York

		Program Description Program Overview Get Free Info Web Site Visit Email a Friend

Professional training for a professional career in acting, design/technology, dramatic writing, and film is the dominant goal of the program. Young artists are selected for the intensity of both their interest and potential in becoming professionals. The program offers focused and in-depth training in theater and film with a faculty that is itself working, creating, and succeeding in New York’s professional world.

The community of students and faculty members is constantly enriched by the creative bustle and aesthetic influence of New York City, just 35 minutes away. Students and teachers work and thrive together on the modern Purchase campus and Performing Arts Center located in Westchester County, a beautiful and elegant suburb of New York City.

All classes, rehearsals, and productions are supervised by men and women who are contributing participants in the professional artistic life of New York City, the United States, and international arts communities. These artist-teachers have a common goal: to thoroughly train young artists so that the individual creativity of each student is preserved and augmented by the most strenuous and critical practice and performance standards possible. Practical learning and practical experience become core components of the daily life of the student artist at Purchase. State-of-the-art equipment, theaters, and work spaces for every aspect of training abound in this woods-surrounded center of contemporary art and learning.

In addition to this serious concentration in the arts, each student fulfills a SUNY-mandated 30-credit core in liberal arts and sciences. Life at Purchase consists of a rich social intermix of the performing and visual arts with the more traditional academic life of the liberal arts and sciences.

The student’s life after graduation is a powerfully active concern of the training program. Therefore, as the student gains proficiency, his or her work has gradually been presented to the professional community. By the time of graduation when the work is formally introduced to that professional community—using New York City presentations for the actors and writers; internships, portfolio reviews, and faculty personal contacts for the designers; and completed student films for filmmakers—Purchase students find that an extraordinary number of doors open for them. Agents, producers, theaters, film companies, and television producers are available for the next creative and working step of the Purchase graduate.

The Conservatory of Theatre Arts and Film is now graduating some of the most exciting and successful young actors, designers, technical directors, stage managers, filmmakers, and writers in America. It is not only the flagship program of the State University of New York but also among the finest and most prestigious of the conservatory programs offered in the disciplines of theater and film in the United States.

The Purchase College Conservatory of Theatre Arts and Film is a member of the Consortium of Undergraduate Professional Theatre Training Programs.

Application Procedures

Deadline--freshmen and transfers: March 1. Notification date--freshmen: April 1; transfers: May 1. Required: high school transcript, college transcript(s) for transfer students, essay for film applicants, audition for acting applicants, portfolio for design and technical theater applicants, minimum TOEFL score of 550 for international applicants. Recommended: letter of recommendation, SAT or ACT test scores, picture and resumé for acting applicants, interview for design, technical theater applicants. Auditions held 1 time on campus and off campus in various locations once per year; videotaped performances are permissible as a substitute for live auditions for international applicants or with approval from the department for domestic applicants. Portfolio reviews held at various times on campus and off campus in various locations; the submission of slides may be substituted for portfolios with some original work.

Undergraduate Contact

Ms. Shirley Williams, Admissions Counselor, Purchase College, State University of New York, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, New York 10577-1400; 914-251-6315, fax: 914-251-6314.

Graduate Contact

Ms. Sabrina Johnston, Admissions Counselor, Purchase College, State University of New York, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, New York 10577; 914-251-6479, fax: 914-251-6314.