Arizona State University [REMASTERED]

[music] Welcome to the College Audition Pro's podcast, where we help you get ready, get set, get accepted. My name is Drew Boudreau, the founder of College Audition Pro's, and let's get going. [music] I am here talking with Toby because I toured the campus of ASU on a whim during baseball spring training, and then I can't shut up about it. So now I was like, "I have to talk to the guy in charge." So Toby, please do me a favor and tell us your official title with the program and the university. Yes, hi, I'm Toby Yachtzo. My pronouns are he, him. I am clinical assistant professor of music theater at ASU. Awesome, awesome. So when I say we tell, I was visiting with my girlfriend Whitney, who at the time was still the stage manager of the play that goes wrong off Broadway. And we stopped and we saw that Mommameth touring facility that's on the campus, that all the Broadway shows stop at. And so I'm messaging all my friends who are on whatever tour, waitress, Hamilton, Frozen, like, "Oh yeah, I loved that place." I was like, "And you can go to college with the show stop this is incredible." So before I get carried away with the program, I would love to learn a little bit about you and how you got to ASU. So what's your background and how'd you get to ASU? Sure, yeah. Yeah, I trained as a musician and an actor ended up going into the theater world, though did a lot of music along the way. So music theater started to feel like a natural fit for my interests and proclivities. But at one point in my life I was an instrumentalist as well too. So all of that sort of mixes together in like a landscape of musical storytelling, I guess you could say. I grew up in Wisconsin on a farm, so how I ended up in this is a bit of a surprise too. But I've always drawn to live the live arts and live audience connection and story telling that way. I did my undergrad in Wisconsin and then I did a master's degree at ASU, actually, that's what first brought me there many years ago. And then did a lot of freelancing and gagging and summer stocking and things like that around the country. I think what shaped me most was that here in Phoenix I became the artist and residents at our equity regional theater here at the Phoenix Theater Company. And when I started working for them every season, that's what really shaped me. So I was shaped a lot by regional theater in the business model that you have to fill out your season every year. You have to run your flops and close your hits in regional theater. So I got really used to doing that. I got really used to being in multiple projects per season sort of really testing my range of in the fall I'm playing this kind of character, but in the spring I'm playing a totally different kind of character. Really started falling in love with that. And then lo and behold, because I was around here working in Phoenix when there was an opening for music theater instruction at ASU, they sought me out. And I started teaching for them at first on a very part time basis, just kind of filling everything in here. And then as the years went on and relationships grew, I found I really loved teaching at ASU quite a bit and it was a beautiful fit. So now here we are several years later. I'm full time Professor at ASU now and this is my 13th year teaching for them in some capacity. Wow. Okay, well, for those of you who are coming from blind mitz that are not the desert, even a Wisconsinite has found home in the middle of the mesa. So it can be done everybody. Don't let the heat scare you off. That's a beautiful trans trans plants here in. That's right. So, you know, you mentioned the Phoenix theater company. I grew up in Southern California. So the greater theater community of Phoenix is not totally unknown to me. So you say the Phoenix theater company, they're Broadway, Arizona theater, all public players. Like you mentioned those to me and I'm like, oh, yeah, I know those. So talk a little bit about why it's a Phoenix is such a great place for a student to be going to school and studying theater. But this city loves theater. It's surprising. I think that's what surprises people when they get here and they realize how many, like, just there's theater nerds infiltrated in every part of culture and society here. One unique part of living in Arizona, though, is we are very spread out. It is, it is geographically wide and vast and expansive. So there are many burrows here in the valley that have all have their own thing going on to just because it becomes geographically convenient for people. But if you do have transportation here, where you're willing to commute a little bit longer to get to these other burrows, there's just so much to do. And not a lot of people to have to wait in line behind. And I think that's what's exceptional about the Phoenix Valley is we're still actually a pretty young city. Like I mentioned, there's a lot of people who relocate here, a lot of transplants. And then it's still kind of more rare to find people who really grew up in Arizona and stayed in Arizona. But more and more now that's developing. But because it's a young city with these burrows that are still building what their future artistic culture wants to be, it has this spirit here of like, what do you want to do? Great. We have one of those. Go do it. There's not 500 people in line to go do it. Yeah. There's enough people interested in it that you'll find lots of collaborators. And then the other thing about Arizona that's great too is if you stumble along something that doesn't really exist yet because the city is still young on a national level, make one. Great. Build it. Invent it. Especially at ASU. And it has that spirit of then then start it. If you see something that isn't getting fulfilled here, then you'd be the first in line to do it. And I think the people who have that spirit particularly thrive well here in the arts community. That is so cool because we have so many students who are multi-hyphenates who are like, I want to do acting and directing and I'm interested in community involvement with theater. And so to be able to have a city that welcomes all of that is really, really exciting. And also, you know, probably half of my students yearly come from Northern or Southern California. And it's not a small thing to say to a student, you are close enough that you can come home pretty quickly if you need to or want to. But far enough away that mom and dad can't be like, what's up? And that is a really nice place to be. Be your own person and you can reinvent yourself here if you need to. Absolutely. That's right. So talk to me a little bit about what the curriculum is, how you've crafted it for the musical theater students. Yeah. So first off, we're a bachelor of music. The major in music performance is a bachelor of music, not a BFA. So we're on the rarer side of that. There was an article published a couple of years ago now in the MTEA journal and my numbers might be slightly off, but I think it said there are about 178 BFA programs in the country now and 19 B.M. Bachelor of Music. So we're one of those 19. So first off right away, you got to know there's a lot of music and we are devoted to developing that music proficiency, music literacy as much as all the other modalities. So the major degree program then is a bachelor of music in music theater performance. What we're most proud of is in that eight semesters. You work with advisors that we have in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. And there are many possibilities and options of major maps that give you eight semesters of voice lessons, eight semesters of acting classes. eight semesters of dancing classes. - Wow. - You agree semester, you get to be a triple threat. And it took some sort of Sudoku puzzle solving to figure that out in the curriculum. And I have to tip my hat to my department chair, Brian Demaris, who is the artistic director of Music Theater and Opera at ASU. And he is a genius on this front. So I work closely with him to manage that curriculum. And he helped us crack the code to make sure that students get all eight semesters in the ways you wanna be working and the ways you need to be trained. - Now I wanna say, that is not, that's not typical for programs across the board, everybody, to have all eight semesters with all three elements that you're in class for. I also hope it demystifies the idea that like a BM, is prepares you any less for being in the Music Theater world professionally. A BM and BFA are both comprehensive and more intense programs than a BA. And there are differences. The BM just prepares you better to be a more competent musician on top of being ready to be a Music Theater actor. Does that sound right? - Yes, there's an extra course in a Musician for Singers. There is piano proficiency. You do take piano classes as a Music Theater major at our school. So, and you have up to three semesters of that too. So it is, you're working a lot with musicians. And I like to say that, there's a lot of directions you can go in our theater world. But, and musicals are vast and diverse. But there's one thing that all musicals have in common and that is music. (laughing) But what kind of relationship you have with music, you can celebrate and thrive here at ASU. I also wanna mention too, we have a minor in Music Theater performance. So we actually have some theater degrees, a BA in Theater, that's just general. You can choose in acting concentration through that. And there's also a BA in performance and movement that actually gives people a little bit more freedom to select how much in what modalities you want to access and train in most as a live performing artist. - Wow. - A lot of students now more and more are also, we have our core chunk of music theater majors who do declare them major and do that. There's a cohort of students who might do performance and movement and then minor in music theater. - Okay. - Or do the acting concentration and minor in music theater. And then starting this fall, this is something else we're really excited about. We have, oh, we also have minors in dance and minors in theater as well to sort of mix the best recipe to put on your menu. And we have a new ish, it's four or five years old now. We have a pop music program, a BA music. - No way. - Yeah, so for students who are multi-hyphenated and maybe they are already producing their own music, sort of becoming their own recording artist because hey, we all lived through a pandemic. And yeah. - The tech of that and, or maybe you make beats and you already make digital music in your life. We have a new minor in pop music as well. - What? That boy. Yeah. - Yeah. - And for a multi-hyphenate, somebody who wants to be the next Renee rap, hey, I wanna make pop music. I wanna be on stage the same time and I don't wanna have to segregate those out too much. It's so cool. - I'm playing with your skills here with us, yes. All right, we already have a question from Anne Holbrook who is wondering what are the performance opportunities like? Now, I had mentioned this in my email to you. I was gonna ask. So don't be afraid to like show off those peacock feathers about like, this is the main stage, the student stuff, the experimental stuff, the improv stuff. So what are the opportunities like? - Yeah, we've got it all. We have, we've been using the term faculty lead work and then student lead work most recently. So there is at least one major faculty lead opera and musical each semester. And then also peppered throughout, it's a little bit different every year how we scheduled a student lead projects then. But there's a student lead opera projects and student lead musical theater projects every year. We then in MTO, music theater and opera, we have our own season programming that is unique from the theater departments season programming. So the theater department's going to do most of the plays. We're going to do most of the musicals and operas. And then in some special projects, we sort of cross over and do hybrid versions of things. So there's usually six plays a year to audition for, usually about four musicals to audition for and at least two operas to audition before. Then there's a cabaret series that actually depending where you are in the curriculum, we present students do their own 15 minute solo cabaret at this really cool venue called ASU Care, KERR, that's a historical site here in Scottsdale. And we do fun events like holiday cabarets and things like that throughout the year as the year is unfolding. Our seniors get to go to New York for a showcase during spring break of their last semester. And then they also give a Phoenix showcase here that's a slightly different tailored to the markets and audiences there. Oh gosh, we'll do shareings and scenes programs throughout the year so that where you are in your curriculum, maybe you didn't do a big show this year, but you still did a lot of cool classwork so you get to show off your classwork for people. And then there's a completely student run theater company called Prism Theater. That's a really cool thing to get involved in as well. We have a student leadership team, also that meets every year and we'll put together fun events that can be social and community building but can also expand your artistry as well. So yeah, it seems like every month there is the show that seems to be happening. We have very few board students. I'm not the last time. We had a student sort of with nothing to do. Right. Things that everybody gets their schedules filled to their delight pretty quickly and then they have to practice saying no to things. (laughing) Right. That's a good word of life, right? Right. So with the minors within the sprite within the department, what about minors from out the department? Am I allowed and am I able to minor in astronomy, science, swim and studies, et cetera, et cetera? Yes, we have a couple music theater major business minors. Oh, wow. Well, good for them, by the way. (laughing) Yes. 'Cause they have specific goals and aspirations in mind that way. Yeah. It really is, if you're an enrolled ASU student, there's a way to build a bridge. That's so cool. And if you haven't been on the campus of ASU, think about the biggest state school you've ever imagined. I've only been on the campus three or four times. It was one of my final contenters when I was looking at undergrad. Because I was looking at sports broadcasters 20 years ago. Sports broadcasters and musical theater. And they had opportunities for both. This is, it seems to me like it's the kind of school where if you want to, you could get lost in athletics on game day. And also be part of groundbreaking research and the other academic venues in addition to pursuing what you love. Is that right? We're research one institution. Oh, great. That's huge on the academic level and scholarly research side of things. So vast and deep levels of learning that can happen for you there. We have the Barrett Honors College, which is, which rivals your Ivy League schools as far as achievement and accomplishment that goes on the academic side of things and in scholarly research as well. Yeah. There's cool benefits to being a part of the Barrett Honors College of like where you get to live on campus and access to different dining halls and things like that. So you can-- now. You have a very cushy live. You're a barit student in particular. But there's a slew of non-barit students that are just as happy too. Yeah, you brought up the journalism and I have several students that are journalism majors and music theater minors and that's actually proven to be a really cool fit of how are the way people are interested in using their voices professionally. So I have to tell folks when we visited we happened to bump into the tech director of the department and we got a tour and y'all if your student just wants to stay and study performance like obviously you have your plate full what we heard about Toby with all the performances and training but if your student also is like I want to build sets I want to take part in new play festivals I want to take part in smaller productions. Y'all the again I'm just blown away by how big the set shop was wow this is a full tilt operation and there's two of them because I didn't know that. Yes you saw the theater departments and then MTO music theater in opera our department actually lives in the music building. We have our own set of things too so there is a dedicated space for the theater department and a dedicated space for the music theater in opera department and we share some supplies and share some flow of materials that way but also have two separate shops and two separate spaces to be running simultaneous programming that way. If I am auditioning my audition happens senior year of high school right? Yes if you're going if you're not you know taking a gap you're not trying to do anything like that correct. We have admissions most admissions happen in August that you would enter that your university studies in August. You end up submitting your application for that prior to December the previous year and you audition most likely in January or February on a live audition day event. We also do have a January admission option as well too and so you would apply October first and you audition in November and then you there are ways to activate new degree programs in studies starting in the January spring semester as well and what I like to point out is that in our program every year there's almost an equal divide of every type of path that our students there's a chunk of the cohort that came in as 18 year old I I was just a high school senior three months ago. Right now here I am starting college as an 18 year old freshman and I declared music theater performances in my major. Yeah but then there's also in that cohort students who transferred in from other universities that they tried didn't like they're trying something else now or they or they matriculated in from community colleges with their associates degrees or they simply just came to ASU and another major and found they weren't happy and they're like no I really do want to do music theater so they end up joining it a little bit later. Yeah students who join in the January semester we lovingly call them January joiners so August there's January there's transfer students everything we also have a graduate program too so we do have masters and doctoral students. Wow! Master of Music program in music theater performance where you decide if you're going to concentrate more on opera or music performance traditions and then also a master of music in music direction for the theater. Oh that's such a cool program! Yes yes so you then get to work with the future music directors of the nation. Yeah! Well you're at our program because our our graduates from that master's degrees they're now conducting Wicked and Hamilton and you name it. So yeah so you're also collaborating with graduate students. Wow! You're at ASU and you're undergrad as well too. Well all the information just triggered a slew of the same question all it was but that's Jennifer and Ann all want to know is it too late to audition for seniors? Now that I've heard this my kid really wants to audition. For right now okay so here's here's what you could do is you could still yes you could apply and you may not get your first choice of an audition date but you could be put on overflow and or you still might just be admitted as an ASU student in another major or a non-major okay so far and then there if you just get yourself here yes even if you missed the music theater performance train that was on that schedule there are ways to catch the next one. Awesome! While you're already a student at ASU in fact there's a couple students last year that did miss the timing of the deadline but they knew they and we're going to come to ASU they got admitted into ASU they ended up auditioning in May for the minor because that is a smaller much non-formal yeah formal audition process for that and so since they were already registered they were enrolled for their fall classes yeah kind of like a fun little loophole is then you could sign up for the audition for the minor and so they actually started their freshman year as a like psychology major and a music theater minor and and then they still got to like try everything and be in all the classes and heal what it's like and then lo and behold I think two of those students just became January joiners. Now that they were here they they did another audition and said no I want to I want to be the major let's let's go full it. Wow that is so great okay um so what is tuition room board I love asking this question because I love the answer. Yeah there are there are for out of state right now if you google it it's sitting at 31,000 the out of state which is tough anywhere um it does so we're not a part of the wue okay um with this degree program yes yes is the part of it but only with um I believe there's like a hundred degree programs that are eligible for it yes and ours are not on that list and and you would also have to be in residence at not the tempi campus so there's okay you're available for the for the polytechnic campus the west campus and the downtown campus which are all um connect it shuttalo you can get so but there are merit scholarships at a round it seems to be if you look um online what tends to be happening in possible for most students right now it's like a $15,000 scholarship based on merit um so then that takes it a little bit closer to the in-state tuition level I mean 15 grand off of 30 is pretty nice yeah yeah like that's that's great um you know and that's before FAFSA everybody so you know when you consider that NYU is close to 80,000 for tuition room and board right now um just put that in perspective that you can get the same kind of free professional Broadway training at like a quarter of the price it's pretty great and we have I'd say it's uh about a half half spread right now of in-state and out-of-state students we also have a a good group of international students oh that's wonderful I love that yeah okay um and you know what uh what have we not not really touched on of things that you love about working at ASU I I really am proud of our curriculum I know what I mentioned it but I'm particularly proud of that you just really get to work on what you need uh there's there's a there's a spot for that always I mean yes you got to schedule in other things around it in your general education requirements and such but you know that the thing you're most passionate about is this core of how you plan your days in your weeks and that's really cool we also don't have any restrictions on how you unfold as an artist here we really are devoted to educating you the human and that understanding that yes there's this big part of you that lights you up called musical theater but there's also a whole part of you that is that goes beyond that and lives an interesting life that informs your artistry and may have various passions. And we love to welcome that into what you do with your time and your studies. And there's a lot of ways to feel successful at ASU. We're not just like you get on Broadway or otherwise don't bother. We're not that at all. We have so many students working regionally. Yes, some get to Broadway, some are on tours. Many work regionally. Many open their own theater companies. Many become directors, many become writers. They become producers. They develop new work. They join boards of theater companies and help change the arts and culture in their communities. It's, there are so many ways to define, I'm making it in my chosen work, culturally at ASU. So we celebrate all of those things. We don't have any restrictions on what you can or can't audition for. Or if you want to get involved in something in the community for a semester and your off campus more because you got that opportunity and you're not on campus as much, great. The networked out for you. We will cheer you on. If you want to audition the moment you get here, great. Great. Freshman cannot audition right away as soon as they get here. All you have to be is an enrolled ASU student to sign up for an audition and show up at the audition. We cast non majors every year in Productions 2. Wow. And if you're a major and you get there and you are not ready to be in a show the very first year, you don't have to be in a show. [LAUGHTER] You really get to look at what you have time and space for. What is going to holistically let your full self unfold? Yeah. This time is about. And ASU is beautifully devoted to meeting students where they are that way. And I know all my colleagues are too because we meet weekly and talk about these things and commit to it. That's amazing. Well, I want to thank you again, Toby, for coming on and joining us. For those of you who are watching this in the replay, if you still have questions for Toby about the program or about ASU, leave those comments in the chat. And if I don't know the answer, I will reach out to Toby and I will get those answers for you. And don't forget, on Friday, we are going across the country and talking with the Institute for American Musical Theatre's Michael Mnarrick in our front-of-house program. That'll be live here on Zoom. So if you're already in front of house or a flagship student, you're already enrolled and invited. If you haven't come to front-of-house yet, what are you doing? It's for 9/10 and 11 graders to do programs just like this to get to know a school. And you'll be on Zoom live with Michael to ask more questions about what that's like. Also, if you are seniors and watching this and you're freaking out about Unifieds, if you have not reached out to us yet about onsite coaching, what are you doing? Feel free to leave a comment because we'll be in New York and Chicago and help you calm those pre-audition jitters. [ Silence ] [ Silence ] Thanks a lot. [BLANK_AUDIO]