Five Towns College

[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] So, I met you first. I got to be three or four years ago at New York Unified's. And I, well, how long have you been at five towns now? Seven years. Seven years, okay, got it. Now, where, you were at Emerson before this, is that right? I was at Dean College for five years, and then Emerson for five years. Yeah. So, you know, one of the things that we like so much about five towns is that, you know, you have such a, you have such a systematic, detailed, deliberate approach to acting, which is uncommon, especially in musical theater programs. If you talk a little bit about what your approach to acting is in terms of instruction for the undergraduates, sure. Our acting approach for musical theater is very much the same as our approach for the acting program. It's founded on the Stanislavsky system. If I may brag for a bit, I'm one of the world's leading authorities on Stanislavsky. And we believe that the musical theater training program and the acting program are very similar. Yes, there are, there are very nuanced differences in musical theater, and we know what they are. But we also want to train our musical theater students to be actors in movies, in straight plays, in television, in commercials. Look, there's 42 Broadway theaters and about half of them are musicals. And if you take into account some of them are dark, you run about 20 musicals a year. You've got about 40 touring musicals of equity, touring musicals, and you've got maybe, maybe 60, 70 regional theaters doing musicals. And then there's the non-equity musicals, which it's hard to account for because there's no clearing house that gives a number. In my research, I estimate about 80 to 90 non-equity touring musicals. Okay, that's the max. I mean, that's what we want to train our students to be in. But that number just doesn't lie. And so we want to train our musical theater students to be actors as well, to be able to do all of the other areas such as film, television, commercials, straight plays. And they need to have the basic training for that. So our training and acting is for film and for stage. We do both. Okay. Our training is fundamental. We follow the Stanisovsky system. We do improvisations. We work to be truthful. I was fortunate to have known Myzner, Straussburg, and Adler. I mean, that wasn't like I was their best friend. I was a young kid in 1819, 1920, and my mid-20s before Myzner and Straussburg passed away and then Adler a few years shortly thereafter. But I watched their classes. I learned from them. And that really is the foundation of the American Method Training, which we provide. I can go into great detail about what that is. But I think what you get here is fundamentals so that you have the tools for acting, for a musical theater, and for any play, movie, television, or commercial. So our training is for, across the board, for everyone. I really like that because, because, who can be bananas is, when you hear, oh, I'm training for acting in musical theater or acting in film, like, one French, one German, one English. I like the idea that, like, good acting, truthful storytelling translates across the mediums. Obviously, tweaks you have to make. But it's not like one is, you know, throwing the javelin and the other is jumping the hurdles. You know what I mean? Of course, of course. Look, I teach everyone, if you want to talk about the differences between film and stage, there really are three fundamental differences. Number one, you have to project on stage and on film, you have the microphone right under your chin on your shirt, hidden by your shirt. So you don't have to project. Number two, in most cases, films never shoot in sequence. You're going to have scene five, will be your first thing, you're going to rehearse, and then the very end of the movie, you're going to rehearse that and shoot that, and then you go back to the beginning. So you have to know where the character is along the way in shooting in film. And finally, film is very much about the eyes, because the camera is a glorified eye. It really is. It's technically an eye. It's psychologically an eye. So, where you look when you're acting on camera is very, very important. If I look to the left, I force the director to look where I'm looking, and I make the director shoot somewhere. So if you watch film actors, even mediocre film actors, they're staring straight ahead. They lose eye contact unless something is moving where they have to see. Outside of that, it's exactly as you said, true. It's truthful behavior. It's still a character. It's still a story. You are telling a story. You have to have a relationship to another character. You are singing about love. You are singing about your relationship. And you're on stage or on screen with another person. It's the say other than those three, three, as you so well said, technical tweaks. It's the same exact thing. You have to know who your character is. That's it. That's it. So, your five-tounds is on Long Island. You kind of give us a being realistic. If we're on the LIE or we're taking the LIRR, how long does it take to get from Midtown to Five Towns? 50 minutes. I know. Literally from the train. 50 minutes. So if you factor in, if you've got to get to the train station, whatever distance is, we are literally 10 minutes away from the train station. So if you count those 10, you could be in one hour at Penn Station. You walk up the eight blocks or the ten blocks up to the ticket booth and you can catch a matinee or evening show just like that instantly. If you want to catch a matinee, you could be back at Five Towns College for dinner. It's that quick. It's that fast. I was sold a little bit of hyperbole when I committed to Stony Brook because they were like, "Oh, it's an hour away." I was like, "Yeah, hands are going down under the LLN. It's an hour away." Stony Brook is further out on the island. Stony Brook is at the tail end, the closer to Montauk. Yeah, Stony Brook is much further out. We're right on the cusp of Nassau and Suffolk. It's like almost a two or three mile walk to when you get into a Nassau. So once you're in Nassau, it's Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. And so it's much closer. Yeah. So with that proximity, what are some of the privileges that one goes with the Nassau that be at one of the-- Well, sorry, we're breaking up a little bit here. I think we broke up because you're in motion. Yeah, there we go. So the privileges are you get to go and see a Broadway show without having to glive in and deal with the expense of Manhattan. News flash, Manhattan is ridiculously expensive. Man is insane. A bottle of water for $10. I mean, that's just crazy. We have all the benefits of New York without the expense or the distraction or the intensity and that you have in New York. Our campus is very safe. I'll always be honest with you. Our campus is very plain. It's very simple. It's a very converted middle school. But that's how we keep the cost down. We don't have huge overhead. We don't have to pay for what NYU and pace and marry them out have to pay for. And I mean, my heart goes out to them because they-- when they pay a janitor, they pay three or four times what we pay just because they're the expense of getting maintenance in their place. So our tuition is low because we're very plain campus. We don't have a fancy campus. They said it's a converted middle school. It's a converted cafeteria middle school. But it's very safe. It's very clean. The dorms are very nice. But we keep the cost down because we don't have huge overhead. And so we're one of the most affordable schools in the country. Yeah, you mentioned the tuition. Can you talk about what tuition is? Tewision starts at around 35,000, but it's almost always between 15 and 20. Oh, wow. Yeah, we're the same as state schools. We can compete with any state school. And we have very, very handsome scholarships for performers. If they are exceptional, that can even go lower than that. And I can argue for that. And I can also believe that we compete with other schools. I will take another student shows me an offer from another school. We will compete with that offer and try to get the best students that we can for the best price. Correct. Because, you know, look, I wouldn't mind being going to NYU and living on Washington Square Park. What 18 year old wouldn't want that? It's fabulous, but you pay $85,000 for an apartment for four years on Washington Square Park. Minionaires are dying to get to Washington Square Park. Right. And then you're going into one of the, how can we call this? The lead. most predictable industries in the world. So why do you want $400,000 with a student loan second round your neck? - Absolutely. We are very sensitive to the fact that our profession is precarious and you're going in there paying back a student loan that's a quarter of a million dollars to 300,000. It's insane. It's insane and we would never do that. - That's awesome. Okay, so small physical footprint what is your ideal or your historical freshman class size? - Freshman class size is about 30 and that's about two thirds musical theater, one third acting. - Right. - Okay, now full disclosure, always being honest, during the pandemic, it tanks. I mean, during the pandemic, our numbers went down to 10 for two years. We, but we're back up to about 20, we take in about 25 to 30 students. - Right. - And figure about 17 will be musical theaters and the other eight to 10 will be actors. - Okay, okay, super. For the actors and the M.T. students, I think I know the answer to this, but are they taking courses with each other for the fundamentals, like the basics of acting, acting one, acting two? Are they sharing classes? - Yes, for acting one, two, three and four. The first two years, all the M.T. students work with the actors for the fresh two years. They get one year course training in the Stanisovsky system and then they get intermediate acting in the sophomore year. After that, they break off and the two sections fundamentally split up. But as far as every other class, the movement classes are for the actors, the dance classes are for the M.T. students, singing lessons for M.T. students and the voice and speech classes for the actors. So that part, they're split up. - And then for shows, 'cause you mentioned the voice and movement classes for the actors, I just wanna make it clear for everybody, when you're interacting program, especially a BFA acting program, you're not just taking thought principles of how to break down a script, you're doing full body exercises. So acting students, can they be in the musicals and can M.T. students be in the plays? - Absolutely, absolutely. Yes, the vast majority of M.T. students will be in the musicals and vice versa for the actors. But we have a lot of crossover because we want our actors to be able to work in musicals 'cause there's work to be had in musicals. So for instance, they might be playing Nathan Detroit. The actor might be doing Nathan Detroit while the M.T. student would be doing Sky Masterson because the singing requirements for Sky Masterson and Geysand Dalses, much more intense. But the acting student could cover Nathan Detroit very easily. And we also want our M.T. students to be in plays and to understand what it is so that they could work in plays, in straight plays. - Yeah, you say that. And I remember now, like Nathan's big cast is, "Soo me." - Yes, exactly. - Where the guy has a big luck be a lady. - Yes, yes. I mean, he has, you know, that's a tenor voice that he has to hit. I mean, that's, and he's got several heavy, do you know, individual songs. - Yeah, yeah. So with your proximity to the city, are you able to have working professionals drop in to either a guest director, do a masterclass of them like that? - All the time. Mostly, mostly it's the agents and casting directors that we bring in. - Oh, cool. - Okay, we will bring in an occasional guest director, but for the most part, it's the proximity to New York to bring in the agents. So we bring in about a half a dozen agents per semester. Yeah, so we bring them in. And mostly they cover the Senior Showcase class, which is a year-long class. And then, because we want to get the networking connection, that's really what's important about you, you know what? I tell everybody there's three things you need to do to make it in show business. You need the triple-threat tools, you need the networking, and you need the passion, okay? It sounds simple, sounds easy. But you need those three things. You need tools, you need networking, and you need passion. And you've got to have those three. And the networking is part of what we bring. - Yeah. - You got to bring people in. - Oh, that is terrific. 'Cause you're so right. You can be as passionate as you want, and you can be as well-trained as you want. But there's no one given you that little extra hand to get seen with your tools and your passion. You're right. It's a three-legged stool. And with only two legs, the stool don't stand. - You need all three. It's not a case of making two out of three. You can't do it with two out of three. You've got to have all three. So that's when you say we are proximity to New York, that's mostly what we're bringing in agents and casting directors to start to get, you know, that feel for the actor. Just try to understand the actor, you know. Agents, we both know, you and I, Drew, know that agents are gonna know somebody's talented in a nanosecond. That's their job. They're supposed to know that immediately. It's like a dentist. You're supposed to know if you have a cavity or no cavity. I don't want to sit in a dentist chair and have a dentist going, "I'm not sure." Well, you're not sure of leaving. I'm coming back when you are sure. - I'm not even. (laughing) - So it's the same thing with agents. What they don't know is the perseverance, the dedication. That takes time. You have to see if the actor's committed. Because we both know people will drop out of this profession in a heartbeat. They'll just, they just can't do it anymore. And that leaves the agent, you know, holding the bag. If the agent is gonna commit to somebody, they could have committed to somebody else. - Absolutely. - Yeah, if I'm an agent and I'm representing you and I spend years building up your reputation, talking to casting directors and Broadway directors and film directors, and then one day you just say to me, "I can't do this anymore, David." It's profession is too hard. Well, I could have built up somebody else's reputation. So agents look for perseverance. They look for the endurance. Are you in this for the long haul? And that's what we try to teach people to understand. It takes time. You gotta come back to the agent over and over 'cause the agent needs to see, okay, you still here. That's how I got my first agent. It's two and a half years. I kept appealing to this agent and I kept going into his office. Again, and again, this is the days before internet. So I had to do it in person. I went back and forth and back and forth every three months. And finally I came in and the agent said, "You're still here, okay, I'll give you a chance." You don't give up because you're here for life. You're committed. He told me. I said, "I saw you in a showcase. I knew you had talent a long time ago. Talent's, talent, you can walk down Broadway and find talent." We both know. You can walk the streets of LA and New York and parts of Chicago and you can find talent. Talent is plenty. Are you there and willing to hang in there and hang in there from rejection to rejection to rejection and still do it? And that's what we teach. Yes. That's it, man. Yeah, we talk about this all the time that this is, you know, it can be a very difficult industry, emotionally. So you hang in and you hang in and it's so good. It's so good. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it is. It is. That's the way where the passion part comes in. That's the third-legged stool. You have to have the passion for this because you're going to get rejected and rejected and rejected. But if you still believe in yourself and have the passion and the love for this, then eventually like roulette. I always believe it's like roulette. Eventually, your number comes up. You just better be ready. That's it. When the believe man calls your name, you better have your number. As Steven Sondheim said into the woods, "Aportunity is an infrequent visitor." [LAUGHTER] So you mentioned we talked just a minute ago about two out of three with the stools. Let me phrase that in two out of three of the skills and musical theater. Right? I'm talking about acting, singing, dancing. Let's say that I'm working with a student and they're like, ah, you know what? I'm a good singer. I'm a good actor. Dance is my weak point. Should they still audition for five towns? Yes. Yes, because that's where we could bolster that part of the three-legged triple threat. We could give you the opportunity. Look, we understand that most empty students are not going to be doing the Bolshoy ballet. That's fine. But you have to be able to be comfortable and move. You're not a chorus dancer. Right. You're going to be able to move comfortably to know what a time step is and tap dancing, to know how to do a pirouette, to just be able to be comfortable doing that. And then if you've got the voice to cover it, it's fine. But we're going to give you the tools. If you can't dance, that's actually the best place to come. Because we will give you the 19 dance classes. We will give you the opportunity to be a comfortable, confident dancer. Yeah, you're not going to be in the New York City Ballet. That's OK. That's what you're going for. What you're going for is the opportunity to be in every kind of musical where you can move comfortably. The choreographer could tell you to move this way in that way and you could do it. And then your voice and your acting carries the rest of the show. Did you say 19 dance classes? Yes. You have to take 19 dance classes in our program. That's one of our perks that we are offering, that we say to everybody, you're going to dance. You're going to at least two dance classes every semester. and so. some semesters three. There's this four tap, four jazz, two ballet classes. You have hip-hop. We have choreography classes. You can go on our website and see the whole list of them. We have Dance Ensemble every year because we're going to have a dance performance. We're going to ask every empty student to dance at the end of the first, second, and third year. Then when we get to the senior year, if you feel like you want to dance for your showcase for the agents, you can. But of course, not everybody feels that comfortable and they'll just sing or they'll sing an act. They'll do a model long and a song for the agent. But if they feel like they're comfortable to answer, then they'll do the triple threat for the agents. I've never heard that before for a showcase, David. That's so cool. Yeah. Because there are definitely some students that we have who are like, you know, I really can go either way. I can go to a dance program or I can go to an empty program because my dream is not to be a principal. My dream is to be a dancer, maybe a swing in a pinch, but I want to dance in Broadway shows. And it's so refreshing to hear that they have that up for a showcase. Yes. Yes. Yeah. But we want you to showcase your best. Right. And if your best is dancing, and let's do it, let's put that out there. If you're not the dancer, you could just move comfortably, but you've got the voice and you got the vocal chops. Let's put that out there. Okay. And of course, the actors that you want to act and even if you feel comfortable throwing in a song, if you could do it and carry it, we'll put a song in for the actor. Okay. But that's real. That's unusual. That the actor has to show real chops and singing. What is the show load like in the academic school year? How many plays or musicals are put on? Fixed to eight. We do six to eight shows every year. Okay. The reason it's six, six, seven or eight is that the other two would be a student run production. And some students don't, and students don't always have their time management schedule and they don't get the act together. So we may not do a show. So for instance, this year, we have seven. So it's anywhere between six and eight. We did a student run production in the fall, but we're not going to do one in the spring because the show couldn't get itself together. So there's two main stage musicals and then we have the studio shows. Some of them are small musicals or straight plays in our studio. Wow. So there's, it doesn't sound like there's really any lack of opportunity for students who want to get on stage. And you audition immediately. None of this waiting stuff. You don't wait. You don't wait. I can never forget that out. I mean, you came here to perform. Let's go. I mean, it's like, it's like going to dental school and not being allowed to see teeth. I mean, it's absurd. Let's go. I mean, what do you mean waiting for the second coming? Let me let's, you've come here to perform. You will perform. You may not be the lead, but you audition immediately. Yeah. The first day is orientation. Second day is an audition for the, for the full shows. And the third day is a meeting with the film students. In case you want to volunteer to be in a film because we have a lot of film opportunities for, for our acting students and musical theater students. They can shoot two or three movies a semester, you know, short films, 15, 10, 15 minutes because the film students need actors and they're desperate for them. We also, we also want our students to have a website. We immediately get you connected with Wix and we start to develop a website as a freshman and then over the four years we put content, the video recordings of the shows, video recording of a song, of a dance, of a monologue, of a scene. And we, by the time you're a senior, you have a fully developed website that you can show agents and casting directors and say, here's my, here's my website. Here's what I can do. Here's all the skills that I have. That is great. I, so last, last year was at the musical theater educator, the Lions Conference of New York. And that was the first thing that Rachel Hoffman pounds the pavement about. She would like, if your agent submits you and then I go to your website to look for more content and you don't have one, I got a path on you, man. That is so good. I'm ready to, I'm ready to apply and get my bachelor's again at five pounds, man. Thank you. You know, that was, that was the result of the pandemic. We found out it because the pandemic, the agents and casting directors couldn't have face-to-face interaction with people. So they went, you know, this is easier. I don't have to call, drew into my office and have him sing, song, or do a monologue for me. I could just go www.drew.com. And I could see what you can do. Then we can go from there and I could call you in and specific calls. What do I want to send you out for? What do I want you, you know, what do we think we could, we could work with? What's your brand? So we, we talk about that and talk about the brand, what, what type of person are you? What can you sell? So we, we start that from freshman year. And like I said, over the, over the sophomore junior and senior year, we load content into the websites, so the, by the time you get to be into the senior showcase, you can present a fully formed website that has you singing, dancing, has a full reel. And, and plus you could put 50 pictures. This, this business of one picture with a little square picture on the resume side. It's, it's from, that's from 2005. Yeah. Those days are over. It's, it's a website. I've got 50 pictures, 50 different looks. I can show you a whole series of the way I look. That's it. All right. Hey, I got a, I got a boogie. All right. This was great. Thank you, Drew. Thank you for the opportunity. But before you go, you're going to be getting your computer files again, right? Yes, I am. Okay. Great. We, I will plan to, to, um, mash into your room, give you a big old hug and send all my kids to you. So you're the best. We're going to be at Ripley Greer Studio 16. Send them. You're the best. It was thank you. I can't thank you enough, Drew. All right. You got it, man. All right. I have safe travel. Okay. Enjoy the trip.