Which college did my character go to?

[n_e_star]

I'm writing a Smash fanfic and in canon my MC says he went to Cambridge University

Comments

[azziria]

Cambridge resident here :)

OK, if your MC studied for an undergraduate degree at Cambridge (rather than just doing some sort of short-term exchange) then they'll have a BA (Bachelor of Arts - even if you study Sciences at Cambridge you get a BA not a BSc).

You won't find a dance program as a major part of a Cambridge degree, the university is too academically-focussed for that. Anyone who's seriously interested in theatre does it extra-curricularly, either in individual college productions or through joining Footlights. Although Footlights is mainly famous as a hotbed of comedy and satire, you'll see from the list that that's where many notable actors and directors got started. Not at all dance-focused, though.

I think your MC would have done a BA in an Arts subject (list here), probably at one of the older colleges (so not Churchill or Robinson). (If they've said that they studied at Cambridge University then you can't have them at Anglia Ruskin or Cambridge Performing Arts because you would never say you'd been at Cambridge

[profbutters]

This person knows. :)

[bopeepsheep]

Although I'll note that Robert Webb, complete genius of dance *g*, went to Robinson. And I could easily see someone like him ending up in Smash.

[azziria]

Good point. I tend to forget the Arts at Robinson and Churchill because of all the NatScis and CommScis I knew there :)

[bopeepsheep]

Whereas I knew mainly architects and archaeologists. :)

[janewilliams20]

And if he gets his BA. then after a few years of not being dead or in prison, it gets upgraded to an MA. Can be done by ceremony, or by putting a tenner in the post (I did the latter). Don't ask me why. Only matters for you because the post-nominals are different, should he use them: MA (Cantab), not BA.

[n_e_star]

Their dance/theatre experience at that time would be developed as an extra-curricular activity.

This is the thing that gets me, because I do know the dance/theater side. A Broadway choreographer will have started off working as a Broadway dancer; a dancer who would have to beat out hundreds of others dancers in auditions This is not just someone doing it as a hobby, but someone taking daily classes in ballet, jazz, and tap.

The directing thing you can pick up as you go along, but for dance the foundation has to be there.

[bopeepsheep]

And is it not possible to be a very serious and well-trained dancer before you go to university, and to maintain your standard while you're there? Don't forget that Cambridge tuition can mean as little as 1 hour* contact time a week for 8 weeks of term, 3 terms a year, for 3 years, plus exams.
* You can in fact get away with even less than that if your senior college staff allow it. David Mitchell gives a lovely example of "theatre overtaking studies" in his autobiography.

(Edit: Wrong link! The Mitchell one isn't copying properly.)

[n_e_star]

Cambridge tuition can mean as little as 1 hour* contact time a week for 8 weeks of term, 3 terms a year, for 3 years, plus exams.

Well that is an interesting fact.

[bopeepsheep]

I can't copy in the Mitchell passage but the gist is: he basically didn't show up to anything at all for a year, too busy with Footlights. A senior member of college staff came to see him in a show and said something along the lines of "well, show up for, and don't fail, this exam and we won't kick you out". Obviously that really only works if you're doing really well at the alternative activity...

[tweedisgood]

But deeply misleading. Whilst only supervision may be compulsory in and of itself, you will soon come to the attention of the authorities if you have nothing to bring to that supervision. Lectures are actually pretty vital if you do not want to be thrown out for failing.

*worked easily a 40-hour week doing an Arts subject in the early 80s*

[thekumquat]

Er, no. I can confirm I went to about 2 lectures in the Lent term of my second year, fewer than half my practicals, and most of my supervision, though one tutor was having a family member die and missed most of them. Still got a 2:2 that year despite not much better attendance at the other terms

[thekumquat]

You assume that someone at Cambridge isn't doing daily classes... the rowers often fit in 6 hours a day training, and actors and techs and directors similarly (maybe up to 18 hours a day for a couple weeks at a time). Supervisors (ie tutors) are understanding up to a remarkable limit, though I know a producer who spend a term appearing in shows under pseudonyms and in disguise after having to agree only to work on two shows that term. You're probably

[thekumquat]

Argh, can't edit on phone,
...right about choreographers needing more specialist experience but plenty of theatre directors went through the Cambridge system, Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn, Sam Mendes, Dadie Rylands for starters.