Adventures in College

This morning, bright and earlyearlyearly, Sarcasm Girl and I hopped a plain for Los Angeles so she could interview with the head of the Theatre Arts Program of Ithaca College. The interviews were held at the LAX Hilton, so we got off the plane, found the Hilton Shuttle, and got there early enough to have lunch with my lovely Aunt Julie and Uncle Carmine. In fact, a little earlier than we'd planned, which gave us time to case the joint. It was fascinating. There appeared to be two major events going on at the LAX Hilton today: a new-age conference (think an SF con with a dealer's room, film program, and throngs of people in tie dyed clothes and Indian jewelry, going to hear panels on chakras and holistic healing and the Destiny of Terra) and something called Unified Auditions. That was us. Apparently fifteen or twenty colleges banded together to take space at the Hilton and hold auditions for their dance, music, vocal and theatre programs. Once you got past the nice folk in the tie dyed salwar kameezes, the halls were full of would-be dance majors in black tights and filmy practice skirts stretching their muscles before their turns; singers attempting ostentatiously not to loudly warm up; and actors --many of whom seemed to know each other from other auditions, and almost all of whom looked like extras from A Chorus Line. It was energizing but a little overwhelming.

So we went downstairs, had a perfectly lovely lunch, and came back up to sign in. There was a brief informational session for students-and-parents--with the department chair, then the kids were assigned their audition times, and we were dispersed. SG and I took a walk around the longest block in the world (honest to God: the Hilton, a Marriott, and a parking garage, all before you could turn the corner) and got some coffee, then went upstairs, and the girl was seen.

I think she'd love this program. She, who has been saying that she was worried about being so far from home (3000 miles, high above Cayuga's waters) thinks she'd love the program. It seems genuinely geared to giving her professional training--but it's a BA, so she'd get to learn the other stuff she's been craving: philosophy and psych and history and literature. The school is very wary of accepting BA Drama students who really want to be BFA Acting students, and Mr. Byron (the department chair) was a little concerned that she might be such. I hope he took her at her word that what she really wants is a chance to experience it all, and have the flexibility to learn all the things she wants. I liked him: he noted that while he chairs a department where most students are BFA candidates, he is philosophically pro BA, on the theory that college students should be opening up their horizons rather than narrowing them. That is so my feeling.

Will she get in? I dunno. He didn't seem too horrified by her grades, her SATs are excellent, and she has other good qualities (and two family members who are at Ithaca or went there--her cousin and her father--which may count for something). We'll see. But it was fabulous to see the girl lit on fire by the possibilities that opened before her.