BWW Student Center's School in the Spotlight: Sam Houston State University!

Last year, BroadwayWorld.com, the largest theater website on the Internet, launched a comprehensive Student Database listing college and university performing arts programs across the country. This free service makes it easier for prospective students by showcasing programs searchable by schools, location, degrees and concentrations. 

With the new school year in full gear, BWW has updated the fully-interactive Student Show Calendar with 2011-2012 student productions. We have also made it easy for schools to upload photos, videos, cast lists, articles and other media content for each of their shows. In addition, BWW will be combing through all content regularly and will launch weekly feature stories highlighting productions locally and nationally that have provided us with this extra content. 

-- BWW Student Center Readers: What do you want to see in 2012-2013? Have your say here! 

This week, we head to Huntsville, Texas, to feature the Department of Theatre & Dance at Sam Houston State University!

The Theatre program at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) offers students the option to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with tracks in Musical Theatre, Acting and Directing, or Design and Technology. The Dance program encompasses a performance-oriented curriculum leading toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts or Master of Fine Arts in Dance. SHSU also offers a Bachelor of Arts program leading up to teacher certification for those interested in teaching in the arts. Learn more about degree options at SHSU here. 

With a hands-on philosophy, SHSU prepares theatre students for a career in the arts with intensive training in all three emphasis options. The musical theatre program strives to create triple-threat performers by offering rigorous training in speech, audition classes, acting techniques, movement, history, voice, theory, and dance. Students at SHSU have regularly taken part in the The Broadway Theatre Project Summer Training, an audition-only placement program which connects industry professionals and students in an in-depth class environment focusing on  all disciplines of musical theatre.

Students pursuing Acting and Directing develop skills for the stage, film and television while studying acting techniques, speech and voice, movement, history, as well as industry skills, such as auditioning classes. The directing program uses scene and production study, as well as script analysis, to delve into directing styles and techniques.

For those individuals eyeing a career in technical theatre, the Design and Technology program offers courses in theatre technology, stage scenery, stage lighting, and costume construction.

SHSU's production season is one of the highlights of the theatre and dance program. The 2011-2012 season included 'You Can't Take It With You', 'Can't Help Loving', 'Some Girls', and the recent production of ' Once Upon a Mattress', directed by Leslie Swackhamer, and staged on April 25-28, 2012. To see shots from previous productions at SHSU, browse the media archives here! 

To find out more about Theatre and Dance studies at SHSU, click here. 

Congratulations to the Theatre and Dance department at Sam Houston State for earning this week's BroadwayWorld School in the Spotlight mention! 

Questions/concerns/suggestions related to BWW's student center can be addressed to studentcenter@broadwayworld.com.

Photo of 'Doubt', 2011. Courtesy of SHSU.