Student Blog: What My College's Musical Theatre Program Is Like

When I was a senior in high school,  I remember trying to find the perfect college for me to pursue an education in musical theatre. Thankfully the school that I chose has really been able to help me for the past 2 years (and now I’m going to be a junior!!)  prepare for the theatre life! I thought it would be fun to share what my school’s musical theatre program is like, so others can get an idea of what they can look forward to! 

First off, something I really enjoy is that you get to have voice lessons and vocal coaching once a week throughout the school year! This was a big thing that I was hoping for because I didn’t have voice lessons when I was younger (good old stage fright!). The professors help you with songs you are working on whether you chose them yourself or someone has given you a piece! Along with the lessons you put what you’re currently learning together for a studio class. This is where you sing to your peers and get feedback for the song! Some other classes I’ve taken for the program include acting, piano, music theory, and an array of dance classes. With dance I appreciate that we take different styles because it’s important to have that all in your back pocket incase a job you take asks for a specific one! There’s jazz, tap, ballet, musical theatre, and more!

My program also has a different musical theatre class for each semester such as scenes, auditions, improv, and solo performances. These are great because they all explore the aspects of musical theatre, so sometimes we get to work together or prepare for what to do in auditions! We write analysis for the characters we are “playing” in scenes or songs and it gives you an idea of what you could do when put in a new show! Finally we do three shows each year and they spread out through the semesters! You are either in the cast or crew and you work on creating the shows for everyone! When on crew you are taught about the importance of working behind the scenes (we also have classes in theater tech!). I’ve worked on costumes and Assistant Stage management which was fun because I got to watch everyone develop their characters and the story being told! When performing it’s obviously a little different, we have had meetings about the characters we play and how we can mesh them out more, etc! There is so much offered at my school that I could just go on and on! 

I can’t wait to see what I have coming up for my last two years at school. This program has really helped me prepare for the outside theatre world and definitely has made me more confident in who I am as a performer!