Performance Programs: Acting and Musical Theatre
We train students in the acting and musical theatre programs to perform in a wide range of styles and with complex material, both classical and current. Our focus on storytelling skills prepares our students for success on stage and on screen. Voice & speech, movement and acting classes form the core curriculum every semester. As the training sequence progresses, students hone and apply the principal tools taught in the core to an array of stylistic approaches—from Greek and Shakespearean verse to the early realism of Chekhov and Ibsen, from the farces of Molière and Oscar Wilde to the contemporary plays of Dominique Morisseau and Paula Vogel. Musical theatre majors add to their acting sequence a rigorous training program in music (theory, piano, voice), dance (ballet, jazz, tap, musical theatre dance styles) and musical theatre song study (Golden Age, Sondheim, Disney, rock). In the end, the Musical theatre program is comparable to a triple major involving work in the Sargent Conservatory, the Department of Music and the Department of Dance. YEAR 1: DISCOVERY Our first-year program encourages students to discover what it means to be an actor and to establish the basis for a personal technique. First-year students do not perform publicly but do present scene work and songs for Conservatory at the end of the year. Classes during the first year of training typically involve:
In their first year, Musical theatre majors will add to their required classes the following:
• Ballet I • Jazz I • Private Voice • Piano • Music Theory • Song Study
YEAR 2: EXPLORATION In their second year, performance majors stretch and strengthen basic techniques by applying them to highly contrasting styles of dramatic literature. Second-year students join the casting pool and are now eligible to perform in the Conservatory season. They also comprise the casting pool for the directing students’ “Every Tuesday” series of performances, which involve 20-minute plays presented almost every Tuesday in the semester. Classes during this second year of training typically involve: • Acting: Contemporary Theatre, Ibsen and Chekhov • Voice & Speech: Greek and Shakespeare • Movement: Neutral Mask, Yoga and Pilates • Song Study • Audition Techniques
In their second year, Musical theatre majors will add to their required classes the following:
• Ballet II • Jazz II • Tap Dance • Musical Theatre Dance • Private Voice • Musicianship • Piano • Musical Theatre History
• Acting • Voice & Speech • Movement • Text Analysis • Makeup
*Acting majors will also begin the required Theatre History sequence.
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Webster University
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