Musical Theatre: Acting Techniques

When it comes to performing a song on a musical theatre stage, everything begins the moment the music starts—which may be before you sing a single note. When you do hit that note, you need to be “in it,” fully engrossed in the narrative arc of the story from the moments before the song begins to what happens immediately afterward. 

Musical theatre performance requires skills in both singing and acting. The singer in you pays attention to all the musical aspects of the song, while the actor in you studies the story, the character, and what they are trying to say—then personalizes this story so that you get inside the character. 

In this course, you will learn the essential elements of successfully performing a song for musical theatre. Together, we will explore the lyrics and music of selected songs, along with the acting techniques that lead to a truthful performance. You will learn how text and music work together to tell a story and how to make clear, specific acting choices that will resonate with your audience.

What you will learn:

✔ Apply acting techniques to develop complex characters with specific circumstances for your song performance 
✔ Analyze music and text to develop a clearer understanding of the story 
✔ Make specific acting choices in your performance to communicate a clear and compelling story 
✔ Develop and maintain a repertoire (rep) book for auditions that will showcase several musical theatre styles