Musical Theatre Core Curriculum

This serves as the primary “lab course” for the Academy Theatre Division, allowing students to utilize the skills that they are evolving in their other theatre curricular offerings. Division students actively participate in all facets of the practical preparation of theatrical productions to be presented to audiences of the school community as well as the general public.

This course provides the foundational studio experience for all Performance majors in the Theatre Division. Students are divided into six class sections to work with individual Acting faculty members and a select ensemble of peers for the entire school year, with the opportunity to work with a different teacher for every year that they are a Major at the Academy. Basic exercises from primary theorists are intermixed with ensemble improvisations and analytical and practical work with assigned dramatic texts.

This course explores musicality, movement, and acting values through musical theatre repertoire. Students learn music and choreography from selected songs and develop a revue that is performed at the end of the semester. The revue will comprise several styles and genres. The course is designed with an ensemble-based mindset.

This course is designed to link vocal and dance skills in a class that focuses on developing the student’s ability to dance and sing simultaneously. Choral numbers from the Musical Theatre repertoire are learned vocally and fully choreographed.

This course allows students to exercise physical skills and coordination through the practice of dance methodologies for Musical Theatre. Students learn various dance styles (ie. Jazz, tap, ballet). The course provides a serious and specifically focused dance opportunity for Theatre Majors.

This course explores the utilization of the acting process through song. Students learn the unique challenges of the genre for the performer through work with scenes, ensemble and small group songs, characterizations, vocal work and choreography. This course culminates with a showcase of selected material performed during Festival at the end of the school year.

This course provides training in the areas of vocal technique, musicianship, artistry and repertoire within group and one-to-one contexts to students in the Musical Theatre track. Students will further their vocal development across a variety of musical styles required of the singing-actor via flow/resonance based practices and vocal cross-training techniques.

The Private Lesson is individualized and tailored to the level, background, and needs of each student. It stresses a solid foundation in technical skills and covers a wide range of literature.  Private study includes studio classes which provide students an opportunity to perform for their peers in an informal setting. 

Audition Technique provides students the opportunity to create quality audition material through individual appointments with the instructor. Each student will be required to have six monologues prepared and ready to be performed by the end of the semester. These pieces will work together to form ‘packages’ consisting of a mix of comedy and drama, classical and contemporary, in a way that will showcase the student’s individual strengths. Each student will meet with the instructor in a weekly 25-minute session. Students are required to identify the pieces on their own, although the instructor will give advice on appropriate material selection. This is a student-driven course.

In Advanced Musical Theater Techniques, students learn acting techniques for auditions, concerts, and staged performances. Students learn how to act a song, prepare for auditions, and perform in the context of a staged musical. This is a performance-based course open only to senior Musical Theater majors and post graduates in Musical Theater.