Music Theatre

The Music Theatre major provides students with preparation for professional performance in Music Theatre as well as a sound foundation in the liberal arts. Students will acquire theoretical foundations in music, dance and drama as well as the necessary performance training in the studio, recital hall and on stage to compete in the performance industry or to continue their education at the graduate level.

Questions? Call Don Kot at (585) 389-2708.

Music Theatre Major Program

Includes an introduction to all phases of Theatre Arts, music and dance in an academic as well as studio setting. Project courses in the senior year are designed for concentrated work in special areas under faculty supervision.

The Senior Experience for Music Theatre majors consists of a required seminar (Tha 452: Seminar in Theatre with Internship). In this course, the students reflect on their major experience, and they are given opportunities to integrate material from theatre and other core areas of the college experience. As an integral part of this course, a senior showcase is prepared and performed for area professionals. A final project is required in some phase of production, design, or theory for which a comprehensive paper is written and presented to the faculty prior to an exit interview.

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Auditions for the Music Theatre Program

For information on the Music Theatre Program audition process, please read our Music Theatre audition guidelines

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Production Laboratory Work

Participation in the Department's theatrical productions and departmental workcalls is required. A total of seven (7) production Labs are required in at least four (4) different areas with at least one "preparation" (P) and one "run crew" (R) experience in any of the following areas:

• Acting: Assistant Stage Management;
• Costumes (R,P); Scenery (R,P); Properties (R,P); Makeup (R,P); Special Projects (R,P) *Special Projects include such jobs as Master Electrician, Dramaturge, Makeup Designer, Properties Design, Sound Design, Directing, Costume Cutter, Technical Director.

Music Theatre Majors must successufully complete four (4) Muisc Theatre Labs (out of the seven (7) )

The seven required Labs will be awarded credit as follows:

A. Two labs (0 credit) in two different areas are included within Tha 120 and Tha 150.

B. Five Labs (1 credit) in two additional areas.

C. A student may not repeat a single area for a fifth experience until completing the seven Labs required in four different areas.

 

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Course Listing

Mus 86: Opera Workshop

Concepts of opera as an art form through actual production scenes from operas of various periods in history.

Tha 120: PI Introduction to Theatre Arts

This course is intended to increase theatre appreciation through study of the theatrical process. Theatre will be approached as a co-creative art form, and the contributions of the playwright, the director, the actors and the designers will be studied. Since all artistic decisions begin and end with the written text, the course will commence with structural ananlysis of a number of selected scripts. The second portion of the course will concentrate upon the contributions of the artists who take a playwright's script and turn it into a play to be encouraged. This PI liberal arts course will be particularly beneficial to the non-major, as it demonstrates how theatre can educate as well as entertain.

Tha 140: Fundamentals of Acting

This is a beginning acting course that will introduce the student to the fundamentals of the actor's art. Students will study elements of acting as established by Constantin Stanislavski in his text An Actor Prepares. In-class exercises work toward freeing and stretching the student's physical, emotional, and intellectual abilities.

Written work will include textual analysis. Short scenes will be prepared and presented in class for critique. This course is a studio course open to non-major and might be of particular interest to music majors who intend to work in opera or musical comedy. To insure adequate rehearsal time outside of class, students are required to enroll in a zero-credit acting lab one hour per week (Tha 140 L)

Mus 1 A and 2 B: Applied Voice

One-hour private vocal lessons.

Mus 123 and 124: Music Theory I and II

Courses devoted to the study of the materials and structure of music; nomenclature for intervals, chords, progressions, basic forms; fundamentals of part-writing and harmonic analysis.

Mus 125 and 126: Aural Training

Intensive work in the intitial stages of sight-singing and ear-training, as well as the elements of music, notation of pitch and rhythm, melodic and rhythmic comprehension and perception. Includes computer assisted aural instruction.

Tha 270: American Musical Theatre

The development of modern musical theatre from both an historical and structural perspective. The works of representative composers, lyricists, librettists and director-choreographers will be investigated in an effort to illuminate the form's development.

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Mus 202: The Worlds of the Master Composers

This course is centered on an in depth study of seven composers who have determined the history of Western art-music. The student will explore the world in which each lived and wrote, the socioeconomic cultural, and political conditions which influenced each composer's life and musical style.

Mus 212: History and Literature of Music I

A survey of the history of music from the Rococo period to the present.

Mus 305: Introduction to Opera

Course will view all or part of several operas from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, with emphasis on dramatic and musical styles and on the historical, social and cultural conditions portrayed and the interaction of the many components of opera.

Tha 275 and 276: History of Theatre I and II

Study of the evolution of Western drama, theatrical styles and production modes from ancient to contemporary theatre forms with the Renaissance as the dividing line between the two semesters.

Mus 081: Concert Choir

A campus-wide vocal ensemble for both men and women, with concerts each semester. Audition required.

MTHA 280: Musical Theatre Performance I

This course will provide students with practical applications of dramatic, musical and choreographic techniques used in the Musical Theatre form and aid the student in the preparation of audition and performance materials by the integration of skills learned in acting.

MTHA 360: Musical Theatre Performance II

This course will provide advanced students with practical skills to integrate dramatic, musical and choreagraphic techniques in scene, monologue, solo and duet performance.

Tha 150: Technical Theatre I

Introductory work in areas of technical theatre: set construction, scene painting, stage lighting, stage properties and costumes. Forty-hour lab requirement.

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MTHA 310 Dance Theory/ Improv:

Dance Theory and Improv involves the process of learning the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor aspects of dance as a discipline as well as the fundamental exploration of creativity as it applies to dance.

Mus 243: Diction I

Symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as it is used by singers with applications to the reading of texts in the Italian language as well as texts in English.

MTHA 322 Choreography:

Provides the students with the skills that will enable them to design dance movement through space in response to music, idea or in response to movement itself. The students will pursue their own line of enquiry and develop a critical engagement with their own choreographic process through the creation of dance works. The students will be able to experiment, take risks and develop an individual artistic voice.

The students will gain insights into different creative practices in dance and social contexts for the creation and reception of work. The students will be encouraged to create choreography in a range of settings and media, work collaboratively with artists from other disciplines, and develop their own understanding of the different elements in presenting a performance.

MTHA G 130 Dance and Culture:

The Dance History course will examine the origins of dance that have led to Ballet, Modern Dance, Jazz and various forms of social dance. The course traces the evolution of dance as various cultures and history have shaped it. The course will draw comparisons between the main genres of dance as well as study the influences that each had on one another.

In addition the students will learn about significant productions, their choreographers and dancers, as well as composers and collaborators crucial to the production. We will study the function of dance within the specific cultures out of which each form evolved.

Music Theatre Major Sample Program