The bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) degree program in musical theater is one of the few specialized musical theater programs in the country. It uses the resources of both the Department of Drama and the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Rose, Jules R., and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music. Students develop their skills in a structured, intensive format that features careful and expert guidance.

Performance is a major focus of the 128-credit program. Students gain skills and experience in such various modes of musical theater as the revue, traditional musical comedies, operettas, and new and experimental forms. Coursework includes a balance of acting, dance, voice, theater history, music history, and liberal education studies.

The first year year is the foundation for all future training. You focus on techniques of acting, ballet, voice (both singing and speaking), sight-singing, dramatic theory, and technical theater crafts. The first year is a non-performance year, but students work on productions behind the scenes in a wide variety of jobs.

After your first year you continue training in musical theater performance, with specific classes in scene study, audition techniques, musical theater history, musical theater dance, choreography, and more advanced sight-singing. Supplementing these studies are courses in theater history, additional weekly lessons in voice and piano, and academics.

From the second year on, musical theater students may audition for roles in faculty-directed plays and musicals, scenes and plays directed by directing students, and films produced by undergraduate and graduate film students. Advanced musical theater students may audition for and perform in Syracuse Stage productions in appropriate roles. Students may also understudy the professional actors. Equity points may be earned through work with Syracuse Stage.

At the end of the second year of study, each musical theater student presents a scene and a song for the entire performance faculty. This evaluation (known as “sophomore evaluation”) determines if the student is allowed to move into the upper-level performance courses and continue in the B.F.A. degree track. All second-year students must present a scene for the faculty in order to remain in the program. Continuation in a B.F.A. program is based on faculty evaluation of the student’s sophomore evaluation, class work, and personal commitment, as well as on the content of the proposed curriculum.