Musical Theater

Musical theater is one of the most exciting and demanding of the performing arts. As a musical theater performer you must possess strong technical skills in acting, voice, music, and dance with the ability to integrate these skills with ease, honesty, expressiveness, and versatility. 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 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 the various modes of musical theater such 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 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 nonperformance year, but students work on productions behind the scenes in a wide variety of jobs.

After your first year you may audition for all the department's productions, both musicals and non-musicals. You also begin specialized training in musical theater performance, 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.

Students must pass the sophomore evaluations in order to continue in the musical theater B.F.A. track. Students who do not pass the evaluation may be asked to repeat Introduction to Scene Study or Introduction to Musical Theater Performance, or be asked to pursue the B.S. degree, which does not require upper-level acting.

Like all students in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, musical theater majors are charged a program fee. VPA students electing to take additional music lessons beyond their program requirements will also be charged a course fee. Please visit SU's 2008-09 Tuition, Fees, and Related Policies Bulletin for more information.