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2024-2025 Undergraduate Bulletin
Musical Theatre, B.A.
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An audition is required for admission to the interdisciplinary Major in Musical Theatre.
Applicants will audition in the three performance areas of voice, dance, and acting. Musical theatre applicants will also complete music theory and sight-singing placement exams.
Voice: Students must prepare three 32-bar musical theatre songs that demonstrate their ability to sing in tune with good vocal quality and musical intelligence. The songs should be memorized and one should be written before 1965. One of the songs should be a ballad. If a student has significant classical training, an art song or aria may be substituted as one of the three prepared songs. Please bring your sheet music, in the correct key, in a hard-back, three-ring binder (for easiest page-turning.) A pianist will be provided.
Acting: Student must prepare two contrasting monologues, traditionally a comedic and a dramatic monologue. Each piece should be less than one-and -a-half minutes long and memorized. Select audition monologues that contain characters within five years of your current age. There is no period requirement.
Dance: Students will participate in a warm-up, a short technique class, and learn a brief dance combination from a musical. There will be time to change into dance attire. Students should dress in appropriately fitted dance or athletic clothes.
An interview follows the audition. Musical theatre students must submit a resume that includes personal goals as a theatre artist, relevant theatre experience, special skills and hobbies, and other performance or athletic experience. Your resume will be collected on the date you are scheduled to audition.
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Program Learning Outcomes
Students will demonstrate:
- A familiarity with the styles, genres, and forms of Western art music, and the most influential composers and compositions therein.
- The ability to accomplish a stylistic analysis of music from different eras in music history.
- An awareness of and skill in researching current issues in music history/musical theatre/theatre.
- The ability to describe musical styles, structures, and techniques precisely and articulately in writing and in speaking (oral discourse).
- An understanding of Theatre and Musical Theatre literature, the historical settings, and criticisms through written analysis and/or oral presentations.
- Aural comprehension - through dictation - of melody, harmony, rhythm, and form in various musical styles.
- Skills in sight-singing of music from the Baroque through 21st-Century.
- Skills in playing functional keyboard harmony.
- Knowledge of the most pertinent concepts of tonal music: proper voice leading, harmonic motion within the circle of fifths, tonicization and modulation, sequences, chromaticism, and aspects of traditional small and large scale forms.
- Knowledge of the most pertinent concepts of post-tonal music: modal scales and harmonies, twelve-tone serialism, quartal/quintal harmonies, polyrhythm, metric modulation, minimalist techniques, chance music, graphic music, and non-traditional forms.
- A level of mastery in their instrument (voice) as defined by the departmental standards (as recommended by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) and by the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).
- The ability to perform in, collaborate, and/or facilitate musical theatre and/or theatre productions at an artistic level comparable to professional expectations.
General Education Requirements (30-40 Credits)
Prerequisite coursework may be required to satisfy certain General Education courses and will count as elective credit.
Total Credits Required to Complete Major: 48
Basic Requirements: 39 (Credits)
Three courses by advisement from:
Footnotes:
*Prerequisites: Two semesters of MUSC 251 and permission of instructor
**Prerequisites: DANC 101 DANC 102 DANC 103 DANC 104 or equivalent and permission of instructor.
Additional Requirements
Meeting the following requirements and the Minimum Competence Requirement (stated below) are prerequisite to continuance in the Major.
- Participation in the Weekly Voice Seminar
- Participation in musical theatre productions sponsored by The Department of Music & Musical Theatre each semester in the major.
- Jury examination each semester in MUSC 151 -MUSC 351
- Performance each semester in the Major on a Friday Afternoon Recital or in some other public, faculty-sponsored event approved by the Coordinator of Musical Theatre and the Coordinator of Vocal Studies
- Junior Review
Minimum Competence Requirement
A grade of C- or better is required for each required course.
Department Writing Requirement
All musical theatre majors write in all courses except MUSC 160 , but the style and content of the writing varies widely, based upon the course topic. Examples include journals, concept statements, production analyses, character analyses, musical analyses, and traditional research papers, such as one might find in typical courses in the liberal arts.
Sample Course Map
For students who matriculated prior to Fall 2022: please select the bulletin year in which you entered the college (matriculated) at the top right of this page.
Curriculum Map
- First Year
- Fall - 17 Credits
- Spring - 17 Credits
- Second Year
- Fall - 14 Credits
- Spring - 16 Credits
- Third Year
- Fall - 13 Credits
- Spring - 14 Credits
- Fourth Year
- Fall - 15 Credits
- Spring - 14 Credits
Total Credits: 120
For sample schedule for even years, see department.
*If prerequisites for DANC 201 DANC 202 DANC 203 are unmet.
**If prerequisites for MUSC 251 are unmet.
Note: Variation in the order of courses is possible, depending upon prerequisites. Consult course information in the bulletin or your academic advisor to customize your eight semester plan.
KEY - Participation in a Global Society (PGS)
Attributes:
Sub Areas
Abbreviation |
Definition |
DPP |
Diversity, Pluralism, Power |
WCV |
World Cultures & Values |
CGC |
Contemporary Global Challenges |
CAI |
Creativity & Innovation |
SST |
Sustainability |
Learning Areas
Abbreviation |
Definition |
ARTS |
Arts |
HUMA |
Humanities |
SOSC |
Social Science |
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