Musical Theatre

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The musical theatre program provides students with a solid theatre education and experience. Students take classes in movement, voice, acting styles, and dialect. Courses in mime and stage combat are also offered. Musical theatre students take a series of support courses in music as well as upper level performance courses. Students are also given opportunities to hone their skills as performers within experimental productions and the annual musical.

DEGREE OPTIONS
Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre

PROGRAM SIZE
Approximately 20 students are enrolled in the major. Average class size is 15 students.

FACULTY
The Department of Theatre Arts is comprised of 7 full-time faculty members, 6 have earned terminal degrees in their fields. All full-time faculty are engaged in teaching classes from the introductory to advanced levels.

ACADEMIC PREPARATION
There are no prerequisite high school courses or requirements needed for enrollment in the theatre program, but students should have a well-rounded academic high school curriculum. Previous involvement in high school and/or community theatre is strongly recommended.

REQUIRED CREDIT HOURS AND COURSES FOR A MAJOR
The musical theatre program requires 52 hours of theatre coursework, 30 hours of music coursework, and the Drake Curriculum.

Theatre Arts Core Requirement		Credit	Performance and Movement Requirements:		Credit
THEA 3	Acting I	3 hrs.	THEA 4	Acting II	3 hrs.
THEA 5	Readings in Theatre	3 hrs.	THEA 15	Movement II	2 hrs.
THEA 14	Movement	2 hrs.	THEA 55	Acting III	3 hrs.
THEA 20	Voice I	2 hrs.	THEA 56	Choreography	3 hrs.
THEA 30	Stagecraft I (including lab)	4 hrs.	THEA 57	Dance for Theatre I	2 hrs.
THEA 31	Costuming (including lab)	4 hrs.	THEA 58	Dance for Theatre II	2 hrs.
THEA 32	Makeup	3 hrs.	THEA 100	Acting IV	3 hrs.
			THEA 123	American Musical Theatre	3 hrs.
THEA 103	Directing I	3 hrs.	THEA	Performance Elective	3 hrs.
THEA 120	Theatre History I	3 hrs.		Total	24 hrs.
THEA 121	Theatre History II	3 hrs.
THEA 124	Tech Practicum (scene or costume)	1 hr.	Music Requirements:		Credit
THEA 160	Stage Management	3 hrs.	MUS 6	Piano Lab I	1 hr.
THEA 190	Senior Capstone	1 hr.	MUS 7	Piano Lab II	1 hr.
				OR
	Total	35 hrs.	MUS 49	Piano Lab I	1 hr.
			MUS 50	Piano Lab II	1 hr.
			MUS 11	Fundamentals of Music	3 hrs.
			MUS	Ensemble participation (2 semesters)	2 hrs.
			MUS 171	Voice Lessons (6 semesters)	6 hrs.
				Total	13 hrs.

REQUIRED CREDIT HOURS AND COURSES OUTSIDE MAJOR
The Drake Curriculum, required of all undergraduates, is designed to help students meet personal and professional goals as they acquire fundamental knowledge and abilities in ten Areas of Inquiry, including communication, critical thinking, artistic experience, historical consciousness, information and technology literacy, international and multicultural experiences, scientific and quantitative literacy, values and ethics and engaged citizenship. Students work closely with their academic advisers to craft a program of study in general education that prepares students for civic and professional leadership.

The Drake Curriculum also requires first-year seminars, which foster development of critical thinking and written and oral communication skills through a topical focus; and a Senior Capstone, in which students demonstrate the capacity to bring information, skills and ideas to bear on one project.

SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES/INTERNSHIPS
Students have the option, with faculty consent, of studying at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, part of the National Theatre Institute in Waterford, CT. This intensive program allows students to work with numerous theatre professionals and to establish possible career ties within the theatre industry. The department constantly receives news of internships in all aspects of theatre and encourages its students to take part. Theatre students also participate in numerous study-abroad programs.

CAREER OPTIONS
Typical career paths for theatre arts graduates include regional theatre, teaching, and radio/TV. A number also have entered and completed graduate programs throughout the country.

SCHOLARSHIPS
Students have the opportunity to receive talent-based fine arts scholarships of varying amounts. There also are scholarships awarded by the department based on talent, monetary need, and contributions to the department. An audition or portfolio review is required for those students interested in being considered for a Fine Arts Scholarship to study Theatre at Drake University. It is strongly recommended that interested students attend one of the group audition and portfolio review days.

Auditions and reviews can still be scheduled on an individual basis for those students unable to attend on an audition/portfolio review day. Video-taped auditions and portfolios sent by e-mail or FAX are also acceptable, and will receive the same scholarship consideration as those done on campus. You need not be accepted by Drake University prior to auditioning. Any scholarship offer, however, is only valid if you are accepted to and attend Drake University. An award letter will normally be in the mail by the end of March.

AUDITION REQUIREMENTS (Musical Theatre, Acting/Performance students)
Acting students will need to prepare two contrasting monologues; these pieces must be memorized. It is recommended that one piece should be comedic in nature; the other should be serious. Select roles that are fairly close to your own age range and try to avoid unnecessary challenges such as accents, etc. Each monologue should be approximately 2 minutes in length.

Musical Theatre students must prepare two songs in addition to their two monologues, one upbeat song and one ballad. Each song, or section of a song, should be approximately 32 bars in length. The monologues should be approximately 2 minutes in length.

An accompanist will be provided for group auditions. Please bring your music marked up where appropriate and in the correct key. If you are attending an audition on an individual basis please bring a recorded accompaniment on tape or CD.

PORTFOLIO REQUIREMENTS (Design/Technical students)
Prospective Design students are encouraged to provide a portfolio for faculty review. It can include any of the following, but is not limited to, copies (no originals, please) of drawings, sketches, paintings, stage management paper work, photographs, programs or posters that the student has designed. A portfolio on a CD-ROM (MAC format only) is also acceptable. As with a Performance audition, our preference would be to meet with you in person. An on-site interview is best so that you can present your work. If this is not possible, then a phone interview will be held. A portfolio should then be mailed or faxed to the Department.

GROUP AUDITION/PORTFOLIO REVIEW DAY SCHEDULE

Saturday, March 10, 2007 (register no later than Friday, March 2, 2007)

10-11 a.m. General Meeting in Studio 55 for all scholarship candidates
11-11:30 a.m. Tour of the Fine Arts Center
11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Lunch provided. Warm-up spaces and practice rooms with pianos will be available.
1-4 p.m. Auditions and Portfolio Reviews
4-5 p.m. Q and A session and wrap-up.

Complimentary tickets will be available for "Gaslight" (March 10 at 8 p.m.) for all interested candidates and their families.

Register by contacting Venita Svaldi at 1-800-44-DRAKE, x4031 or by e-mail at venita.svaldi@drake.edu. When registering, please indicate how many complimentary tickets you would like for the evening show.

NOTED ALUMNI

Micky York, FA'00, creator/webmaster, Drake Mafia Online
Eric Jorgensen, FA'99, actor, Playhouse on the Square, Memphis, TN
Adam Groves, FA'99, actor, touring company of Grease

Visit the Theatre Department website