Learning outcomes at the high school level?

A friend who runs a musical theater program at an arts-centric high school wrote to inquire what skills a student graduating from her school’s program ought to be expected to possess. Her question got me thinking: what are the most important learning outcomes to be pursued in a high school musical theater program? Personally, I …

Come To Your Senses! Part II

Final thoughts from the presentation that I gave at “Australasian Overtures,” the international conference of the Musical Theater Educators Alliance held at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in Perth, Australia. Students sang “A Song That’s SAVI” and learned more about the SAVI System of Singer-Actor Training at my workshop. Flom-tastic photography by …

Finding “ease in the critical moments”

This is the first in a series of posts inspired by this year’s Musical Theater Educators Alliance conference. Every year for the past sixteen years, leading pedagogues from musical theater training programs around the world have gathered to share presentations on their most effective methods. This year, our meeting was hosted by New York University’s …

CMU Students offer more Freshman survival tips

The Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama Class of 2017 got together to offer this friendly advice to students starting their freshman year in a BFA Theater Arts program. (Thanks to Ken Davenport for posting this on his excellent blog, “The Producer’s Perspective!” If you missed it, you should also check out this advice from …

Newly published: “The Vocal Athlete”

What?! You don’t have your copy of The Vocal Athlete yet? I mentioned to a couple of my colleagues that I had gotten a review copy of this new book by Wendy LaBorgne and Marci Rosenberg and suddenly I was barraged with requests to share it. It seems as though the word has already begun …

“My Heart Is In The Work”

What is the essential work of the singing actor-in-training? My alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, uses these words of its founder, entrepreneur and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, as its motto, and what better day than Labor Day to recognize the importance of having one’s “heart in the work?” Today is a U.S. holiday established to pay …