Musical Theatre

The Musical Theatre Department at SPCPA provides rigorous, conservatory inspired training in acting, singing, and dance while developing versatile, thoughtful, and collaborative performing artists. Students receive dedicated technical instruction from teaching artists with varied professional backgrounds, giving them exposure to different techniques, performance traditions, and approaches to the industry.

Students learn that strong musical theatre performance requires more than proficiency in three separate disciplines. Our curriculum challenges students to integrate acting, voice, music, movement, and storytelling so that every artistic choice serves the character and the story. Through technique classes, scene work, rehearsal, performance, critique, and professional preparation, students develop the skills, discipline, confidence, and artistic individuality necessary for a well rounded musical theatre education.

Acting Foundations I
Designed specifically for developing musical theatre performers, this course introduces foundational acting technique with an emphasis on bringing truthful behavior and clear intention into musical storytelling. Students strengthen text analysis, character development, listening, objectives, relationships, and moment to moment work.

MT Scene Study
Students apply acting, singing, and storytelling skills to scenes and songs from the musical theatre repertoire. Emphasis is placed on relationships, circumstances, character, transitions between spoken and sung text, and making specific dramatic choices within both scenes and musical numbers.

MT Singing Techniques Advanced
Advanced musical theatre students develop greater vocal versatility, musicality, interpretation, and performance technique through challenging repertoire. Students explore how healthy vocal technique, style, phrasing, character, text, and musical choices work together to create compelling musical storytelling.

Speech to Song
Students investigate one of the defining skills of musical theatre: making the transition from spoken text into song feel dramatically necessary. Through text analysis, vocal exploration, phrasing, intention, and character work, students learn to approach songs as active storytelling rather than isolated vocal performances.

Musical Theatre Dance I

Musical Theatre Dance II
Students develop the technical foundation, musicality, movement vocabulary, performance quality, and physical storytelling required of musical theatre performers. Training incorporates technique, combinations, choreography retention, style, character, and ensemble work while helping students become more confident and adaptable movers.

Acting Foundations II
Students deepen their actor training through more complex work in voice, movement, text analysis, objectives, relationships, circumstances, and physical and vocal choices. Students are challenged to work with greater specificity, independence, responsiveness, and emotional and intellectual depth.

Storytelling Through Movement | The Living Canvas Collaboration
Designed for students in the Theatre track, this course explores how actors can tell stories through the body before relying on spoken text. Students develop physical awareness, gesture, spatial relationships, rhythm, dynamics, character, ensemble work, and nonverbal communication while learning to make intentional physical choices that strengthen performance.

Through The Living Canvas, students collaborate with Visual Arts students to translate ideas between visual art and physical storytelling. Actors create movements inspired by original artwork and explore how shape, line, texture, color, composition, and emotion can become physical action. The collaboration challenges students to expand their expressive range, respond creatively to another artist’s work, and discover how the body itself can become a powerful storytelling instrument.

Musical Theatre Faculty