 Department Chair, Victoria Bussert
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B-W Training Gets Noticed
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  Television special highlights Bussert's success(close window after viewing) |
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The music theatre program was established at Baldwin-Wallace College in the 1980's. Victoria Bussert joined the Conservatory faculty in 1996 and Baldwin-Wallace is now recognized as one of the top programs in the country for music theatre. A total of 55 students in this undergraduate only, Bachelor of Music degree program, insures the individualized attention that leads to success. The comprehensive and balanced curriculum includes four years of intensive training in voice, acting, and dance. The close personal attention by teachers combined with the desire of each student to excel has resulted in recent graduates having appeared on London's West End, Broadway, and International and National Tours.
Shows…
The annual fall musical kicks off music theatre programming. Some of our past musicals include Side Show, The Fasetto Trilogy, Company, Hair, West Side Story, Pippin, Cabaret, and Merrily We Roll Along. During the spring semester, junior music theatre students perform a musical in-concert; previous performances included The Who's Tommy, Violet, Once on this Island and A New Brain. Students are often involved in the plays produced by the theatre department and the opera produced by the Conservatory. In addition to B-W experience, students are given opportunities to work at the many regional theaters in the Cleveland area. Ms. Bussert is currently an Associate Artist with Great Lakes Theatre Festival and Artistic Director of Cain Park. Past music theatre students have been involved as performers and understudies in shows such as Anything Goes, Gypsy, She Loves Me, The Most Happy Fella, Avenue X, Fiddler on the Roof and Bat Boy. Ms. Bussert and B-W's music theatre majors can also be seen directing, performing and understudying at other Cleveland area professional theatres including The Cleveland Playhouse, Porthouse Theatre, Dobama Theatre and Cleveland Opera.
Guest Artists…
Another benefit of the program is that the students are not only taught to sing, act and dance; but they are also trained in the areas of auditioning, making contacts, and the business side of theatre during the opera and music theatre workshop classes. Guest artists visit B-W for master classes and workshops throughout the year. This is a great way to learn more about music theatre from people in the business and to build a network of contacts in the professional world. Previous guest artists include Dale Rieling (musical supervisor of all North American companies of Les Miserables), Jason Robert Brown (composer of Parade and Songs for a New World), Donna McKechnie (Tony Award Winner for her performance of Cassie in A Chorus Line), Janet Watson (Broadway choreographer), and Bob Cline (casting director).
Curriculum…
The music theatre major earns a Bachelor of Music (BM) degree. While many of the courses are in music, such as harmony, solfege, and piano; students are also required to complete four years of dance, taught by Janiece Kelley-Kiteley (ballet, jazz, tap, and modern), and partake in many of the acting and theatre classes offered through the theater department, taught by Neal Poole, Jack Winget, Jeff Hermann and Charlotte Yetman. Seven out of the eight semesters are spent taking a workshop class with Victoria Bussert. The workshop classes include individual coachings of solo repertoire, scene work, audition technique, monologue work, and participation in two in-concert musicals.
Current Students Audition…
Students look forward excitedly to B-W's representation at the annual April Actor Presentation in New York City. For this thirty-minute Senior Showcase each student has three minutes to showcase their talent for over 100 casting directors and agents. In 2005, twelve students received over 300 responses from these directors and agents. While seniors are busy with the showcase, juniors and sophomores of the program are busy auditioning at StrawHats and Midwest. These are annual auditions, held in New York City and St. Louis respectively, where performers have ninety seconds to showcase their talent for theaters across the nation auditioning for summer stock productions.
Applications and Auditions for New Students…
If you are interested in the music theatre program at Baldwin-Wallace College, visit the Conservatory Admission Web site.
275 Eastland Rd.