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For high school juniors looking for the best
college music theatre audition preparation
Sunday, July 20 through
Friday, July 25
Audition tape required
Application deadline: April 15
Fifteen hand-chosen high school juniors will join Victoria Bussert, director of B-W's nationally recognized Music Theatre program, for an intensive week of training including: private voice lessons; daily workshop, monologue and dance classes; interaction with the cast and artistic staff of Cain Park's Harold and Maude; and attendence at Porthouse Theatre's Music Man.
Under Bussert's direction, B-W's Music Theatre program has grown to be highly recognized; currently there are over 15 B-W graduates starring in Broadway and National Touring productions. Baldwin-Wallace was selected as one of six pre-release pilot productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Legendary Musical The Phantom of the Opera by The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. B-W's production played to sold out audiences with more than 6,000 patrons seeing the musical during its 12-performance run.
Spend a week at B-W and prepare for your college audiitons! Vicky Bussert has jumped-started dozens of Broadway careers; let her jump-start your college career! Applicants must be current juniors, planning to graduate high school in 2009.
If you would like to be placed on our mailing list, please contact us with your name, address, phone, email, and grade at conreach@bw.edu . Click this link to download the application now. For questions or more information, you may contact at 440-826-2365 or conreach@bw.edu.
Typical Daily Schedule
| 8:00 am | Breakfast |
| 8:30 am | Dance Class with Janiece Kelley-Kiteley |
| 10:30 am | Workshop Class with Victoria Bussert |
| 1:30 pm | Lunch |
| 2:30 pm | Monologue Class with Scott Plate (Tuesday & Thursday) |
| 2:30 pm | Private Voice Lessons (Monday & Wednesday -- two 45 mintue private lessons with a member of B-W's Voice Faculty) |
| 5:30 pm | Dinner |
Evening Activities
Wednesday -- Attend a dress rehearsal of Porthouse Theatre's Music Man
Thursday -- Attend a dress rehearsal of Cain Park's Harold and Maude followed by a discussion with the artistic staff and cast
Performance
On Friday afternoon, July 25, parents, friends and family are invited to attend a short performance showcasing each of the participants at 2:00 pm. The performance will take place in the Kulas Musical Arts Building at 96 Front Street.
Fees
Tuition -- $800
Tuition, room and board -- $950
Tuition includes all lessons and extra-curricular events. Meals are available for individual purchase by commuters. A $100 tuition deposit must accompany the application and will be applied toward tuition. The deposit will be refunded for those students not admitted to the program. The deposit is non-refundable to those accepted to the program. Payment in full is due by June 15 and no refunds will be made after that date.
Application Procedure
Video auditions are required for all Music Theatre Intensive applicants; both VHS and DVD formats are acceptable. The audition should include: two memorized 32-bar selections, one each from a ballad and an up-tempo, all from the music theatre repertoire AND one age appropriate monologue from either classical or contemporary drama, not to exceed one minute in length. The audition materials are due with your application and deposit by April 15, 2008. Download the application.
Housing
Students may choose to commute or live on campus. Resident students will reside in Kohler Hall located just across the lawn from the Conservatory and within a short walk of the Student Union where meals will be served.
Faculty
Victoria Bussert, Professor and head of the Musical Theatre Program. M.F.A., M.A., Northwestern University; B.A., magna cum laude, Barat College. Ms. Bussert is currently the Resident Director of the Great Lakes Theatre Festival and the Artistic Director of Cain Park. She has been a guest faculty member at North Carolina School for the Arts and Northwestern University. Victoria's directing credits include Manhattan Theatre Club, Goodspeed Opera, Dallas Theatre Center, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Anchorage Opera, Pennsylvania Opera Theatre and Piedmont Opera. Her academic service includes serving as a curriculum consultant, director of opera/musical theatre workshops, and guest lecturer.
Joan Ellison, Lecturer in Voice. M.M.T., B.M., Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Ms. Ellison studied voice with Duane Mahy, popular and belted styles and pedagogy with Leon Thurman (author of Bodymind and Voice), and piano with Robert McDonald. In February 2005, Ms. Ellison made her Severnece Hall debut as a featured soloist with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra in To Broadway with Love, opposite Broadway baritone William Michals. In the past year, she has appeared as Julie Jordan in Carousel and Lynne in the Rodgers and Hammerstein revue A Grand Night for Singing at Kalliope Stage. Recent appearances include Nellie Forbush in South Pacific at the JCC Theatre (Fall 2005) and Lizzie Curry in 110 in the Shade at Kalliope Stage (Spring 2006). Other favorite roles include Flora in Britten's The Turn of the Screw (Des Moines Metro Opera) opposite Laura Flanigan, and Rapunzel in Into the Woods (Cain Park) directed by Victoria Bussert. She is a principal singer and co-creator/arranger for Circa 1939 (Circa1939.com), specializing in historical performances of American popular songs of the 1920's, '30's, and '40's. Ms. Ellison has music directed 25 theatrical productions in greater Cleveland and Minneapolis, was was the vocal coach for the recent production of Private Lives at Great Lakes Theatre Festival, and has served as an adjunct faculty member at Oberlin Conservatory. She is a member of the nternational Voicecare Network.
Janiece Kelley-Kiteley, Assistant Professor of Dance. B.A., Miami University. Kelley-Kiteley currently teaches: Modern Dance, Jazz, Tap Dance, Ballet, Dance in the Musical Theatre, Improvisation, and Choreography at B-W. She was a founding member/dancer of the Repertory Project, a Cleveland modern dance company and has served as a dance panelist on the Ohio Arts Council and the Indiana Arts Council. Having retired from performing several years ago, attention and time are now spent on choreography, primarily in the field of musical theatre. Most recently her work as been seen on the stages of the Cleveland Play House, Cain Park, and Berea Summer Theatre.
Cynthia O'Connell, Lecturer in Voice. M.M., B.M. West Chester University, Pennsylvania. Member of National Association of Teachers of Singing, American Guild of Musical Artists, Music Teachers National Association, and The California Association of Professional Music Teachers. Ms. O'Connell has performed with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, The Mississippi Opera Festival Apprenticeship program, and The Pennsylvania Opera Theater. She is currently a soprano soloist with Trinity Episcopal Church in Cleveland.
Scott Plate, Assistant Professor of Music Theatre and Program Coordinator of the Music Theatre Program, is an award-winning free-lance performing artist and director whose work is featured frequently on Northeast Ohio's stages. He is currently a member of Great Lakes Theater Festival's classical repertory company, and his directing and acting work has been seen regionally in Atlanta at the Alliance Theatre, at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival in Boise, ID, and on North Carolina's Outer Banks in The Lost Colony. During his thirteen-year residency in Cleveland he has worked on over sixty productions, at such venues as Severance Hall, The Cleveland Play House, Cain Park, Porthouse Theatre, Dobama Theatre, the Halle Theatre at JCC, and Cleveland Public Theatre. Selected are acting includes Hamlet, A Christmas Carol, Angels in AMerica, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, Homebody / Kabul, Cherry Docs, Batboy: The Musical, and The Last Five Years. He appeared as a guest artist in a B-W production of Equus, directed by Victoria Bussert, directed the North American premiere of a new translation of Sophocles' Antigone by Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney. He will direct Arthur Miller's The Crucible this spring in the John Patrick Theatre. He has directed productions of Eleemosynary for the Cleeland Women's Theatre Project, Closer for Dobama, The Aias for CSU's Factory Theatre, and Mrs. Warren's Profession for the Beck Center. He was a directing fellow under Kenny Leon at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, where he assisted on the Southeastern premiere of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson and the world premiere of Pearl Cleage's Flyin' West, and where he directed productions of La Ronde and The Imaginary Cuckold for its theatre school. He has over one hundred on-camera and voice-over recording credits in local, national and international commercials and industrial films, as well as a featured role in the HBO pictures release "Proximity." He holds an MFA in Theatre from Florida State University.
Jodie Ricci, Lecturer in Piano. MM, Kent State University; BME, Baldwin-Wallace College. Ricci is a professional musician from the Cleveland-area, has distinguished herself as a conductor, pianist and leader in music education. She is a professor of piano, class piano, and solfege at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music. In addition to her college teaching, Jodie serves as the director of choral music at the Federated Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Her choir released their third CD in 2004 and was featured on WCLV’s “Best of Cleveland” Christmas show. Her musical theater experience includes work with Broadway director Jack Lee, Cain Park, the Cleveland Playhouse, McLeod Theater Company, Baldwin-Wallace Theater Department, Berea Summer Theater, The North Star Players, and the Butler Musical Theater Guild. Jodie served as District President for the Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) from 2003-2005. She was the Director of Vocal Music at Chagrin Falls High School from 1996-2003. She has been the recipient of numerous teaching and performance awards including: Who’s Who among American High School Teachers, Who’s Who Among American Women, and the Outstanding Senior Award at Baldwin-Wallace College. Her piano performance awards include the Baldwin-Wallace College Concerto Competition 1st place winner, the Butler Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Concerto competition, and the Butler County Young Woman of the Year Creative and Performing Arts award winner.
Scott Skiba, Assistant Professor of Voice M.M., B.M., Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Skiba has sung with the Indianapolis Opera, Bloomington Music Works, Oberlin Opera Theater, Louisiana Lyric Opera, Olney Theater Center, DuPage Opera Theater, Indiana University Opera Theater, Opera Western Reserve and the Pittsburgh Opera. The Pittsburgh native remains an active recitalist and Oratorio soloist. His Oratorio and concert performances include the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, Akron Symphony, Oberlin Black River Singers, Cleveland Choral Arts Society, Columbus Symphony, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, guest recitalist at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music and featured soloist on The McGraw Hill Companies' Young Artists Showcase, on 96.3 WQXR - The Classical Radio Station of the New York Times. Skiba recently completed doctoral coursework with internationally acclaimed baritone and Distinguished Professor of Music, Timothy Noble at the Indiana University where he was an Assistant Instructor of Voice. Skiba began his vocal training with Mr. Greg Biddle in Pittsburgh, Pa and received a bachelor of music degree in vocal performance and a master of music degree in opera theater from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he was a student of Daune Mahy and a Lab Assistant in the Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center.
Marc Weagraff, Lecturer in Voice. D.M.A., The University of Michigan; M.M., B.M., The Cleveland Institute of Music. Dr. Weagraff has studied voice with Lorna Haywood and George Vassos and choral conducting under Theo Morrison. Dr. Weagraff's opera credits include roles with Michigan Opera Works, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Cleveland Concert Opera, The Utah Opera Company, The University of Michigan, The University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and the Cleveland Institute of Music as well as numerous performances in musical theater programs. Several of his performances were heard in live broadcast over WCLV (Cleveland) and KBYU (Provo, UT) radio. Equally at home with oratorio repertoire, he has performed as soloist with the internationally renowned University of Michigan Men's Glee Club, the Utah Symphony educational series, The Ashtabula County Choral Society, and the Medina County Choral Union. As a recitalist he has been heard throughout the region including various church concert series and as a guest artist at Cleveland State University. A versatile vocal instructor, he offers workshops in vocal and choral techniques and maintains an active private studio. He is currently the Director of Music Ministries at St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills, OH.
275 Eastland Rd.