The three-week course will offer students intensive training and master classes at the hands of visiting artists like Michael Cerveris, Wayne Cilento, Bill Irwin, Donna McKechnie, Donna Murphy, Denis O'Hare, Michele Pawk, Christopher Sieber, and Bernard Telsey.
The New School for Drama is part of Manhattan's The New School. It is a fresh creation of the long-standing Greenwich Village educational institution and will offer a three-year theatre M.F.A. in Dramatic Arts, with degrees in acting, directing and playwriting. Its founding coincided with the New School's official severing of ties with The Actors Studio, the storied bastion of Method acting founded in 1947 by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford and Robert Lewis, and run for 30 years by Lee Strasberg. Robert LuPone is the artistic director.
The summer program will begin June 12. It is designed "to prepare aspiring performing artists for a career in music theatre, and is open to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as professionals looking for more specialized training," according to press materials. Instruction will be offered in speech, voice, acting, and dance. Students will have the opportunity to see three Broadway shows, including Sweeney Todd and The Light in the Piazza, and speak to the casts afterward. In addition, participants will receive two individual voice lessons, and two individual vocal coaching sessions. Small classes will consist of no more that 24 people.
"Music theatre is one of the most collaborative, difficult, and competitive fields of all performing arts, and The New School for Drama's location in New York allows the program to take advantage of everything the city has to offer," said Robert LuPone in a statement. "The Immersion Experience will provide master classes, workshops, and attention to the individual that will give students the ability to walk into any music theater audition or rehearsal prepared, confident, and ready to compete with other performers in the industry."
For more information about the Summer Music Theater Immersion Experience, including how to register for the program, email [email protected], call (212) 229-5859 ext. 2628, or visit www.drama.newschool.edu.
