KRISTIN CHENOWETH JOINS TONY-STUDDED LINE-UP OF VISITING ARTISTS AT THE NEW SCHOOL FOR DRAMA’S SUMMER MUSIC THEATER IMMERSION EXPERIENCE
Aspiring Performing Artists Receive Intensive Training in Music Theater
from the Best in the Business
Returning master class artists include Wayne Cilento, Bill Irwin, Judy Kuhn,
Denis O’Hare, Michele Pawk, and Christopher Sieber
New York, April 13, 2007—The New School for Drama is pleased to announce that Kristin Chenoweth (Wicked, The Apple Tree, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown), the Tony Award-winning actress and star of stage, screen, and television, has joined the roster of visiting artists to its Summer Music Theater Immersion Experience. During this intensive three-week program, which runs June 11–27, The New School for Drama brings together more Tony award-winning talent than can be found on any one stage, to give a select group of aspiring music theater artists the inside track from leading stars, choreographers, and casting agents.
Returning master class artists from last summer’s inaugural season include Tony Award/Drama Desk Award/Outer Critics Circle Award-winners Wayne Cilento (choreographer, The Who's Tommy, Sweet Charity, Wicked), Bill Irwin (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Fool Moon, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?), Judy Kuhn (Les Misérables, Chess, She Loves Me), Denis O’Hare (Take Me Out, Assassins, Sweet Charity), Michele Pawk (Hollywood Arms, Mamma Mia!, Cabaret), and Christopher Sieber (Spamalot, Chicago, Into the Woods).
“In its first year, the Summer Music Theater Immersion Experience was a resounding success—it was intense; it was exhilarating and, for many of the students, transformative,” said Robert LuPone, director of The New School for Drama. “We’re calling the program a boot camp for Broadway—this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for aspiring music theater artists to receive personalized training by some of the best talent in the business.”
The program aims to give students a comprehensive understanding of the skills and techniques they will need to have successful careers in music theater. Open to undergraduate and graduate students (undergraduates may receive college credit), as well as professionals looking for more specialized training, the intensive program includes a challenging array of activities that engage students day and night, including instruction in speech, voice, acting, and dance. The school has assembled a faculty of distinguished industry professionals under the direction of New School Drama faculty member Keith Buhl and Music Theater Group producer Diane Wondisford.
Students also have the opportunity to see Broadway shows and speak to the casts and crews afterward—giving them the rare chance to learn and interact with successful theater actors, dancers, singers, and stage managers. This summer’s scheduled musicals are Les Misérables, Company and Spring Awakening. In addition, participants receive two individual voice lessons and two individual vocal coaching sessions. The program culminates in a showcase in which students demonstrate what they have learned. With small classes, participants receive copious feedback and access the full range of their imaginative and creative powers.
Applications are still being accepted for the program. For more information about the Summer Music Theater Immersion Experience, including how to register for the program, please email [email protected], call 212.229.5859 x2628, or visit www.drama.newschool.edu.
At The New School for Drama, the instinct to create is revered. Through its interrelated, three-year MFA program in acting, directing, or playwriting, the school is forging the next generation of performing artists. A faculty of working professionals brings to the fore students’ unique and original voices, and helps them establish a rooted sense of who they are as individuals and as artists. The New School’s history in the dramatic arts began in the 1940s, when the Dramatic Workshop, led by founder Erwin Piscator and a faculty including Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, fostered artistic voices as distinctive as Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando. Since 1994, the university has offered an MFA degree in the performing arts. For more information, visit www.drama.newschool.edu.