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Welcome to the Theatre Departmant at Wright State University!

THE PROGRAM

The fundamental objective of the B.F.A. Professional Actor Training Program is to graduate students who are able to find work in the professional theatre or who will be in a position to enter M.F.A. programs to continue more specialized training.

Students in the Professional Actor Training Program may select either an acting or acting with musical theatre emphasis. Both tracks emphasize the development of self-discipline, the acquisition of acting and performance methodology, mastery of a wide variety of skills, and knowledge of theatre and performance history, literature, and theory.

Although the acting track is essentially a classically oriented program, the curriculum includes musical theatre instruction as well -- such preparation being vital for the well-trained American actor. As a consequence, all acting majors are required to study one year of dance fundamentals and modern dance, followed by jazz/theatre dance or ballet as electives. The acting major is encouraged to participate in additional dance courses.

The acting faculty endorses the concept that all actors must be trained to sing. Students who study singing learn the rudiments of breathing, vocal support, and placement. Singing is required all four years of the training period.

The most crucial time in an actor's career is immediately following graduation. It is important that the young actor be able to win acting opportunities wherever they are found. Our students have worked on Broadway, off Broadway, in many regional theatres (including the Guthrie, Cincinnati Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Santa Fe Stages, Milwaukee Repertory, Seattle Repertory, the Intiman, St. Louis Repertory, the Arizona Theatre Company, Hillberry Repertory, the Human Race Theatre, the Clarence Brown Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, etc.), in industrials, interactive cd-roms, renaissance festivals, comedy clubs, cabaret acts, television (sit-coms, soap operas, national commercials), films, and on radio. Many graduates of the acting program have achieved membership in the Actors' Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, the professional actors' unions.

While the department sees its mission as preparing actors for immediate entry into the profession, some students benefit by continued training in graduate programs, particularly actors interested in teaching. The department is especially interested in placing those students desiring graduate education in programs with highly active production schedules.

ADMISSION AND RETENTION STANDARDS

Auditions/interviews are required for admittance to B.F.A. programs in acting and acting/musical theatre emphasis. The same audition/interview is used in determining Theatre Arts Talent Scholarship awards. Talent scholarships are usually awarded for one year to students in acting, dance, motion picture production, and design/technology. All majors are eligible to apply each year for Merit Scholarships.

Photographs are required for all those auditioning in acting and acting/musical theatre emphasis. If unusual circumstances prevent you from keeping your appointment, please contact the Department of Theatre Arts. A VHS videotape may be submitted in lieu of a personal audition, although this is not recommended. Theatre Arts Talent Scholarship awards will be announced in March.

The auditionee must perform two contrasting monologues, each one minute in length, from plays. The presentation must be memorized and presented without costumes or properties. In addition, the auditionee must perform a one-minute portion of a song from a Broadway musical. Musical accompaniment must be recorded on cassette; the department will supply appropriate playback equipment. The total audition must not exceed three minutes.

In addition, the audition for the acting/musical theatre emphasis will also require the auditionee to take a musical theatre dance class. Appropriate dance wear is required.

The department feels a strong obligation to graduate only those acting students whose chances of attaining professional employment remain clear. The faculty feels it is unfair to graduate people who, because of lack of motivation or talent, will not achieve successful, professional careers -- or who do not seem to be growing adequately within the Professional Actor Training Program. Therefore, a process has been established to evaluate students regularly, especially through their sophomore year.

At the end of the second year of training, as well as at other times when deemed necessary by the acting faculty, some students are advised to select another major. All students are urged to carefully consider their career choice and to fully understand the rigors and demands of the acting profession. There is no specific quota for the number of students in any given year of the curriculum.

Professional Acting Training Program students must maintain a grade of "C" or better in all classes required of their emphasis to be retained. Students not making satisfactory progress, even with a grade of "C" or better, may be advised by the faculty to drop the program. An overall GPA of 2.5 is required for graduation.

MUSICAL THEATRE PROGRAM

Musical Theatre students train in one of the strongest contemporary acting curricula in the U.S., following the same rigorous acting, voice, speech and movement courses as Acting majors, but with additional intensive study in dance, singing, and music theory. The backbone of the Musical Theatre emphasis is a firm basis in the individual techniques of each discipline.

The freshman year is devoted to cultivating essential acting skills: scene study, text analysis, and fundamental character development. In the sophomore year students strengthen their ability to fulfill the requirements of a character’s imaginary circumstances, study various approaches to acting, and learn to experience and select the most productive methods for analyzing character and building roles. Students apply these skills through frequent scene study and classroom exercises.

Musical Theatre majors study singing privately twice a week for four years and participate in a weekly repertoire class where they perform a wide range of songs for faculty members in a master class setting. Students also study music theory and basic keyboard skills for one year, though many choose to study private piano for longer. Training in all major forms of dance is a fundamental aspect of the Musical Theatre major including Jazz, Ballet, tap and Theatre Dance Styles. Those students who excel in dance may be admitted to dance major classes.

Also as part of the freshman and sophomore curriculum, students practice fundamentals of breathing, resonance and articulation and learn to apply the International Phonetic Alphabet to analyzing a range of texts. They learn effective vocal warm-ups in preparation for performance and apply their skills to classical and contemporary drama through monologues and scenes. Upper level courses continue this work with in-depth verse analysis and acquiring a mastery of a range of dialects.

At the end of the sophomore year and continuing through the junior and senior years, Musical Theatre students build on these fundamentals through classes specifically related to their field; especially acting with musical texts, music theatre history and literature and Musical Theatre dance styles. Students also receive training in audition technique and professional world practices.

Beyond these specialized upper division classes, Musical Theatre actors will continue to study advanced acting styles, and theatre history. In addition to studying singing, dance, and movement, students study theatre history, dramatic literature, stage make up, basic stagecraft, as well as a full Liberal Arts curriculum that includes English composition, natural science, and other courses in the social sciences and humanities. Writing and research are stressed in theatre classes in order to build the student's ability to use language and find expression.

AUDITION INFORMATION

Musical Theatre auditionees must perform two contrasting monologues, and two contrasting songs. This might mean that you do a contemporary and a more classical monologue, or that you do a comic and a serious piece. Songs might be from Golden Age musicals and more recent shows, or up-tempo and ballad. You decide what aspects of your talent you wish to feature. It is useful for us to hear women sing in both Belt (chest) voice and soprano register if you sing in both.

Each monologue should be one minute in length, and selected from plays that you have read and understand. We discourage using monologues from collections for teens (not from plays). The presentation must be memorized and presented without costumes or properties. Each song should also be one-minute in length. Select songs from Broadway musicals or similar material.

Avoid Top 40 or liturgical songs as this doesn’t help us assess you in the field you’ll be studying. Musical accompaniment will be provided at the audition, so bring sheet music in the proper key. It is also suggested that you bring you music recorded on cassette or CD; the department will supply appropriate playback equipment. The total audition must not exceed four minutes.

In addition, the audition for the Musical Theatre program will also require the auditionee to take a Musical Theatre dance class. Appropriate dancewear is required.

PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITIES

Wright State University's Theatre Arts is a performance-based program with a full production schedule, which includes two to three elaborately, staged musicals, two to three plays, and a dance concert each year. In addition, there is a studio season of three musicals and plays. Wright State University also has a student-run theatre lab in which students can produce and act in a self-selected season.

Throughout the year, there are numerous concert and recital opportunities, as well. All Professional Acting Training Program students audition for the full season each year and are eligible for casting in both musicals and plays beginning in the Freshman year.

STUDENT SUCCESS

Graduates of Wright State University’s Acting and Musical Theatre programs have appeared in principal and supporting roles on and off-Broadway in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, RAGTIME, SHOWBOAT, [title of show] and National and International tours of, THE LION KING, AIDA, THE PRODUCERS, MAMMA MIA!, WE WILL ROCK YOU, SEUSSICAL, CABARET, KISS ME, KATE, CONTACT, TOMMY, THE MUSIC MAN, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR among others.

They have appeared in productions at the nation’s finest regional theatres including The Guthrie, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cincinnati Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Intiman Theatre, St. Louis Rep, Hillberry Repertory Theatre, The Barn, Maine State Music Theatre, Music Theatre of Wichita, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, the Human Race Theatre Co. and many others.

Graduates also frequently perform on all the major cruise lines and in a wide range of touring children’s theatre, theme parks and industrial films and entertainment. Former students frequently appear on television and concert stages across America and the world.

Some students choose to enter graduate school after completing their education at Wright State University. They have been accepted at the Denver Center, Northwestern University, DePaul University, Emerson College, New York University and others.

FACILITIES

Acting and Musical Theatre students have excellent facilities, including two specially designed Acting studios, several large and spacious Dance studios, numerous private voice studios, a directing laboratory, the Herbst studio theatre, and a superb main stage -- the Festival Playhouse.

The Festival Playhouse is a 376-seat, fully equipped theatre that brings the performer and the audience into close contact. The Herbst Theatre, a flexible studio theatre, seats from 75 to 120 people. Productions are well-supported and attendance is high.

The Creative Arts Center provides studios, classrooms, and workshops for acting, motion pictures, dance, and costumes. A separate building houses a scenery shop.

A Few of Our Gifted Faculty...

DR. MARY DONAHOE, AREA COORDINATOR

Mary Donahoe received her Ph.D. in theatre arts from the University of Oregon where she specialized in teaching movement, period styles, and dance. She has studied sacramental theatre in England and Greece and was invited to present her research at Tel Aviv University for the Federation of International Theatre Research. In 1991, she directed her original translation of Lysistrata, adapted as a musical set in the 1920s.

Donahoe taught at Pomona College, University of Oregon, University of Colorado, and Rhode Island College. She was artistic director of the "Women Who Laugh" Theatre Company, which produced original plays by multi-cultural women playwrights. She has worked as an actress and director for a variety of university and professional theatres and performed original solo pieces about the lives of women artists and pioneers in Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York. A member of the Association of Theatre Movement Educators, she has worked as a movement coach for several professional and educational theatres.

 JOE DEER, HEAD OF MUSICAL THEATRE

Joe began his New York career tap dancing on the sidewalk outside the Shubert Theatre, and went on to perform in the Broadway and national tour productions of Anything Goes, The Music Man, Brigadoon, Singin' in the Rain and The American Dancemachine, as well as numerous Off-Broadway and concert performances at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center and the Palace Theatre. Joe was stage manager for the acclaimed Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls, on National Tours and at regional and off-Broadway.

Joe is the award-winning director and choreographer of over a hundred productions in Off-Broadway, regional, summer stock and university theatres including Wright State University's productions of West Side Story, Urinetown, Into The Woods, Nine, Parade, Fiddler on the Roof, Chicago, Brigadoon, and Assassins. For the Human Race Theatre Co., where he is a resident artist, Joe directed and choreographed The Underpants, Seussical, Big River among others. Joe was artistic director of Struthers Library Theatre in Warren, PA, Summer Stage Wright (at Wright State University), NYC Tapworks (New York) and was a resident director for ten seasons at Mountain Playhouse in Central Pennsylvania. At Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma where he directed regularly, Joe worked with Tony nominees Lara Teeter and Kristin Chenoweth.

Joe is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and is founding president of the Musical Theatre Educators Alliance - International. Joe has been head of WSU's Musical Theatre program for ten years and has an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University. His book, ACTING IN MUSICAL THEATRE: A COMPREHENSIVE COURSE (written with Rocco Dal Vera) is due from Routledge Press in February of 2008. They also write the “Acting In Musical Theatre” column for Dramatics magazine.

 BRUCE CROMER

Bruce Cromer was a resident actor/fight choreographer/stage combat instructor at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for seven years, even while completing work for his B.F.A. in acting from Wright State University. His roles at ASF included Hamlet, Romeo, Hap Loman in Death of a Salesman, Charles Surface in The School for Scandal, Macduff in Macbeth, Edgar in King Lear, and Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part One.

Bruce has since acted at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles, the Seattle Children's Theatre, the Clarence Brown Theatre in Knoxville, Santa Fe Stages in New Mexico, the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and has been a Resident Artist with the Human Race Theatre in Dayton for over fifteen years. Cromer played Bob Cratchit for eight years in the Cincinnati Playhouse's A CHRISTMAS CAROL and took over the role of Scrooge in 2005.

Bruce has choreographed fights for professional and college productions of Macbeth, Hamlet, La Tragedie de Carmen, The Illusion, King Lear, The Beaux' Strategem, Richard III, Miss Evers' Boys, Cyrano de Bergerac, Singin' in the Rain, I Hate Hamlet, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, and others. A member of Actor's Equity Association, he was recommended in six weapons styles and won the Patrick Crean Award at the 1993 National Advanced Combatant Workshop of the Society of American Fight Directors. (He has since become a Certified Teacher in the SAFD.) A full Professor, Bruce Cromer acts, directs, and teaches acting and movement courses at Wright State University.

Read more about our faculty by CLICKING HERE!

Wright State Department of Theatre Arts is playing a central part in this new American Renaissance in the performing arts. Our graduates are becoming some of the leaders in their fields.

They're winning Emmy's for supervising HBO specials with Tom Hanks. They're dancing, singing, and acting on national television, on major regional tours, and on Broadway. They're studying at the leading graduate schools, such as Yale School of Drama in Costume Design, NYU School of the Arts in Musical Playwriting, DePaul University in Acting, Northwestern University, and the Drama School of London. They’re filming documentaries in China and Africa.  They’re gaining internships in stage management at leading regional theatres, including the La Jolla Playhouse and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.  And they're charting new paths in the arts, developing new plays, working as designers, shop heads and technicians at professional theatres throughout America.

At Wright State we continue to break records and win national awards. Our original creative collaboration between students, faculty and staff, 1913: The Great Dayton Flood, played to over 10,000 people and won a record number of awards from the American College Theatre Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in 1997. And our new Acting/Musical Theatre program has become the degree of choice for record numbers of students setting their sights on becoming quadruple threats - those who can sing, dance, act, and fill the stage with life!

One reason that our graduates succeed and our students thrive is that the WSU Department of Theatre Arts emphasizes professional training for the undergraduate only. Students do not compete with graduate students for roles, design opportunities, equipment, scholarships, or access to faculty and staff. In fact, one of our three theatres, the Directing Lab, is given over entirely to students and their creative projects.

In addition, many students perform and find internships at local and regional theatres, while filmmakers enter their work in film festivals and competitions across the country and abroad, and select student dancers perform in the nationally acclaimed professional dance companies, the Dayton Ballet II, and Dayton Contemporary Dance Companies.

Our department is the only one of its kind to win two Program Excellence Awards from the Ohio Board of Regents as well as two Academic Challenge awards. These awards have enabled the department to provide its students with substantial resources and the best available facilities.

Our emphasis on professionalism is reflected by the department's excellent faculty and staff. Faculty members remain active in their chosen fields, continuing to direct, design, choreograph, produce, and perform in the professional world. Both faculty and staff maintain professional affiliations and professional contacts and share the experience in the classroom.

Ready to learn more?

Get details on scholarships by CLICKING HERE!

Learn all about admissions by CLICKING HERE!

Read about our season of plays by CLICKING HERE!

CONTACT US:

theatre_arts@wright.edu

Phone: 937.775.3072  Fax: 937.775.3787

T148 Creative Arts Center, Wright State University, 3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy., Dayton, Ohio 45435-0001

And visit us on the web by CLICKING HERE!