UB, University at Buffalo, State University of New York

• Music Theatre - B.F.A.
• Course Descriptions

You are here: Undergraduate Catalog 2005 - 2006 > Academic Programs > Music Theatre

Department of Theatre & Dance

College of Arts and Sciences
285 Alumni Arena
North Campus
Buffalo, NY 14260-5030

Phone: 716.645.6898
Fax: 716.645.6992
Web: www.cas.buffalo.edu/depts/theatredance

About the Program

The BFA in music theatre is a performance degree that encompasses courses from three disciplines: music, theatre, and dance. The objective of its comprehensive studies is to create the well-rounded professional able to succeed in an increasingly competitive and exciting field. Performance opportunities range from musicals and dance companies to dramas and operas mounted in state-of-the-art facilities. Prospective majors should meet with the director of music theatre and an undergraduate advisor as soon as possible.

Auditions in theatre, dance, and music are required. For students with prior training, course requirements may be adjusted, based on placement auditions. If lower-level courses are waived, additional courses may be assigned. This policy applies to all majors.

Acceptance Information

Acceptance into the BFA program requires an audition.

Honors, Awards, and Scholarships

Performing and Creative Arts Scholarships are available through the University Honors Program. Auditions are required for applicants. To qualify for consideration, students must have a minimum high school average of 90 percent and a combined SAT score of at least 1230, or an ACT score of 28. Transfer honors applicants must hold a minimum GPA of 3.8. The Perry Watkins scholarship is available to African American freshman students majoring in design/technology. Talent-based scholarships are also available to all students. Auditions, portfolios, and a personal interview are required for all scholarship students.

Notable Program Features

The Department of Theatre and Dance offers BA and BFA degree programs in which students may study a broad range of production, design, technology, performance, historical, and literary aspects of theatre, dance, and music theatre. A central curriculum of courses is shared by all theatre, dance, and music theatre majors from which students go on to pursue separate majors in theatre, dance, music theatre, or theatre and dance areas. Auditions are required for entrance into the BA in dance and all BFA programs.

Department classes balance scholarship and practical training. In theatre, there is a full sequence of courses in theatre technology and design, acting, playwriting, directing, and history and literature. In dance, there is a full sequence of courses in jazz, ballet, contemporary dance, tap, choreography, teaching methods, and history and research.

Performance and production are essential parts of the curriculum, providing hands-on learning experiences. There are four performance spaces in the Center for the Arts: small and large proscenium houses, and two multipurpose black box spaces. The Katharine Cornell Theatre provides added dimensions to performance opportunities. The department’s Zodiaque Dance Company performs at the university and presents in the community; membership is by audition held early each September. Auditions for the Zodiaque Studio Dance Ensemble, and Young Choreographers Showcase, featuring the work of student choreographers by invitation of the dance faculty, are also held in early September each year.

The Theatre and Music Theatre programs both offer one major performance and one black box production each year. Recent works include: Children of Eden, Bourgeois Gentlemen, Michi Blood and Farmyard, Chamber Music, A Chorus Line, and The Wild Party. These performance opportunities are augmented by classroom projects that culminate in a performance at the end of each semester.

Dancers Workshop, a student-run organization, also generates a production annually. Workshop advisors are members of the faculty. The GUILD, a student theatre and dance organization, acts as a liaison between students and faculty, and generates performances through “Proba,” a student run production company for workshop productions.

Students may shape the courses that complete the requirements for the BA major by following sequences in such areas as general dance, music theatre, dance performance, theatre performance, choreography, design/technology, dance teaching, playwriting, directing, history, and literature.

Students in dance work with nationally and internationally known guest faculty, directors, and choreographers in yearly residencies with the UB Center for the Arts. Annual residencies have included: American Ballet Studio Co., Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co., Doug Varone and Dancers, Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, Jose Limon, and Taylor 2 Co.

Auditions are required for all dance and music theatre majors.

Facilities. The million Center for the Arts benefits UB students directly through outstanding public performance and exhibition facilities. The center houses the Departments of Art, Media Study, and Theatre and Dance, showcasing both academic and public presentations of the arts in its many intriguing and interdisciplinary forms. The Department of Music is housed in adjacent Slee and Baird Halls, allowing music students to also discover a genuine intermingling of the arts.

Theatre and dance students have a variety of theatres and studios in which to work and learn. The range and complexity of theatre spaces allow students great versatility in their professional preparation. Supporting this effort are excellent shop facilities for costumes, scenery, properties, paint, and makeup.

The 400-seat Drama Theatre is intimate, with inviting decor and technical advantages that make it ideally suited to theatre and dance department productions and chamber operas. The orchestra pit can accommodate approximately forty musicians.

Mainstage is an 1,800-seat theatre that houses the majority of the professional touring companies at the Center for the Arts. Other features include a custom-built orchestra shell, allowing stage concerts to take place without the need for microphones and speakers. Computer-controlled panels on the walls of the auditorium are designed to adjust the acoustics at the touch of a button.

Also available to UB arts students are twin black box theatres that allow almost any kind of theatrical presentation, especially multimedia and experimental works. In addition, a 200-seat media study screening room can be used for departmental programming, as well as for the public presentation of films, speakers, panel discussions, poetry readings, and press conferences.

Dance studios are spacious with maple wood floors engineered for maximum resiliency, twelve-foot mirrors, upper-level observation spaces, and specially designed sound systems.

The students of theatre and dance enjoy a working relationship with Alleyway Theatre, Artpark, Buffalo United Artists, Irish Classical Theatre Co., MusicalFare, Shakespeare in Delaware Park, Studio Arena Theatre, Theatre of Youth, and Western New York affiliated Dance Masters of America dance establishments. Studio Arena is a LORT theatre located in the heart of the theatre district in downtown Buffalo.

Careers Opportunities/Further Study

Career possibilities include performance; stage management; technical and design aspects of stage, television and film; teaching; choreography; directing; criticism; arts therapy; and research. The department’s graduates have gone on to graduate study, several have received fellowships to prestigious programs or immediately begun professional careers in performance and production. Graduates who have chosen not to enter the professional fields of theatre and dance have found the interpersonal, group, and leadership skills that their training has developed to be invaluable in many other professions, such as law, business, government, and social services, as well as in the arts and education.

For dance, music, and theatre course descriptions, see individual department listings at http://undergrad-catalog.buffalo.edu/academicprograms.