musical theatre

hi... ive got a question for any of you who would like to help me with a certain quiery. im interested in musical theatre and i was wondering where the best place to study would be oo if there are any cool workshops that you might reccommend that were really helpful to any of you. preferably in nsw but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

Check out Sing over King website, I have heard they are excellent and some classes are taught by like Rhonda Burchmore and ppl from Neigbours. Its got a really good name.

If you want to study it seriously... like get a degree in it. id audition for WAAPA or VCA they both have very good musical theatre programmes... WAAPA expecially.

I went to the NIDA open day this year and they have a wonderful course titled 'singer dancer actor' which looked wonderful. It is a one year course. They have graduates performing on west end. Check out the nida website for details.

thanks guys! i really appreciate the comments! all these places look great!

If you want to explore schools outside Australia (though only slightly) Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore is an amazing place to study. Established by Denis Follington (Head of Music Theatre at WAAPA for 12 years) the curriculum is exactly the same as the waapa course with teachers and studemts from all over the world. The music theatre department has been in effect for 2 years so it doesnt have the name or reputation of WAAPA yet, however, the staff and students are all highly professional and talented! A school to definitely look into if you are genuiely serious about a career in Musical Theatre.

If you are thinking of applying for Sydneys NIDA - 'Singer Dancer Actor', let me know as they explained in the open day what you need to do for the audition.

hi leanne. i was actually seriously considering applying for the 'singer dancer actor' course at NIDA... that would be great if you could explain what you need to do for the audition. thanks babe!

Dear Melody, The head lecturer/teacher is called Avigail Herman. She spoke at length about the course and the auditions at the NIDA Open day which I went to on June 3, 2006. She advised that you should prepare two songs from musicals. One should be a ballad and the other should be a lively show piece. When you do the singing pieces, you're not allowed to use CD's or any backing tracks, you should however provide the piano music in the correct key. The other thing that you will have to do is a dance piece. She emphasied the dance piece was important as she believes she can teach people to improve their singing and acting techniques but if you don't have rythym from the start it is difficult to teach you rythym. She said it may be useful to take a weekly dance lesson between now and November so that you can practice getting moves. - whether it be tap or ballet or both. You must wear comfortable clothes so that you can dance on the day. You must also prepare a monologue that is current. You can get some examples from the NIDA website from the Fulltime Action Course Audition Pieces for females. It's always a good idea to research the play and the other characters that your monologue is from as they may ask questions about it and you want to show them that you're dedicated and are knowledgeble about what you're performing. She only takes about 12 people a year and they are required to be there from Monday through to Saturday but only for three to four hours a day, after hours. (So you can have a day job if needed. Talking to this years students they find it hard to do the course and earn a living. For those living at home, it sounded like a bonus since they had the support of their family without the need to work long hours to support themselves. The auditions are in November but I think you can send your application in now. I hope I've helped. Ask me anything and I'll try to help you...! Good luck Melody! (p.s. be confident on the day and don't let anyone psych you out - just focus on yourself and the job you need to do on the day. I personally find it annoying if people start to get chatty or loud around me and have learnt to take myself to a quiet spot or outside and just concentrate on what I'm going to do in the audition.) Check out the website: http://www.nida.com.au/short_courses/open/sda/Auditions.aspx

Dear Melody, I just read back my response and wanted to clarify some stuff. You don't prepare a dance piece - they give you moves to do on the day. And the monologues I was talking about are from the Fulltime Acting Course (not the fulltime action course! hee hee). I think this is the web address for the monologues - you may need to copy the address below into your address field of your web browser as they are not showing as links. http://www.nida.com.au/fulltime_courses/applications/Projects.html Then click on "Acting suggested audition pieces-females.pdf" Go Melody!!

Many thanks Labrug!