Opening a door to music theatre

On Evanston’s coldest day of 2024, 18 students made their way through a light dusting of snow to the Wirtz Center’s Wallis Theater for the newly reformulated Musical Theatre Pathways workshop. 

A critical part of the recent overhaul of the School of Communication’s musical theater certificate program, Musical Theater Pathways is a once-per-quarter opportunity “for students of all levels of experience to explore the craft of making music theatre in a shared space with program faculty,” according to KO, Donald G. Robertson Director of Music Theatre. Each workshop focuses on a different aspect of musical theatre, and students can participate as frequently as they’d like, quarter after quarter, year after year. This quarter’s MT Pathways focused on generating and exploring movement and musicality. 

KO’s initial audit of the MT certificate and its audition processes revealed that the entry barrier seemed insurmountable to students without extensive performing experience in musicals. This restructured workshop aims to close that gap by welcoming students from all backgrounds. 

“The MT Pathways workshop is about broadening the scope of the artists we are welcoming into the program,” says KO. For students without previous instruction in the field, “the weekend workshops provide the opportunity to make art and to have access to musical theatre faculty.” Hired by Dean E. Patrick Johnson in 2022, the Tony Award–winning actor has been working to enrich the program’s culture, seeking to make it a more equitable student space.  

But the sessions still encourage artistic growth and challenge students of all skill levels. “We reconfigured the MT Pathways weekend to encourage students to explore how they’re collaborating and identify where they can be less critical of themselves,” KO explains, “while recognizing certain skills in their repertoire they can update.” 

MT Pathways “is important because there is a realness to how we are engaging with our process and research and tools,” says associate theatre professor Jeff Hancock. “In this space students learn ‘how we make’ and ‘how to hold space for others in that process.’ It also allows those who don’t have musical theatre experience to crack the door open.” 

As a movement professor, Hancock takes part in the high-stakes auditions for the musical theatre certificate program. But he says that “these workshops offer a valuable chance to work with students in a collaborative space and mindset without the pressure of perfection. I hope they will retain the tools they’ve learned and the experiences they’ve had and know how to deploy them in future settings.” 

KO agrees. “The day is very conversational for a reason. We want them to understand that in the rooms they’re in, they have power for creating process. This time is for them to get comfortable with us and each other while they explore how they think when they create art.” 

By the end of the sessions, the initial nerves were gone, the students had bonded, and their heads and their notebooks were full of ideas collected from professors and peers throughout the day. Before parting ways, they shared some of their findings. 

“I loved my MT Pathways experience,” said first-year theatre major Anna Rigo “The workshops were really productive, and the time flew by quickly. I was able to explore musical theatre in a new and different way, and the day even gave me some practices that I will definitely use in preparing for roles in the future.” 

Learn more about the updates to the musical theatre certificate program.