I wonder if anyone can provide any personal experience with how seriously schools take musical theater at these schools. IE is it a major commitment like a sport? How many musicals (not plays) do they put on each year and in what seasons? I have spent time looking on the websites but at several of the schools its not that clear.
Check out their Instas? You will need to do a bit of scrolling, but I have seen several schools promote their theater and musicals on socials. It will give you a sense of the ratio of plays to musicals, scale of the production and design, as well as number of times each production ran.
Perhaps go to each school’s newspaper and search the words play and musical? That will give you a sense of how well promoted/attended shows are? You could also just send an email to the department?
I have heard that some schools do a play in fall and winter, and a musical in the spring. Each term offers this as the primary EC for that term. So if you play a fall and winter sport, you can do the spring musical. All three will fill the afterschool time slot plus some weekend time. This will vary by school.
yes, thanks. I have done that. I am looking for input from someone with personal experience at one of the schools.
One thing that was true at least 3 years ago was Middlesex did NOT let you out of a sports commitment to be in their musicals (or plays). I took that to mean they didn’t take it as seriously as schools that either had a less onerous sports requirement or let you skip a sport for a play. I have NO clue how you would do a musical or play AND be on an interscholastic sport AND get school done myself.
That turned my own kid off and I know someone else a few years back that went to a different school because of that rule…
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Oh that’s very interesting. Thanks for sharing that. She wants musical theater taken seriously, like it’s your afternoon commitment for that season. They can’t take it that seriously if they aren’t really rehearsing that much. I will definitely ask.
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In Deerfield, theatre is an afternoon (and weekend) commitment for that season and you cannot do a sport if you are doing theatre. My son was part of a musical(Alice by Heart) last winter where he had to sing and dance, the musicals are pretty intense and requires a lot of training and coordination and time.
The school did not do a musical this year, but they are going with “The play that goes wrong”, which is comedy theatre which included a lot of tech theatre skills with crumbling sets (the kids who do tech theatre also cannot do sport that season)
Last year they did a children’s play which they performed at Edinburgh theatre festival.
They also have graded courses in acting, directing and musical theatre. The school encourages students to apply for and participate in NHSI summer program and sometimes give partial aid for that.
In summary - theatre is taken very seriously in the school and it suits kids intending to major in theatre, but musical theatre is not done every year, even though I see them rotating various aspects of theatre to make sure they cover all genres and all skills for the kids involved
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Thank you so much for that. I had heard that Deerfield didn’t necessarily do a musical every year. She is really into musical theater specifically. I think Deerfield is probably off the list. The rest of it sounds great but she definitely wants at least one main stage musical a year.
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Are you open to schools not on this list? My son is having a great musical theater experience at Williston, happy to talk more about it. Theater is a full afternoon commitment for any season, but they always do a musical in the winter. This year they did Hadestown, it was great. There are a lot of opportunities throughout the year though - last year in the spring they went to NYC for a weekend Broadway workshop where they took classes and saw three shows. They go off campus to see a lot of shows - my son is going on a school trip today to see Some Like it Hot in Hartford.
My daughter will be going to Kent next year - she is not as into theater as my son, but she likes it, so we asked a lot of questions at revisit day. They always do a musical in the spring - my daughter plays lacrosse so asked if she could do both and they said it would be hard, and she would probably just be in ensemble, wouldn’t be able to have a lead, but kids have done both. They also have trips into the city at least once a term to see Broadway shows.
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When DS was at George School, they alternated doing the musical between winter and spring so kids playing a sport in one of those seasons could participate every other year. There were plays in the non-musical term. But that also says that it was either/or on the sport and a production.
They have a different schedule now, but just mentioning how that was handled as you may find school that something similar - and that it may vary from year to year.
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Thanks you so much for this. I am open to other schools but she also plays a sport that’s not readily available so we are hoping for the unicorn of the school that fits in the Venn diagram of has her sport and great
Musical theater in the fall or spring.
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We looked at Loomis - they have done a winter musical the past few years, but not sure if it is always winter. Similarly, we looked at Hotchkiss and they did a fall musical this year, but again not sure if it is always fall. Good luck!
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For Taft, I know that every term picking being in a musical or play is an option exactly like picking to play soccer or basketball. They rehearse well and all productions are impressive. There is a dance studio, black box, large audtorium,and art gallery where the arts normally perform. Mrs.Fifer, the director, is amazing, she has been there for over 20 years and really knows her stuff!
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Taft, at least in recent past, had a musical every single year, and that you get out of sports for it. They have other plays of various sizes too in other terms. ( I had a relative who went there and was in a play every term, or nearly this was a few years ago, but would be surprised if it changed).
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Mercersburg does at least one MainStage musical a year. This year they also did a smaller musical for the advance MT class. And then several plays. Theatre is a full activity that one does in place of a sport. The Burgin center for performing arts is truly extraordinary. My family all calls it the Baby Kennedy Center. :).
That said, it sounds like you have a sport in mind that they might not have.
Thank you, Taft is at the absolute top of her list
Thanks for this, I have heard incredible things about Mercersburg theater but unfortunately does not have her sport
I can confirm that Taft typically does two productions per year, a musical in the fall and a play in the winter. Some of the talent in the last few years has been quite good.
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Proctor has historically done one musical in the winter term and then a play in the fall and spring terms. Any theater production counts as your sport/group activity for that season, but they are open to you doing both if, say, you want to do a winter sport as well as the musical that term. You would have to discuss it with the faculty and your advisor, but it could be doable. This past year, Proctor hired a new director for their music program and he has done some really great things to promote music throughout the school. It should be noted that Proctor also has an amazing theater tech and costume design program. Our student was super impressed with the behind the scenes aspect when we toured.
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I heard that taft has a really cool theatre program! I’m an incoming freshman so if I gather any more info I would be happy to share more!
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