BA (Hons) Teaching of Musical Theatre (TMT)

Program Overview

The BA (Hons) Teaching of Musical Theatre (TMT) at the University of Chichester equips students with specialized skills in musical theatre dance, singing, and stage acting. Emphasizing teaching methods, the program provides opportunities for performance in diverse projects, from large-scale musicals to smaller ensemble productions. Graduates gain expertise in navigating the complexities of teaching within the musical theatre industry.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This BA (Hons) Teaching of Musical Theatre (TMT) degree is delivered by highly experienced practitioners in musical theatre and in the specialist teaching of performance work. You will train in musical theatre dance, singing and stage acting. You will select your study focus to reflect your strengths in these different areas from the first year, and develop your practical skills in vocal or dance teaching throughout the degree. You will have opportunities to perform in projects ranging from large scale musical theatre productions with full pit orchestra, set and costume, to straight plays, smaller ensemble projects and dance revues. You will study a range of topics with a specific focus on teaching others and be able to develop skills in technical theatre and arts management roles by supporting performance projects. You will graduate with skills that will enable you to navigate the complexities of teaching within the musical theatre industry.

Outline:

The BA (Hons) Teaching of Musical Theatre (TMT) degree is a 3-year full-time program taught at the University of Chichester's Bishop Otter Campus.

Year One

• Grades and Development in Playing, Singing or Dance: This module examines the connections between the measured progress of the young player, singer or dancer and the general creative development of the child.
Sessions are focused on graded development at early stages, with particular attention being paid to the acquisition of aural training and sight reading skills. You will consider general aspects of repertoire and skill development and students are encouraged to focus at least part of your study on an elected specialist area.
• Introduction to Musical Theatre: The module introduces you to key skills in examining repertoire drawn from succeeding periods of musical theatre history, supporting an examination of musical structure with a parallel focus on developments in dance and drama within the genre.
• Musical Grammar 1: This module will introduce, reintroduce and familiarise you with a range of aspects of musical structure and its notation.
Alongside this, you will present and discuss your work, both individually and in groups – enhancing skills in teamwork and presentation, and building confidence.
• Musical Theatre Skills 1: This all year module focuses on the technical training in dance (jazz, ballet, tap) acting and singing which will form the foundation of your training for musical theatre.
You will study a combination of dance technique and routines, acting techniques, vocal repertoire classes, musical styles and performance skills.
• Performance Development: This includes your 1 to 1 tuition in your selected instrumental or vocal study.
• Professional Resilience: This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce students to a number of different models of successful self-development.
• Technique for the Young Performer: You will explore sound approaches to technique and analyse a range of technique strategies as you draw upon your own experience as a learner.

Year Two

• Musical Theatre Skills 2: Building on the foundation of your first year of study this all year module focuses on further developing your technical training in dance (jazz, ballet, tap, commercial, body conditioning) acting and singing.
You will study a combination of more advanced dance techniques and routines, acting techniques including duologues, vocal repertoire classes, musical style and performance skills.
• Opera and Operetta: Available in two different delivery modes, this module can be followed as either a conventional weekly series of lectures during semester two, or as a week long intensive culminating in a staged performance outside the semester period.
Learning is focused on examples drawn from 19th century opera forms, seeking to develop a lively sense of the evolving performance context which came to be described as operetta.
• Performance Anxiety: Examine the problem of performance anxiety and stage nerves and study the theoretical background and how to effectively deal with anxiety.
You will look at the performance itself and the surrounding physiological and psychological factors that lead to stage nerves during performance. This module introduces a wide range of theories from relevant disciplines including cognitive behavioural therapy and neuro-linguistic programming.
• Performance Development: This includes your 1 to 1 tuition in your selected instrumental or vocal study.
• Preparing Young Musicians for Assessment and Performance: The practical, placement experience allows you to become a beginner all over again by learning a ‘new’ instrument during this term, recreating the feelings experienced by beginners.
Reflections on this experience will inform and shape your approach to teaching in placement contexts. You will also observe school children in the early stages of learning to sing and will reflect on how the observations relate to their personal experience during the module. Various repertoire, aural tests, scales, and sight reading will be included in a broad exploration of assessment and discussions will cover the pressures or constraints that exams place on students.
• Professional Resilience: This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce students to a number of different models of successful self-development.
• Psychology of Learning and Teaching: This module explores the psychology, or the internal processes, of both the teacher and student perspective during musical learning.
You will develop a general understanding of the historical framework of learning theories and social frameworks with psychology.
• Self-Employment, Employment and Visualising Success: This module explores the local and national marketplace and will introduce you to a number of different models of successful positioning within it.
A successful career as a music professional needs to be informed, alongside musical and communication skills, by an understanding of the nature of self employment in business. This module will seek to develop this, and to encourage a confident approach to the world beyond university, enabling a tailored financial and business planning which encourages an awareness of local markets and circumstances.
• The Movie Musical: The module will introduce students to key skills in examining repertoire drawn from succeeding periods of movie musical history, supporting an examination of musical structure with a parallel focus on developments in dance and drama within the genre.
• The Musical Theatre Business: You will explore examples of different types of musical theatre performance and the function of a range of professional roles in commercial and publicly funded contexts.

Year Three

• Business Project: This module is taken by Arts Management students and aims to develop competency in business planning and imaginative use of physical and creative resources.
• Communicating Music Through Movement & Gesture: This module explores the opportunities that exist for enhanced communication within the formal performance context, using the performer’s own physical projection of self and personal narrative of intention.
Work will also be developed in a broader context, allowing a deeper understanding of the semiotics of movement – the kinesic variables which impact upon the viewer – and the generic codes which attach to the music they play.
• Group Teaching: You will engage in workshop activities to explore the potential of strategies and material that could be used in a range of teaching contexts.
You will reflect on relationships between this activity and your practical workshop experience and complete practical experience with a musical group/class/ensemble at the university, a school, or a performance centre where you will observe the methods, manner, and style of the teacher and then design a piece for that group.
• Introduction to Fundraising in the Arts: The module will consider the third-sector in relation to the other two sectors, the legal structures for non-profit organisations and regional variations in regulation, alongside the charity model in at least one other country.
• Musical Theatre Skills 3: This year-long module consolidates all the learning in level 4 and 5 with training in the musical theatre disciplines of dance, acting and singing with a focus on advancing your technical understanding in your final year of study.
• One to One Teaching: This module introduces a range of techniques in structuring lessons, communicating expressive and performance based concepts and problem solving designed to create an exciting and stimulating learning experience for individual singers, dancers and actors embarking on the early stages of study.
You will set your own goals in teaching and develop skills in analysing and measuring the outcomes of lessons, using this information to inform planning for effective teaching practices.
• Opera: This module takes a chronological approach to the study of the genre, beginning with the early Baroque and offering examples of differing musical styles up until the first half of the 20th century, with a particular focus on the late 18th to mid 19th centuries.
The relationship between narrative and the musical expression of dramatic tension will be explored. Your lectures will make connections between the function of musical structure and form within individual works and the development of character and plot.
• Professional Resilience: This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce students to a number of different models of successful self-development.
• Swing Project: This module allows you to enhance your contribution to ensemble performance and to develop your skills in solo work in the context of a large performance project.
Longer term planning, rehearsal and preparation strategies for performance techniques will be emphasised. The module will work towards, and culminate in, a semi-staged performance. You will be required to prepare effectively and thoroughly for this performance.

Assessment:

You will be assessed by a range of assignments including essays, portfolios, examinations, performances, practical work, project work, presentations and seminar discussions.

Teaching:

You will have the opportunity to develop a broad range of skills to enhance your CV and your employability. As performers, alumni have gone into:

• West End productions
• Major touring productions throughout Europe
• Teaching in stage schools
• Major cruise ships including Disney
• UK and International small-scale touring theatre
• Private singing teaching
• Edinburgh Festival
• Cabaret
• Stage managers, arts managers and producers picking up contracts in the UK and around the world

Further Study

You could choose to continue your studies at postgraduate level. Study options at the University of Chichester include:

• MA Music Performance
• MA Music Teaching
• PGCE
• PhD/MPhil
University of Chichester alumni who have completed a full undergraduate degree at the University will receive a 15% discount on their postgraduate fees.

Other:

This program is mainly taught at the Chichester campus and is located in one of the largest music departments in the UK, with enviable teaching, performance and practice resources. You will also use the 350-seater Alexandra Theatre in Bognor Regis, on campus recital and orchestral performance spaces and a range of external venues in the UK and overseas.. The Bognor Regis campus is seven miles from the Bishop Otter campus and is connected by frequent buses. Students who have undertaken this in the past have found it to be an amazing experience to broaden their horizons, a great opportunity to meet new people, undertake further travelling and to immerse themselves within a new culture. You will be fully supported throughout the process to help find the right destination institution for you and your course.