<p>I would first like to start this by pointing out I rarely have enough time to write a post like this, but the first day of classes for our Spring Semester were cancelled due to a snow storm that is teeny-tiny. But welcome to the South! So I’ll use this as a good time to do this before I go to the scene shop to work on the set for “The Music Man”. Anyway…</p>
<p>A day in the life of a BFA Musical Theatre Major at Coastal Carolina University, Fall Semester - Freshman Year:</p>
<p>Monday:</p>
<p>Get up at 7:00 am, approximately, if I can get my butt up by then. If not, more like 7:30 and take a very quick shower. You have all 8:30 am classes your first semester- trying to put your mind/body in gear for the real world, I suppose. Or just forcing you into culture-shock. 
At 8:30 I would have “Basics of Musicianship 1” which is our ear training, sight singing, music theory, and piano class all rolled into one ball of misery. I learned a lot, but it was a tough one at 8:30 am, and not everyone passed it. But if you worked hard enough B’s and C’s were definitely possible- I scooted out of their barely with an A after a good final exam grade (I had an 89.8 or something ridiculous like that). We are all much better piano-pluckers now, however, and we have the class pt 2 this semester so we’ll just get even better! After that we attend “Vocal Bootcamp” which is currently (but maybe not the same in the next few years) how Freshman are introduced to the voice lessons at CCU. We were split into 3 groups (after a sing-in the first week of classes so the instructors can hear our voices) and work with the private voice faculty in groups until our juries at the end of the semester where we are then assigned our voice instructor. Most people enjoyed their experience in boot camp, and were taken into the studio of the person who conducted their class- with a few minor exceptions. After that we would run to “Principles of Dramatic Analysis” at 10:30 which is basically a play-reading class with some theatre technique such as marking a script and beats included. Then it’s lunch time! Thank god. We all move in a pack of freshman MT’s so the commons, eat, take a quick break if we can handle it, and then run back to the Edwards Building for “Master Class” where we watch upper classman perform (not just MT majors, but voice majors and music/instrumental majors as well) and are critiqued before they have to perform in Recital Hour on Wednesdays. We’ll get to that. Fridays is Common Hour. We’ll also get to that.</p>
<p>Tuesday: </p>
<p>Another bright and early morning of getting up at 7 am (or did that just turn into 8:15?) to rush to an 8:30 morning class. This was our day of Robin Russell! For some people it was also “Two-Class Tuesdays” which was awesome. While most people had their core credit class on Tuesday/Thursdays (which was usually an English of some kind), I opted out of all my English classes because of my score on the AP Lang/Lit test, so I only had 2 classes, and both were taught by the immaculate Robin Russell, an awesome acting teacher who is often assigned to poor, lost freshman at CCU. First we had FYE (or “First Year Experience”) which is usually a boring class about how to write a paper, but is instead turned into a class about every life experience you never wanted to bring up with Robin Russell. We bonded so much and learned about all the other freshman theatre majors (BA and BFA alike) and one poor communications major (Football player!) who somehow ended up in that class. We made a music video, we did the “Last Lecture of Our Life”, we ate smoothies and dunkin’ donuts and most people cried- a lot. After that ball of emotion most people would go to their English class and then lunch, but myself and a few others would run to cut music for stage auditions (if it was a Thursday) or just hang out until our 2nd class in the afternoon. That little break was a great time to catch up on homework. At 1:00 we had Acting 1 with Robin Russell where we studied Uta Hagen and Stanislavski as well as some other methods. We worked on character development, beats, intentions, actions, verbs, portraying animals/colors/feelings, and everything else you can imagine. Definitely a hands-on class that also taught us a lot about ourselves (and how amazing Robin Russell is) and probably the class that helped most people grow and come out of their shells. Definitely one you’d have to experience to get. If it was Tuesday, then we were done! And we usually made frequent trips to Walmart to get stuff at that point, or hung around the theatre hall and the callboard to see what was new, went up to the theatre office to print off ANY SHEET MUSIC EVER off of Steven Gross’ magical hard drive- or bugged Ken Martin about SOMETHING if you were me. </p>
<p>Wednesday: </p>
<p>Is the same as Monday, it’s just that instead of attending “Master Class” we attend “Recital Hour” where everyone is required to perform at least once for your private voice class (after Freshman first semester) unless you are in a musical. For us freshman who didn’t perform at that point, you got to watch upperclassman in awe one moment and then listen to the tuba play forEVER the next. The class is a mixed bag. I loved it because I enjoyed seeing the older MT majors perform to see where I’m going to be in a few years, and it was just like a free concert every Wednesday. Some people just found it exceptionally boring, but it’s only 50 minutes so either way you can survive.</p>
<p>Thursday: </p>
<p>Thursdays included the exact same crying fest as Tuesdays, but added the dreaded, most nerve-wracking class of the semester- Stage Auditions. After Acting 1 we’d have about 45 minutes to make ourselves look REALLY nice and professional (aka audition garb) and then we had stage auditions with the Musical Director, Steven Gross, who is too brilliant for words, but often a bit intimidating. One of my favorite classes (although the most pee-your-pants-inducing), Stage Auditions switches off every year between acting and voice and preparing you for what to do in a… well, stage audition. We worked on resumes, headshots, speaking, presenting yourself, clothes, hair, make up, professionalism, working with the pianist, identifying and writing your vocal range, how to organize your books… but mostly song selection. We, as BFA Musical Theatre majors, were required to have 2 contrasting songs (an uptempo and a ballad) from each “era” of musical theatre as defined for Steven. We first had “Big 5 and Beyond” with Porter, Gershwin, Hart and Hammerstein, Kern, and Berlin (etc.), and then we moved on to “The Golden Age” with composers like Bernstein, Jule Styne, Kurt Weill, etc. Then the last two sections we prepared for were “The Concept Musical” with Sondeheim, Kander & Ebb, Early Webber and Early Schwartz, and more. The last era was obviously “Contemporary” which was basically anything post-1985. The goal of this was to build a strong book that we can walk into any audition for any sort of musical with, and wow them with properly cut music and songs that are 200% so with nerves that they still come out at 100%. “Songalogs” were also required for every piece you performed (inside of stage auditions and in private lesson with Steven- you could sign up for one 15 minute session a week to work on whatever) so that you could always learn about “acting a song”. And these dove DEEP into the song for a 16 bar cut. I know more than I thought I’d ever need to know about Squeaky Fromme. But it helps immensely. We also practiced performing for one another and learned how to mock each other’s voices and acting choices perfectly. We torture each other now with this, and people often do a great impression of me singing “Hostess’ with the Mostes’” and doing a great shimmy at the end.</p>
<p>Friday: </p>
<p>Same as Monday and Wednesday, but with a theatre twist instead of a music twist at the end. At 1:30 we would go to Common Hour, which is where Ken Martin talks for a while, every instructor in the theatre department has SOME sort of announcement to make, and you take in too much information to remember, so you better bring a pen and pencil. All announcements and news updates are made here, we have talk-backs with the cast and crew of mainstage shows after they close, and sometimes (like this Friday when Steven Lutvak comes in!) we have guest instructors or performers who often do small master classes. This was also when they brought in someone to take our headshots, we had a small class on audition etiquette, and they even brought in a nutritionist to talk about diet and exercise and to get us on our soon-to-be started diet plans, which we are all very excited but groaning about. The commons has really good pizza! After the glory of common hour, most people stayed for UPstage meetings (which could be a WHOLE other thread I cannot even get into) which is the student-run theatre organization that puts on cabarets, the student-directed shows, dance concerts, improv performances, etc. After that there were 4 Fridays of dance calls for Stage Auditions class where we learned dances from the 4 earlier mentioned eras of Musical Theatre. Barbara Hartwig instructed it, and it was taught as an example of what a dance call for an audition would be- quick paced, all about looks and technique, and right to the point. We would then perform in small groups and get feedback from not only Barbara but the rest of the class about “Who would you cast?” Sometimes it was hard to hear, but it was good advice and I miss having that class already!</p>
<p>After classes: </p>
<p>When we are done with actual classes for the day, the day doesn’t really stop. As MT Majors most of us try to take advantage of the resources that we have, so a lot of people then head off to the practice rooms to work on their songs or to the gym to keep in shape- I swear, we really do! Or we take a nap because we are so dead. But usually it’s practicing, or swapping monologues, or sitting around (often whining about exhaustion) while watching musical movies. I was not in a show last semester, but if I had been I would have been able to do so, I believe. We had one freshman in a mainstage show and 2 freshmen in a 2-person cast, student directed production and they were tired, but survived. Rehearsals are typically 6-10. I worked a lot on the box office at the large auditorium on campus last semester as an usher, so that’s where most of my free time went. We almost always have commons dinner at 6, and then head off to our separate things. If nothing else is going on, we attend yoga classes at night in a big hoard and scare people with our craziness, haha. It’s very fun. Often there are student productions, or towards the end of every semester a lot of final presentations for classes (such as Directing scenes, Acting 1 Studio monologues, the seniors capstone projects) so we get to watch those which is a ton of fun. Then, most people go to bed decently early, unless it’s Thursday-Saturday nights, but we don’t need to talk about those. ;)</p>
<p>So… there you go! Saturdays and Sundays are filled with way too much to even explain, but they are always a lot of fun. This semester (Freshman year, Spring 2011) I am taking Acting 1 Studio, Basics of Musicianship 2, Private Voice, Master Class/Recital Hour/Common Hour, Intro to Costuming, Intro to Ethics (my core class), and Ballet 1. I am also in the ensemble for “The Music Man” and playing Dinah Lord in “The Philadelphia Story” for 20 performances as well as participating in the Freshman Showcase (organized by the freshman, starring only the freshman, and performing new works from Musical Theatre), doing 50 required hours in the shop for costuming class, and working at least 10 hours a week. I’m going to die, basically. Glad I had time to fill this out before my semester of hell starts. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love it here, I love all of the people, I love being busy, and I really love being “forced” to do what I love 24/7.</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions, please ask! I plunged through this the best I could- attempting to give the best/most helpful information without overloading with too many unnecessary details. Feel free to PM me as well if you don’t want to ask on here, I am always willing to help- questions about CCU or the audition process/MT process in general.</p>
But I’m fairly confident I would have had enough time to be in one.</p>