Musical Theatre, BFA (NYC)

Our BFA in Musical Theatre major is a rigorous program combining training in acting, singing, and dancing with a robust liberal arts education. Our curriculum will prepare you for a successful professional career in the musical theatre industry while also providing you with the education to be a global citizen and creative changemaker. In your first year, you’ll jump right into your musical theatre training with over 12 hours of studio instruction a week. In upper-level classes, you’ll perfect your technique and prepare for your career in The Musical Theatre Song Portfolio and Professional Preparation: Musical Theatre.

Exciting Courses

You’ll have the opportunity to take a wide variety of theatre electives such as Directing Musicals, Cabaret Performance, Pop/Rock Performance, Acting for the Camera, Performing Shakespeare, Songwriting in the Studio, and Actor, Role, Celebrity: The Haunted Body on the Musical Stage.

New York City Campus

You’ll use the entire city as your campus. Whether you’re attending shows on Broadway or across NYC, completing research at the New York Public Library, or traveling to an off-campus class, you’ll experience all that the city has to offer—including masterclasses and lectures by Broadway’s finest from Jeff Calhoun to Chita Rivera to Kathleen Marshall.

Performance Experience

Our performance opportunities include fully produced musicals on campus as well as a yearly off-site Studio Workshop productions at venues such as the National Dance Institute or York Theatre Company. You’ll have the privilege of working with guest artists such as Richard Stafford, Patricia Birch, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, and Jeff Shade. Northeastern Theatre Arts alumni are working on Broadway, off-Broadway, in television, in film, at regional theaters, and everywhere in between. Many of our students also go on to graduate schools across the country and around the world.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the BFA in Acting major, you’ll be able to:

1. Use your very own imagination, instinct, and intellect to actively ignite your process. You will learn how to demonstrate the concept of “live truthfully under imaginary circumstances,” in tandem with voice training and body awareness, script analysis, and participation in rehearsal process techniques. Accompanied with respectful rigor and support, our faculty will assist you in developing and demonstrating initiative, discipline, agency, and responsibility for your work as performing artists.
2. Utilize your dance acumen generated via our Daily Dance program. Each year you’ll dance five days a week with working professionals, studying a variety of disciplines including tap, ballet, and theatre dance.
3. Sing with professional training as a result of our private voice teaching network, where you would have had an individualized course of study over your four years at Northeastern. This program teaches healthy vocal technique, vocal anatomy, productive practice routines, and how to approach song study for a musical perspective.