The final scenes: Musical theater class puts on a show

Grove City College’s Department of Music will host its third annual Musical Theater Workshop performance at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4 in the Little Theater of the Pew Fine Arts Center.

The performance is free and open to the public.

Fourteen students will showcase what they have learned this semester in Musical Theater class. Coming from all majors, they honed their skills in singing, acting, dancing and stage movement.

“There is a lot of collaborative work that happens amongst the students. In addition to performing, the students serve on costume, props/scenery and media crews,” Sasha Piastro-Tedford, vocal instructor in the Department of Music, said.

An impressive 11 scenes in total will fill the show. A few well-known pieces like "Easy Street" from “Annie” and "For Good" from “Wicked” will be performed alongside lesser-known and newer pieces like "A Stud and A Babe" from “I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change,” "In the Beginning" from “Children of Eden ”and "Secondary Characters" from the show of the same name.

“The students have to complete a lot of background information and character analyses for their scenes, as well as an exploration of their musical theater type,” Piastro-Tedford said. By doing self-reflection and gathering others’ opinions, the students find their type, which is the kind of characters they would likely play based on their appearance, voice type and personality traits.

Micah Mooney ’20 of Sellersville, Pa. found his type to be more “sidekick” than main character, and as a baritone/bass, he says he typically ends up as a “bad guy” or “old man.” He’ll be performing in “Invocations and Instructions to the Audience” from “The Frogs” by Stephen Sondheim and “Requiem” from “Dear Evan Hansen” by Justin Paul and Benj Pasek.

“My main two songs stretch me in opposite directions, one very serious and one very comical, so this year has been a great chance to stretch my acting and singing skills,” he said. “The class is very fun but a great opportunity to learn various roles and get coaching in the musical theater style.”

According to Piastro-Tedford, a variety of majors are represented in the class, though many students, like Mooney, are taking it to fulfill a requirement for a Musical Theater minor.

For the minor, students complete 22 to 25 credit hours of course requirements, including private lessons in voice, that address musical theater as both an academic and a performance medium.

Grove City College’s Department of Music provides students with preparation for a career in music, private lessons on every instrument, opportunities to perform and hone their skills with a variety of high performing ensembles and the chance to share the glory of music with the campus and community.

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