After years of the Edmond Memorial High School drama department offering Drama I and Advanced Drama classes, a new class has been introduced: Musical Theatre Performance (MTP).

While musical theatre involves many of the techniques learned in traditional acting classes, it brings in additional elements that only work for a musical: characters that seamlessly break into song and dance to tell the story.

After seeing the effort and excitement put into last year’s musical, “Into the Woods,” drama teacher Patrick Towne knew that a class focused specifically on musical theatre was just what the Bulldogs needed.

“I noticed last year that there was a gap in the education of the performing arts kids here at Memorial,” Towne said. “I felt that this class was something that the kids would be interested in and would help bridge that gap between the acting world and the choral world.”

A class geared primarily towards musical theatre is somewhat of a rarity in a high school setting. Especially knowing that this class doesn’t exist at Edmond North or Santa Fe, Memorial students like Junior Ellie Marks are thrilled to have the opportunity.

“Musical theatre has been a very important thing to me in the last few years, and I really want to do everything I can to get better at it,” Marks said. “This is definitely the longest term [musical theatre] targeted class I’ve taken.”

Although school has only been in session for three weeks, the MTP class has already been hard at work. The class started by learning all aspects of auditioning, which is crucial to musical theatre. The mock-audition was something that students thoroughly enjoyed. In the mock-audition, students sang one song and recited one monologue as if they were auditioning for a musical. They later received feedback from Towne about their attire, resume and acting/singing choices.

Along with learning vital skills for the industry, the MTP class will help students explore musical theatre as an option for after high school.

“I want to broaden my experience in the musical theatre realm and really secure whether I want to go into this as a career,” Junior Adalyn Owen said.

In the world of musical theatre, auditioning for college programs requires many steps. With this MTP class, students will have the tools they need to succeed.

“Going into college for musical theatre is different than just applying for a school and getting in. You have to do that, but you also have to audition for the programs,” Towne said. “It can be very overwhelming, and I think this class will help prepare kids for that journey if that’s something they’re interested in.”

In addition to preparing for college, MTP is supplying students with extra performance opportunities. The class will have an act in Memorial’s annual talent show “Follies” and in May they will perform a musical revue titled “Bulldogs On Broadway.” Not only will those performances be beneficial for students, but it will allow the rest of the student body to see their hard work pay off.

Contact Kelsi Seltenreich at [email protected]