BWW Blog: A Week in the Life of an LIU Post Musical Theatre Student

As I head into my third week of the Second Semester, I am slowly falling back into the groove of school. While it certainly is not easy doing theatre classes socially-distant with masks, I am still exceedingly grateful for the opportunity to continue learning and growing with my peers. The LIU Post theatre department has been able to embrace the challenges thrown our way and I am happy that we have continued to thrive and make great strides with our craft.

This semester, as I briefly detailed in my last blog post, I am taking part in both in-person and online classes. A majority of my "movement"-based classes are occurring in the studio spaces, while my more vocal classes meet online. My schedule is pretty jam-packed this semester, with 6 total classes and a Production Laboratory for my upcoming show The Wolves (streaming March 19-21, email post-theatre@liu.edu to reserve your tickets to see our filmed production!). I thought it would be fun to share with you what my schedule normally looks like as a BFA Musical Theatre student, so here is a week in my life:

Monday/Wednesday:

9:30 AM- Intermediate Acting II: I start my day out with an acting class! In this class, we continue to learn and build on the foundation that we developed freshman year in regards to scene work, scoring, analysis, and different forms of acting technique. This semester, we are focusing on the works of Chekhov and Ibsen for our scene work. In addition to scene work, we have been placing a lot of focus on our energy and accessing vulnerability for ourselves and our characters while in the space.

11:00 AM- Intermediate/Advanced Ballet: Right after acting, I jog over to my morning ballet class. This class is certainly challenging and I love how it pushes me out of my comfort zone and encourages me to work hard! My favorite parts about this class are how my professor plays Broadway instrumental music for barre and "Color Wednesdays", where we are allowed to wear whatever color leotard we want (given that the dress code is normally black leo, pink tights).

12:20 PM- Lunch! I head over to Hillwood Commons with some of my friends after ballet to grab some food and hang out before we have to get back to homework and classes.

3:30 PM- Intermediate Tap: One of my favorite classes on the schedule! Tap is one of my favorite styles of dance, so I always love getting to work on it in the studio whenever I can. In this class, we review the basic technique and begin to add on more advanced steps and terminology. We also learn and work with tap choreography from famous Broadway shows and movie musicals.

6:30 PM- Rehearsal!: Rehearsals for all shows at LIU Post normally take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. (I will spend another blog post talking about the rehearsal process for this show and how we are navigating live theatre within the pandemic). To sum things up, rehearsal is super fun and it is always a great time getting to play and explore during the process.

Tuesdays/Thursdays:

9:30 AM- Modern Theatre History: Another one of my favorite classes this semester! We spent all of last semester looking into Classical Theatre History and how it evolved over the years. Now, we are taking a deep dive into the world of Modern Theatre History, and examining how society has transformed over the years and affected theatre work that was produced for the public. This class falls under the category of a WAC course (Writing Across the Curriculum), meaning that we do a lot of writing and the final project/exam usually includes a big research paper related to a topic of our choosing. I love the freedom we get in this class and as a whole it has been very eye-opening and informative of the theatre industry throughout the decades.

12:30 PM- Voice and Speech II: In this class, we work on understanding the pedagogy of how the voice works, as well as how to effectively use our voice for the stage. We spend a lot of time doing exercises designed to help us ground our breath and body, in addition to focusing on the articulators. We also learn about diction and dialect as it corresponds to different regions around the country and the world. In order to apply what we have learned and understand how the language of a play affects its meaning, we work with various texts from well-known plays. All in all, it is a very challenging class, but highly rewarding.

2:50 PM- Personal Voice Lesson: I have my individual voice lesson once a week for 50 minutes with the fabulous Michelle Malardi. All of the voice teachers at LIU Post are highly accomplished and amazing at what they do. I feel as if I have grown significantly since beginning my training here at Post, and I always look forward to my weekly lessons.

4:00 PM- Independent Study: In addition to my BFA, I am also working towards a minor in Advertising. For the minor, I am participating in an independent study where I have been taking a deep look into how social media, marketing, advertising, and PR affect and assist current Broadway shows in the industry. I love that I am able to include my theatre knowledge and training into my independent study, and I am grateful to have this one-on-one class time with my professor.

6:30 PM- Rehearsal!: As I said before, rehearsal is always a fun time and one of my favorite parts of the day.

Fridays:

10 AM- I don't have any classes today, but I usually like to wake up early, grab Starbucks, and do homework before rehearsal!

2:00-10:30 PM- Rehearsal! Friday's consist of day-long rehearsals, which allows us more time to work and play in the space.

Overall, I am so happy to be back at school and learning! While the days are busy and long, I love that I am able to study and train in something that I am passionate about.

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