Head of Texas State Musical Theatre Kaitlin Hopkins to Help Create First Program in Chile

Kaitlin Hopkins, Broadway actress and Head of Musical Theatre at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX recently returned from Santiago, Chile where she and her husband, Broadway veteran Jim Price, are working in collaboration with the ProJazz Institute in Santiago, to launch the very first musical theatre training program in that South American country. In addition, they are consultants to the Teatro Municipal de Las Condes http://www.tmlascondes.cl/ to assist in providing musical theater programming to Chilean audiences.

"Currently in the United States there are nearly 140 universities offering undergraduate programs in Musical Theatre. We are the first to repair this gap and offer a four-year program specialized in Musical Theatre to our artistic community," said George Abufhele, co-founder of ProJazz at a recent event in Santiago celebrating ProJazz's 30th anniversary as well as the launching of the country's premier musical theatre program. "I'm so happy, I don't know where to start" he added.

ProJazz reached out to Hopkins a year ago to broach the subject and she did not hesitate. "I immediately said yes! To contribute to bringing musical theatre training to a country that has recently embraced the art form-it was a no brainer. I am very grateful to the American Embassy in Chile for the Grant they approved to fund this exciting collaboration."

She recently returned from Santiago after she and Price met with faculty at ProJazz and taught a master class for prospective students as well as well-known actors from the Santiago theatre scene. "I was so inspired by the students in the master class," beamed Hopkins. "They were not only incredibly talented, but they were so open to any direction we gave them-they were fearless. It was one of the best days of my teaching career."

Hopkins came to Texas State University-San Marcos in the fall of 2009 and has since built one of the top musical theatre programs in the country. Her career as an award winning actress spans more than 25 years and includes film, television, and radio credits as well as plays and musicals on and off Broadway.

For additional information, please contact the Texas State Department of Theatre and Dance at (512) 245-3660 or www.theatreanddance.txstate.edu.