A Director's Insight to the Captivating World of Collegiate Music Theatre

I am always happy to talk with students about the Musical Theatre program at Wichita State! I have a deep love for this program as I was a part of it, went off to New York City to chase my dreams and enjoy a lovely performing career, and now ultimately choose to dedicate myself to teaching and fostering new generations of artists. Our goal is for our students to make a living doing what they love, graduate with strong individualized professional training, and understand how to navigate the world artistically and financially.

It is important to note that all prospective majors must audition for acceptance into the Musical Theatre program. Our second Audition Day for the year will be Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. The day will begin with a dance audition at 10 a.m. followed by assigned times for singing and acting. Students will want to prepare two contrasting 32-bar songs and a monologue. I teach you the dance audition on the spot. If prospective students are interested in joining us for this audition, they should email me at amy.baker@wichita.edu so I can get their names on the official list. If that date doesn’t work, please let me know and we can also discuss having students send in a video submission.

All prospective Musical Theatre majors will find out if they have been accepted into the Musical Theatre program by Feb. 10, 2024.

Wichita State Strategic Communications

We love that our Musical Theatre program has an equal emphasis in all three disciplines: singing, acting and dancing. You can find most of the information about the curriculum/courses that you would be taking on our website as well as a lot of general information about the program.

I think the most important thing I love about our Musical Theatre department is how one-on-one we are with our students. We work very closely with our students. From day one we know what their ultimate goals are and each semester we sit down privately and discuss each student’s progress in the program and set new goals for the following semester.

We are also extremely proud to be a playground for new musicals with our Musical Theatre Incubator Program. Every year we do a new musical and bring the writers to campus to work on the creation and development of the piece with our students. 

I could go on and on about our Musical Theatre program, so please reach out to me if you are interested or have any questions about anything!

- Amy Baker Schwiethale