OBERLIN ADDS MUSICAL THEATER PROGRAM TO ITS CONSERVATORY OFFERINGS

Did you know that Julie Taymor, director of THE LION KING, John Kander, composer of the scores for 15 musicals, including CABARET and CHICAGO, and Alison Bechdel, author of FUN HOME, are graduates of Oberlin College? 

Do you realize that until this Fall, Oberlin did not have a degree in Musical Theater?

Both of these statements are true!

As stated by College President Carmen Twillie Ambar, “Oberlin is known throughout the world for its deep commitment to the arts, theater, and music. It therefore seemed perfectly appropriate to add music theater to our repertoire of excellence.”

The commitment goes beyond just adding the program, it entails an investment in space and specialized faculty—industry professionals with decades of experience in the field. 

Designed by local award-winning J. Kurtz Architects, a new facility has been located on the ground level of the Peter B. Lewis Gateway Center alongside the Hotel at Oberlin.  It will serve as the home for music theater teaching and training and be the central space for music theater majors as they discover, experiment, and realize their fullest potential at Oberlin.

The first floor of the hotel, originally designed to be commercial space, has been converted into nine faculty offices. The glass-fronted area is now two state of the art dance studios and 4 practice rooms.

The facility also contains the William and Helen Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space (The Birenbaum).  It is an off-Broadway theatre with 100-flex space seating. The program will also use multiple shared performance spaces on campus, including the 501-seat Hall Auditorium and the Wurtzel flexible black box theater that can accommodate up to 300 seats. Just recently, music theater majors performed along with students throughout the conservatory in a welcome concert for new and transfer students and their families inside a packed 1,200-seat Finney Chapel.

Heading up the program is Victoria Bussert, who has directed more than 500 shows on stages across four continents and has established herself as one of the premiere music theater educators.

Before coming to Oberlin, Bussert was director of the Baldwin Wallace University’s music theater program, named by Backstage as one of the top musical theater programs in the nation, and the Hollywood Reporteras one of the 25 best drama schools in the world. More than 90 of her programs’ grads have gone onto the Great White Way, as well as numerous others into touring companies, summer stock and regional theaters.

Besides Bussert, the Oberlin music theater faculty consists of experienced teacher-performers dedicated to providing individual instruction and mentorship in a curriculum that supports professional careers in music theater. 

The initial faculty are Matthew Webb, Laura Welsh, Lauren Marousek, Colin Briskey, Gregory Lee Harrell and Broadway veterans Cassie Okenka and Alex Sanchez. (Sanchez has appeared in 10 Broadway productions and was nominated for 2024 Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Awards for co-choreographing THE GARDENS OF ANUNCIA and Okenka has clocked more than a decade as a Broadway performer including her stints as an original Broadway company member of BONNIE AND CLYDE and SCHOOL OF ROCK and headlining as Glinda in the first national tour of WICKED.)

The Oberlin Musical Theatre program is part of an evolution of the art.  The first of such curricula was in 1969 at the Cincinnati Conservatory.  Many of the programs which followed duplicated the Cincy curriculum and teaching methods.  The Oberlin program, with the motto, “At Oberlin, music theater isn’t an afterthought—it’s an art form,” according to the program director, will start from scratch, creating a unique approach.

Though it will have its own faculty, students will take core classes from the conservatory faculty. 

Following the announcement of the major on August 19, 2024, over 600 applications for the Freshman class were received.  After prescreening their videos, there were 456 live auditions and an incoming class of 20 were selected.  In addition, 55 transfer students, sophomores through seniors, from multiple schools, were invited to join this year’s program. Ideally, in the future, each academic grade-level will have 18-20 students.

In order to make their education affordable Oberlin will meet all students’ demonstrated need, ranging from full scholarships to limited aid.

This coming year, students will participate in on-campus productions including NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 (Wurtzel Theater, December 3-10), TICK, TICK. . .BOOM! (The Cat and the Cream, March 12-13),the academic premiere of STRANGER SINGS! THE PARODY MUSICAL (Birenbaum Theater, April 23-May 3), SPRING AWAKENING (at Beck Center for the Arts, February 12-March 1) and THE WORLD GOES ROUND, a musical review of the music of writing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, presented by Great Lakes Theater at the Hanna Theatre in Playhouse Square (May 16-17) and at Hidden Valley, located in the foothills of the Santa Lucia Range in the Carmel/Monterey, CA area (January 30-February 1). 

In addition, a fourth-year student showcase will be presented in New York March 23 and 24 at the Alvin Ailey Theatre for agents, managers, and casting directors.

The evening of March 24 following their final showcase, students will perform a concert at 54 Below.

Seniors will have an earlier opportunity to strut their stuff in NYC in October as part of "Broadway Sings," produced by Cory Mach, another one of Vicky's grads to make a career on and off-Broadway.

One of the program’s goals is to help every student meet the requirements to get their Equity card by the time they graduate.

An exciting aspect of the program is the master class series that invites 10 New York agents, managers, and casting directors to campus to hear students sing and offer their critiques. This allows music theater faculty to immediately incorporate real-world feedback to better equip students for careers post-graduation.

Additionally, representatives of 10 summer stock and regional theaters are invited to campus each year to audition students for summer work.

It is with great anticipation that the theater world looks to Oberlin to observe the development of its new program and count how many of its students will be added to the list of “Vicky’s Kids” who have made it in the professional world of the theater. 

Iphigenia 2.0

IPHIGENIA 2.0 assaults the senses at Cleveland Public Theatre

In IPHEGENIA IN AULIST, which was written by Euripides, the classic ancient Greek writer of tragedy, Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek coalition is about to enter into a battle during the Trojan War. In order to appease the goddess Artemis, and encourage his troops to go into the battle in honor, he sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia. Euripides uses tragic irony, a writing device in which the audience knows the tragic hero is making a mistake, even as the character is making it, to envelop the viewers in the action. We know he is making a mistake but are powerless to stop him.

In IPHIGENIA 2.0, which is now in production at Cleveland Public Theatre in collaboration with Oberlin College, writer Charles Mee offers a reconsideration of the Euripides’ tale.

Mee, using free-wheeling lyric prose, asks many philosophical questions about honor, war, the forgotten lessons of history, and life. His device is to parallel the Greek wars and those of the modern middle east conflicts.

Though he doesn’t state it in the script, Mee might have been asking, when George Bush, Dick Cheney and the rest of the old white male neo-cons committed this country to the Iraq war, what were they personally willing to sacrifice? Did they offer to give the lives of their daughters for a cause they believed in? What were the personal consequences of their drive for confrontation? Were they really tragic heroes or just tragic?

On one level, the story concerns Agamemnon, who convinces his troops that the war they are embarking on is worth the sacrifice of many lives. The troops, in turn, ask their leader to give something up, something of personal value in exchange. Agamemnon sacrifices Iphigenia, his beloved daughter, to show his conviction. When his wife Clytemnestra finds out about the plan she becomes frantic. Iphigenia, upon discovering the plot, offers herself as a statement of purpose of a meaningful life.

The other side of tale offers some vague references about the Middle Eastern war. Unfortunately, Mee leaves the parallel somewhat vague. Ideas are hinted at, even lightly said, by not made totally clear. The audience really has to dig to make the stories analogous.

Mee claims he doesn’t write “political plays.” In my mind, that’s the problem. If he had drawn a clearer parallel between the decisions made by Agamemnon and those made by Bush/Cheney, or any other leaders who commanded conflict, but gave little beyond words as their sacrifice, the script would have been more meaningful.

The production, under the direction of Matthew Wright, is generally absorbing. The staging, which is done in a runway format, in which the audience is on both sides of the playing area, with the actors in between, provides involving visualizations. The visual ideas are well developed through good blocking. But, unfortunately due to the high ceiling and poor acoustics in the Gordon Square Theatre, lots of words get lost.

The hearing problem is made even worse because the actors tend to show strong emotions by screaming lines, often with poor diction. In addition, some of the cast, mainly the male soldiers, speak very rapidly in harsh muted voices, thus obliterating their words.

Tom Woodward does a nice job of developing the conflicted Agamemnon. Aaron Profumo makes for a physically right Achilles, Iphigenia’s betrothed. Marina Shay is fine as Iphigenia. Though her seduction scene of Achilles is convincing, Heather Anderson Boll, with distracting hair flopping over her face, is generally out of control as Clytemnestra, failing to texture her lines. She has one level of idea development--yelling.

Holly Handman-Lopez’s choreography of the fight and wedding scenes were well planned and executed. Inda Blatch-Gelb’s set, vertical banners and a floor covered with pictures and symbols, was visually appropriate. Richard Ingraham’s musical selections were excellent, but, due to the poor acoustics, maybe body microphones should have been considered.

Capsule judgement: IPHIGENIA 2.0 is a thought provoking, emotionally insightful piece of theatre that assaults the senses. It may be too abstract for some theatre-goers. Since I saw a preview performance I can only hope that the projection problems and some over-the-top acting will be reigned in as the run continues.