Music Theatre and Stage Performance

Learning Objective
This course provides students with skills and tools to develop the visual aspect of music performance, and furthers their aesthetic understanding of music theatre. It lets them expand their creativity and share their ambition for visual success. Students learn how to create and produce their own works, and how to express themselves as performers of works by others.

Course Description
An awareness of the complex relations between music, movement, image, and stage lies at the core of the programme. The students will examine a variety of topics, such as body awareness, the combination of instrumental playing and theatrical movement, emotion-oriented visualization, interdisciplinary collaboration, etc. A special focus will be given to the exploration of interdisciplinary paths between music and other performing arts.
The course is open to composers, conductors, instrumentalists, and singers from both the Classical and Jazz Departments. Previous experience with music theatre is not required. However we require that participants:

  • are interested in alternative roads of music interpretation
  • have something to say about the potential of musical theatre as an expressive medium

  • want to develop themselves as performing artists

Method of Instruction
The course will last one academic year and combines monthly two-hour group sessions (fixed dates) with individual coaching (flexible dates). In the group sessions, the participants will work on a variety of exercises that involve physicality, image, and space. They will watch, hear, and discuss relevant music theatre works and collaborations of previous decades (Mauricio Kagel, John Cage, Robert Ashley, Samuel Beckett, a.o.). 
The individual coaching is designed to boost students’ performance skills, by self-designed exercises (etudes), 'trial-and-error' approaches (possible answers to questions), 'just-do-it' experiments, and a focus on stage behaviour. The amount of individual coaching will depend on the profile of the student.

Course details

teacher Jorge Isaac, Virág Dezsö
term September 2023-June 2024
participation A maximum of 10 students will be admitted. Please note that students who cannot meet the required attendance and commitment requirements will be asked to offer their place to others on the waiting list.
assessment each student will present a (short) music theatre performance at the end of the study year. Collaborative projects across faculties (i.e. dance, theatre, video) and the use of live electronics are encouraged.
credits 10
related electivesThe Musical Body
  Creative Performance Lab
  Baroque Dance: Practice and Notation
  Transdisciplinary Approaches: Composing Time and Space
Delen