Pre-college Theatre and Musical Theatre Intensive
June 29th -July 2nd
For high school students (rising freshman to seniors)
10:00 am- 3:00 pm Monday-Thursday
$799
SOLD OUT (email info@denisesimoncoaching.com for wait list)
Join Denise Simon and faculty from prestigious theatre and musical theatre colleges to prepare students for the theatre college audition process. Act, sing, and dance virtually with master teachers including how to prepare your video pre-screens and learn what it takes to have a presence in the room.
Classes will be offered in:
Audition Monologues
Song preparation Shakespeare and the classical piece
Dance
Vocal & Mental Health
Preparing your pre-screen audition
Slates & Presence in the room
Q & A with college faculty
*If you are not interested in musical theatre you will have the option of adding another acting class. All students will have the opportunity to work one on one with Denise as well as group classes.
Learn what it takes to thrive in a college theatre program from the best!
Guest Faculty
Kenneth Noel Mitchell (University of Southern California) Head of Musical Theatre
Kaitlin Hopkins (Texas State University) Head of Musical Theatre Program
Catherine Weidner (Ithaca College) Chair and Professor BFA Acting
Mark Madama (University of Michigan) Assoc. Professor, Musical Theatre
Kenneth Noel Mitchell is a professor of theatre practice in musical theatre and head of musical theatre at the USC School of Dramatic Arts. Prior to that, he was the founding head of acting for the New Studio on Broadway and the associate chair at New York University. He served as the coordinator of acting at the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Professional Theatre Training Program.
As a director, Mitchell’s work has been represented in New York at the Home for the Contemporary Theater and Art, the Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Soho Rep, The American Globe Theatre, Musical Theatre Works and The Sanford Meisner Theatre. Regionally, he has directed productions for The American Stage, Stage Works, Bristol Valley Theatre, White River Junction Theatre Festival, The Asolo Conservatory Theatre, The Eckerd Theatre Company, The Fredonia Opera House, the Guthrie Experience and the Provincetown Theater. Read more about Kenneth Noel Mitchell
Kaitlin Hopkins is an award-winning actress, director, and educator and has worked in theater, film and television for over 30 years. In 2009 she created and the BFA Musical Theatre program at Texas State University, recently named one of the top 10 musical theatre programs in the nation.
As an actress her Broadway credits include: Noises Off, Anything Goes with Patti LuPone and originating the role of “Mama Who” in How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Hopkins has a half dozen cast album credits to her name and has originated multiple roles off-Broadway including: Bat Boy-the Musical for which she received a Drama Desk and Ovation award nominations, Bare: A Pop Opera, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, and Nicky Silver’s Beautiful Child. National tours include originating the roles of “Diane” in Disney’s On The Record, and “Margorie” in Dirty Dancing, and originating the role of “Tiffany” in the international tour of the John Adam opera I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky directed by Peter Sellars. Read more about Kaitlin Hopkins
Catherine Weidner is a teacher, director, and actor, who currently serves as the Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts at Ithaca College. Recent professional acting and directing credits include Third by Wendy Wasserstein at the Hangar Theatre, directed by Artistic Director Michael Barakiva, and directing Othello and As You Like It for Theater at Monmouth in Maine. In 2014, she played Silda in Other Desert Cities at the Hangar Theatre, and directed Henry V for Austin Shakespeare. Other professional credits include: directing an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma for Nebraska Repertory Theatre; Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, and Merry Wives of Windsor for the Illinois Shakespeare Festival; Two Gentlemen of Verona for Theater at Monmouth in Maine; and Or, at Caffeine Theatre in Chicago. As an Equity actor, she has worked at The Kennedy Center in A Streetcar Named Desire with Patricia Clarkson, Amy Ryan, and Noah Emmerich, directed by Tony-Award-winner Garry Hynes; at Center Stage in Baltimore in Blithe Spirit, and Mary Stuart; and at Arena Stage in Washington, DC in The Heidi Chronicles, directed by Tazewell Thompson. Read more about Catherine Weidner
Mark Madama has been at the University of Michigan since 2000, teaching musical theatre performance classes at levels from freshmen to senior; musical theatre history classes from the 1860s to the present; and directing numerous productions including Assassins, Rent, Big River, Guys and Dolls, Company, City of Angels, The Pajama Game, Nine, Ragtime, Into the Woods, Children of Eden, Good News!, The Full Monty and the Horton Foote play 1918. He has also worked on the yearly “Senior Showcase,” which is presented in Ann Arbor and New York. Read more about Mark Madama
