No matter what you currently think of GLEE, USPA was one of the first to hail its importance. Fox invited us to see the pilot before it aired and then to enter into a promotion with them in creating awareness for the show. In 2009 it was a phenomenon. Real Broadway performers with musical theater chops. Triple threats who could sing, dance and act and knew how to translate that to the small screen. We gladly screened the pilot to all our US Performing Arts musical theater camps, dance camps and acting camps across the country for eight weeks. We knew instantly that Fox had a hit on their hands when the students started texting their friends about the show before it even aired!
For two years parents asked us if we would do a Show Choir or Glee camp. Last summer we succumbed and presented an awesome Glee camp at Pepperdine University. Steve Kaminski directed the workshop and Christine Kellogg was the choreographer. The students loved it.
Presenting the camp workshop again should have been a no-brainer, right? No. That’s too easy. When we met to postmortem the camp it was clear to all of us that we would be doing the students a disservice if we did that. In everything we do at USPA we ask the question, “How does that benefit the student?” If we can’t answer it then we don’t do it. We all feel our students need more training than just a glee club/show choir presentation, as worthy as it is. Our students need to be triple threats. That’s what the stars of Glee are. And that’s what are students need to be. They need dance camp, acting camp, and voice camp. They need the triple threat training of a Musical Theater Camp intensive. Mastering those ingredients will indeed make them better show choir material and certainly will give them the option of a performance career.
We’ve replaced last year’s offering at Pepperdine University with a Musical Theater Camp intensive workshop. Students will work with the same great faculty and others to be added. They will spend their hours sweating through dance classes and learning choreography. They will learn how to truthfully become a character that an audience can relate to and they will work on vocal performance which will translate to the musical theater stage as well as a show choir performance. Their master class will focus on a glee style production number too.
We’re convinced that Musical Theater Camp is the right way to go. Come see the benefits for yourself!