Musical
Theatre

Although our weekly workshops will vary depending upon the specific challenges of the day, we will always start with a vocal warm up around the piano, before working through the ‘numbers’ from the musical we are focussing on. We always work on the singing first and then start to add staging and choreography second, once you have conquered the basics of the music. There can be a lot of tough harmony work at the beginning with lots of note bashing and repetition – it is VERY important to understand that you need to work through this in order to be able to get stuck into the staging. As a musical theatre performer you have to be good at multi-tasking and you have to be hard-working and patient! We pride ourselves on achieving very high standards in the Musical Theatre department and you will be driven hard to achieve highly. This is not a ‘quick satisfaction’ workshop and you will need to put in a lot of intense work at the beginning of exploring a new musical, before you have the chance to start staging it (which is when the fun really begins!).

All sorts! We aim to programme an eclectic and far-reaching programme of material, so that our members are constantly challenged and able to expand their musical theatre knowledge. We will explore musicals from Les Miserables to Hamilton, from Billy Elliot to Into the Woods. We choose work that will challenge our young people in different ways each season, so if one musical has lots of complex harmonies we will use that as the focus for one season, but then next time, we might chose a musical that is simpler to sing, but with trickier choreography. That being said, we always try to select musicals that are fun to work on and often our members will put in requests for what they’d like to look at next season…where possible we will incorporate these ideas.

No you can’t. The material that we explore with each age group is very carefully selected and is appropriate to the range of ages in that workshop. We have members taking part across a wide range of experiences…some who are complete newcomers with a passion for singing…others who have played ‘Matilda’ in The West End! Our directors will ensure that every member is well-looked after, challenged, stimulated and developing in the group that is appropriate for their age.

Yes, you will need to learn song lyrics in between sessions and this is really important – it is always difficult to move onto staging when you have a script in your hand, so you need to support this process. The more effort you put in between workshops, the more you will get out of the workshop.

We do ask Musical Theatre members to attend every workshop if at all possible, as we are constantly working towards a presentation. If you are absent, this really impacts on the rest of the ensemble and can have a big impact upon progress. However, if you really can’t make a session, we ask you to let us know in advance and we will endeavour to take you through everything you missed the following week. We can also send you the material you have missed via email, so you can familiarise yourself with the songs. It would be your responsibility to request the material and your job to get on top of it before your next session!

If you only attend this specialist course, then you are only eligible to attend auditions for Playbox’s musicals (usually one is staged per year). If you would like to attend auditions across the range of work that Playbox stages, then you will need to also be a member of one of the Theatre Training workshops. Our Membership Team will be able to talk to you about availability and where the Theatre Training workshops take place. Drop us an email membership@playboxtheatre.com

For our 2-hour weekly workshops on Saturdays, the fee is, £200 per season (same as school term), so costs more than the Theatre Training session. If you also attend a Theatre Training workshop as well as Musical Theatre, the fee is £190 per season.

For our 90 minute workshops on a Wednesday evening, the fee is £165 and for our hour long workshops the fee is £130.

We would love to welcome you to our wonderful Musical Theatre department! Spaces are very limited and some of the groups have long waiting lists, so you now need to contact the Membership Team on 01926 419 555 or email membership@playboxtheatre.com We will offer you a place as soon as possible!