VCA Music Theatre has a strong connection to Melbourne’s thriving music theatre profession. Students participate in daily studio-based training with working artists, and in industry master classes with international guest teachers. We take a highly personalised approach to our training, supporting your unique qualities while developing your artistic and technical capacity.

The program offers extensive practical training in music theatre’s three principal disciplines – singing, acting and dancing – with specialist staff in each area. A fourth core subject explores the practice of these skills in combination for music theatre performance.

Breadth subjects at each year level enable you to explore cross disciplinary studies from the wider University community, accessing multi-disciplinary knowledge and skills that will build on existing knowledge or present opportunities for you to investigate and develop new interests.

You will

• Develop technical skills and knowledge required in acting, singing, and dancing for professional music theatre and the performing arts fields
• Learn to implement style and character through the performer's "instrument of expression" to the demands of text and choreography
• Work collaboratively within a creative process to create professional performance outcomes
• Contribute to musical theatre productions that create pathways to prospective employment and professional networks within the music theatre industry.

Future pathways

Upon completion of the course, you may choose to apply for a fourth-year Honours degree. An honours year provides an intensive mode of study allowing you to master your specialisation and create a pathway into advanced graduate study options in acting.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music Theatre) is a three-year degree that equips graduates with the knowledge and artistic technical skills necessary to engage and thrive in the professional music theatre industry.

The course offers immersive, integrated and experiential practice-based studio and performance studies in acting, voice, dance and music. Embedded in the cultural capital of Australia, you will learn from internationally recognised performers, teachers and industry professionals. You will have opportunities to work with visiting artists from Australia and abroad. As a graduate, you will be equipped with the singing, dancing and acting skills to perform in a diverse range of contexts including professional music theatre, theatre, television, film and cabaret.

In the first year, you will engage in foundational techniques to develop and strengthen your instrument (body and voice) enabling creative self-expression. In the second year, you will use your instrument to engage in adjustments applied to style and character. Before entering the final year of study, you will have the unique opportunity to travel overseas or undertake a professional internship. The synthesis of these skills culminates in third year with multiple capstone experiences. These capstone experiences provide the opportunity to work with industry professionals to mount two full scale musicals and an industry showcase.

Your breadth studies

As part of your course at each year level, you can select breadth subjects either from our VCA elective subjects, or explore cross disciplinary studies from the wider University community, accessing multi-disciplinary knowledge and skills that will build on existing knowledge or present opportunities for you to investigate and develop new interests.

The breadth subjects available to commencing BFA students include those in fine arts (acting, animation, dance, production, film and television, music theatre, screenwriting, theatre and visual art), as well as music education, Indigenous knowledges, law, languages, psychology, social sciences, humanities, science, marketing and many more.

More about the University’s breadth subjects

Workload

You will be on campus full time, five days a week, embedded in a collaborative and practice-based environment. Performance seasons will require greater time commitment.

Graduates will develop a rich and variable set of approaches and practices that can be applied across a diverse range of contexts including professional music theatre, theatre, television, film and cabaret, covering acting, singing, and dancing skills and knowledge to contribute to musical theatre productions that create pathways to prospective employment.

Roles

A specialisation in musical theatre could lead to a number of roles - both on and off stage, including:

• Music theatre performer
• Creator of new music theatre work
• Dancer
• Singer
• Actor

Completed secondary education recently (within the past two years); Completed some or all of a higher education qualification; Completed some or all of a VET qualification; Applicants with wo

TOEFL Internet-based test: total score of at least 79 and scores of 21 for writing, 18 for speaking, 13 for reading and 13 for listening; IELTS: total score of at least 6.5 in the Academic International English Language Testing System (IELTS), with no bands less than 6.0; Pearson Test of English Academic : overall score of at least 58 and no PTE communicative skills score below 50; Cambridge English, Advanced/Certificate in Advanced English (CAE): Cambridge English Score of at least 176 with no skill below 169; C2 Proficiency (previously called Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE) examination): Cambridge English Score of at least 180 with no skill below 180.