Whether you're soaring high above Broadway audiences, throwing knives at your wife on stage, embodying a upper middle class Jewish woman, or donning a pair of fabulous red boots and dancing on a conveyer belt, you had to get your training somewhere. Find out where some of this year's Tony Award winners and nominees got their start, learned their craft, and honed their skills!
Carnegie Mellon
Want to soar high above a Broadway crowd or dance on a conveyor belt in a pair of fabulous red boots then win a Tony for it? Patina Miller, Billy Porter, and Judith Light, three of this year’s Tony Award winners for their performances on Broadway, attended and graduated from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Carnegie Mellon provides conservatory training, offering students a four-year program leading to a BFA in Drama. Whether you’re training for musical theater or drama, students take the same extensive core curriculum classes of acting, voice and speech, and movement. Other notable alumni include Zachary Quinto, Megan Hilty, and Patrick Wilson.
Marymount Manhattan
Annaleigh Ashford, one of this year’s Tony Award nominees for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, studied and developed her craft at Marymount Manhattan's Musical theater program. Marymount’s proximity to all the cultural centers in New York City plays an instrumental role in a student’s development. From the New York Public Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center, where students can go and learn by watching archived recordings of former Broadway and off-Broadway performances, to the many professionals who teach master classes and lectures, Marymount’s program focus on the everything from the fundamentals of musical theater to auditioning to voice lessons. Other notable alumni include Andrew Rannells, and Adrienne Warren.
Oberlin Conservatory
As the deliciously evil, moustache-twirling villain in Roundabout’s “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” Tony nominated Will Chase got his start as an actor playing Anthony in “Sweeney Todd” at Oberlin. The school is the oldest operating Conservatory of Music in the United States, and offers over eight degrees with twenty different specialization areas, including a Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts. Other notable alumni include Judy Kuhn, who just finished a run as Fosca in “Passion” Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company.
University of Michigan
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the hottest up-and-coming musical theater composers around and Tony-nominated for their delightful score for Broadway’s “A Christmas Story,” met during orientation at the University of Michigan. The University of Michigan program offers two different concentrations for their Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performance program: acting and directing. In their first year, students will be taking an identical course load, but beginning in their second years, students will begin specialized training in their respective disciplines. Broadway’s darling sibling duo, Celia Keenan-Bolger and Andrew Keenan-Bolger also attended University of Michigan, along with "Glee's" Darren Criss.
Ithaca College
Two of Broadway’s biggest dreamboats, Aaron Tveit and Jeremy Jordan, are products of Ithaca College’s musical theater program. Ithaca’s training includes two years of coursework in voice, explaining Tveit’s and Jordan’s soaring instruments. The curriculum is highly individualized, and is performance-orientated. Other notable alumni included Tveit’s co-star in “Catch Me If You Can,” Kerry Butler, and Jordan's "Newsies" co-star, Ben Fankhauser.
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
Nina Arianda, one of Broadway’s fastest rising stars, and a Tony Award winner for her performance as the sexy, powerful Vanda in last season’s “Venus in Fur” got her start at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. One of the most prestigious theater training grounds, conservatory training is the keystone of the program. Students train extensively for three full days a week, in small groups of no more than eighteen students. Students in the drama program can expect to spend over forty-five hours a week in class and in rehearsal. Two-time Tony Award winner Donna Murphy, and last year’s Tony Award winner for Best Lead Actor in a Musical Steve Kazee are also graduates of Tisch.
University of North Carolina
One graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts is throwing knives at their wife on stage, and another is performing a reverse strip tease for Sigourney Weaver eight-time a weeks on Broadway. Tony Nominees Terrence Mann and Billy Magnussen can thank their time at the University of North Carolina for those performances. The school was the first public arts conservatory in the country. One of the most exclusive arts conservatories in the world, students study with resident master teachers, like Spike Lee and Mandy Patinkin. Other notable alumni include Jennifer Ehle and Anna Camp.
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