About
Denison’s Music Theatre minor is unique.
Starting from their first year on campus, Music Theatre students enjoy multiple opportunities to perform — and much more. Music Theatre is an interdisciplinary program designed for students who are interested in learning about all the components of music theatre: performance as well as writing, composing, directing, dance, history, criticism, and even design work for costumes, stages, lighting, and sound.
The power of “AND”
Denison’s Music Theatre minor combines music and theatre in exciting ways. Performers and non-performers alike get the opportunity to immerse themselves in engaging courses that address a wide range of topics and techniques. You’ll get to dive into performance and theory, composing and directing, the traditional and the avant-garde.
You will take courses in acting, theatre history, and theatre design. You will study vocal and music performance, composition, and conducting. You will learn playwriting, stage management, and choreography. And you will practice all of this on stages and in workshops, with experienced faculty and artists-in-residence, guest artists, Columbus-based professionals, and playwrights-in-residence.
Create your own path
Denison’s Music Theatre minor is flexible. Build the program around your interests and major(s), and spark new creative and technical collaborations along the way. Music Theatre at Denison is for the student who wants to embrace a breadth of learning, and who can apply that wealth of knowledge to a creative landscape.
Our Curriculum
The Music Theatre minor is flexible enough to combine with any major. Students in all majors follow a program tailored to their interests and level of experience. The Music Theatre minor will help you:
- Develop the artistic, creative, and intellectual skills needed to excel as a music theatre artist
- Develop an understanding of the fundamental principles of music and theatre arts
- Apply those principles to stage production
- Develop analytical, problem-solving, and collaborative skills, a rich historical perspective, and an appreciation of aesthetic form
- Prepare for graduate study and/or professional work

The Music Theatre minor, open to students in any major, provides a grounding in the fundamental principles of the music and theatre arts as well as an opportunity to explore how the disciplines come together in both conventional musicals and productions that combine music and theatre in new and innovative ways. The Music Theatre minor is designed not only for performers but also for students interested in dramaturgy, directing, composing, dance, history, and criticism, as well as costume, stage, lighting, and sound design. Minors will gain a historical perspective, an appreciation of aesthetic form, and the tools to perceptively question their fundamental assumptions about the relationship between music and theatre.
At Denison we value the role of the liberal arts in helping students make connections across disciplines; this program is designed to spark collaboration and innovation in this interdisciplinary way. Our goal is to provide students with engaging creative experiences and to prepare them for postgraduate pursuits in Music Theatre as well as for lives as active supporters of the arts.