Majors and non-majors with some experience in singing and reading music are welcome to audition for MU130 Opera and Musical Theatre Workshop. This course culminates in at least one performance each semester. Applied Music for Voice is a co-requisite for students in the opera workshop and for those performing a lead in the musical theatre workshop. For more information about the course, contact Dr. Greenwald.

Opera Workshop

The Opera Workshop performs children’s operas at local elementary schools and on campus. Admission is free, but monetary and food donations are gratefully accepted for the University Food Pantry. In 2022, after a pandemic pause, students performed Pinocchio, an adaptation of opera arias by John Davies. The cast included students from Caldwell’s Jefferson and Lincoln Elementary Schools and James Caldwell High School. Performances took place at both elementary schools and in Caldwell University’s Alumni Theatre, accompanied by Nancy Chamberlain. During the pandemic pause, students created their own operas, including The Women of Figaro, using arias from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro with an original script. In 2019, students performed the Inn of the Seven Dwarves at Trinity Academy.  Stone Soup and Three Little Pigs were performed in 2016 and 2017. Our 2014 production of Hansel and Gretel toured to McKinley Elementary School in Newark, Hazel Avenue Elementary in West Orange and at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Wayne. Past productions include Little Red Riding Hood, The Tiger of Chungshan and The Happy Prince.

Musical Theatre Workshop

The successful April 2022 performance of The Diss-functions of the Romedals was a student conceived and creatively written production using songs from popular music and musicals.  One of our most ambitious and successful productions was the April 2019 performance of Godspell, with a cast including music majors, minors and music lovers and the band included one of the original touring bassists. Previous productions have included You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, a condensed version of Brigadoon (2014) scenes from The Sound of Music (2013), Act I of Into the Woods (2011) and many original productions.

Laura Greenwald produces the Opera/ Musical Theatre workshop with director Dan Yates and accompanist Nancy Chamberlain.