USC Summer Musical Theatre Intensive

July 8-18, 2023

The USC Summer Musical Theatre Intensive (SMTI) takes place on the beautiful campus of the University of South Carolina. Students will receive immersive musical theatre training and college audition coaching with a fully holistic approach in vocal technique, acting, and dance. The expert faculty at USC will be joined by Broadway professionals to lead two student cohorts. In one cohort, middle and high school students will participate in a week-long intensive, polishing their skills in voice, dance, and acting. The second cohort will be fully comprised of college-bound high school juniors and seniors who wish to major in musical theatre and want to build, perfect, and record their college audition packages and pre-screens. The program will culminate in a staged showcase performance, and college-bound students will receive final pre-screen videos upon completion of the program.

Tuition

Non-Residential/Commuting Students 7-day Musical Theatre Intensive: $540 (meals not included)
Non-Residential/Commuting Students 10-day College Audition Package/Intensive: $870 (college audition pre-screen videos/coachings/materials included; meals not included)
Residential Students 7-day Musical Theatre Intensive: $1850 (14 and older, room and board included)
Residential Students 10-day College Audition Package/Intensive: $1995 (college audition pre-screen videos/coachings/materials included; room and board included)

*All students will rehearse/perform in the final showcase performance
**Students participating in the College Audition Package will also receive all college audition pre-screen materials (songs, monologues and dance videos)

Register now and reserve your spot with a non-refundable $160 deposit (online) by July 1, 2023.

The balance is due by July 5th via the same link listed above. Checks and money orders are no longer accepted.

Meet the Faculty

Michelle Moslemi-Haché - Artistic Director

Kurdish-American singer and director Michelle Moslemi-Haché has been an award-winning vocal instructor for over 16 years, specializing in crossover, contemporary musical theatre, and classical voice. Haché received her graduate degree from The Juilliard School and is currently on faculty as the Instructor of Musical Theatre at the University of South Carolina. Haché has been a reviewer for The Austin Chronicle and Broadway World, as well as a national adjudicator for the NATS and Hal Leonard Vocal Competitions. A successful college audition coach for both classical and musical theatre programs, Haché’s studio members continue to earn placement in leading conservatories and young artist programs, scholarships and awards in national vocal competitions, and casting in Broadway productions and tours.

Steven Gross - Music Director

Steven Gross has worked on Broadway, Off-Broadway, the West End and internationally as a music director, conductor and pianist. He is a Lortel Award nominee for Best Musical, and he has collaborated on new musicals with Award-winning composers including Benny Andersson & Bjorn Ulvaeus, Cy Coleman, David Friedman and Mark Hollmann. Gross also works as an orchestrator and arranger for many symphony orchestras, theatrical, digital and online productions. He is currently the program head of The Abbott MFA in Musical Theater Collaboration Program at Temple University, and he is the CEO/Founder of MusicalTheaterSongs.com.

Gillian Scalici Albrecht - Founder of Broadway at USC and Resident Master Artist

With an extensive resume of television, film, cd, concert and cabaret credits, Gillian Scalici Albrecht’s career spans from New York City across the US and throughout Europe. Albrecht performed the roles of Bebe Benzenheimer and Diana Morales with the original cast of A Chorus Line on Broadway. She also appeared on Broadway in the Jerome Kern musical Very Good Eddie and has performed with Michel LeGrand, Hal David, George Faison, Moni Yakim as well as appearing as solo vocalist with Marvin Hamlisch in his Symphony Orchestra concerts around the US. She has appeared in lead roles as Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy, Sally Bowles in Cabaret, as well as featured roles in Hair, J.C. Superstar, Godspell, Chicago and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, On the Town and Oliver across the US, just to mention a few. One of the original founders of The Stage School of Music Dance and Drama in Hamburg, Germany, Albrecht returns to lead master classes. She is the original founder of Broadway at USC.

Serena Hill-LaRoche - Instructor of Voice

An award-winning vocal artist, Serena Hill-Laroche DMA, has earned praise for her “power, virtuosity…and elegance.” The 2006 Artist of the Year with FBN Productions, Inc., Hill-LaRoche received a Doctorate in Musical Arts and a Master of Music from the University of South Carolina, both in Vocal Performance, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Alabama. She was a 2003 finalist in the Southeast Regional Metropolitan Opera Auditions, and in 2003, the Bizet Award winner for the Orpheus National Young Artist Vocal Competition. Currently, she is an instructor of voice at the University of South Carolina.

Patrick Michael Kelly - Instructor of Acting

Patrick Michael Kelly is an actor, administrator, director, educator, fight choreographer, playwright, producer, and sound designer. Kelly received his Master of Fine Arts from the NYU/Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program after receiving his BA in Theatre from the University of South Carolina. Along with developing his plays at NYU Studio Tisch and UofSC Beaufort, Patrick trained with The Second City and Victory Gardens, and he has taught at Dartmouth College, NYU, and performed Off-Broadway at La MaMa E.T.C., Virginia Stage Company, and WNEP Theater.

Heather Stokes Kopacz - Instructor of Dance

A graduate in Dance Theatre from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in New York, Heather Stokes Kopacz has been dancing and performing since the age of three. Born and raised in Columbia, Heather trained with the Bolshoi Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, The Radio City Rockettes, and the University of South Carolina. Studying dance with Calvert Brodie, Brodie Burnham, Columbia Ballet School and Broadway Bound, Heather has served as an instructor of dance for the University of South Carolina School of Dance, the USC Summer Dance Conservatory, as well as Broadway at USC.

Craig Allen - Voice Instructor

Craig Allen has been described as an exemplary soloist (Kansas City Star) with a brilliant nimble voice (KC Metropolis). He has been seen in numerous recent productions, including Company, La Boheme, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Die Fledermaus, Diary of One Who Vanished, and he has performed in theatres across the country from Washington to Florida. Craig has been a soloist on the concert stage with the Winthrop University Chorale, Dubuque Chorale, Musica Vocale, Simon Carrington Chamber Singers, Walla Walla Symphony, Whitman College Chorale and Orchestra, Loras College, and the Mid-Columbia Master Singers, among others, and has been a chorister in many houses in Europe. Craig is also an accomplished dancer, having danced featured roles in ballets including Cinderella, Giselle, Nutcracker, and Snow White. Mr. Allen has danced with many dance companies throughout the years, most recently with Moving Body and the Wanda Project. His directing and choreographing credits include 9 to 5, Down in the Valley, Dubuque Chorale’s Breaking Boundaries, Memphis, In the Heights, Dogfight, West Side Story, and White Christmas. Mr. Allen has been vocal instructor at many institutions and is currently on the faculty at Winthrop University and is pursuing his doctorate in vocal performance from University of South Carolina. For every year he has been employed at Winthrop University, Professor Allen has had numerous national finalists and winners at the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition as well as other prestigious competitions along the way. Craig has a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Missouri-KC Conservatory of Music and Dance and degrees in voice and theatre as well as a minor in dance from Texas Tech University.

Greg Boatwright-Collaborative Pianist

Greg Boatwright, pianist, composer, director, received BM, MM, and DMA degrees from the University of South Carolina. Boatwright’s career has consisted of long-term tenures with Heathwood Hall School, Palmetto Center for the Arts, Town Theatre, FBN Productions, and the Summit Club. Boatwright currently serves as Director of Music at Virginia Wingard Memorial UMC, and will serve as Artistic Director of the Broad River Arts Center in 2023. Boatwright joined the staff of Broadway at USC in 2017, and currently serves as the primary collaborative pianist within the Musical Theatre concentration at the University of South Carolina.

Cynthia Flach - Director of Admin

A native of St. Louis, Mo., Cynthia Flach has taught for the University of South Carolina’s Department of Theatre and Dance since 1989. She has been active in musical theatre since elementary school, training at St. Louis area dance schools and performing for many years with the St. Louis Municipal Opera (THE MUNY). A graduate of Webster University, she has been on the faculty of numerous dance and theatre schools as well as The University of Missouri, Stephens College, Lincoln University and Columbia College in Columbia, Mo. as well as Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina.

Meredith Howell - Teaching Assistant/Admin Assistant

Originally from Swansboro, NC, Meredith Howell graduated from East Carolina University in Greenville, NC with her B.M. in Music Education. She has recently moved to Columbia, SC to obtain her M.M. in Vocal Performance at USC. She is also the graduate assistant for Carolina Music Studios.

School of Music