Tuesday, May 26, 2015

BW to Broadway Touted on WKYC-TV and Huffington Post

BW's acclaimed Music Theatre program is shining in the media spotlight once again. A WKYC-TV report on the BW to Broadway pipeline featured Zach Adkins '15,  BW music theatre director Victoria Bussert and BW music theatre chair Scott Plate, plus a shout out for Kyle Jean-Baptiste '15, who graduated on a Sunday and booked a role in the Broadway production of Les Miz on Monday. The anchor lead-in to the report on Channel 3 compared the success of recent grads to "graduating law school and heading right to the Supreme Court."

Bussert is also highlighted in the Huffington Post, the subject of a profile by "The Audition Coach," Mary Anna Dennard.  In "Women in the Performing Arts: Vicky Bussert," the director of BW's music theatre program, who is also a working music theatre director, was asked to describe her "professional bliss." 

"I have always believed in the principle of training our students in order to be able to hire them," she tells Dennard. "My professional bliss is witnessing the light-bulb moment, when the student 'gets it,' and begins to thrive professionally and personally alongside seasoned performers in union productions I direct."

Bussert also cited BW's "proven New York track record: 18 showcases, and for the past six years, every graduating student has signed with an agent. For 15 years we have had a continuous presence on Broadway with six grads currently appearing in shows." 

And Jean-Baptiste will make seven!