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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.
*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).
Candice Conder Pipkin is a professional mezzo soprano and voice teacher hailing from Irmo, SC. She has worked in the performance industry all of her life. She began performing professionally at the age of 12 in New York and in local and regional commercials. Candice graduated in 2003 with a BM in Musical Theater from The Florida State University.
Dr. Craig Allen has been celebrated as an “exemplary soloist” (Kansas City Star) possessing a “brilliant, nimble voice” (KC Metropolis), captivating audiences from opera houses to musical theatre stages. His recent performances illuminate remarkable versatility such as Zápisník zmizelého, or (The) Diary of One Who Disappeared, A New Brain, A Secret Garden and Four Opera Singers Walk Into a Bar.
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.
Casting Director Amy Brower received her BA in Theatre from Anderson University in 2008 and has worked on all sides of the industry as an actor, designer, producer, and award-winning filmmaker. In 2020, Amy founded Brower Casting, Columbia's premier casting agency that delivers top-notch regional talent to ADDY Award-winning agencies and film makers throughout the South East. She loves seeing actors succeed, and has actively coached and mentored emerging actors through the early stages of their careers. Her work includes casting and producing feature films and short films currently making waves on the international festival circuit and various streaming platforms. Most recently, she has joined the talent management team at BAM Management (NY/LA) with a focus on talent development.
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.
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.