C In-Person Class: This class will be taught in person, in the classroom at the Vineyard Church.
Enrollment: Pandemic protocols may limit the enrollment for this class.
Registrants will be informed in advance, and a waitlist will be available.
Composer Jule Styne wrote 56 songs for Funny Girl, but on opening night, Broadway audiences heard only 15 of them. Long before a musical makes it to Broadway, it goes on the road for “tryouts” where shows are honed in front of audiences until the creators feel it is “ready for Broadway.” For some shows there is more than one Broadway opening. There are revivals, and with each revival a renewed quest to get it “right” for that day’s audience. What do the changes say about real or perceived perception of audiences’ cultural values? Join us to learn the backstory, consider what the changes say about us, the audience, and enjoy the music from some of America’s most popular musicals.
Ken Stevens began his theater career in Cincinnati where he co-founded the Showboat Majestic and served as a Rockefeller Fellow at Playhouse in the Park and the University of Cincinnati. In 1972 Ken joined the faculty of Eastern Michigan University (EMU) where he created both the musical theater program and the graduate and undergraduate programs in arts management. Following his retirement in 2014 as EMU’s director of theatre, Ken has continued to serve as a lecturer while supervising interns and supporting the resident artist program at Villa Barr Art Park in Novi and the Michigan Legacy Art Park at Crystal Mountain Resort.
