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How to Prepare for Advanced Training in Musical Theatre: What You Need to Know

Advanced Training
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Pursuing a career in musical theatre requires talent, dedication and a solid grasp of foundational skills. As you prepare for advanced training, such as the courses we offer at Italia Conti, there are some key areas you should focus on to ensure you are ready.

Perfect Your Core Skills

Before you can think about advanced training, you need to excel in the three core disciplines of musical theatre: singing, acting and dancing. If you feel like one of these areas is letting you down, you should spend time refining those skills. That might be through vocal training, acting classes or dance practice.

Work on Stamina and Physical Fitness

Musical theatre requires a huge amount of stamina, especially once you get to the advanced stages. To sing, dance and act for, sometimes, upwards of 2 hours, performers must be physically fit with excellent stamina.

To prepare yourself for advanced training, start incorporating fitness into your day-to-day life. This will help you build endurance and strength. As well as the obvious weight and aerobic training, you might also want to work on your respiratory system to help you control your breath throughout your performances.

Master the Audition

Auditioning is an essential part of a performance career. Thankfully, the more you practise the more confident and comfortable you will be with the audition process.

Before starting advanced training, ensure you have prepared a range of audition materials like monologues, a dance routine and a few musical numbers. You might also want to attend mock auditions to help you get used to the audition process.

Get to Know the Industry

The performing arts industry is always evolving and keeping up-to-date with this is a part of being involved in it. You should be aware of current trends in musical theatre, styles and casting directors of the moment. You should also know about and attend new productions.

This knowledge isn’t integral to getting the roles you want, but it will definitely set you apart.

Book an Italia Conti Advanced Training Course

Once you’re keeping up to date with the industry and your fitness routine, and you’ve mastered the basics and your audition, you might want to enrol in an advanced training course, like our BA (Hons) Musical Theater or BA (Hons) Acting (Musical Theater).


Alternatively, if you are still wondering how to get into musical theatre, our Certificate of Higher Education is a great place to start.

  • “I have just graduated from Liverpool Theatre School with a Level 6 Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre. I wanted to do the BA Hons (Top Up) in Professional Arts Practice course to further develop my skills for the industry. It is the perfect balance between academic writing and creativity. I already have seen improvements, both in my academic and performing work, and I now really value the ability to critically reflect on past experiences in order to improve my current skills.”

    - Sarah Collinge – Musical Theatre Performer Current Student, Class of July 2024
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    - Kate Drummond – Actor Current Student, Class of July 2024
  • Current Student, Class of July 2024
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    - Amy-Jo Sumner – Musical Theatre Performer
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    - Rachel Ward – Performing Arts Tutor Graduate, BA Top up Class of Sept 2022
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