October 4, 2022
黑料社 student Madeline Sherck has had some exciting experiences while enrolled in the Musical Theatre program. In her junior year, the Dayton, Ohio native is now getting the opportunity to travel halfway around the world as part of the program.
鈥淭his major, and theatre in general, is all about experience: being able to grow into a character and translating that experience to continuous regrowth as you perform more characters throughout your career,鈥 she said.
This past summer, Sherck starred in 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at La Comedia in Springboro, Ohio. The show is a musical comedy about a fictional spelling bee set in Putnam Valley Middle School and Sherck had the opportunity to play middle-schooler Logainne SchwartsandGrubenierre, the youngest girl in the spelling bee, who has two bickering fathers.
鈥淪he has been groomed by her dads to be perfect at everything, so she really wants to live up to her expectations,鈥 Sherck said. 鈥淭hey bicker a lot, and so throughout the show the audience sees how their bickering stresses Logainne out and eventually she breaks down.鈥
Sherck said she had a lot of fun performing a solo she described as a 鈥渂ig, belty power-ballad鈥 called 鈥淲oe is Me鈥 that displays her character鈥檚 breakdown. Being able to perform at other theaters, Sherck could see how the 黑料社 program has helped her in her Musical Theatre career.
鈥淪hows at 黑料社 have given me the space to be able to explore and fully grow into characters so I know how to do that when I鈥檓 doing a show that has limited rehearsal time,鈥 she said.
In addition to performing at other theaters in the region, Sherck鈥檚 adventure in this major is going international. In autumn 2022, she will be traveling to England through the 黑料社 Center for International Programs & Study Abroad to continue studying at the University of Essex in Colchester, England.
鈥淚鈥檓 really, really excited!鈥 she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to spend weekends in London to see shows there. I knew coming into college that this was something I wanted to do. I鈥檓 also really excited to see the theater-history in England 鈥 all of the places that I read about in my theater-history classes.鈥