New Initiative to Begin - The Musical Theatre Wellness Center

Penn State Musical Theatre has recently received a philanthropic gift that will allow for a new and visionary concept to begin—the creation of the Musical Theatre Wellness Center, dedicated to the physical and mental well-being of our students. This center will enable us to directly address student needs that currently fall outside the bounds of the educational curriculum.

We believe the student-artists in the Musical Theatre program to be high-level pre-professional performers who are undertaking extraordinarily demanding training. In this training, they also routinely deal with the emotional stress of extremely high performance expectations. In many respects, the experience resembles that of Penn State’s varsity student-athletes. NCAA Division I athletes endure long days of workouts, field practice, analysis, and strategizing—all on top of the normal academic workload that non-athlete students undertake. This is all in preparation for competition in a high-stakes arena where their performance will be judged by many people beyond their coaches and teachers. While the specific kinds of stress are different for athletes and musical theatre students, the groups are remarkably similar in the dedication they display and the physical and mental stamina they must have to succeed in a high-pressure field.

The Musical Theatre Wellness Center will build a support system for our student-artists modeled on the kinds of comprehensive systems for student-athletes found at Penn State. We envision that this initiative will take a three-pronged approach to our students’ wellness:

Physical health – Ideally this is a physical space, like an athletic training room, designed for both preventative and recuperative care. It would house necessary equipment and would be monitored by specialized staff. Nutrition would be an area of focus here as well.

Mental health – Our student-artists function within an intense, highly focused mental space analogous to what athletes call “the zone.” They are frequently critiqued in order to prepare them for the extremely high professional expectations in their field. And they know they will be entering an arena so competitive that rejection will be the norm—even a daily occurrence—when auditioning for roles. All of this is enormously taxing mentally and can result in high levels of stress. Our wellness center will provide students with mental health support tailored to their unique needs.

Vocal health – The lifeblood of any musical theatre artist, the voice is the primary instrument of the art form. This center will allow our students to understand and regularly monitor their vocal health needs and issues. Professionals will lead classes in vocal health and students will be regularly monitored with specialized diagnostic equipment.

While we have received a generous gift to begin this initiative, it will take continued fundraising to realize the full impact of this exciting and complex wellness center. Penn State prides itself on innovative ways to enhance students’ education—and this center strives to be the only one of its kind in the country for musical theatre training. If you know of anyone who would like to join the philanthropy team on this unique project, please send a note to John for more information.