The Hollywood Reporter featured Azusa Pacific University's Theater Arts program in an article entitled, ["Amid Lockdowns, Universities' Actor Showcases Go Online: "Change Needed to Happen Anyway." The piece explored how university theater programs had to adapt in response to COVID-19, with students self-taping their performances for year-end theatrical productions, which are geared toward talent rep audiences. Along with APU, the article featured other top theater programs in the nation including Yale, Julliard, USC, and Carnegie Melon.
The Hollywood Reporter article said that after social distancing measures fade, many schools will likely continue to incorporate video into part of their showcase models. On-demand video allows agents and managers flexibility with viewing the showcase and democratizes the process by introducing reps to schools whose presentations they otherwise wouldn't attend and by allowing schools that aren't local to save money on travel and accommodations. APU's Theater Arts BFA Showcase and web series format, is a leader in this space and one to emulate, according to top talent agent Anthony Boyer.
The following is an excerpt from the article:
"Boyer noted, schools that are interested in combining in-person and video performances for their showcases might look to one peer institution that has already pioneered one dual format: Azusa Pacific University. The Azusa, California-based school has, over the last few years, created a webseries of graduating students for reps to view while also performing live monologues at the American Film Institute in the spring. "It just answers a lot of questions: It gives you a sense of [students'] personality but also a sense of their on-camera work," Boyer says. "Those are things I would love to see schools lean into"."
APU's talented theater arts team, includes Jill Brennan-Lincoln, MFA, chair, director of APU's BFA in Acting Industry Showcase and executive producer of the web series; Alex Hluch, MFA, assistant professor, producer of the web series; Ashley Bagwell, social media coordinator, BFA Showcase website developer; and Kirsten Humer, MFA, program director of the BFA in Acting for the Stage and Screen.
Read the article.