The Edge: Musical Theatre Intensive

The Edge @ ECU: Conservatory style, hands-on training from our world class faculty & guest artists + a Performance Showcase in our Archie Burnett Studio Theatre gives you a taste of life as an ECU BFA MT student. Daily Acting, Singing & Dance classes. Rising seniors have the opportunity to be prescreened for program admission during the intensive. Guest masterclasses from industry leaders & ECU faculty. Learn the in’s and out’s of the business from its leaders.

2024

Dates: August 3-9, 2025

 

What We Offer:

Triple Threat Training:

  • MT Singing Technique & Musicianship Classes
  • Acting & Monologue Coaching
  • Dance Classes
  • Song Coaching & Audition Preparation
  • Rising seniors may complete their ECU prescreen audition during the intensive

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Performance Opportunities:​

  • Closing Day Showcase for Friends & Family in the Archie Burnett Studio Theatre

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Masterclasses & Guest Artists:

  • Alumni chats
  • Industry professionals: casting directors, agents, current Broadway performers
  • Wellness Workshops: performance anxiety, building confidence & taking care of yourself mind, body & soul

 

Tuition & Deadlines:

 Program Dates: August 3rd-August 9th 

We are accepting registrations now through July 21, 2025.  We recommend registering early, as spots are filled on a rolling basis.  Once all spots are filled, students will be placed on a waitlist.

 

Prescreen Placement Requirement: Campers must submit videos of both a 32-bar cut of a musical theatre style song as well as a 60 second contemporary monologue. Song cuts must have accompaniment, youtube karaoke tracks are fine. All material must be memorized. Please film the cuts as individual videos, including a slate (your name and title of the piece) and upload to youtube as unlisted links. Email links to doylemekkesj17@ecu.edu. Placements are due by July 21, 2025. ​

Registration Deadline: July 21, 2025 

Tuition: $525

Scholarships are available. Please contact Jessica Doyle-Mekkes for application details.  

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Questions?  Please call 252-737-2441 or e-mail Jessica Doyle-Mekkes at doylemekkesj17@ecu.edu.

 

Register for The Edge

 

EXCITING NEWS!

We have confirmed Sierra Boggess as our special Broadway guest.

SIERRA BOGGESS is an Olivier nominated actress who is regarded as one of Broadway’s most beloved leading ladies. Best known world-wide not only for re-inventing the coveted role of ‘Christine Daae’ in Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, but for Lord Webber himself going on record to say that “she’s the best, the best Christine certainly.” Boggess portrayed the role in the Broadway, West End, and the televised 25th Anniversary concert productions of Phantom.

Sierra made her Broadway debut as Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, receiving Drama Desk and Drama League Nominations, as well as the Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Female Breakthrough Performance. Her additional Broadway credits include Master Class, It Shoulda Been You, The Phantom of The Opera, School of Rock and Harmony. Boggess’ Off-Broadway credits include The Goodbye Girl, Harmony, Love, Loss, and What I Wore and Music in the Air, alongside Kristin Chenoweth, for New York City Center’s Encores! Series. In the West End, Boggess has appeared as Fantine in Les Misérables and originated the role of Christine Daae in Love Never Dies, the critically acclaimed sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, receiving an Olivier Award Nomination for her performance.

Most recently Sierra originated the role of Emma Dawes in the World Premiere production of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

Sierra starred as Lily Craven in the highly anticipated revival of The Secret Garden at the Ahmanson Theatre in LA.  She was seen as Cinderella in the Star-studded cast of the Hollywood Bowl production of Into the Woods where the Los Angeles Times raved of her “crystalline singing and gameness for comedy… Boggess’ Cinderella was enchanting.”  Prior to that she starred as The Countess in A Little Night Music at Barrington Stage (Berkshire Theatre Award), Danielle DeBarbarac in the new musical, Ever After at the Alliance Theatre as well as starred in the world premiere of the new play The Age of Innocence at Hartford Stage for which she received a nomination for a Connecticut Critics Circle Award for her portrayal of Countess Ellen Olenska.

Sierra’s concert appearances include multiple engagements with BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall, Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Series The Lyrics of David Zippel, The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, Broadway By The Year at Town Hall, Guys and Dolls at Carnegie Hall opposite Patrick Wilson, Megan Mullally, and Nathan Lane, and The Secret Garden at Lincoln Center. She has toured with her cellist sister, Summer Boggess and musical director, Brian Hertz all over the United States as well as Japan and Australia with her concert show which has been preserved live and released on CD, Awakening: Live at 54 Below

In 2021  Sierra released the album Together At A Distance, an album of classic and contemporary Broadway duets with her longtime friend and colleague Julian Ovenden. Additional recordings include Harmony, School Of Rock, It Shoulda Been You, the 25th-anniversary concert of The Phantom of the Opera (also on DVD), the symphonic recording of Love Never Dies, The Little Mermaid, Andrew Lippa’s A Little Princess, Rodgers & Hammerstein: A Night at the Movies with the John Wilson Orchestra, Where The Sky Ends: The songs of Michael Mott, A New York City Christmas: A benefit album for ASTEP and more.