On May 23, Tony nominee Brandon Victor Dixon visited Professor Katherine Kavanagh’s Advanced Theatre Workshop in Theatre I, as part of a new collaboration with the BMCC Theatre Program.
“During my sabbatical last year, I began to explore a partnership with WalkRunFly Productions, which Brandon V. Dixon co-founded with Warren Adams,” says Professor Kavanagh. “Experiential educational opportunities are essential for emerging artists, and I was exploring ways BMCC students and faculty might collaborate with theater professionals.”
WalkRunFly’s producer, Jennifer Isaacson, also visited Kavanagh’s Theatre Management class this semester to give students insight into the funding process and business side of theatrical production. Later in the semester, students attended a reading of the critically acclaimed Whorl Inside A Loop presented by WalkRunFly for Broadway producers and investors.
During their session with Brandon Dixon, Kavanagh’s students presented musicals they were developing in class, and he provided constructive feedback. They were accompanied by Janet Noh, a musical and book composer who had worked with them all semester through an Enhanced Learning in the Classroom (ELIC) grant.
“The ELIC grant allowed me to offer Janet an honorarium, and was essential in bringing someone of her professional caliber to the process of creating a new musical with students,” Kavanagh says. “The session with Janet and Brandon was very successful. This was Brandon’s first visit to BMCC, but we hope to build more in-depth opportunities with him and WalkRunFly. The feedback he gave to students was practical and supportive. He inspired all of us.”
