Broadway singer, dancer and actress Sutton Foster arrived on campus Tuesday to begin her five-day visit to the Department of Theatre and Dance to teach master classes, give students feedback about their work and speak about her experiences as a performer.
Foster, who won the Tony Award in 2002 for her performance as Millie Dillmount in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and recently played the role of Princess Fiona in "Shrek: The Musical," is scheduled to give a free public lecture at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Sursa Hall as part of the department's Guest Artist Series.
Her appearance marks the fifth year she will be involved with the theatre and dance department, but it will be her first visit to Ball State University.
Department chair Bill Jenkins said Foster wanted to visit the campus and department when she taught master classes to Ball State theatre and dance students for the annual New York showcase, which she has done for the past four years.
Now that Foster's run as Fiona has ended and her solo concert tour has not yet started, she had enough time to leave New York for an extended visit to Muncie, he said.
Her trip to Muncie includes meeting students in all aspects of theatre, from acting and dance to design technology, Jenkins said.
Foster wrote in an e-mail that she hopes to share her hands-on experiences with the audition process, self-marketing and new musical development from her professional work with Ball State students.
"I am constantly impressed and inspired by the level of talent and commitment that the students possess," she said. "I feel passionately about this new and next generation of actors and about continuing to nurture and support arts and theatre."
In addition to her onstage personas, Foster has played the role of muse to junior musical theatre major Maren Ritter.
Ritter's previous theatre roles include the title role in her high school's production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and Jo in last year's "Little Women: The Musical" performed in Strother Theatre, both roles Foster has played. Ritter said she listened to Foster's performances over and over in preparation for both characters.
"She's gone a path through Broadway that would be my ultimate dream," Ritter said. "I just hope I can get there."
Ritter and 13 other students will meet with Foster Saturday morning as part of an immersive learning project through the Virginia Ball Center for Creative Inquiry. The group will read-through "The Circus in Winter," the students' original musical adaptation of Hoosier native Cathy Day's novel about families associated with the circus. They will then receive feedback from Foster.
Ritter and Jonathan Jensen, senior musical theatre major, said Foster's repertoire of original productions like "Shrek: The Musical" makes her qualified not only to help the group with performance aspects but also with how to bring a new character from script to life.
"Teaching us her process will be most beneficial to this program," Ritter said.
Associate professor of theatre and project coordinator Beth Turcotte said a visit from a performer like Foster is an opportunity teachers hope will happen for their students, but she has no expectations or goals for the Broadway star's interaction with her group.
"That's the joy of this," she said. "It could go a million ways, and directing it can kill spontaneity and growth, so I don't direct too much. I just let it find its own life."
Foster's fame and influence in contemporary musical theatre reminded Turcotte of Broadway stars she had admired.
"When I was their age, Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters were the Sutton Fosters of their day," she said. "I think that if I could have met them then, I'd be flipping out."
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