Music theatre alum: Mackenzie Garcia

My life at the University of Adelaide began in 2020 with the uncertainty of what the next three years would look like, but with so much excitement for the road ahead. 

Within the first three weeks of classes, Covid-19 had struck, putting everyone indoors and placing all our learning online. 

As the Bachelor of Music Theatre is a performance-based degree, all dance classes, acting, and vocal lessons were taken online via Zoom making it all the more challenging. Fortunately, by second semester we had resumed in person and were able to meet the incredible faculty and our peers face to face. 

Throughout the course, the Bachelor of Music Theatre degree provided me with amazing opportunities to put the tools I was learning in the classroom on to the stage, in both University productions and involvement in professional projects such as the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and commercial musical theatre shows. 

My cohort was fortunate enough to have the privilege of working with Nikki Snelson (Broadway actress) in our graduating production of Legally Blonde where I gained an internship and was placed as dance captain. 

With the guidance and tutelage of the Music Theatre team, I was able to harness and improve my skills to be prepared for the industry whilst also gaining resilience and furthering my own personal growth. It is such a positive learning environment with an exceptional array of lecturers providing students with all the tools necessary. 

Since graduating in 2022, I have moved interstate to Melbourne to follow work opportunities and I’ve landed a wonderful agent. A few months into 2023, I was successful in landing a role in CDP Theatre Producer’s Dog Man the Musical, written by Tony Award-nominated Kevin Del Aguila, giving me the opportunity to travel the country and perform in bucket list theatres such as the Sydney Opera House and The Athenaeum Theatre.