Emerson’s BFA Showcases: An Entry into Broadway

A director from behind watching a line of actors standing on stage.

Performing Arts Senior Distinguished Director-in-Residence Melia Bensussen works with students last fall during the NYC BFA Showcase.

Every year, Emerson hosts BFA Showcases in Boston and New York, giving recent graduates and soon-to-be graduates in Performing Arts the chance to audition for top industry professionals, including Broadway casting directors, agents, managers, and producers. In recent years, the showcase has helped launch Emersonians into national touring productions such as Peter Pan and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

This year, Nathan Gehan ’99, CEO and founder of ShowTown Theatricals, partnered with Emerson to help coordinate the showcases in New York, held in November and May, and bring additional industry reach to the table.

New Clinic Gives CSD Students Experience, Helps Community

A new clinic at Emerson is giving graduate students real-world experience, and faculty and staff free support for hearing loss or changes.

Through the Robbins Speech, Language, and Hearing Center, the free aural rehabilitation clinic is providing graduate students in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) an opportunity to work with faculty or staff as a client, counseling them on hearing devices and assistive listening technologies, community and online resources, and communication strategies.

“We start with getting them to think about their environment—what they need, what their partners need, or when they are with different people. It’s learning how to optimize their hearing strategies,” said Senior Scholar-in-Residence Maryam Salehomoum, the supervising clinician for the clinic.

The clinic is specifically for people with adult-onset hearing loss, which is due to aging and is permanent. Clients work with graduate students to learn communication strategies as they discuss their day-to-day life and routines.

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