The President of one of America’s top universities, Professor Graham Spanier, will be leading a visit to Bristol University by his institution’s highly regarded Musical Theatre on Tuesday [8 March].

Sixteen performers will entertain an audience at the University’s Wickham Theatre.  Their appearance in Bristol follows shows in New York and London.

During the afternoon, members of the Musical Theatre will take part in a drama workshop with Bristol University students.

Each year, a dozen students are selected from about 300 hopefuls who audition nationally for Penn State’s Musical Theatre programme.  Students on the programme regularly perform in public at prestigious venues.  Recently the students appeared at the Lincoln Center, New York, before an audience of over 1,000 people.

 Like Bristol, Penn State belongs to the Worldwide Universities Network – an international partnership committed to tackling some of the key research issues of our time.  One of the purposes of the visit is to strengthen ties between network members.

Professor Eric Thomas, Vice-Chancellor of Bristol University, said: “We regard Penn State as friends. We will be proud to host their performance in our drama department, which was the first department of its kind in any UK university.”