The USC School of Dramatic Arts (SDA) is taking center stage this spring with Legally Blonde, a student-driven production that is also serving as a real-world learning lab. Through a collaboration with a USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism public relations class, SDA’s musical is giving students across disciplines hands-on experience in the business of entertainment.

In early March, the 30 students in part-time professor Jennie O’Hagan’s Public Relations in Entertainment class met in the Bing Theatre with Legally Blonde director Scott Faris, choreographer Dana Solimando, music director David O, and heard from six members of the cast. They were then introduced to the wide range of design work led by SDA students, including costume, lighting, sound and scenic design, as well as insights from the student technical director, production manager and stage manager. The Annenberg students then had the unique experience of watching part of a rehearsal.

This fact-finding mission helped the PR students create ways to promote the production on campus and in Los Angeles. Their efforts included writing a press release, creating several social media campaigns, pitching news outlets and working with performers to craft bios.

These are tasks professionals do in advance of any theatrical production, but it’s uncommon for a class to take on an SDA project. The collaboration exposes students to real-world creative demands, and aligns with President Beong-Soo Kim’s emphasis on interschool partnerships.

“I love the idea of working school to school,” said O’Hagan. “This project is really what the USC experience is all about; stepping outside your school, collaborating across disciplines and getting real-world outcomes, all while learning valuable skills.

“This is their final project,” explained O’Hagan. “I’ve asked them to get pull quotes from what they heard from the cast and crew, and get ideas for social media.”

Legally Blonde has special ties to USC, which create unique opportunities for promotion. Amanda Brown, author of the original comic novel on which the movie and musical are based, is a former Trojan, and the beginning of the book is set at USC. The Legally Blonde movie filmed several scenes on campus, which stood in for Harvard University. The musical’s co-composer and lyricist, Laurence O’Keefe, received a master’s degree from the USC Thornton School of Music. A new prequel television series that will be broadcast this summer features a 2024 Dramatic Arts alumna, Lexi Minetree, in the starring role of Elle Woods.

The musical, however, is set at UCLA (gasp). SDA Dean Emily Roxworthy wanted to return this production to its USC roots, and secured permission to update select lines and lyrics to reflect USC instead.

Director Faris shared that there are special guest appearances from members of the Spirit of Troy, USC’s lauded marching band.

Faris, who leads SDA’s stage management program and is co-interim director of the BFA in musical theatre, told the Annenberg students that audiences should come to “Legally Blonde” because “it’s fun and it’s live and the actors bring the energy right to the audience. It’s a really cleverly written and conceived show.”

SDA’s spring musical is an all-university production, with auditions open to undergraduates in any school. More than 100 students auditioned, and there are 27 cast members, plus a few offstage singers, as well as about 75 behind-the-scenes student designers and technical crew members. Although most cast members are students from the School of Dramatic Arts, there are actors from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, USC Thornton School of Music, USC School of Cinematic Arts and USC Marshall School of Business in the production.

All of the students involved in the production balance their rehearsals with their academics and other significant time commitments. Some of the SDA students are juggling multiple shows, and Jeremy Park, a sophomore communication major, also gets up at 5 a.m. three times a week for ROTC responsibilities.

Time management is key, the students said. As Keira Weiss, a junior in the cast, told the Annenberg students: “I’ve never been so organized in my life.”

The week following their visit to the Bing, the PR class was back at USC Annenberg, working on the press release. They divided into groups and tackled different parts of the message, working to distill the conversations they heard at the Bing into a few sentences. In short order, they crafted a credible release.

Then it was time to brainstorm social media ideas, which came easily to these digital natives. Finally, they discussed pitches for interviews and performance teasers to KTLA, the Los Angeles Times and Annenberg TV.

O’Hagan noted that there are fewer and fewer outlets that automatically cover theatre productions, so promotion of plays and musicals is needed now more than ever.

By the time students returned from spring break, tech rehearsals were about to begin for the student performers and designers, and the PR students had secured a performance and promotion segment on KTLA.

O’Hagan said the experience has been valuable for her students. “I love watching public relations students get excited about a theatre production being built from the ground up,” she said. “They get to create the strategy, decide what ideas stay and which ones go, make social media posts and pitch outside media. It’s real-world experience, but they’re still in an educational space where they can learn as they go. And it’s a perfect resume entry!”