Friday Fermata – Merry Christmas!

Christmas has, and always will be, my favorite holiday of the year.  I have such fond memories of Christmas with parents that were both very enthusiastic about it!  I hope you have fond memories as well.  And, if you don’t, here’s to creating new and happy memories of your own.  Here’s to a great Christmas and New Year! 

Friday Fermata – Nessun Dorma

I was having a long listen to my blip DJ playlist and I came upon Nessun Dorma.  Nessun Dorma is an aria that, no matter how I try (and I’ve even played games with myself to see if I could get away with it), I simply can’t get through that song without tearing up.  Every.  Single.  Time.  Take a listen here from my blip playlist.  I challenge you to keep a dry eye.  Unfortunately, blip does not have the beloved live recording that he sang at the FIFA World Cup in Italy which is the best recording I’ve ever heard (for shame, blip).  The audience could not contain themselves and started roaring with applause before the orchestra finished the final theme.  I don’t blame them.  Puccini could, alone keep Kleenex afloat in sales with his many wonderful musical passages, and Turandot, from which this aria derives is no exception.  And Pavarotti?  Well….yeah….no one like him will ever live again.

But why does it move me so?  Probably for the same reason that they would have him sing it at the World Cup.  The last lines of the aria are “I will win, I will win, I will win” or “I’ll be victorious” depending on the translation you have read.  Now, that is taken out of context if you don’t know the opera but STILL.  It is about being victorious in general and I find that the aria sounds like it.  The music, and the vocal passage sounds victorious. 

So, I play this aria in the mornings before auditions.  It is my musical pump me up.  The song is so full of life.  It reminds me of why I sing.  It reminds me of the success and potential for victory in all of us.

Friday Fermata – The Payoff

I’m not one to say that one should work just for the sake of reward but should enjoy the growth that one gets from the process.  That the reward doesn’t matter. 

But sometimes – it does….

On my way to a wedding after singing a concert.

Friday Fermata – Let’s Grow Guts

……And I’m not talking about what you see on Grey’s Anatomy, or a show about cloning. But the kind of guts that gives you the courage to just go for it. The guts that make you leap with only yourself to depend on. You need to leap to live. I don’t know about you but I’m sick of being afraid, scared, uncertain and unsure. Our business is challenging but, last I checked, being challenged is a good thing. All we can do is study our craft, market ourselves wisely, audition a LOT because, if nothing else, it gives us the chance to perform and gives us practice in dealing with the nerves to grows guts, and to keep dreaming because without dreams, what do we have? So, I’m going to stop being scared – it ends today!

P.S. This new found anthem may or may not be due to the fact that I’ve watched Every Little Step five times in a week.

Friday Fermata – Image

Diva at 5:30AM

This is how I looked this morning at 5:30AM when I was supposed to be writing a post to you all!  But.  Yeah.  Didnt’ get around to that until just now.  On my way to work, I decided that I would do a Flash Friend Feed that I had meant to do yesterday and that I would get to it after the gym this afternoon.

Then I went to the gym.

I was changing into my gym clothes and had put on my workout shorts and sports top.  I was bending over to tie my shoes and….well….let’s just say that we all have extra skin around our bellies so we can move properly and not be as stiff as a board when we walk.  And let’s just say I’m not happy with the amount I have there.  I actually reached in to the gym bag and pulled out a shirt and threw it on over the sports top I already had on to cover myself up even more.  Even worse, I said “no one needs to see this” as I pulled the shirt on. 

What? 

I angrily pulled my shirt back off, threw it back into my gym bag and said out loud how ridiculous this was!  I’m a runner and run on a daily basis.  I eat really good food now.  Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not overweight.  I have my 10 pounds I’d like to lose like 98 percent of women in the world.  I see it in the gym every day.  When women, no matter how perfectly, physically fit they are, will look at themselves every time they pass the mirror on their way out – and do so, not with a look of pride and confidence, but with a furrowed and scrutinizing brow.  And they always do the side pivot to look at their butts.  You know of what I speak.

On my walk back to work I wondered why I was still so hard on myself?   Why did this particular thought plow through my head when I’m the healthiest (overall) that I’ve probably ever been?  Will I always be this way EVEN when I’m down to my fighting weight?  I hope not.  Is it because my auditions for musical theatre come with a type-casting element where body type is taken into consideration?  Maybe.  But that doesn’t excuse the verbal abuse I handed myself in the gym.  It doesn’t for anyone.  All I can do is be as healthy and as fit as I can.  Not for the looks (ok, maybe a little) but because it will help me live longer and because I feel better.  Once I get my mind around THAT, I won’t be pinching fat and skin folds at every opportunity…..well, I’ll really try.

Friday Fermata – because acting is the new singing

We’ve read it in the recent cover article from Classical Singer magazine in their interview with Natalie Dessay and we’ve seen article after article on it.  We knew it was coming, and we should be glad.  The days of “Park and Bark” are over.  Audiences, as well as people sitting behind the audition table, want us to be skilled actors as well.  I welcomed this as I had been (I thought) acting all along.   I was confidently singing with all of the “instincts” I would need.

What was I thinking?

It only took one day (my first day) in a course at the Walnut Street Theatre to realize that I was not prepared.  At all.  I realized that a pretty voice would take me only so far, and that my “instinct,” while great, was no where near an actual SKILL.  Despite the embarrassment of that first day, I was determined to stay the course and use this experience to make me better.  By the end of the course, I had learned so much.  I learned interesting things about how to study a monologue and tools such as scripting between the lines, information that blew my mind.  I’m not done yet.  There is another acting class I would like to take this coming spring.

As part of my continuing effort to get educated, I stumbled upon a podcast site that I have to tell you about.  I was researching prices for headshots because I am SO DUE for new ones.  I had decided that I was going to go with Kristin Hoebermann, who did Elisa Matthews’s headshots, which are spectacular.   When I went to the site, I saw that Hoebermann Studios was featured in the book, How To Be A Working Actor.  I clicked on the book link and was taken to a podcast hosted by the website, Everything Acting, in which the author of the book was interviewed.

The website housed an archive of podcasts such as this.  Interviews with people in the industry, etc.

On the Everything Acting’s About Page, they state that “Each episode you will hear tips and information from legitimate industry insiders. Casting directors, agents, producers and directors will offer insights on pictures, resumes, auditions, reels, and what happens when you get the job. Get inspiration from real life audition stories; find out who got the part and how they got it!  Join us as we inform, inspire and demystify the actor’s journey.”
During the first podcast, I was grabbing for a pad and pen to start taking notes and had the sheet filled up after listening to a few more of them.  They not only give practical information but give inspirational insights that I didn’t expect.  Insights on how to stay confident, positive and motivated.

The brainchildren behind this website (and who are also your podcast hostesses) are Darbi Worley and/or Rosalyn Coleman whom are both established actresses in New York.

Acting is the new singing.  I need to embrace this and get as educated as I can. This website is a good start!  Thank you Darbi and Rosalyn!

Friday Fermata – goals during rehearsal season

Maren gets all of the credit for this post.  She is my muse!  We both have goals before us (hers with fitness and mine with food) and a marathon rehearsal schedule staring us down (but in a good way!).  Take a minute to go over to her post to see her fitness program contenders; one of which she will choose after hearing some feedback from her readers.  Maintaining a healthy lifestyle while having an unbelievably demanding schedule is always a challenge for singers.

My challenge?  Make it through my rehearsal season and maintain a healthy workout schedule and diet WITHOUT BUYING ANY FOOD DOWNTOWN NOR STARBUCKS.  Groan.  I loved Starbucks during rehearsals but NO.  no.

PROS OF THE CHALLENGE:  It’s healthy and it’s cheaper.  Some of the non-fat drinks at Starbucks are like 300 calories, OMG!  That’s 4 miles on a treadmill.  I am lucky that I have a gym 2 blocks from my office so I get my workouts done on my lunch break.  I love working out.  I like sweating and being tortured cardiovascularly so there are no motivational issues there.

CHALLENGE OF THE CHALLENGE:  My issue is with continuing to eat healthy foods with a day job and a rehearsal schedule that borders on insane.  Eating right means eating healthy foods in small meals every 3 to 4 hours.  When I’m at work (and when it’s off-season), I’ve got it down.

Then rehearsal season starts.  

My workday has just increased by 5-6 hours with those hours being out “in the field” with no refrigerator or control over when I stop to eat.  I’m getting home at 11:30 at night and if I’m to get ANY sleep, I can’t still be up preparing my next day’s meals that night….Well, I guess I could….but sleeeeep!  I commute 20 miles to work each way so no going home mid-day.  I’m tired alot during this time and Tired will punch Motivation in the neck if given the chance.

My questions to YOU, my dear 3 readers are these:

1.  Will those insulated lunch totes REALLY preserve food (like yogurt) during the entire rehearsal time?

2.  What are other good after-dinner snack ideas (which I would probably eat at the rehearsal break) that will not ROT and not contain high carbs or sugar?

3.  Do you prepare all of your next week’s meals on Sunday night? 

4.  Is there an Easy Button?

I’ll post your answers next week.  I start Pops rehearsals next week and Philadelphia Singers rehearsals the week after that.

Friday Fermata – Happy Birthday to me!

Celebrate Big

Celebrate your birthday like it’s going out of style. 

That is all.

Friday Fermata – Be brave

Anne

By the time this post goes up, my good friend will have arrived with her moving truck, in a new place to start a new and exciting chapter in her life.  I’m so happy for her.  It reminds me of what I did almost (wow!) 10 years ago when I moved here to pursue my singing career.  I was in Denver and I cried all the way to the Kansas border with my mom driving my car behind me.  After Kansas, I started to get excited.  I started to look ahead instead of behind.  Such is the cool thing about life. 

Successes are the result of all of those awesome and brave things we all do in our lives, those risks we take and the great rewards at the end.

 

Anne and I

Friday Fermata

One of my favorite places on earth.

I had a productive week!  I sent off more resumes, cover letters and headshots, asking for auditions, keeping the ball rolling, keeping on top of the wave, making my way.  They want to hear me.  They really, really do – I just have to convince them of that.  The Arden and the Media Theatres are two that I would love to sing with and they both are still casting for Sunday in the Park with George and Showboat respectively.  Keep your fingers crossed.  I’ll do a post on Equity vs. Non-Equity and when to make the jump, but sometimes, it’s better to not be equity in the casting process because they may be looking for non-equity to fill the rosters.

That picture over there is one of my favorite places on earth and where I go to re-charge – and boy, I could use some of that right about now!  I’m still in the finger cast.  Before my therapist discharges me, she wants to have the cast on for a 5-day stretch.  Yikes!  We are almost done, though, and I’ll be glad to be rid of it – and the bills.  Double Yikes.  People, I’ve got nothing today.  It’s just after 6:00AM on a Friday and I’m ready for the weekend!  Have a good weekend everyone!