SAVI Saturday, the workshop we held on Saturday, June 15 at Music Theatre Philly, was a huge success! The young participants pictured here are engaged in a series of exercises using SAVI Cards, the unique practice tool I designed to be used in tandem with my book, The SAVI Singing Actor. Saturday’s workshop was the debut …
Author Archives: Charlie
Soon-to-be Hot off the Presses!
Years in the making, The SAVI Singing Actor will be here in just a few more weeks! After months of writing and testing, weeks of preparation and endless late nights of revision, the long-anticipated day is here! Well, nearly here. June 24 is the big day when my new book The SAVI Singing Actor will be officially released at …
Secrets of the Cards: SAVI at MTEA
Once a year, teachers from musical theater programs all over the world gather to share best practices and new developments in their field at the annual meeting of the Musical Theater Educators Alliance (MTEA). The attendees are a “who’s who” of the field of musical theater performance training – singing teachers, dance teachers, acting teachers, …
An exciting gift from The SAVI Singing Actor!
You and I have a lot in common. We share a passion for musicals, especially the art and craft of musical theater performance. We are fascinated by the challenge of singing and acting at the same time. We probably admire many of the same individuals, the writers who create songs for musicals and the singers …
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Ghosts In The Room: The challenges of singing familiar songs
The past few weeks, I’ve been working as music director for a production that features songs with music by Richard Rodgers, many of them quite familiar: My Funny Valentine and The Sound of Music are just a few of the most well-known. The singers are thrilled to have the opportunity to sing such iconic material. …
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The Song Is You
They called him “The Voice.” Capital T, capital V, with the definite article “the” signifying his eminence, his personification of the attributes any voice ought to have. Frank Sinatra, born one hundred years ago this week, is regarded by many as the pre-eminent singer of songs in the 20th century. But what qualities that earned …
Learning outcomes at the high school level?
A friend who runs a musical theater program at an arts-centric high school wrote to inquire what skills a student graduating from her school’s program ought to be expected to possess. Her question got me thinking: what are the most important learning outcomes to be pursued in a high school musical theater program? Personally, I …
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“Whenever I feel afraid…”
Monday, October 5 was one of the more bizarre experiences I’ve had in my years as an educator. The previous evening, everyone at my school was informed via text message that the FBI had picked up a vague threat on the internet suggesting there would be a violent incident at a Philadelphia-area university around 2pm …
Come To Your Senses! Part II
Final thoughts from the presentation that I gave at “Australasian Overtures,” the international conference of the Musical Theater Educators Alliance held at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in Perth, Australia. Students sang “A Song That’s SAVI” and learned more about the SAVI System of Singer-Actor Training at my workshop. Flom-tastic photography by …
Come To Your Senses! Part I
This post, as well as the next one, is based on a presentation that I gave at “Australasian Overtures,” the international conference of the Musical Theater Educators Alliance held at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in Perth, Australia. The title of my presentation, “Come To Your Senses,” is the title of a …