To BFA or Not To BFA – Is That The Question?

Is a BFA Degree Part of the Recipe for Musical Theater Success?

Part I of my conversation with Joe Deer, co-author of Acting in Musical Theatre

Sooner or later, any serious singing actor faces the College Question – should I study musical theater in college? And what do I have to do to get into my “dream school” and continue my journey? Perhaps you’re facing that challenge now, or you’re a teacher whose students are grappling with these issues. Or perhaps you’re a college student or graduate blessed with hindsight about that big decision and its eventual outcome, or a college teacher involved in recruiting and screening prospective students. I’d love to hear about your point of view regarding college in the comments area below, whether you’re auditioning for it, you attended it, you avoided it, or you teach it.

Joe DeerRecently, I had the opportunity to talk with someone who’s uber-qualified to offer valuable advice on this topic: Joe Deer, co-author of Acting In Musical Theatre: A Comprehensive Course and author of Directing in Musical Theatre. Joe is Distinguished Professor of Musical Theatre and Director of the Musical Theatre Initiative at Wright State University, where he heads the BFA Musical Theater Program. He’ll be offering a workshop at the upcoming Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) National Conference in Cincinnati for high school teachers who want to help their students prepare for college auditions. He had a ton of valuable advice about every aspect of preparing for college auditions, way more than I can fit in a single post. In this post, I’ll talk about Joe’s recommendations regarding choosing a degree; stay tuned for more of Joe’s wisdom in upcoming posts!

Why College?

Let’s start with the big question: do you want to study musical theater in college? Do you think that making, performing and teaching theater is likely to be an important part of your life for years to come? Then it’s smart to continue your training with qualified educators, and college is a great place to do that.

Of course, Joe says that, and of course I endorse his recommendation; after all, he and I are both professors who teach at schools with well-established BFA training programs. But we don’t make this claim just to boost enrollment at the schools that employ us. Nowadays, college is the “default” option for students considering a professional career performing in musical theater, and nearly every artist on a professional stage has a college degree on their CV. A good college experience will equip you with valuable tools and techniques, broaden your understanding of the arts and the world in general, and introduce you to fellow artists who are likely to become your lifelong friends and collaborators. It will help you make the transition from “student” to “professional” by providing career skills and networking opportunities.

Kiss Me Kate photo call

It’s still okay, though, to question whether college is your best option. Maybe you’re impatient, and full of self-confidence. Maybe you don’t thrive in the classroom environment, or you’re not cut out for the “academic” side of college. There may be no good reason not to sally forth and begin your career right now. If you’re talented and a marketable “type,” you should give this some serious thought. Your youth is potentially one of your biggest assets, and spending the next four years in school might be a wasted opportunity. Voice lessons, dance classes and acting coaches can all be found outside the walls of the university, and online resources like The SAVI Singing Actor are available to provide additional specialized support wherever you are in your journey.

I’ve found that teenagers who have such a high level of self-possession is the exception, not the rule. One of the chief functions of undergraduate school is to provide students with the opportunity to finish growing up, in a stimulating and supportive environment. But college isn’t cheap, and you should weigh the value of the money that you will spend (and borrow) to attend against the value of growing up in the sheltered environment of the university.

Major in Theater?

Once you’ve decided that college is your path forward, is majoring in musical theater the right choice to make? Should you major in theater at a school that gives you a broad range of options and electives? Or choose a major in another field that you feel passionately about and study theater as an elective or extracurricular option? Each of these paths is a worthy one, and any of them could lead you to a role in a Broadway show or a life spent working in the professional theater.

Joe emphasizes the importance of thoughtful planning at the outset of your college search. Do you want to perform on a Broadway stage? Run a theater company in your hometown? Write or produce original work? Be a teacher? There’s no reason not to dream big at this point in your young life; very few people succeed without a big dream to keep them motivated. But it’s crucial that you think specifically about your own path, and not follow someone else’s. Take the time to consider these options and discuss them with the people you trust most – your friends, your teachers, your parents – then choose a degree path that fits with your dream.

BA or BFA?

If you’ve got your heart set on majoring in theater in college, the next big decision facing you is: BA or BFA? Actually, even stating the question that way is a little misleading, since it’s not a simple either-or choice between the Bachelor of Arts and the Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees. For musical theater, there’s also the BM (Bachelor of Music) route, and there are two-year Associates degrees (like the AA) and non-degree options available as well, but with Joe Deer’s help, we’ll tackle the controversial “To BFA or not to BFA” decision first.

College degrees are like recipes, or formulas, that dictate the distribution of credits and experiences that you’re likely to have during your time at school. Generally speaking, the BFA is more focused and intense. A larger percentage of the credits you take in a BFA program will be in the area of your major, and a smaller percentage will be devoted to electives and general studies (liberal arts or so-called “gen-eds”). In a BA program, a smaller percentage of course credits are devoted to the major, leaving you more freedom to explore a broader range of subjects and courses. Typically, the BFA requires an audition for admission (in some cases, a very competitive one), while the BA does not.

BFA: focused, intense, conservatory, vocational, audition
BA: broad, exploratory, liberal arts, no audition

The Bachelor of Music degree in musical theater, as its name implies, is a degree offered by a music program, and philosophically that means that music is the center of the training. In these programs, you’re likely to find more credits devoted to music than to theater or dance. Similar ingredients, but a different recipe, somewhere in-between the BFA and the BA.

Many people think that the BFA is the only way to go if you’re serious about your craft. If you get admitted to a BFA program, you’re more likely to be surrounded by serious, talented, highly-motivated classmates. The fact that these students had to clear the hurdle of a highly competitive audition and selection process to gain admission means you’ll be in pretty fierce company. And BFA programs tend to put more emphasis on career preparation, including opportunities for networking, self-promotion and professional development, which is another plus. But not everyone who wants a BFA can get in; most BFA programs have a limited capacity for enrollment. Nor can everyone afford them; “name” programs with strong cachet don’t need to offer much in the way of “discounts” and scholarships to fill their enrollment quotas, and the sticker price can be upwards of $50,000 a year – yikes!

Plus there is a potential downside that comes with the tightly-focused intensity of a pre-professional conservatory program. The pressures that come with high standards and a competitive student body can be overwhelming for some students. The narrow vocational focus of the curriculum often frustrates a student who seeks a broader, richer exploration in their undergraduate education.

Still, the impression is out there that the BA in theater is for the also-rans, the ones who aren’t quite good enough or rich enough to get into a BFA program. This impression is reinforced by the schools that offer a BA-to-BFA track, that is, a curriculum that admits students to a BA track and offers them the opportunity to audition (usually in the fourth semester) for admission to a more exclusive BFA track. It is Joe’s observation that at schools that offer both a BA and a BFA, the students in the BA track are likely to find their opportunities (and their self-esteem) diminished.

For what it’s worth, both Joe and I are graduates of BA programs, and we both did okay. Of course, in our day, dinosaurs roamed the earth, and the number of BFA conservatory programs was quite small; since then, we’ve seen a proliferation of BFA programs in musical theater, and an enormous growth in the pool of applicants seeking admission to such programs. But Joe and I both felt very well-served by our BA experiences. There was no New York showcase at the end, and no high-strung stable of thoroughbred students to compete with. There was, though, an abundance of capable, compassionate faculty and an environment that encouraged and supported exploration, risk-taking and project-based learning while holding students to a fairly high standard of excellence. There’s no reason to turn up your nose at the BA experience, even if you’re a serious singing actor. You can still get a first-class undergraduate education and continue to pursue your passion in a variety of ways.

It’s worth pointing out that the lines separating these degree options are blurry. There are BA programs with highly accomplished faculty and demanding advanced-level coursework, whose graduates are very competitive in the professional employment market. There are BFA programs that are increasing the breadth of their offerings, in the belief that students are not optimally served by a narrow trade-school orientation in their curriculum. Joe speaks for many educators in BFA programs when he observes, “We need to do a better job of encouraging our students’ curiosity and thinking of the educational opportunities that college can offer beyond vocational training.”

So, to return to my initial analogy, you need to consider the ingredients as well as the recipe – the faculty, the campus environment, the opportunities in the region. It’s possible to make a terrific dish using a simple recipe and outstanding ingredients, and the reverse is also true: a great recipe doesn’t guarantee a good meal if the right ingredients aren’t used. To sort them out, you’ll have to do your homework, and that’s what my next post will be about.

A Little Quiz

John Stefano from Otterbein University created a little quiz to see whether you’re more the BA or the BFA type. Try answering the following questions by circling the appropriate number from 1 to 7, where 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree.

1. I absolutely cannot imagine being anything other than a professional actor.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

2. I want to learn about as many different subjects as I can in college.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

3. I am an actor, singer and a dancer, and I want to spend my life performing.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

4. I really enjoy spending time in classes in literature, history, social science, etc., listening to lectures and engaging in discussions.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

5. Except for being onstage, I’d rather be in dance class, or acting class, or choir than anyplace else in the world.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

6. I need lots of solitary time, to think and to write.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

7. I need to be active and busy all the time.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

8. I am really torn between doing a BA or a BFA degree in Theatre.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

Add up your scores on the even questions and the odd questions. If your score on the odd-numbered questions is significantly higher than your score on the even-numbered questions, then you’re probably going to be more comfortable in a BFA program. If your even score is significantly higher than your odd score, then you probably want to be in a BA program. And if your scores are more or less equal, you should examine both options closely, looking for a program that gives you the right balance of freedom and focus. There’s more about this quiz and this topic on a thread on the College Confidential forum:

For another point of view, there’s a compelling essay on “The Green Room Blog” titled “Why Your Degree Doesn’t Matter,” in which the author, who goes by the handle “The Reckless Artist,” writes about her college experience. She writes, “Most of the people I’ve met in my travels working around the world, not only have never heard of the “prestigious” department that I placed on such a pedastool [sic] when I went there, but they don’t know what a BFA is.” That’s an important reality check – what you do with your education is as important as the school you choose to attend.

So by all means, consider all the options when considering your future as a college student. I’ll pass along Joe’s valuable advice about choosing schools in the next chapter of this post.

Dear readers, what was your college experience like? Do you have any pearls of advice for prospective students? Or burning questions about this topic that I haven’t answered yet? Leave me a comment below!

It’s No Disgrace To Use Your Face!

DibbleHerringbone3
Actor Ben Dibble projects great intensity with his facial expressions in Flashpoint Theatre Company’s production of the musical “Herringbone”

The face is the ultimate “organ of expression.” Its chief purpose is to transmit information for the benefit of those around you – I’m friendly, please approach; I’m scary, better step back; I’m lost, can you help me?; I’m in the mood for love, are you? Communication like this is central to our survival as a species. How else to explain the exquisite network of muscles that have developed on the face for the purpose of transmitting facial expressions?

Studies by psychologists have shown that our words account for a small percentage of our actual communication. Vocal tone and facial expression account for the majority of the information we transmit. If the words you’re saying and your tone and expression don’t match those words, people are more likely to disregard your words and heed your non-verbal messages. (Imagine someone saying “I love you” while their facial expression is tense and troubled, for instance. Which would you believe – the words or the face?)

Caeli2All this is crucially important information for the singing actor, and yet it’s information that many singing actors seem to be hesitant to use to their advantage. Some of my students are initially surprised by the idea they need to master the messages that their faces transmit. The idea that there might be a “technique” associated with the face seems almost like heresy. After all, the face is supposed to work unconsciously, right? All those muscles, they’ll do what they’re supposed to and send the right message if I’m feeling the right feelings – isn’t that how it works?

Acting teachers warn their students about the sin of “mugging,” making faces to show emotions they don’t feel. “Leave yourself alone!” is one of the central tenets of Sanford Meisner’s approach to acting; trying to manufacture emotion or counterfeit its expression on the face is one of the cardinal sins an actor can commit in an acting studio environment.

How Are You Feeling Today?

Wesley Balk’s analysis of the face and its role in the expression of emotion while singing remains seminal and enormously important. He writes about this with great detail in his 1985 book Performing Power, describing it as “controversial” but noticing that students with a background in singing were more open to exploring the technical aspects of facial communication than those with a background in acting:

“The idea of making faces, grimacing to convey emotions, or even working with facially oriented techniques is anathema to those who have studied and worked in American theater traditions. … Actors were more resistant than singers because [of these] … preconceived notions… Singers, being involved in a highly technical act to begin with, accepted the concept more readily. … [T]he change and growth made available through the exercise and development of the facial/emotional mode have been genuinely astonishing.” (141-2)

Maggie2Psychologist Paul Ekman has undertaken decades of noteworthy research into the psychology of facial expression, and demonstrated that the conscious use of certain facial muscles can arouse organic emotional responses. Susanna Bloch built on Ekman’s findings to develop the technique known as Alba Emoting, an innovative “psychophysical” approach designed to help actors create and control emotion.

This means, when I hear an acting teacher rail against paying conscious attention to the face as an organ of expression, I take those objections with a grain of salt. The work of Balk, Ekman and Bloch, supported by my own experience working with students in the studio for several decades, tells me I’m on solid pedagogical ground.

One thing my own experience has taught me is that singers who simply “leave their faces alone” often wind up expressing very little apart from the effort of singing, even if they’re in a strong state of emotional arousal. The facial distortions that are the result of the effort of singing are further compounded by the natural tendency (particularly evident in adolescents) to want to conceal rather than reveal our innermost feelings. Singers need help becoming familiar with the workings of the face, exercising and toning those muscles so that they are flexible and expressive and learning how to counteract the distortions that singing often produces.

Here are the ways I encourage my students to put this knowledge to use:

1. Warm up and condition.

The face is an important part of the SAVI Workout, and you can begin to improve your facial expression using these techniques. Use a “facial flex” (sometimes called “gurning”) to stretch and energize every muscle in your face. The SAVI Workout slides include a mini-lesson in facial anatomy to help you isolate various areas of the face and give them all equal attention. Collect some photographs of faces in extremes of emotional expression and try to mimic the facial muscles used in the photos. If you want to be comprehensive in your approach, gather faces associated with the most common emotional states (Ekman focuses on the emotions of anger, fear, happiness, sadness, disgust, and curiosity in his studies; Bloch’s basic six are tenderness, eroticism, anger, fear, sadness, and joy) and try them on like “facial masks.” Spend part of the beginning of every practice session “turning your face on,” and give yourself a quick “facial flex” right before you take the stage to sing.

The use of the eyes within the facial mask is so important that I’ll devote a future post specifically to the eyes. During your warm-up, though, you should definitely be attentive to the muscles that control your gaze as well as the muscles around the eye that control your eyelids and the “squint” muscles below the eyes. Squinting is a common unconscious side-effect of vocal effort and diminishes the expressiveness of the eye. Practice singing with an open, expressive eye, and move your gaze about in different directions to cultivate a “thinking eye.”

2. Explore deliberately.

Whether you’re vocalizing to build technique or working on repertoire, it’s always a good time to explore how you might use your face while singing. Deliberately activate difference muscle groups while you sing. Bring out your pictures and try on some of those facial masks, using one for each phrase. It doesn’t matter if the faces match the emotions of the repertoire exactly; indeed, there’s plenty of room for creative discovery by trying out faces that you might initially think don’t “fit.” Use a mirror or, better yet, a video camera to get feedback on what your face is saying. A full-length mirror is commonly part of any vocal practice room, but watching yourself in the mirror requires a kind of split attention which can be confusing and inhibitory; video is better because you can watch yourself calmly after the fact, rather than while you’re in the midst of being expressive, and rewind and replay as often as needed til you see clearly what you need to change.

3. Craft thoughtfully.

Make decisions about how you’re going to use your face and when you’re going to change your facial expression. Facial expressions usually change “at the ding,” that is, when a new phrase begins, and remain relatively unchanged for the duration of the phrase. Deciding to make a change is sometimes all you need to do; it may not be necessary to decide the exact nature of the facial expression you’re going to use next so long as you make a change. An effective singing-acting performance has SPECIFICITY, and this pertains to the use of your face, for sure. If you are deliberate about making some changes in your facial expression, this will help you to achieve VARIETY in your performance. And it’s always important to work patiently and persistently with each expression until each of your choices has AUTHENTICITY, the quality of truthful expression. To be ready for performance, you will need to have practiced the coordination required to choose your facial expressions and change them at the “dings.”

Your singing acting will take a big leap forward if you condition your face so that it’s supple and strong when you want to express feelings. Try to expand your facial vocabulary of expressions by imitating examples form real life. And incorporate decisions about how you’ll use your face and eyes into your performance plan. These three steps will help you take your singing acting to a whole new level!

“A Song That’s SAVI”

Insights from “The SAVI National Anthem”

I’m a songwriter as well as a teacher, and I love it when I find ways to synergize my passions. A few years ago, I decided that setting Axiom One, the foundation of the SAVI System, to music would help my students remember it and embrace it:

WhenISingWhen I sing, I will create behavior
That communicates the dramatic event
Phrase by Phrase!
Each time I raise my voice in song,
I’ll make a specific choice in song
And I’ll sing a song that’s SAVI
All of my days.

Students all over the world have sung this song, and when they do, I like to think they’re making a commitment. They’re embracing the fundamentally creative act of singing acting – to “create behavior” – and the responsibility to “communicate the dramatic event” that gives purpose and meaning to their creation.

The second half of this stanza elaborates on the “S” of SAVI, “specificity,” and there’s a verse for each letter in SAVI. (I’ll write about “A,” “V” and “I” in future posts.) Singing a song that’s SAVI involves more than just creating random behavior; the behavior you create must be specific to the dramatic circumstances, the specific moment (“what’s happening now?”) and to the verbal and musical details expressed in the phrase. Making a specific choice means answering Stanislavski’s Fundamental Questions – who is singing? to whom are you singing? When and where are you singing? And above all, why are you singing? What do you want and what are you doing to get what you want?

At its most fundamental level, choice-making is about being specific – I choose “this” and not “that.” Those specific choices extend to the behavior itself: I choose “mezzo-piano” and not “piano,” I move my gaze to the left, I clasp my hands together, I add vocal color to a particular syllable for emphasis, and so on. There are a million details to be considered, a million options available, but the successful singing-actor has made specific choices and committed fully to those choices. The act of choosing, of being specific, makes it possible for you to commit fully, which further enables you to unlock your performing power.

Songwriters often try to express something universal through song, a sentiment that is familiar and recognizable, but as a singing actor, you make the familiar and universal come to life by making it specific, building a foundation of personal truth and believable detail that will bring clarity and force to the phrases you sing.

The churchy vibe of my song was quite intentional. I think of it as a solemn vow, an oath; indeed, the sheet music is subtitled “The SAVI National Anthem!” Just as our Sabbath visits to church provide an opportunity to re-visit and re-consider our most fundamental values and re-new our commitment to those values, every visit to the practice room or the studio should offer a similar chance to re-connect with the basic principles that guide us. When you sing this song, you voice a promise, a pledge to put first things first and honor the most important of the values all singing actors share.

Sell It, Baby!

Janet Sells It!I don’t know about you, but salesmen really turn me off. On the phone, at the door, in my inbox: it doesn’t matter where I encounter a sales pitch, I’m almost always hostile to the effort to sell me something.

That’s probably why I used to cringe when I heard a particularly regrettable bit of musical theater parlance: “sell it, baby!” The idea of “selling a song” dates back to the days of Vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley, and the phrase conjures up a desperate cheesiness, an unwelcome assault on my sensibilities.

But my eyes were opened, and my opinion changed, by Daniel Pink’s most recent book, “To Sell is Human.” Pink begins his book by observing that many people share my prejudice against salesmen, but by the time he’s finished, he’s made a strong case to prove the art of persuasion is essential in practically all walks of life.

David Alan Grier as Sportin’ Life in the recent Broadway revival of “Porgy and Bess”

Particularly useful is Pink’s notion of “non-sales selling,” which he describes as “persuading, convincing and influencing others to give up something they’ve got in exchange for what we’ve got.” Seen from this perspective, many songs have a built-in sales pitch. In “There’s a Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon For New York,” the insidious Sportin’ Life lures Bess with a vision of the high life they’ll live away from Catfish Row. In “Dogs Versus You,” Annabeth Glick has to persuade Harry Witherspoon to give up the bequest from his late uncle’s will to help support the Universal Dog Home. In “See, I’m Smiling,” Cathy has to persuade Jamie to give her attention even though he’s distracted by the social whirl of his literary crowd.

The character who is singing wants something, and in cases like the ones I’ve cited above, the person being sung to has the power to fulfill that desire. Other times, the person being sung to is standing in the way, and the song is animated by the singer’s attempt to remove that obstacle. Think about Fanny Brice declaring, “Who told you you’re allowed to rain on my parade?” or Mama Rose persuading her obdurate father in “Some People,” pleading “Come on, Papa, what do you say?”

To Sell Is Human In the language of acting, the singer has an OBJECTIVE, a goal. The act of “persuading, convincing and influencing others” is not about selling the song per se, but it is about persuading the listener so you can get what you want. In order to attain your objective, you undertake a series of specific actions – you “DO” things – and it is frequently helpful to express those actions in the form of action verbs, in the infinitive form: to cajole, to plead, to threaten, to seduce, to explain.

Makes me think about Stew’s comment from last week about wanting “people who sing…like human beings that have a voice.” It’s human to want something, to desire it intensely, and it’s human to try to persuade, convince and influence others to get what we want. “To sell is human,” and to “sell it” when you sing isn’t just human, it’s … well, it’s a SAVI thing to do.

Rockin’ out in musicals – six keys to success!

SINGERStew, who co-created the musical Passing Strange with Heidi Rodewald, and whose new musical Family Album opens tomorrow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, said, “We don’t like musical theater actors so much.”

Did that make you flinch? I did when I read it.

Contemporary theater artists like Stew, inspired by the vivid immediacy of rock, continue to look for ways to bring rock into the theater. Rob Weinert-Kendt wrote a provocative piece for American Theater about this phenomenon, claiming that the “American musical’s next wave” is “a jam session between indie bands and theater artists making vital new music together.”

What does this mean to you? If you’re a singing actor, sooner or later, you’re gonna sing a rock song. And according to Stew, if you’re a “musical theater actor,” chances are you’re gonna suck.

A recent survey of audition notices showed that more than half of the roles in musicals being advertised called for “pop” or “rock” vocal styles, while only 5% called for “legit” singing. If you can’t sing pop and rock music convincingly, you’re diminishing your employability and running the risk of becoming a vocal dinosaur.

Does the prospect of singing rock in a musical make you feel confused?

American popular music started rocking out before most of us were born. Hair, the granddaddy of Broadway rock musicals, ushered in the Age of Aquarius in 1968 and had a recent successful Broadway revival just five years ago. Shows like The Who’s Tommy, American Idiot, Rent, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Spring Awakening are just a few of the Broadway hits that prominently feature rock scores.

But rock music and the traditional “Broadway” musical don’t seem to play by the same set of rules. That makes it confusing when a singing actor has to sing a rock song in a musical, doesn’t it?

Do you riff or stick to the written score? Sing with a “clean” sound or a “dirty” one? Use the text to tell the story, or just as a pretext to make some wild sounds? Fight the groove, or put it “in the pocket?” Continue reading “Rockin’ out in musicals – six keys to success!”

“The Same is Lame!”

"The Same is Lame!"
“The Same is Lame!”
I recently spotted a bus ad for the Uniqlo retail chain, sporting the image of Pharrell Williams wearing a hat with the slogan “The Same Is Lame.”

Right away, that got me thinking about the V in SAVI – Variety – and my efforts to get my students see each and every phrase as an opportunity to communicate what is unique and different about that phrase when compared to its predecessors.

I describe the difference between work that is thoughtfully differentiated phrase by phrase and work that is delivered with a general wash of attitude as being like the difference between shishkebab and applesauce.

Applesauce – good for toddlers, bad for singing actors!
In a dish of applesauce, every bite tastes the same as every other bite, and Same is Lame.

Contrast, change, difference – these are things that attract attention, that make us curious, that light up the circuits in our brains. The nervous system is aroused by change, and conversely, it is lulled and deadened by repetition.

That’s why I advise my students to Always Be Choosing, and Always Be Changing. These, for me, are the ABC’s of singing acting. By “always,” I don’t mean every single instant, since that would produce nothing but chaos. However, every single ding affords an optimal opportunity for choosing and changing.

Making a choice is good. Making the same choice over and over is a problem, though, and Pharrell will tell you why: Same is Lame.

There’s no tunes like show tunes!

GGuideI’m feeling particularly inspired after listening to the soundtrack of this year’s Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. From the first seconds of the recording, my theatrical Spidey-senses were tingling: this year’s Best Musical features honest-to-god show tunes! No emo indie rock, no recycled jukebox grooves, but brilliantly original theater music with dense, intricately rhymed lyrics, distinctly articulated rhythms, and a bright, colorful orchestral palette. (And did I mention the legit singing?) A big shout out to composer-lyricist Steven Lutvak and his collaborator, librettist and co-lyricist Robert L. Freedman, with mad props also to venerable orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, for their accomplishments.

Of course, almost any kind of music can be “theater music.” This year’s Tony for best score and best orchestrations went to Jason Robert Brown, whose score for The Bridges of Madison County is equally distinguished and equally theatrical, though it’s as different from Gentleman’s Guide as chalk from cheese. The other nominees included Beautiful (Carole King’s pop hits, theatricalized with bio-jukebox arrangements), After Midnight (jazz standards fresh from the Harlem scene) and Aladdin (Disney middlebrow maestro Alan Menken, in collaboration with Howard Ashman, Chad Beguelin and Sir Tim Rice). There could scarcely be a more eclectic collection of musical styles than these, but they all have something in common: the songs are dramatic events, delineating the characters and supporting the story.

Yes, theater music is marvelously diverse, and the shows that excite me these days reflect that phenomenon: at one end of the spectrum, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1818, Fun Home and Gabriel Kahane’s The Ambassador, slated for a stage production at BAM this fall; at the other, Kiss Me Kate, which I directed this spring, and The Student Prince, which I’ve been excavating this summer with the idea of developing a contemporary college musical around it.

886837-001It makes things hard for the singing actor. Most definitely, you need big ears as well as an open mind; you never know what the next potential gig will call for. Over the years, I’ve preached the gospel of versatility to my students: explore as many styles as you can, and work on the ones that you find an affinity for, practicing until your expression in that style becomes absolutely authentic. Load up your iPod and your Rdio playlist with all sorts of music, theatrical and non-, and listen up!

The choice of Gentleman’s Guide as Best Musical offers some reassurance that the type of theater music I’ve always loved hasn’t gone entirely out of favor. And the SAVI Singing Actor will recognize that nearly any song can be an opportunity to tell a story, and has the tools to communicate a dramatic event by creating expressive behavior while singing.

Full disclosure: As composer and lyricist for more than a dozen musicals, the SAVI Savant gets pretty opinionated about show tunes, but he considers that an asset, not a liability. Got your own opinions? Leave a comment below!

Top tips from award-winning actor Forrest McClendon

Wild With HappyActor Forrest McClendon would be the first person to tell you he’s blessed. A chance call from a casting director led him to a leading role in The Scottsboro Boys, a musical by Kander and Ebb helmed by Susan Stroman. The success of that show is now part of history, and also part of his story – the transfer to Broadway, the Tony nomination, the regional theater productions, the London premiere at the Young Vic, and now, a West End opening scheduled for this fall. In between his Scottboro forays, Forrest has flexed his artistic muscles pursuing his twin passions: Shakespeare (Othello, Brutus) and new works (currently, Colman Domingo’s Wild With Happy at Baltimore’s Center Stage, photo right). Add to that the fact that he was just chosen as one of ten Lunt-Fontanne Fellows for 2014, a program that recognizes “the most accomplished regional-theater actors in the country,” and you’ll understand why I say the man is blessed.

I’ve been blessed to know Forrest for many years, and was lucky enough to convince him to come to Philadelphia to join the musical theater faculty at the University of the Arts twenty years ago. The man is unquestionably a compelling educator, and considers the work he does teaching and mentoring young artists to be as important as the work he does onstage; for him, these twin endeavors are two sides of the same coin. In honor of his recent honors, I decided to offer these two top tips from Forrest’s playbook:

1. Choices.

Making choices is the heart of the actor’s work, and no one embraces this notion more fervently than Forrest. “Always Be Choosing” is the ABC of the SAVI System, but Forrest takes this idea as far as possible – to XYZ, that is. He uses an A-Z worksheet to develop choices for every character he plays; in a play where he portrays multiple roles, as he does so brilliantly in The Scottsboro Boys, every character gets the A-Z treatment. Among my favorites on the list are F (“family”), K (“keepsake”) and T (“theme song”). Z is for the character’s Zodiac sign, and X, provocatively enough, is for “xxx,” the element of sexuality and violence in the character. Forrest’s work on choice-making builds on the foundation of Stanislasvki’s “fundamental questions” and the idea that developing a rich and complex character is both a forensic and a creative process.

2. Lyrics.

Here’s a video clip from the fall of 2010 in which Forrest recounts his first encounter with composer John Kander, and Kander’s advice to him about singing a song.

“Above all,” admonished Kander, “put over this lyric!”

The phrase “put over [a] lyric” has a particular meaning in singer’s parlance; it means to sing, act and enunciate the text in a way that makes its meaning apparent for the listener. When the lyric has been successfully “put over,” it is sometimes said to have “landed,” in the way that a rock landing on your head or a spaceship landing in your back yard is impossible not to notice. Conversely, a flaw in the song or the performance can cause a lyric “not to land,” that is, to remain hard to understand when delivered in performance. Getting every moment in a song to “land” requires a deft collaboration between writer, composer, director and performer.

Forrest McClendon as the lawyer Samuel Leibowitz in The Scottsboro Boys
Forrest McClendon as the lawyer Samuel Leibowitz in The Scottsboro Boys

Whether “putting over” a song like “That’s Not The Way We Do Things” from The Scottsboro Boys or one of Othello’s monologues from Shakespeare, Forrest uses a combination of robust diction and vivid choice-making to make a lyric “land.”

In the SAVI Lexicon, I refer to this quality as “traction.” Forrest and I understand that a dramatic text has to move the listener from point A to point B, to move them to a place of greater understanding and greater empathy. In order to do this, the singer’s delivery must have force and direction. Think of using a pickup truck to drag a trailer out of a muddy hole where it’s gotten mired. That truck needs to have some traction – the ability to pull that trailer along, with force, in the desired direction.

It wasn’t just good fortune that led Tony voters to nominate Forrest as Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, or the Ten Chimneys Foundation to designate him a 2014 Lunt Fontanne Fellow. In both cases, the voters recognized an artist at work: someone who has put his formidable technique at the service of the stories he is passionate about telling.

5 things you can do to keep your singer-actor edge this summer

KristenIt’s summertime, and the living is easy!

Actually, summertime can be a challenging time for serious singing actors. During summer, all the normal routines seem to fly out the window. If you’re a student, that means classes and lessons are probably on hold. “No more pencils, no more books” – well, that may be what children chant in the summertime, but if you’re a serious singing actor – that is, someone who’s really committed to a journey of continuous growth and improvement – the lack of structure can feel disorienting, a bit of a letdown.

Or you may have a whole new schedule – a summer job (full-time or part-time), maybe in the theater, but maybe not. That means new people in authority, new routines, a new environment. Stimulating, yes, but easy? Probably not!

Either way, in the summertime it’s distressingly easy to lose your edge as a singing actor. Through the fall, the winter and the spring, you’ve trained like an Olympian, devoting countless hours to studying, preparing, practicing, rehearsing and performing. With the structured activity of classes, lessons and projects to spur you on and organize your time, you’re “gaining from your training,” acquiring greater mastery of techniques, skills and repertoire, going deeper and higher and bigger than you’ve ever gone.

Come the summer – big let-down, right? And after you’ve taken a break, had a bit of rest, visited the fridge once too often, you find yourself itching to get back to work.

Good news! There are plenty of things that you can do in the summertime to keep your edge. Even without a teacher, a class or a rehearsal to go to, there are things you can do at home (or pretty much anywhere) that will not only help you maintain crucial skills but keep you growing, exploring and discovering new things. Here’s a short list of five things you can do to keep your edge this summer:

1. Make the time.

Pick out times in the week you’re willing to dedicate to continued training. It doesn’t have to be a huge commitment – start small, with something you can manage easily. Three 30-minute time slots in your week. Put them on your calendar – not only when, but where. Make a date with yourself, and honor your commitment. Studies have shown that people who make a specific commitment about when and where they’ll practice are much likelier to actually practice; otherwise, your desire to practice hangs in the air like an unresolved chord, making you antsy and anxious for reasons you can’t quite put your finger on.

David CaeliTrack the time you put in in your calendar or journal, and give yourself some love when you stick to the plan. Or here’s an idea – find yourself a practice buddy, someone who’s as crazy as you are about singing acting. When you make your schedule, tell your plan to your buddy, and have them reciprocate. Then report your progress, truthfully, and support your buddy in their efforts to keep their own commitments. Social media tools like Facebook make it possible for you to have the same kind of support network you benefitted from during the school year.

2. Work it out.

The singing actor is like an Olympic athlete. Many of the skills that you need are the kind that are acquired through patient repetition over the long haul – in other words, you’ve got to train to gain, and if you don’t use it, you lose it. A comprehensive workout will get you going vocally, physically, emotionally, even in your face and eyes, so that you’re continuing to strengthen and tone those “organs of expression.” The SAVI Workout is a great place to start; it’s a proven sequence of activities that engage you fully, testing your expressive range, stamina and coordination. Use it with your favorite vocal exercises or pieces of songs you know.

Check out the SAVI Workout NOW!

Your workout should be intense but brief. You’ll gain more from ten or fifteen vigorous, focused minutes working through the steps of a structured workout than you will from the same amount of time spent purposelessly singing through songs or scales. If you’ve slotted half an hour into your day, devote at least ten of those minutes to working out. If it feels good, you don’t have to cut it short, but it’s better to establish a compact, steady routine than to go on a practice “binge” followed by a prolonged period of inactivity. Read more about conditioning and “train to gain” on the SAVI Singing Actor site.

3. Tell a story.

For the SAVI singing actor, it’s axiomatic: “When I sing, I will create behavior that communicates the dramatic event phrase by phrase.” That means that every song is a story, and your proficiency at turning SONGS into STORIES is the number-one skill you need to “communicate the dramatic event.” You can practice this with little more than your imagination and a place to write things down; a summer journal would be a cool tool to use for this, or a note-taking app like Evernote for your computer.

SAVI JournalPick a song, any song – one you heard on the radio or the internet, one that came up in conversation, one that you think you’d like to work on. Spend part of that practice time examining that song and looking for how to turn it into a story with you as the principal character. First, do the detective work, gathering the facts and details that will give an indication of the dramatic circumstances of your chosen song. Those facts will start to reveal a bigger picture, a situation or event where the singer is center stage. Use your artistic imagination to fill in the details, all the while looking for ways to make those circumstances vivid and meaningful for you personally. Trying writing a paragraph that begins, “This is a story about ….” or better yet, “This is a story about me.” The good news is, this is fun work that can occupy your thoughts any time, any where, and it’s valuable work you can do on any song.

If you missed it, I recently wrote about a new book called “Dramatic Circumstances” that is a great summer read and an inspiring guide for this kind of work.

4. Break it down.

If you haven’t discovered this yet for yourself, take it from me: you sing better when your work is specific, and that means you have to work “phrase by phrase.” Sounds pretty straightforward, yes? And yet it takes a while to get in the habit of breaking a song down, seeing it as a series of opportunities instead of a shapeless blob of mood. You’ve got to “ding it before you sing it” – that is, methodically examine the text of the song to determine where the phrases begin, the places where the opportunity to create behavior is especially strong. That means writing out your song lyric (hello, summer journal!) and marking up the text at the start of each phrase, or copying the individual phrases onto 3×5 cards. (I’ve got a video tutorial coming soon about this amazing and powerful technique!)

Juliana1pIf this talk of “dinging and singing” seems unfamiliar, you might want to read through some of the tutorial pages on the SAVI Singing Actor site that walk you through elements of the technique, like this page about specificity.

5. Go exploring.

Summertime offers a wonderful opportunities to experience something different, to change up your routine. Try singing using sounds you’ve never tried, in places you’ve never sung, at times of day you wouldn’t usually dream of singing. Sing songs that you’ve always loved, but make them different – sing a slow song fast, a happy song sad, a beautiful song crazy and weird. Sing songs by imitating and exaggerating the behavior of other performers you’ve seen on video, like a funhouse mirror, or like playing dress-up. Sing songs that aren’t from musicals, and songs from musicals you’ve never heard of. Sing to your dog, to the stars, to the video camera in your phone. Take big risks, make big mistakes, and enjoy the freedom that summertime brings. There’s never enough time to explore, but summertime gives you a big bonus in this department.

There you go, five things. Do them routinely, regularly, three days a week at least. Plan when and where you’ll do it, and log it when you do. Give your “organs of expression” a regular workout, along with your singer’s imagination and your detective skills. If you don’t use them, you’ll lose them!

The SAVI Savant writes weekly with tips, tools and insights for the serious singing actor. Sign up for the SAVI Singing Actor newsletter to get weekly updates by email. Did this article seem useful to you? Please leave a comment!

Bravo, Audra!

I originally wrote this a little over a year ago and posted it on my personal site, but it seems particularly relevant given Audra’s recent Tony Award triumph.

11audra-SUB-popupIn the spring of 2013, Audra MacDonald sang at Lincoln Center’s spring gala, and Stephen Holden from the New York Times was on hand to review her performance. I’m not surprised by his praise – I’m a fan, too, after all – but I was struck how some of his observations appear to reflect my own values about singing-acting.

Ms. McDonald’s soprano […] seemed to unfurl in ever-richer textures as she imbued songs with a sense of bursting possibility. The familiar songs “First You Dream,” from the Kander and Ebb show “Steel Pier,” and the Styne-Comden-Green ballad “Make Someone Happy” from “Do Re Mi,” were infused with the excitement of discovery, as if Ms. McDonald and the audience were together realizing how humble Broadway songs delivered with passion and intelligence could convey basic emotional truths.

Okay, so we’ll let “humble Broadway songs” pass without complaining that it’s a condescending remark. His reference to Audra’s “sense of bursting possibility” reminds me of a comment from composer Adam Guettel I read over a decade ago: “People like Audra have an innate instinct for the opportunities in a song.” Such opportunities inhere in classic Broadway showtunes (“humble” or not), and “songs delivered with passion and intelligence [can indeed] convey basic emotional truths.” Near the end, Holden observes that:

One of Ms. McDonald’s greatest gifts is to find the story inside the song and deliver it with immediacy and clarity, in a voice that finds a flexible, intuitive balance between storytelling and singing — a defining voice of our time.

Indeed, I agree that Audra’s approach to singing-acting – which he describes with words like “immediacy,” “clarity,” “intelligence,” “passion,” and, above all, a “flexible, intuitive balance between storytelling and singing” – is definitive, the gold standard for integrated singing-acting to which I hope all my students aspire.