What is the challenge of your show?

The sooner you realize which specific challenge there is for the show you're in, the sooner you can make peace with it and make the best of the process.

Here are some particular challenges to be on the lookout for:

• Scheduling: I worked on a show for which the creative team would meet after each rehearsal and spend a whole hour figuring out the schedule for the rest of the week, but meet again at the next rehearsal to re-work the schedule for the whole week, but meet again the next day, etc. you get the picture.
  
  Scheduling always needs to be readjusted in a regular process, but this went on for the entire process. Because scheduling was constantly changed, there might as well not have been a schedule to start with.

• Not enough rehearsal time: sometimes the schedule is actually so tightly set in stone, even before the choreographer and the music director are hired, that time planned for rehearsals is not adequate to the music that needs to be taught.
  
  This case leads to as crazy a situation as one where people have never gone through a song before tech week, or when they were only taught parts and moves once and never had the chance to rehearse it again.

• A difficult cast member: it's amazing how one single person can impact everyone's process, whether it's a diva, a whiner, or a rehearsal back seat driver, they will bring the energy down and the mood low. 

• No score: no words, no chords, no printed music, nothing. You get a recording and on your merry way you go, having to figure it all out for yourself what is expected of you.
  
  And don't think that the expectation will be lessened, they will be just the same, except it will take you much longer to get to the same result.
  
  And the rehearsal process will suffer from communication break-down when people want to start in a spot in the middle of the song but no one knows how to refer to it: "you know the spot where it goes lalala, and where the dancers have a turn, not the first turn, but the second turn, the full second turn, not the half one that's in between ..."

• Poorly written vocal parts: this is a problem that happens with new works, because they're still being worked on and parts are being filled in by the day.
  
  Ideally this would be a collaborative process between the composers and the music director and the cast, but after so many years working on a project, original creators tend to become (understandably) possessive of their work, and do not take well outside points of views.
  
  Major patience, kindness and empathy are the most important qualities to maintain then. 

• Working with overworked actors: a main problem of summer stock.Voices get tired, people get sick, emotions run high, drama ensues, when exhaustion sets in the rehearsal process becomes a mess.
  
  Actors can't do much about that issue except from taking care of themselves as much as possible. The best to hope then is for a schedule to be well ran, for scores to be handed in and for parts to be written well.  

ShareTweet

Picture from http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_3286_audition-musical.html

Who is in charge of the tempo here?

When it comes to musicals, some people think that the tempo of the cast recording is the ABSOLUTE tempo, the perfect tempo that no one should ever stir from.

Truth is, with every production and cast, the tempo has to be adjusted, and it's a great thing because that's the point of theatre: it's alive, it's real, it's ever-changing.

Tempo need to change to fit choreography, staging, voices, and the vision of the creative team.

"The tempo should be faster because that's how it is on the recording" is not a valid argument.

Share

Picture from http://johnmarkpiano.com/?cat=12

What to do when you are an actor who sings

What do you do when you are auditioning for musicals and you are an actor who sings?

ACT!

If you think that because it is harder for you to sing, chances are you think that you have to prove yourself as a singer to the casting panel. In order to do that, you end up focusing solely on your singing and your acting suffers from it.

What happens from there is that casting agents will see you as an average actor and an average singer, instead of realizing that you are an excellent actor who can also sing properly.

So if you are an actor who sings: ACT. ACT. ACT.



Picture from http://blogs.harrisonhigh.org/chris_hall/2010/08/audition--one-act-play-competition.php

How the Internet is helping the performing arts

Here is a hopeful message from Ben Cameron, who challenged the belief that the Internet is killing the arts, and who points the way to a democratized society for the arts, where artists are hybrid and maintain their dignity.



Share

What not to tell at you MFA audition

If you want to be a theatre teacher you need an MFA. Easy enough if it weren't for the fact that you do not need it in theatre pedagogy like the logic would want it to be, but in performance.

And if you want to be a working actor you also need an MFA in performance. Which means that getting into an MFA program is a near to impossible thing to do.

So the question is: should you tell the audition committee that you want to be a teacher, hoping that it would set you apart from all the other candidates? Or would you be better off not mentioning it?

The answer is, do not EVER say that your goal is to teach.
Tell the school that you want to be an actor, but never say that you want to be a teacher maybe, now, some day or eventually.
Sure, you need an MFA to become a teacher, but MFA programs want people that want a performing career.

To tell or not to tell is the question.
Not to tell is the answer if you need to get into an MFA program.

Share

Should you have a cooler mind?

When I complimented actor Tyler Horn on his ability to be incredibly consistent on stage, he told me what makes some actors and musicians more successful performers than others.

Always keep a 10% cool mind.

WHY DO YOU NEED A 10% COOL MIND?
For actors

• For your fellow actors: your cool mind is what will make you able to listen to them, to respond to them, to make them feel something rather than showing them something.
• For your production team: lights, musicians, props, etc... If you cue the music director when needed, or you follow him when needed, you keep your body in the lights, you always find your cue mark, then you're having a great balance between being in the moment and being self-aware of the rest of the production aspects.
• For yourself: you need to keep a 10% cool mind to be safe for your own sake. If you are self-aware and keep in mind where things are around you, you avoid kicking them or falling, therefore potentially injuring yourself. Your mental safety is important as well. For example, one of Tyler's teachers talked to his class about working with John Malkovich on a movie, where Malkovich was doing this incredibly hard and emotional scene. Malkovich was in tears and clearly into the scene, when as soon as the director interrupted the scene, Malkovich got out of character and asked what he needed to change. 10% cool mind is pretty cool.

For musicians

• For your technique: hard technical passages can easily sneak up on you, particularly after an intense emotional spot. The self-awareness of your body, and remembering technical aspects of the performance instead of getting caught in the moment and the intensity, is what can truly make a performance work.
• For your audience: if you get too involved in what you are playing you stop considering your audience as being a part of the performance. Communicating with your audience is the true goal of any performance, and keeping a 10% cool mind is what keeps your performance generous and open enough to include the audience in it.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE A 10% COOL MIND?
For actors

• You are flexible and make changes easily: if a director asks you to change something in the middle of a scene, you should be able to do it immediately, even if you have to go through the entire beginning of the scene again. You should also be able to know after the scene if you managed to change it or not.
• You spend more time getting ready for a scene than getting out of it: at the beginning of a run of a show and for the entire duration of it, you may take a long or a short while to get ready. Whatever you need to prep is completely up to you. But if you need a lot of time after an intense scene (let's say the rape scene in West Side Story) to come back to reality and get out of your character, that means that you are not safe enough and that you need to take a step back during the performance.
• Once you and your directing team have agreed on a direction, you stay consistent with it: if it was decided that you would say that line at that particular moment of the musical vamp, you should always say it then, day in and day out. If you don't know if you are consistent with it or not, or if you believe that changing it every time indicates a high level of artistry, it actually shows you that you are not yet keeping a 10% cool mind.

For musicians

• You are able to anticipate hard spots: your mind should be cool enough to know where you are at in the piece, and to know that a difficult technical passage is coming up so that you can prep yourself for it. Otherwise you will realize that the spot cam and went before your knew it.
• Your performance gets better after a screw up: say that during a performance you missed half the notes of that spot you never ever screwed up before, instead of sinking you down, that mistake actually snaps you back into self-awareness (to not be confused with self-consciousness) and helps you focus and carry on a strong performance from then on. 

A 10% cool mind is what makes the difference between a true professional or someone who tries too hard. It is what will keep you getting hired because it is the basis of all the other qualities you need to be successful as a performing artist: flexibility, self-awareness and consistency.

Share

Picture from http://www.solec.org/LouieLOMIT.htm

Want to know what life is like on tour?

If you ever wondered what life is like on tour, here are the best blogs that have been written straight from tours!

West Side Story World International Tour Blog:  Written by one of the two Tony's, Chad Hiligus. His blog starts in April 2009 at the beginning of rehearsals in Germany, and ends in May 2010 at the end of the tour in Taiwan. With a few entries per week, Chad takes you through the rehearsal process, media tours, days off travels and more.

If you want a shorter take of the same tour, Nicole, who I believe is one the Shark ladies, also has a blog here.

Spring Awakening National Tour Blog, cleverly named Totally Trucked. The author, Pun, is one of the production staff members. She posted very frequently, and put a lot of videos, including interviews of cast members, and a ton of pictures. The first post is from rehearsals in July 08 and the last from the end of the tour in May 2010.

Legally Blonde 1st National Equity Tour Blog: It is written by actor Nick Dalton, who plays Pforzheimer. Nick tells us many details of the process, such as how the union influences everything, when understudies get rehearsals and what happens when they go on, how they make sure to get the best dogs (yes, as in the actual animal) possible for the show, etc.  This blog starts with rehearsals in August 2008, has frequent posts, and ends in January 2010, when the author stops being a part of the tour.

 
Chicago the Musical International Tour Blog:  One posting a month by Terra MacLeod, the actress playing Velma for a year (August 09-May 10), from the beginning of the performances in Kansas City through Tokyo and beyond, to the author's transition from the tour to the London West End cast to the Broadway cast.

Rent the Broadway Tour Blog: The blog covers a period of eight months, from January to August 2009 and is made by different cast members.

Mary Poppins 1st National Tour Blog: This ongoing blog has been constantly updated by actor Andrew Keenan-Bolger, who is currently acting in Mary Poppins. He also did the tour of Spelling Bee as Leaf Coneybear. His blog also includes his experience in other productions, such as High School Musical for the North Shore Theatre.

Share

How to get paid what you want

To get paid what you want, you have to offer your clients a cheaper and a more expensive option.

In his book Predictably Irrational, author Dan Ariely shows this ad as an example of price relativity:

 
It seems to make no sense that both the print subscription AND the print and web subscription are both at $125. Dan Ariely explains that "most people don't know what they want unless they see it in context."

We don't know whether the web subscription for $59 or the print subscription for $125 are good or bad value, but we know for sure that both print and web subscription for $125 is better than the print only for the same price.

Now the goal is to turn that relativity to our advantage. If you give somebody one price for one service, it will be harder for them to know if it's a good deal or not.

FOR PERFORMANCES
For example, let's say that you're playing a private party. You know that you want $100 per hour per person. Here is how you can put it in context to help you land the gig at that price:

$70 for a half hour

$100 for an hour

$180 for an hour, client picks the music

FOR TEACHING

If you're teaching and you want to charge $40 an hour at your studio, here is what your teaching "menu" should look like:

$30 a 1/2 hour at the studio

$40 for an hour at the studio

$80 for an hour at your home

First figure out what it is you want, and then create some options around it to create relativity in order to get paid what you want while your customers are sure to be getting the best deal.

ShareTweet

The ONE thing you need to make it as an artist

As artists we all have some good and some bad performing days. It's the nature of being human really. The question is how much does your performance truly vary from one time to the next?

Are you the kind of performer who can have incredible break-through, amazing, touched-by-grace kind of performances, who at other times has poor and forced performance? Or are you someone who has performances that are overall at the same level, with some performances a bit better or a bit less good than others?

If you are the second kind, congratulations! Here is why consistency is the most important quality you need to keep on getting hired as a performing artist.

People want to hire artists that they can count on, that will be strong day in and day out. If you were a concert organizer, would you hire the person who for sure would give you what you hired them for, or would you take a gamble on somebody that sure might give you more than you hired them for, but who could also give you a lot less than you hired them for?

The opera singer Maria Spacagna once told me: "what makes the difference between artists is that at the highest level people are never ever allowed to perform below 80% of their capacity without having terrible consequences for their career."

If your audience, stage manager, or conductor were asked, would they say that you were consistent? If you considered the average of all your performances of this past year, what percentage of your ability would you say you usually performed at, 60%, 80%? When someone hires you, do you trust yourself to deliver no matter the day and what is going on in your life? Are you truly a consistent performer?

ShareTweet

Picture from http://studentbranding.com/marketing-ideas-and-how-to-make-them-work-for-you/

How is your team doing?

As artists we spend most of our time working in a group such as an orchestra, a theater, a chamber group, a choir, etc. Our work means a lot to us which means that we care a lot about what is going on and we take everything that happens at a personal level. Therefore the process towards the performances and the performances themselves can become a source of either deep fulfillment or of terrible doubts and stress.

When people are stressed their tendency is to shut down, which can become a true danger to the work at end and create awkwardness in the team, particularly when processes happen in a short amount of time when time is spent with the same people.

Therefore it is crucial to know as a team how the team is feeling.

In this article on the 99 percent blog, author Scott Belsky comes up with the solution to taking a team's temperature. It is a circular visual on which you add an arrow that anybody in the team can turn towards the part of the circle that matches how they are doing at the moment.

 

Depending on where the arrow is the team knows whether things are going great or whether it's time to take it easy, or to start figuring out different ways to approach some of the work so that people keep a handle on things without getting burned out. 

Share

How to get hired

As performers we apply for jobs all the time, and most of the time we don't even get a reply from it. Of course it's got to be hard for an employer to realize how great and special we are while sorting through the thousand emails they got for that one job. And who knows what tips the balance in our favor or against us during an interview?

Here is the one thing you can put to your advantage: Loss Aversion Bias. It is described as referring to "people's tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains."

How does that help you get a job? Well, when an employer tries to hire someone, he is looking to acquire a gain: a new employee. Our tendency us to want to show him how great you are and how you're gonna help him acquire more stuff (more audience members, more students, more money, etc.). But if you take in consideration the loss aversion bias, you realize that you might be better off showing the employer all that he could loose by not hiring you.

How do you show an employer that he would avoid losses by hiring you? Here are three ways.

• You're applying for a teaching job: if you already have some private students who would be willing to follow you, it's easy to show an employer that if they were not to hire you they would loose a few extra students. If you have a higher degree than anyone else on the employer's roster of teachers, you can indicate that the school could loose some higher level students who would only want to study with someone who holds a higher degree.
• You're applying for a musician's gig: if you're auditioning as an accompanist and you already know most of the rep for a specific instrument (trumpet) or group of instruments (brass), you can tell the employer that he would loose money and rehearsal time if he was hiring someone who didn't know the rep instead of you. If you are auditioning for a small ensemble group or a band and you have specific knowledge in social medias and marketing, you can show the employer how they would loose audience coverage by not hiring you. 
• You're applying for an acting/singing job: if you're applying for a play that needs a specific accent and you happened to have spent time in that country or you are a specialist of that accent, you can show how the company would loose money hiring both an actor and a diction coach while you can do both. If you're applying to do the first play in your hometown in years, you can tell the employer that he would loose media interest by not casting someone from that region. 

Of course, once you show the employer what he could loose by not hiring you and he gives you the job, make sure you follow through on your promises!

How to decide which way to go

Can't decide in which main direction to lead your career to? Full time orchestra job or full time teaching job? Freelance gigging on your own or creating a quartet for events?


Consider this quote from the Harvard Business Review.

"People are often successful not despite their dysfunctions but because of them. Obsessions are one of the greatest telltale signs of success. Understand a person's obsessions and you will understand her natural motivation. The thing for which she would walk to the end of the earth."

So the way to know is by looking at what you do for fun. Do you go to orchestra concerts as often as you can? You guessed it, take as many orchestra auditions you can and land an orchestra job (by the way, there are lots of open orchestra positions this year). Do you love playing with children and your preferred non-artist job is as a babysitter? Working in a school of music or opening your own studio will make you the happiest.

What if you realize that in your free time you don't spend much time related to your art? That doesn't mean that you should give it up, but rather that you have to find a way to connect your art with what you do for fun. Spend every minute of your downtime reading? You could become an editor for a music or or a theater magazine. Love to play video games? Maybe you can write music or record voice over for them. Like to write? Be a reviewer of concerts or plays. Love sharing your knowledge but not in front of people? A classical music radio might just be looking for someone like you.

What you do for fun is what makes you different from a lot of people. Knowing what makes you different from a lot of people is how you can find your niche. Finding your niche will bring you more work, and more satisfactory work.

Are you the athlete type or the artsy type?

We all know that there's the athlete types and there's the artsy types. But should we rather be a mix of both?

Consider this quotation from the book A History of Western Music by Burkholder, Grout and Palisca. 

"Plato and Aristotle both argued that education should stress gymnastics to discipline the body and music to discipline the mind. In his Republic, Plato insisted that the two must be balanced, because too much music made one weak and irritable while too much gymnastics made one uncivilized, violent and ignorant."

 
So, fellow performers, on to the gym!

The ONE thing to put on your business card

You need to add one more word than just the basics on your business card.

In the book "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" authors Ries and Trout indicate that you must follow what they call the Rule of Focus,  which is "owning a word in the prospect's mind."

To do that, you have to use a specific word to describe yourself and the way you do what you do, such as reliable, funny, classy, friendly, etc.

Just make sure no one else has already taken that word in your market, and people in your area will remember you over somebody else next time they need a musician!

Picture from http://www.freeprintablebusinesscards.net/showcover/Music

How to play for an improv comedy show

"Play the piano for the company's improv comedy show". Why did that have to be on my contract for the summer?

I would have to make up music when my greatest strength is to sight read, come up with different sound settings on the keyboard on the spot, and somehow forget that the pianist who did it two years ago was a genius at it.

I went straight into denial.

And then I was scheduled for rehearsal, two days before preview.
So I did what I always do in times of struggle: I turn to Google for answers.

And Google answered me with two amazing websites, solely on musical accompaniment for improv comedy shows: http://musicalimprov.com and http://www.musicalhotspot.com

Rehearsal came and the inevitable happened: people were super funny, I laughed the entire time, which really relaxed me, and that was it: I was hooked.

Here's what I've learned so far:

• Timing: for each scene, you've got to know who the characters are, where they are and what they want before you can even consider coming in for a song. Preferably come in during a brief pause in the dialogue, which is there either because emotions are high, or because there is physical stuff happening. Coming in while people are talking weakens both what they're saying and the role of the music. 
 

• Style: the style of the song is what makes it funny and it comes primarily from two things: the sound patches (cheesy orchestra for love song, accordion for a scene with foreigners, steel drums for reggae, etc.) and rhythm (tango, blues, waltz, etc.). The chords can't create too much of the style besides adding some sevenths because if it gets too complicated the actors can't understand the structure and find matching pitches as easily, which takes away from the meaning of their words.
 

• Bring up the unspoken: the music has to emphasize something that exists in the scene but that is unspoken. It might be the truth of a character (harpsichord for a highly cultured character, guitar for farmers), the relationship between two characters (tango for tension, love song), or the environment (reggae if the scene is on an island, dance music if the scene is in a club). 
 

• Support: once a song has started, it has to keep up with the words and actions. For example if an actor sings a verse and the other character says that he wrote a song too, there isn't enough time to switch sound patches and really play a new song, but just changing the rhythm will get the point across. If somebody comes in and kills somebody in the middle song, the music has to stop abruptly. You really have to tune in to what's happening on stage to match up with it or even add something to the action (if somebody picks up an instrument, you can add some wrong notes to indicate they can't play for example). 

After being so afraid of it, I am now so excited about doing it for the rest of the summer. The best part of it too is that it opened new doors for me in terms of jobs I can apply for once I leave here. I'm really grateful that I was forced into doing something that I would have never done on my own, and that turned into something so great for me.

Have you ever had to do something new that you were afraid of that turned into something you loved? What have noticed work or doesn't work in improv comedy shows?

A Very Merry Unbirthday- 6 months

Today is the 6th month anniversary of Geraldine in a Bottle!

Today is the day that I want you to make this blog yours.

That's why I wish I were able to read you guys' mind so that I could give you just what you're looking for and what you need.

Help me in my quest to please you by sending me some constructive criticism and feedback.

What do you like best on this blog? What kind of posts are you most interested in: tips, interviews, reviews, etc? What topics would you enjoy reading about that haven't been covered yet? What would you like to see less of, more of?

I raise my glass to these six months and I thank you all for your encouragement and friendship!
Cheers!

Share

Are you a victim of value attribution?

Let's imagine that you're hoping that one day someone important notices you so that your career can take off. What if it actually happened, and you didn't recognize the opportunity?

If you take in information differently depending on who delivers it, you're setting yourself up for missing a ton of opportunities. Doing so is called "value attribution," "which simply means the inclination to superimpose or imbue a thing with certain qualities or characteristics based on our initial perception."

Let's say you have a master class with a great Broadway star and his pianist. At the end of the masterclass, the pianist takes you aside and tells you that he is involved with a great project that needs someone just like you. The only thing you have to do is send an email to the producer with your resume, headshot, and a video of you.

What would you think?
"Oh, I don't know anything about this project, it might just be a waste of time, we'll see...," or "wow, this pianist has connections, noticed me and even though I still have to audition, he will put in a good word for me which can really help me get a foot in the door."

Now imagine that it was not the pianist but the Broadway star himself that tells you about the project and suggest you audition for it.

What would you think then?
"Oh, I don't know anything about this project, it might just be a waste of time, we'll see...," or "oh my God, this super star just noticed me and will tell the producers about me. I am so in! Can't wait to audition and prove them all that I'm great! I'm so lucky! I better not screw that one up!"

Here is the thing, both the pianist and the Broadway star noticed you, and with both of them you get a leg up from anyone else auditioning. Next time you get an offer, don't judge where it comes from. If you already have something going on, be incredibly grateful and thank the person for the offer, no matter who offered it. Because next time, they might contact you again or suggest your name, unless you act like they're a nobody and you don't even have the time to say thanks and mean it. Don't make yourself a victim of value attribution.

ShareTweet

Picture from http://www.poetryhere.com/midi/

Who should you try to please?

Who should you try to please? The audience or the person who hired you?

As a performer, I always think of the audience as the people I want to please.
But as an accompanist hired privately by an individual, my customer is that individual. And the customer is always right. Which becomes quite problematic when that individual has a completely different idea from me as to how to please the audience. And it gets even more complicated if that individual has a teacher, who often adds a third view on how to please the audience. And when I myself had a teacher... you know where I'm going with that.

As musicians, it is often a real dilemma to figure out who our most important customer is, and many questions and doubts come directly from that dilemma.

Of course you're gonna follow your conductor even though you're not convinced of the interpretation. But how do you stay connected and interested in the music you're making when you know that the audience's response is to somebody else's decisions?

For us musicians, the importance of knowing at every gig who our customer is is one of the most important decisions we have to make. It's not just about pleasing them, but more importantly about keeping ourselves sane by accepting the fact that as much as we always want the audience to come first, many times in our lives, there is an intermediary who is our true customer. Embracing that fact will make it much easier on us than fighting in our heads for the audience's enjoyment against our true customer's opinions, whether right or wrong.

What if you couldn't play or sing anymore?

What if adversity struck and you were told that you could never practice your art ever again? Would you let it go or would you fight to find a way to carry on as an artist?

Here are two amazing stories about performers going to incredible length in order to keep on making it as artists.

The first story, here, is about the principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who suffered from one of the worst injuries musicians can have, focal dystonia.

The next story is about a drummer who became paraplegic and invented a new way to play drums without the use of his legs.

What is the most dedicated thing you have ever done for your art?

Share

Why you feel less confident the better you get

When I was in high school, I used to think that I could become one of the best pianists ever, and that I could even potentially write the best songs ever and sing them better than everyone else. By my masters degree, I thought that I was doing quite well, and that I was good enough to be better than some people, but not necessarily the best anymore.

Now, only one exam away from getting my doctorate, I feel that I am just one pianists among many other pianists, that any few songs I've ever written don't mean a thing, and that I don't make much a difference anywhere.

I blamed that progression from being confident to lacking confidence on an education based on competition rather than on real life experience. Then I blamed it on the people I worked with. I also blamed it on my age because the older I become the more scared I get. I blamed it on my teachers, my friends and finally myself. Now I know better than to blame all the wrong people and all the wrong things. I should blame the Dunning-Kruger effect.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is this "cognitive bias where unskilled people suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority."

So the less you know the better you think you are, and the better you are the less good you think you are.

So next time you think you suck, remember that it's the sign that you are actually good!

ShareTweet