While people often think of musical theater of the 1960s as a continuation of the Golden Age, it was an era of great change, musically and culturally.
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BIPOC Women of a Certain Age: Avoiding Appropriation
In these days of non-traditional casting, it is not unusual for BIPOC women to be cast in roles originated by White women. However, the reverse is rarely done, and for good reasons. There are tons of songs to sing and to teach. If a song is for a character in a show and that show is racially or culturally focused, it is not for you or your students, if neither you nor they are a POC. To do so is crossing the line from appreciation to appropriation..
Casting and Women of an UNcertain Age
The raison d’etre for this book is to spotlight musical theater repertoire and roles for women who are or over 40 years old. In other words, “Women of a Certain Age.” But sometimes it’s hard to say what that “certain age” is.
From Ingenue to Grande Dame: Role Models
In the theater world, “role” has an alternative definition – that of a character in a play, movie, or film. When a singer is developing their audition book, they are looking at what roles they could convincingly portray on a vocal and physical basis.
Growing Older – My Musical Journey (Part 1)
The book that I’m writing is about musical theater roles/repertoire for women of a certain age. Women who are growing older. And as much as that pains me, I count myself among that demographic. But I spent most of my adult life studying classical repertoire – how did I get here? When I was startingContinue reading “Growing Older – My Musical Journey (Part 1)”
Musical Theatre Repertoire for Women “of a Certain Age”
Okay, folks – I’m finally doing it. I’m writing a book. The current working title is: Growing Older – From Ingenue to Grande Dame And the focus is on Musical Theatre Repertoire for Women “of a Certain Age” What exactly does that mean? And why I am writing this? Well, first of all, the termContinue reading “Musical Theatre Repertoire for Women “of a Certain Age””
Make it RAIN
There was an article a while back on getting good quality sleep using a mindfulness tactic with the acronym RAIN. The steps involved make up the acronym. They are: RECOGNIZE Recognize the stress that’s coming up. ACCEPT/ALLOW Don’t try to push it away. INVESTIGATE Be curious. Ask: What is going on in my body right now? Do you feel tightnessContinue reading “Make it RAIN”
Suspending the Breath – Why I Don’t Teach It
This is a reprint of an August 2017 blogpost – I recently had a rehearsal where a conductor asked us to do this and it’s something that just goes against me. Here’s why (things I’ve added are in bold and brackets): ****** This morning, the subject of my meditation app involved a lot of focusContinue reading “Suspending the Breath – Why I Don’t Teach It”
Takeaways from the NATS Conference – July 4, 2022
🎵 On the fourth day of July, NATS gave to me…. 🎵 July 4, 2022 “The Non-Binary Songbook” presented by Liz Jackson Hearns and Alexandra Plattos Sulack Takeaways: Rather than providing an actual songbook (which is kind of what I wanted),this was based on exploring gender expansion via classical repertoire for the AFAB/non-binary singer fromContinue reading “Takeaways from the NATS Conference – July 4, 2022”
Ringing vs. Wringing (in Singing and Business)
Here’s a 2018 blogpost about resonance. For more cool stuff about resonance, check out this video I just found: ******** I receive daily email updates from marketing guru Seth Godin, which have been inspiring me to make some changes in the way I approach my studio management. This morning’s advice resonated with me in aContinue reading “Ringing vs. Wringing (in Singing and Business)”