thoughts on singing and acting class

Having and recovering from laryngitis has been an interesting challenge this term, particularly because I have been so encouraged by my progress in my voice work during my time at BSA. I have felt like I have some kind of breakthrough every week in one class or another-- until it came to a crashing halt in being ill, but more frustratingly in recovering from the worst of it. It's been weeks, yet I feel like I'm still not back 100%. The good news is I'm quite well enough to have started making some progress again (though not in singing, the way I'd like to be able to)-- but I'm annoyed at my body for not being able to work faster!

With singing, as of this week, I'm realizing and accepting that I'm especially good at golden age and art musicals. I have wanted to be good at contemporary MT and belting-- and I am, for character roles especially-- but it's not my strength. And that's very ok. I need to find a way to sing contemporary pieces and shows in a way that suits my voice but without needing to do things that compare me to anyone else. Golden age and art MT interests me more anyway. So why not emphasize that for myself-- and find a way to sing that style in any genre.

We're working through our scenes for acting class today-- stopping and starting with Alex asking questions and giving direction. Rachael and Robert have been working for about 45 minutes, but they'e only made it through about a page of the scene. What I'm observing is a feeling I've had all year, which I've been able to push aside to focus on my own work, but it is quite obvious that a weakness in our cohort is the ability to analyze a text. On a whole, most seem to be unable to find the answers to questions from the text, or identify antitheses or vocal/acting direction evident from the structure of the language. It's making Rachael and Robert pretty uncomfortable that they aren't having an easy time of it, especially Robert. All year we've been told to rely on the text, let the text work for us, etc. etc. etc. But it has been obvious that most of our class does not know how. Even the fact that some are incredibly cavalier about becoming line-perfect in memorizing is an indication of it. But unsurprisingly, as Alex has forced them to work on this scene in this way, they are doing some EXCELLENT work!!