Alice’s Adventures in an Arts Career

Opening Night of Gondoliers is fast approaching.  I’m exceedingly excited but also nervous.   I wish we had more time.  I especially wish me had more time with the orchestra as tonight’s rehearsal was our first time singing with them with staging and tomorrow is our dress rehearsal after which we open and all opportunities to practice and fine tune will be gone.

Looking back at this whole process, this entire show and been one steep learning curve for me.  For example, I have never had to move and sing at the same time.  I have never had to dance and sing before.  I quickly discovered I need to whip my cardiovascular endurance up quick. Similarly, I have never sung with an orchestra.  The textures are  vastly different than piano.  It is an all together different experience weaving one’s vocal line with those of a multi-instrument ensemble.  The complexities and nuances of tone and colour make for a richer and more exciting musical experience.  However, with so many independent lines, bringing them all together into one cohesive idea is much more difficult.  Changes in tempi or dynamics drastically impact the piece and the performance.  This evening, I found myself struggling to maintain a steady tempo or to make my voice carry over the pit and into the audience.

That brings me to another “first”.  The Palace Theatre is without a doubt the largest stage I have ever sung solo in.  While the theatre itself is not particularly large by theatre standards, seating roughly 350 people, it certainly is the largest space I’ve been in vocally and I’ve had an interesting time navigating the space.  While it for the most part has a great acoustic, there are some dead spots.  I originally feared I would be walking into a dead space and would have to force my voice to carry.  But I have found that the theatre accepts the sung voice rather well.

I am nearly buzzing with anticipation for opening night.  I can’t wait for an audience.  However, I am also aware that a theatre full of people loses a certain amount of its acoustic capacity.  But at the same time, what is lost in acoustic is more than made up for in the energy that is created by the connection between performers and a live audience.  I can’t not wait to have that live audience to play to.  As much as I throw myself into rehearsal, it is never quite the same as when there is a room full of people to respond.  That’s when performances become electric and I am waiting for that.

The show is going to be wonderful, so if you are in London or the area please do come and see the show.  You can check out the Musical Theatre Productions website for show details.  Get your tickets while you can!

I received a wonder compliment from my director /choreographer for The Gondoleirs.  She told me she was delighted by how willing and enthusiastic I was to try anything on stage.  After blushing a little and feeling all warm and fuzzy, I got to thinking; it’s kind of true. When I’m on stage I can try anything and risk anything without any real fear.  Not only that, but I am able to do it in front of an audience of hundreds and do it over and over again, night after night.  It doesn’t faze me.

And yet, in my personal life, even the smallest of ventures is agony.  On stage, I don’t worry at all what people think; off stage, it’s almost all I can think if.  On stage, I have no qualms looking silly, taking the things I want, saying what’s on my mind (or character’s mind), being sexually aggressive or forward, being ugly, being crazy, being funny, being sweet or cruel or anything.  Off stage, I can barely bring myself to pipe up with more than two words in the company of strangers.

I’ve often wondered why I’m able to do the things I do on stage with relative ease and comfort and be unable to replicate that confidence in my real life. There are people for whom the stage is the most terrifying place.  And given that I am someone who carries a significant amount of social anxiety and worry with her everywhere she goes, I should be one of those people.  There are few places beyond the stage where one is singled out more, scrutinized more and where there is more potential to embarrass and humiliate one’s self in front of hundreds, if not thousands of friends, family and complete strangers. So, why does that not bother me?

Well, actually, that’s not entirely true.  To a certain extent, I do worry about my stage performances, but only after I’ve left the stage.  While I’m on it,  I in all honesty don’t give two licks about what I look like, sound like, move like, whether I’m good or horrendous.   As soon as I leave the stage, well then my real life returns and with it comes the anxiety.

I guess the moral of the story is, if you want me to try something new, you better put me on a stage.

At any rate, the compliment was lovely to hear and was a great boost to my ego. 

I’ve been meaning to catch up on all the up-dates of various events over the past week.  I had my first Vox Humana rehearsal last week as director and haven’t written about that yet.  I had my first Gondoliers rehearsal last week and still haven’t written about it.  I’ve been published and haven’t written anything more than a quick blurb.  There is plenty to talk about.

Let’s start with the choir.  That first rehearsal was amazing.  Right off the bat, I can’t believe the sound quality of the group and how quickly they pick things up.  I had my rehearsal plans all set, but the sections I thought were going to take a while to get took no time at all.  In addition, I had confidence in what I was doing.  I was prepared and felt like I belonged up in front, which was a really nice feeling.  I enjoy feeling like I know what I’m doing and I’m looking forward to feeling more of that.  In short, I think it’s going to be another very successful Vox Humana season!

On to the Gondoliers.  Rehearsals are fantastic.  It’s a huge group and I’m struggling to remember everyone’s name.  I’m hoping by the end of the run in November I’ll have them all.  The music is great, but like any G&S, it is fast.  Holy lord is it fast!  This score is going to require and ridiculous number of hours in a practice room!  But I knew that going in and it’s something I’m more than willing to do.  I’m just too happy and excited to be in the show.  The past few rehearsals have just been straight singing rehearsals.  We start the blocking and choreography this weekend.  I’m nervous.  I don’t really have a whole lot of dance experience.  But I guess I’m going to get it now.

Well, I think that’s it for now.  I’ll post about the publishing later.

Well, this is definitely a first.  I just turned down a lead role because I’m already in a show and can’t manage the two schedules.  This is a very strange feeling.  It’s frustrating, but also kind of flattering.

I have some wonderful news.  I’ve been accepted into the Noisy Mime Theatre company.  It’s a community theatre company here in London.  They do several shows each year.  I haven’t yet been cast in anything, however since I’m currently in “The Gondoliers”, I won’t be until I’m finished with that show.

The best and most surprising part is that it’s a paying company.  I had no idea but I am over the moon with excitement.  I don’t know how much, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t very much, but that’s not the point.  The point is I can actually be paid to do theatre.

I know it’s what I want to do for the rest of my life, but it is still astonishing to me whenever someone offers to pay me to do what I love to do.  Because to be honest, I’d do it for free, and have been quite happily.  But this little step makes me feel just a little more confident and assured that I’ll be able to make things work out in the end and that as long as I keep putting myself out there and pushing I’ll get to keep on doing the things that I love to do.

I’ve got two new auditions coming up.  I booked them both today. One of them is really soon.  It’s on Sunday.  A local threatre company is casting for their whole season. I’m going in to do a straight drama audition and a musical theatre audition and then see what I get.  This is going to be the first audition I’ve done since high school where I’ve been asked to prepare and perform a monologue.  Boy, am I glad I did that Shakespeare course.  I’ve still got my Goneril monologue well under my belt.

The second audition is early September and it’s for the same company that is producing The Gondoliers.  They are casting for their annual spring musical and his season they’re staging “Nine” by Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston.  I’m excited about the opportunity because unlike so many shows where there are maybe four female roles, this show is unique in that is has 16 female singing roles.  So my chances of landing on are significantly improved.  Of course that’s no excuse not to be prepared.

This year I’m going to make a concentrated effort to start pulling together an audition portfolio of sorts.  I’m going to start preparing basic repertoire to meet the usual audition requirements.  I’m going to learn a few contrasting monologues that best show case my abilities as well as learn new repertoire for different types of  musical productions.  It’ll just make the whole audition process easier so the next audition I find I won’t be in the usual position of wondering what I will perform.  I’m also in the process of getting some proper head shots.  I have a couple of contacts in Toronto who are wonderful photographers and could easily help me create a good, basic head shot.

Well, there is plenty to keep me busy this year and I have lots of work to do to get this whole performance thing off the ground.  But I guess I just have to keep slogging though it.

Tomorrow is the final day of my Stratford Shakespeare and Acting course, and the past three weeks have been amazing, but tough.  I’ve been working my butt off the entire time and certainly have seen some great progress, but I don’t want to stop just yet.

I present my final monologue tomorrow afternoon.  I was given a speech by Goneril from King Lear. I’ve absolutely loved this piece.  It was entirely satisfying, however I do not feel prepared to present tomorrow.  I wish I had more time.  I feel just on the cusp of really getting the nice to skin into me and I could use another week with it before a performance.  But that can’t be helped, so I guess I’ll just give it my all tomorrow and what happens happens.

This course has given me so many tools to use in my acting that I never had before and I am so grateful.  I want to keep this learning process going.  I’ll probably do more acting course and workshops later down the road.

In short, even though I was always tired and busy and running back and forth between cities, I would not trade this experience for anything.

I got Tessa!

I’m so excited.  I did really well at the audition today.  I’m extremely pleased with my performance and am even more pleased with the result.  I can’t wait to start rehearsals.

This is my first music-related show and I can’t believe I landed a role!  While I am happy and excited, it does make me nervous.  I’ve never really done this before and it’s going to be a whole new world of performance for me to find my way around and settled into.  But I’m looking forward to it.

Well, I guess it’s been quiet these past few days.  Believe me, it’s not because I have nothing to write about.  This Stratford course has been putting me through the ringer.  That and over the course of four days I have travelled from London, to Stratford, back to London, to Toronto, then to Vancouver, back to Toronto then again Stratford and am only now finally home in London.  I am tired.

Oh, and I have a call back for the Gondoliers tomorrow night which I am rather nervous for. With everything that has happened in the past week, I do not feel as prepared as I would like to be.  Not only that, but I have found out that I was all mixed up about the roles I was potentially cast as.  I thought it was either Tessa or Gianetta, but as it turns out it’s Tessa or Fiametta.  This makes a big difference.  While Tessa and Gianetta are essentially the same role with the same about of singing and stage time, Fiametta is a much, much smaller role.  So I REALLY want to land Tessa now.

That said, if I don’t get Tessa, it won’t be in the end of the world.  I will still be in the show.  And really, this will be my first musical/operetta like show I’ve ever been in, so the fact that I’m being considered for a prominent secondary role is amazing.  If I am given Fiametta, I’ll be disappointed for maybe a day or two and then move on and learn everything I can from this show and prepare for the next.

But until that happens, I’m going to practice my piece some more and keep my finger’s crossed for tomorrow night.  Send me your good thoughts and I’ll update on the results when I have them.

Oh, and I have plenty to say on the topic of my Stratford course, so more on that will be coming later as well.