The Game of Diversity

Saturday musings....

I wrote an entry about the Diversity Factor last week, and thank you to many who commented. A great colleague of mine, Cindy Sadler, a superb mezzo and a woman who advices opera singers, brought up a great point in her comment, and I wanted to write a follow up on this blog.

Your diversity factor needs to play the diversity game.

The business is multi-faceted. YOU might straddle several areas of it - be it opera, music theatre, straight theatre, film/tv, dance, multi-media, commercial, but THEY DO NOT.

The people reading your resume are very specifically in their business. They don't know what goes on in the other facets. That's the way it is. They don't relate to other areas, and might have an overview at best, and will dismiss it at worst.

Know your worth, but also know how the game is played. If you are pursuing work, you have to play the game. You can't change anything until you play the game and win!

Given our computer age, you can have many specified resumes on file for any given job if you are truly that diverse!

The specificity of each "business" within "the" business wants to see your diversity with THAT specificity. Was that as clear as mud?

Each resume should lead with the area of the business you are presenting for.

If you are presenting a Music Theatre resume - lead with Music Theatre! If you are able to sing legit and belt and have those credits, show it by how you present it on the page.

If you have opera credits - MT business doesn't care - unless it's for a legit show. Or you might want to put in a few credits that are shows that are very well known and in standard repertoire.

Concert work isn't really applicable - but cabaret work or pops work with orchestra might be; Training is important but always goes UNDER your credits. Special skills can show additional skills that are relevant to the business you are aiming at.

Opera resumes - as Cindy mentioned in the comments of my other entry - need to only show MT credits that are legit and classic. That's it. Non-legit shows - belt/pop/rock - are irrelevant and will only cause confusion and dismissal.

ANY resume must lead with the business you are aiming for.

If it's MT - lead with MT; If it's Opera, lead with those opera credits; If it's jazz or commercial work - lead with that; I think you get the point.

YOU know your diversity. You need to think like the business and look at your resume from that angle. Have you confused them, or have you intrigued them?

Intrigue them with a touch of diversity that will make them lean forward to then hear what you can DO in that audition. The resume should be simply an INTRODUCTION not an epistle of your life! It should be an overview that gets you to the door. It should intrigue enough to make it possible for you to show what you can do!

The Diversity Factor of YOU needs to now play the business game - and get creative!! Design that resume specifically to get the audition and GET THE JOB! Create it to show you in that genre so they are intrigued to pay attention. Too much diversity on the page doesn't do you justice. Focus, hone it, and NAIL IT.

Know what you are going for; who your target audience is and what part of the business you are approaching; lead with that part of the business; THINK business and don't confuse business with art. It is simply not the same.

Diversity is important, but recognizing specificity is equally important when you are trying to get a job! Be diverse within each branch of the business and ENJOY your creativity within the process!

Singing for the Room...

A Friday night musing...

On the suggestion of Joy Dewing, Casting Director for Clemmons Casting NYC, thank you Joy!

What is singing for the room/in the room while auditioning?

First and foremost you need to know your voice and have studied to know what to DO in the room. If you don't - you have no business being there.

You have no idea sometime what the room will give you or what it will take away. It's nobody's fault, it just is.

So, knowing how your voice resonates in your own body and how it FEELS when it is balanced, will allow you an opportunity to walk into ANY space and read it properly.

Voice is about mixture and balance and motion. It has to find that mixture and balance and motion in the body first, not in the room. If you don't know how to FEEL your voice fully and recognize the sensation of balanced physicality and athleticism you will never read a room correctly. That means you will over-expose, under-expose, push or pull back and not even realize it is an issue!

First and foremost you must study so you KNOW your voice and what it does, what it can do, what you are expecting it to you. Voice is vibration and muscle and breath. It NEEDS a physicality to live in first and foremost - and that is YOUR body. You are your own acoustic first. Resonance is what carries your voice - not loud. Not big. RESONANCE. You BUILD that by practice and knowledge and study.

Most of the time, if you are aware of the SENSATION of your voice, you can trust that is enough in an audition space. This takes PRACTICE. Auditions can cause anxiety and in anxious moments, we have a tendency to push. The voice is then pushed and the breath held. When this happens, the reverse happens - the voice STOPS. And then we begin the horrid crash and burn and "cack 22" because the more we push the more the voice stops. Nothing works.

This can also happen in a room where there is no air and it dead. We give more and in fact, it pulls everything out of alignment. When the alignment is misguided, the voice literally suffers and falls away.

On the other extreme, when a room is too loud, we hold back. Again, the breath disappears, the muscles tighten and the voice disappears.

So what do we do????

First, do you know your voice? I mean REALLY??? If you don't know how your voice FEELS when it is balanced, you will never be successful in an audition space. Your physicality must be your own recital hall first and foremost in order to walk into another space to extend that.

Consciousness of the extended space of your body - the room you are in - is crucial - but it is an EXTENSION not a primary space. Your primary space is YOU. If you can embody that, chances are you can begin to allow the room you are in to enhance you, or not get in the way, depending on the air in that room!

You can always tell amateur singers from more enlightened singers by how they respond to a room after an audition. Amateurs blame the room. Enlightened singer recognize the pros and cons and still do their work. Amateurs don't get it. Enlightened singers make it work because they CAN!

So how do you EMBRACE the room, no matter the acoustic?

TAKE YOUR TIME. IT IS YOUR AUDITION.

Be in the moment when you walk in, and while you are in the room. PAY ATTENTION to your surroundings. What kind of room are you walking into? Ceiling height? what's on the floor? What's on the walls? Is it absorbing or is it reflecting? NOTICE IT.

SPEAK IN THE ROOM. DO NOT RUSH. Support that speaking voice and feel it. How does it move in that space? PAY ATTENTION!

In a perfect world, a room will allow you to sing. Good luck with that. (except for my new studio!)

So, this means you must KNOW your voice. You must know what your voice NEEDS and what it REQUIRES in any particular space.

If a room is dead - what do you need to do as a singer? YOU DO NOT PUSH. YOU DO NOT SING LOUDER. This is not balance, and this is not resonance and this will not travel. You need alignment, more athletic breath, brighter vowels and more internal space. You need to feel your physical language in your physical space. Often it will feel like it is moving in slow motion. Diphthongs/triphthongs will turn more slowly but will carry in real time. TRUST WHAT YOU FEEL and what you are trying to DO. Quit listening and DO! You will FEEL delay. It's okay. It is the delay in your ear that gives you balance in the room.

If a room is too live - you need to stay in your physical acoustic. You won't need to work hard above the staff if you are a soprano or tenor; You won't need to modify as vehemently as a baritone or mezzo; You probably won't need to modify or open at passaggio or certainly above the staff. Belters can back off intensity and create an even more compact fundamental. Everything will turn quickly so it will feel as if you are ahead of yourself...so be in the moment and don't anticipate. Don't try to change dynamic. Trust the balance of resonance and the quick and live response to give you nuance.

Practice in different spaces to find your balance in these spaces. Record yourself. Those of us who are more experienced can find these shifts more quickly, but if you are still finding the truth of your voice, it is important to discover how your voice functions in its totality and within different spaces.

This is part of study and discovery.

When in doubt, trust how your voice feels. If you don't know how it feels, you haven't developed it enough, nor have you worked it enough to recognize its signature.

It takes time and experience and craft and technique to discover a room in the process. Knowing your voice first and foremost gives you a template and a beginning. Knowing the difference between the sensation and what you hear with your ears is a start. Knowing the difference between hearing your fundamental and FEELING it is a start.

When you TAKE a room, it means ALL things to your instrument. It is simply an extension - good, bad or indifferent. The technical behavior will need to be in place for you to truly use the room to your advantage and not a crutch.

If you have no idea what I am saying - then the FIRST thing is to get thee to a teacher who will introduce you to the truth of your voice and help you develop it into a working knowledge of craft and behavior.

Otherwise - it's just a crap shoot. If you don't know how to make the room work FOR you, how can they expect you to make the theatre work night after night?

Take Your Work Seriously and Learn How to Laugh!

Friday musings...

I have 3 points of advice if you care to take it:

1. Take Your Work Seriously

2. Learn to Laugh at Yourself

3. Don't Take the Business Seriously Either!!!

What do I mean? Let's explore it...

TAKE YOUR WORK SERIOUSLY

Study, explore, develop, commit...what you DO matters. "Good enough" is not serious. If you are pursuing it - THEN REALLY PURSUE IT and see where it takes you! You can't be successful in discovery if you don't really find out what it means! Failure is not an option - because if you are PURSUING there is no such thing as failure. Pursuit takes you somewhere. It might not be the place you thought you would go, and all that means is another path/angle/choice. That is not failure, but rather a new discovery! Taking your work seriously means a choice. A choice to discover fully and find what it shows you. You cannot know unless you pursue it. Your craft DEMANDS that.

LEARN TO LAUGH AT YOURSELF

I MEAN THIS! Take your work seriously, but not yourself. We need to laugh at the ridiculous and the sublime! We are human beings - and we are multi-faceted and need to recognize what we DO isn't always who we ARE. Who we are needs to be silly sometimes; needs to make mistakes and missteps; needs to just relax and laugh and know it's okay. The self does not need to get so wound up that it forgets the difference between DOING and BEING. The DOING of the work is serious - and how we pursue it and how we commit to it. THE BEING of the SELF needs to enjoy the space between...the ability to not take yourself so seriously is KEY to finding balance as you pursue this career called theatre...

AND LAUGH ABOUT THE SUITS

Talk about the ridiculous to the sublime!!!! Sometimes the business "sees" you - and most of the time they don't. They aren't looking to see you. Their focus is elsewhere. You are part of the equipment. If we take this too seriously, we will drive ourselves mad. It isn't worth that. Know the reality of what you are dealing with, and to thyself be true. Otherwise, you will tie yourself up in knots!!!

Know who these people are and what their function is. Know it's not personal. Know everybody has an option and it doesn't mean it's informed just because there's a "title" beside their name! Know you'll never figure it out, so there is no point angsting over it!

Commit to YOU not to the business. If you try to please the business, you'll never do it. The confusion will overwhelm you and your pursuit of an artistic self will be left in the dust.

Laugh because you CAN. Laugh because it IS ridiculous in the truest sense of things, and opinions are like assholes...everybody has one. The opinion has no relevance if there is no knowledge to inform it. Yes, that IS laughable.

Examples? You want examples? I could go on and on but here are a few...and no, I am not making them up...

An agent said to a FINE belter at a workshop "well, I see that singing isn't your strong suit." Don't you wish you could just say "And I see evaluating talent isn't yours?!"

A casting agent in a class commenting that "The only thing I have to say is that you need to learn how to wear high heels" - to an actor/singer who wears heels daily. That CD's assistant broke out and laughed at the absurdity!!!! And the response from the CD 'Well, I guess I don't know anything".....hmmmm....out of the mouths of...

An agent listening to a legit soprano ingenue singing a full legit song in audition who sings it beautifully and comments "That was lovely. Could you belt the high note now?"

Two agents together listening to a soprano quirky ingenue who can sing both legit and quirky belt - who is blonde and beautiful. One agent turns to the other and says "How would I market her? I am confused." It was good to see the 2nd agent look at her like she'd lost her mind.

An artistic team after a singer's audition: "You are fabulous! Could you be taller?"

(that's still one of my all time favorites)

"We love you - but you are just too good."

"I really want to hire you, but you'd make everybody else look so bad."

"I love your sound, but I really need a blonde."

(those are mine personally by the way...)

And my all time favorite as I walked into an audition with two 20-somethings at the table. With my resume in her hand, the 20-something said "So, Susan, what have you done?"

I take my work very seriously. Myself, not so much. This business? It is what it is and we MUST laugh. I was at a point in my career where it didn't matter if I got this job. So my response: "Well, considering my career is probably older than you are, I am guessing more than you have!" MY RESUME IS IN YOUR HAND - READ IT!

Ridiculous. Laugh - BECAUSE YOU CAN!!!

WORK HARD. Develop your craft within an inch of your life. Know your worth, know your ability - DISCOVER YOUR REALITY. Be brutally honest with yourself or someone else will.

LAUGH HARD. PLAY HARD. Live your life.

Challenge yourself but challenge the business too. Find the laughables and laugh! Recognize what is real and what is ridiculous. Expose it through YOUR reality. Don't succumb to the stupidity but rise above it.

Opinions are simply opinions. Reality however is another thing...

If you lead with REAL, opinions matter less and less.

Work AND laugh. Realize AND be. Don't get sucked into the minutia of stupidity.

ENJOY YOUR DISCOVERIES and lead with your strengths. Laughter is a strength too...

The Diversity Factor

Wednesday musings...

I am wondering why today...

So enlighten me readers if you have some insight into this...I certainly do not profess to have the answers, but I have questions, a little time on this planet, a little experience and my eyes open.

So here is my "why"...

Why are we asked to be diverse performers and yet our resumes must be catered specifically for the job at hand?

I have wondered this over time, but a colleague of mine brought it up last night wondering about the same thing and gave some examples of how she's been treated/told to create a resume that holds theatre/music theatre/opera credits.

Why would a music theatre resume be dismissed if it had opera credits on it?

Why are singers told to compartmentalize their credits in theatre?

I am just curious...

Looking at a resume cannot assume the person DOES what they say...

However, if a music theatre singer has some opera credits it would make me take a moment and say "Hmmm perhaps this person can sing".

Depending on the roles they have - they may be able to cross over and find the stylistic decisions authentically, or not. But taking the chance and assuming "singer" would probably be worthwhile!

"Trained singer" doesn't automatically assume "opera singer". EVERY SINGER WHO WANTS TO PURSUE A CAREER SHOULD BE TRAINED. WITHOUT EXCEPTION!!!!!!!!!

Why? Training allows for longevity. Training is about building an instrument, a craft, a KNOWLEDGE.

SO, why would a "singer" who has diversity be asked to leave off important credits that show one's diversity?

If the resume is created for balance - is this confusing? Why?

If an actor can have classical theatre and contemporary theatre credits as well as film/tv credits on the same resume, why would a singer have to separate music theatre from opera when it is ALL THEATRE?

Is it confusing? To whom?

Aren't the people reading the resumes supposed to have KNOWLEDGE and know what they are reading????

Ahhhhhh....perhaps this is the problem?

Where does the confusion lie?

Why is there confusion?

Why would a singer have to eliminate important credits to show their diversity and their ability? Why would this be confusing?

It IS possible for a singer to be able to do more than one genre. And it IS possible for a singer to be able to sing more styles within each genre. It is also possible for a singer to say they sing and have credits on a resume and then you find out they can't at all.

Resumes are representative of the work accomplished/in progress/in preparation.

If I have done the study, the work, the role - I want that on there to represent ME!!!

How is that confusing????

I could answer my own questions...and I can in many circumstances. It's another one of those "business" things where the emperor isn't wearing any clothes in so many cases isn't it?

Having certain credits on your resume would assume the person evaluating that resume has the ability to truly do so.....hmmm....

If theatre is theatre, then theatrical credits should be included. As our experience develops there won't be room for everything, so we have to pick and choose and create a diversity on paper that shows our experience/range/type et al.

That is common sense isn't it? Shouldn't a resume be common sense?

If the business asks for diversity wouldn't they want a resume that shows that?

Or???? Why would that be confusing???

Singers need to show they can sing...and their diversity should show that. Then of course, they need to PROVE they can by DOING.

And of course, wishing the person listening to them has the knowledge actually know what they are hearing and can evaluate it clearly. (oh - another blog entirely!!!)

So I look forward to your responses on this diversity factor and the lack of responsibility to it...because frankly, being told your theatre credits are confusing makes me squeeze my eyes shut and hold my breath.

Perhaps the confusing factor is why the person telling you that is in the business at all...

Just sayin'...