4 ACTING THE SONG can be good resources t0 find someone, You can also contact NATS, the Nacional Association for Teachers of Singing, or VASTA, the Voice and Speech Teachets Assocation, for help. CDs, videos, and DVDs should be dhe las esort since they dorie provide the immediate feedback chat a human voice teacher can Having made this disclaimer and recommendation, to add that sometimes tradicional singing teachers (those whose tech- nique comes out of the bel canto tradition)’ may not be aware of, or ‘exploring, the additional vocal requirements for singing. Certain techniques like straight cone, belting, spealesinging, and miscellaneous “noises” are found with great regularity in che musical theacre but only very occasionally jing. The best situation is to find someone whose pedagogy is grounded in classical technique but who has an understanding of and appreciation for musical is important musical sheatre style Ideally, che goal for musical cheatre performers is to have a voice that is responsive to the song, t0 the scene partner, ro the accompanist, 0 the ci- teamstances of the show, to the conflict, ro the characters need, and so on. ‘This book is dedicated to helping students learn and practice to be chis kind of responsive singer. EXPRESSIVE SINGING One challenge for the student isto find a balance between expressive singe ing and healthy singing. A misconception about musical theaere is that those terms are mutually exclusive, They need not be. The folks who run ‘e Wesley Balk Institute in Minneapolis speak of continuum thar looks this: ee ‘OOPS UBU ‘They tefer to OOPS as the “One and Only Perfect Sound.” This is the traditional, pear-shaped, pute-voweled, bel canto sound. I is @ beautiful sound, and students should use it often in musical cheatre singing. ‘On the other end of the spectrum, there is UBU. UBU stands for “Unusual But Useful.” This refers to sounds that are expressive bur nor VOICE 5 necessarily sung. There is a place for these sounds (anything from 2 grunt to ibout tot Bons cher ithe muse cate well For soon playing the Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music, the student may wish spend more time near the OOPS end of the continuum. For a song from. Into the Woods, a student playing the Witch may want to explore sounds that are more UBU, The OOPS/UBU philosophy circumvents any discussion of whether cer- tain sounds are “good” or “bad.” The continuum suggests that healthy vocal. production can exist along the entire spectrum: In no way does this model separate healthy singing from expressive singing. 0 infinite variety of possible sounds, and the onl imagination. Finally, the continuum invites flexi anywhere, stop, go in reverse, or whatever is neede« Experimentation is a good way to discover how to use these techniques ina healthy ‘way, and that can be encouraged in the musical theatre cl. room. In fact, UBU sounds are often disc wi “ing! the OOPS/UBU paradigm, designate — ‘ match dontoage right of che student as OOPS and ar ues as UBU. Use your hand tc (you can slide along the co! ‘on downstage left of the student, indicate various points along the continuum tum, or jump around from place to place), tide sent ld mete nee appopinte vol bea ior for each point indicated. This technique expressive they can be while shychms that are given. An addi keep students so cognitively busy that certain bad habits their own, This continuum model can be used to deli II kind in be used to delineate all kinds of spec- trums: Very light tones to very dark ones, for example, of the del ded to grieving, Subtle acting information ;nt_vocal colors can come from exploring a continuum that n. For example, having the seudent sing a very sad hil on ; very sad song while traveling along the con- tinuum from joyful co devascated wi my oF and vocal qualities—particul: tion are present in equal pa reveal co singers how reveal a complexity of emotions ly at the midpoint, where ‘What an eye-opening expl sentation and practice will help che studencs learn where theie are and help them find a personal balance of healthy and expressive vocalization, OF course, these poi individual. f balance will vary with the6 ACTING THE SONG ‘There ore voices and timbres thot suit some roles beter than others, but tis safe to say that os ofthis writing, the is very bright, focused, poken ond sung tet. hare ecdeton sel ong ond sng, ween the fsener ond wil desroy te illusion that singing is «natural behavior for the characer MUSICAL THEATRE STYLE For previous generations, musical theatre songs were also our nation’s pop- ular music, performed on the radio, TV, and at public events. That has changed, and the divide beeween pop music and theatre music has widened so that there is virtually no crossover. Today, it is inevitable that your stu- dents will be more familiar with pop music and pop music stylings than with Broadway. In an attempt to woo younger audiences more familiar with MTV than Rodgers and Hammerstein, Broadway has made technical and artistic adjust- expectations (microphones, ind pop music arrangement op music celebrities are often invited to star in Broadway musi nay make it seem ro the young artist as though there is no difference berween pop singers and Broadway singe Broadway's attempts 0 use pop singers in musical productions Jon ch very limited success. stor who have man- sy Those pop performers who sus aged to endure an cight-show-a-week sche lein Beauty and the Beast was made pos : smething extremely voice 7 , of solo perform: performing in a very melitms ‘of most Broadway material not need to:have operat but they do need to be a pitch with accuracy and can be su: sing, unprotected and unadorned. Embrace -p toward authentic and personal (One important difference behween pop music syle ond music thectre syle isthe physical sensation that comes from supported, reson fut eine enc Wea ute a brat, nonvorting sound (op shel Pea ae,32 ACTING THE SONG 1s chosen “being teachers call cho: ing sad” as his performance goa wk co figure out where things went wro! y that chara che sadness happens as they are thwarted THE WORLD OF THE MUSICAL In addition to the Given Circumstances that form the character's background genre i The world sense that it must allow for characters to aim for “naturalness” or ally and en masse. Asking stude! confusing when talking about m real i cums with Coalhouse in Ragtime, is that re ing for real neral (people in musi- nce) and in each musical specifi- cally (Cats features singing and dancing cats; Peter Pan can fh us ng and dancing are part of the truth of to dance purge cals will always spontaneously sing and ical pei in Sideshow are Siamese ew a musical theatre world. ‘The characters inhabiting 2 musical theatre world dig deeply for under- and desires that are then exposed, in confidence or in rage, to ive audience. They also celeb: the excitement choice isa turning poi the course of his story. In such a magnified wo frenzy. Every I forever change him and with meaning and consequence. Therefore, u Caution your st co sume, suffice to ope sy musical wor deflate the 0 engage an audience. Acting in the cal gei from the perfo requires colossal energy and interminable emotional availability 9 1. But the performance still hinges on a truthful reaction vo inces, not exaggerated reactions ro mundane citcum- jing matters at a fealtering level. Remember chy discussed in the Voice chapter: Singing is never casual. ACTING 33 ACTING TERMINOLOGY The way a story plays ou is determined by the following sed ro mean goals, used here as a noun, evokes a particular re active and less analytical than “obj although those terms are fine if they work for you. Every character has specific desires thac come from hopes, dreams, fears, and expectations. The audiznce can fllow the path of wins and loses that propel a ‘character through a story without them. That path is the way the audience identic fies with the character, cheers fr her and stars to care about what happens to het. the basic human desire to be happy that underlies most chatacters’ ences, But in the circumstance of the story, in the particular of the scene, and in the impetus to sing a particular song, wha acter specifically trying to achieve? What does the character need? What the urgent emergency in that moment? What must happen? For example, Aldonza in Man of La Mancha sings “What Do You Want of Me” to try on Don Quixote's “glasses” to see how he perceiv a song can be very clear, and sometimes the acto figure out what the character needs. The mote simple and basic the students can be in de she better. Using specific verbs and acti con- sidered the most productive (*I want co crash/annihilate/destroy/defeat my + how great lam" can be more effective than “I want to make her feel bad”). Most acting books talk clearly about wants and how to discover them. Many offer lists of useful verbs. Please sefer to the Suggested Reading lst for more information on this basic acting principle jectives, or needs. The y that is useful rs" or “goals,” Sometimes the want in st dig more deeply 0 Actions