So You Want To Be In Musicals? E-Book

Ruthie Henshall

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

An insider's guide to achieving that dream career - by one of the brightest stars in musical theatre. Being in a West End or Broadway musical is the dream of thousands of talented performers. But competition is intense and reaching the spotlight can often require a leap into the dark. So You Want To Be In Musicals?? is your comprehensive guide to building - and sustaining - a successful career in musical theatre, and introduces you to everything you need to know about: - Training - how to select a drama school, what to do to get in, and what to do once you're there - Auditioning - how to choose and prepare your pieces, and foster a positive attitude towards auditions - Rehearsing - how to construct your character, work with the director, and develop your own creative process - Performing - how to deal with nerves, what to do as an understudy, and how to sustain that eight-show-a-week routine - Working - how to get an agent, how to market yourself effectively, and how to maintain a healthy body and mind Along with a wealth of honest, straightforward advice, the book is packed with instructive anecdotes from Ruthie's own glittering career. It was co-written by Daniel Bowling, music director for Cameron Machintosh Ltd. 'A must for fans and aspiring performers alike' broadwayworld.com 'Helpful and informative' British Theatre Guide

Leseprobe

Contents

Dedication

Epigram

‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’

Introduction

‘I’d Do Anything’

Part One: Training

School

Outside School

Applying to Drama School

Going to Drama School

Your Attitude for Training

Your Health and Well-being

Leaving Drama School

Other Options

‘I Hope I Get It’

Part Two: Auditioning

Preparation for Your Audition

Before Your Audition

Your Audition Day

Your Audition

Your Attitude for Auditioning

After Your Audition

‘Putting It Together’

Part Three: Rehearsing

The Journey Begins

Rehearsal Preparation

Day One

The Rehearsal Schedule

Your Attitude for Rehearsing

Working with the Director

Rehearsing Your Performance

Different Types of Role

Different Types of Production

Technical Rehearsals

The Dress Rehearsal

Previews

‘Razzle Dazzle’

Part Four: Performing

Opening Night

Your Theatre Family

The Press

Anxiety and Nerves

Settling In

Audiences

Performance Protocol

Performance Behaviour

Publicity

Sustaining a Long Run

Saying Goodbye

Getting Your Notice

‘Nice Work If You Can Get It’

Part Five: Working

Getting Started

Your ‘Business Plan’

Agents

Contracts

Managers

Coaches and Classes

Photographers and Headshots

Social Media

Developing Your Career

Developing Your Craft

Beyond Musicals

Working Overseas

Fame

Not Working

Staying Employed

Finale

Appendices

Training in the UK

Useful Websites

Acknowledgements

About the Authors

Copyright Page

For my daughters, Lily and Dolly,

And for my mother and father, Gloria and David,

And my sisters, Susan and Abigail.

And in memory of my sister, Noel,

who died in 2007.

Ruthie

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson

‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’

Introduction

Do you remember the visceral excitement of being taken to the theatre for the first time? The usher took your ticket as you walked into this amazing place, with its plush red-velvet seats and ornate ceiling, not knowing what you were about to experience or feel. You heard the orchestra warming up and the animated chatter of the audience. Then, the lights dimmed, the overture started and a journey began that transported you in ways you hadn’t imagined before. The awakening inside you was stronger than anything you’d ever experienced. The power of the performance changed what you wanted out of life.

My experience on first discovering dancing was as if someone had turned on the brightest light in the world. I loved it and threw myself into it with everything I had. I was lucky because, at the tender age of ten, I had found my passion and I have never for one moment thought of doing anything else. It’s arrogant maybe, but there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be a ‘star’. My sister Noel said to me when I was young that you could have anything you wanted if you wanted it enough – and I wanted this more than enough. I have no doubt that my childhood, which was not without its problems, shaped that desire to be successful.

Every performer I know has had that singular experience – that awakening – in some form or another, either by watching other performers onstage or by starting to do it themselves. In your case, perhaps it came through attending the theatre, or maybe during a moment of childhood play where imagination blossomed into a sort of improvised performance rewarded with a round of applause from your family. Once bitten by the theatrical bug, the potion released almost always persists. Like an itch that can never be scratched enough, that passion for performance just intensifies until you decide to do something about it: to make theatre your life’s work. And make no mistake about it: you will have to work. Very hard!

The experience of allowing your imagination to burn brightly, expressing yourself freely and communicating the joy it brings to others, has hopefully brought you to reading this book. There are many books about acting, but no previous ‘how-to’ guide about the process of getting into musical theatre: training, auditioning, rehearsing, performing and making a career for yourself. The talent contests and ‘search for a star’ programmes on television have proved there is a lot of untapped talent in Britain. It is to these aspirant professionals – students thinking of going into training and those already there – that this book is aimed. Along the way, we will share some of our own experiences, our top tips and practical advice about the business that we love.

Why musical theatre?

Why does a story told through the combination of acting, singing and dance resonate particularly with you? Why not simply specialise in one of those three disciplines? Some people are born specialists – they know what they like and they like what they know. The singular focus suits their artistic temperament, but others have a more varied palate and need fuller flavours. Musical theatre is the whole package. As a performer, you get to sing, dance and act for a living; and that can be heaven. But if it’s right for you – and you’re going to make it work as a career – you must have a real passion for it.

In the show A Chorus Line, Morales and the company sing ‘What I Did for Love’. In the film, where it’s sung by a soloist filled with desire and regret, you might believe it was about romantic love, but that’s not its true meaning. The musical was written about a bunch of Broadway gypsies – the New York expression for dancers – auditioning to become the chorus line in a big show. The song is about dancing for the love of it. ‘The gift was ours to borrow,’ the hopefuls sing, and it really is in many ways.

Nobody stays in musical theatre because it’s easy. It takes hard graft to become good at it, just as it does if you want to become a doctor or a lawyer. I trained for more than nine years, and some spend longer, and there is no end to the upkeep of the body and the voice. You have to love what you are doing because the real truth is that you are unlikely to become rich from it. You may get some big jobs, but you will almost certainly also face time out of work – and there will be moments when you despair of ever getting another job.

Where you should aim

Imagine the costs involved for a producer or director if they discover to their horror that the actor they thought perfect for their starring role can’t cope with a basic dance routine or sing an elementary tune. The cost in time and money needed to get somebody the necessary training to complete a simple dance or singing scene can be potentially catastrophic for those holding the purse strings. When it comes to musical theatre, actors that can’t dance, dancers that can’t sing, and singers that can’t act (or any combination of these) leave themselves limited room for manoeuvre.

In these cash-strapped times, diversity is the name of the game. Extra skills are more and more important – just as they were when the great names made the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios famous in the 1940s and ’50s. They had it all: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, Lucille Ball – I loved their movies and nearly wore out my videotapes through repeat viewing. Producers and directors sought out and employed these ‘triple-threat’ performers because they got a polished job done with the best use of time and money. Audiences instinctively marvelled at the ease with which these stars negotiated dramatic, choreographed and musical scenes.

Today’s competitive industry is just the same. Voice is vital, acting skills essential, and dance indispensible. None of these three skills is totally independent though. You perform a song better if you can act it just as well as you sing it; likewise, you’re a more competent actor if your voice has been trained to handle the complex breathing associated with singing. Dancing ability brings a subtlety and ease to all your movement onstage. I doubt if I would have got my breakthrough role in the Gershwin musical Crazy for You if I didn’t dance.

As primarily a voice coach and musical director, it’s interesting that some of the most dramatic transformations that Daniel has witnessed over the years have been through the power of movement or dance: ‘It never ceases to amaze me how an actor or singer can intellectualise a scene with little or no progress and yet as soon as they explore it physically or “get it into their bodies”, the entire thing sparks off the stage. Similarly, dancers are often so disciplined that until they learn to “let loose” through dramatic improvisation, they often remain theatrically wooden. Singers who can soar with ease through the big ballad “Defying Gravity” from Wicked will remain well and truly earthbound if they can’t tell the story of the song dramatically or feel physically relaxed and fluid onstage.’ The triple talents are not just separate skills to be mastered individually; for a musical-theatre performer they should be indivisible.

It’s not always enough being a triple threat any more. There is a growing trend, especially in regional theatre where economy is vital, of staging musicals with actors who possess a ‘fourth threat’: playing a musical instrument as well. It cuts out the need for an (expensive) separate orchestra, and allows for a (desirable) larger cast, as well as sometimes making a point about the themes of the show. The Watermill Theatre in Newbury, Berkshire, has become a leader in this field, producing John Doyle’s actor/musician productions of Sweeney Todd and Mack and Mabel (which both transferred to the West End). Peter Rowe at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich has had similar successes, including Guys and Dolls. In Craig Revel Horwood’s production of Sunset Boulevard, all the actors played instruments with the exception of Kathryn Evans as Norma Desmond. It’s bound to happen more and more – though, of course, not all musicals lend themselves to being performed in this way. It’s hard to imagine Cats featuring the cast of felines all playing their own instruments. Then again…

A life in musical theatre

If being a triple threat is what you aspire to – and what you achieve – then what is life as a musical-theatre performer going to give you? Intellectually, you will be endlessly challenged and absorbed. Emotionally, you will enjoy experiences most people only dream of. Physically, you will instill a discipline and care for your body which will, hopefully, grant you a long and healthy life. Creatively, you will be blessed by working with wonderful colleagues who will help you to blossom and evolve. Altruistically, you will give pleasure to more people than you’ll ever know and, possibly, actually transform some lives for the better.

Yes, fame and money can follow, but if they take precedence over the less tangible rewards, then the pitfalls of the business can swallow you up and deny you the joys of a unique career. There is no easy way to succeed as a performer, so don’t look for quick fixes or shortcuts. They’re all a waste of time. Consistent, dedicated work is the only way.

If you are resilient and disciplined enough (and mad enough) to make performing your life, you can travel the world and work in every corner of the business. You will teach and be taught by others and be enriched by it. You will ride a financial roller-coaster whose repeated ups and downs will be interrupted only by frequent stop-offs to see your accountant. You will love and be loved like few others. You will live a life filled with profundity – and you will laugh a lot. Musical theatre will connect you to other people in all sorts of ways, and these connections, with other people in the business or those across the footlights, are what nourish us.

This book

So You Want To Be In Musicals? is obviously aimed at people who answer ‘Yes!’ to the question posed by that title. Because you’re presumably aspiring to reach the very top of the profession (and you’ve got to aim high if you want to do it at all), we focus on the ultimate goal of a career performing in the West End and on Broadway. Besides, that’s our own professional experience, so we can’t and don’t go into great detail about the many other performing opportunities that are also available. There are many other books that cover those.

We aim to show you where you need to develop your abilities, and the decisions and choices you will have to make along the way. We don’t try to teach you those skills that you will have to acquire for yourself through training, hard graft and perseverance. A book can’t teach you time steps or how to belt in the first place, so it takes it as read that you already have the talent, or the potential to develop it.

Building that talent and learning everything you can about the business is paramount, and getting that first job is what it’s all about – and then where you go next. Good fortune will certainly play a part in your career, as it does in all our lives, but you can always give luck a nudge. We hope this book will give you the nudge – and the edge – you need.

Ruthie Henshall and Daniel Bowling

‘I’d Do Anything’

1

Training

The sociologist and author Malcolm Gladwell suggested that you need to spend ten thousand hours training and practising your skills before you can even think of achieving command over your chosen field. That’s quite a bit more than working every single hour for a whole year. So, given that you can’t train non-stop, you’re talking about a long time to achieve that target. According to Gladwell, intelligence, talent, opportunity and luck all have far less to do with ultimate success than the unglamorous truth that hard work over a long period is actually what results in mastery and eventual prosperity.

Gladwell cites many examples of great musicians, artists, scientists, inventors and athletes who only emerge as the top dog at what they do after devoting at least three hours a day to it for a decade. So, if you want to win Wimbledon at the age of seventeen, like Boris Becker, you need to hammer tennis balls about for at least 180 minutes a day from the age of six. One of the world’s greatest violinists, Maxim Vengerov, was taught by his mother. Lessons started after dinner and continued until four in the morning – when he was just four years old! He said, ‘It was torture. But I became a violinist within two years.’ He won his first international prize at the age of fifteen. Michael Jackson was hailed as an overnight prodigy by Rolling Stone magazine when he was ten years old. But Michael had joined his brother’s band when he was six, and so had already spent four years rehearsing and performing.

We have a tendency to think that the Beckers, Vengerovs and Jacksons of this world are lucky and blessed with a rare talent, phenomenal gifts that hand them their brilliance without much effort. But the reality is that these people have given over long stretches of their lives, sacrificing everyday pleasures, to achieve their extraordinary level of brilliance and success.

I’m not for one moment suggesting that it is a good idea to cram thousands of hours of training into four years at the age of six. Sadly, we know how that story ended for Michael Jackson. But when all that work takes place over a healthier time span, remarkable results can occur. Put simply, the people who put in the practice make their own luck. The notion of an ‘overnight success’ really doesn’t exist. You always have to graft for it. Without this, mastery of your craft may well elude you.

Ten thousand hours sounds like a long and unachievable amount of time. Don’t get too hung up on it; it’s a fairly arbitrary figure and one man’s opinion. But the message behind it makes a lot of sense. If you think that the average person in Britain watches more than four hours of television a day – twenty-eight hours a week, 1,456 hours a year – it puts the whole business into some sort of reasonable, achievable perspective. At that rate, it would take seven years for the average person to watch television for ten thousand hours. It doesn’t mean you’ve got to toss your TV on the scrapheap, but it should almost certainly play a smaller part in your life if you want to be the best. Today, if your favourite programmes clash with your training, they are easily recorded digitally or can be viewed online at a more convenient moment. This is the way top achievers think – the athletes who win Olympic gold medals or anyone who achieves great success – and it’s a good idea to get used to it anyway because, if you make it in musical theatre, your nights as a couch potato will be much reduced.

Back in the nineteenth century, the writer Henry David Thoreau said, ‘Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.’ It’s a lovely quote for people in our business because so many of us are driven by a dream; but we need to understand that to ‘go confidently’ in musical theatre will require a colossal amount of hard work, sweat and, probably, more than a few tears too. You will also require the assistance of other people around you. Practically, no one makes it without a great deal of help and how you choose those to support you can be an important factor in your ultimate success, artistically and professionally.

The ways into musical theatre are fairly limited: drama schools and university courses (which can also offer a useful teaching qualification) or, once in a while, there’s the chance that someone will get spotted in an amateur production or discovered and taken on by a talent agency. But, ideally, you should be convinced of the merits of pursuing a full, multifaceted training, which prepares people in the way no other single route can. Of course, each student will have their own individual strengths, but musical-theatre training insists that each student has a strong and reliable technique in all three branches of the performing arts: acting, singing and dancing. We have to be aware that producers and directors in all aspects of the business are turning more and more to artists with this specialist training and skills.

This chapter begins by considering the range of opportunities available as you start to look ahead to your career, how to maximise your chances of getting a place on a training course, and what to concentrate on – and how to conduct yourself – once you have.

School

Some people know they want a career in musical theatre from a very young age – and there are specialist schools that can offer this sort of training, sometimes coming with some form of scholarship. However, most aspiring performers won’t go to these sorts of stage schools, and it can be frustrating to be stuck in a school classroom, memorising capital cities or calculating square roots, when they are really dreaming about taking a dance class or a singing lesson instead. As we well know, the academic pressures just mount with each successive term of education, particularly in the build-up to examinations in the later years. So it’s important that you jump through the necessary academic hoops, even if you’re set on a career on the stage. You may not be clamouring to know the largest city in Illinois or the square root of eighty-one, but a lot of what you learn will be vital, one way or another.

What we learn in school goes far beyond just tucking away facts and figures. We progress and mature as people, discover how to research and gather information, and become more disciplined workers from completing all manner of tasks. We grow in independence and confidence by tackling new challenges, and we grasp processes that ultimately help us succeed in both our professional and private lives. Work that falls outside your real passion is never a waste of time, because it helps to build the mindset that is essential to achieve success in any career, including musical theatre.

If you’re currently still at school, make the most of all opportunities (especially in school drama productions), use every possible resource on offer and assimilate everything you can – not for the grades or the teaching staff, but because you will need an attitude of working hard and strong personal discipline to make it in musical theatre. It will serve as a firm foundation for all those exhausting hours of practice you will face to build a career in a very tough business.

Schools like pupils who get A grades in their exams, but they also love those who do well in the theatre. I absolutely guarantee that when you’re starring in the West End or on Broadway, they’ll be the first to laud your success and invite you back to speak at their next awards ceremony.