"We Can Do It": A Reflection

    After performing "We Can Do It" from The Producers with my brother, I feel that I have let myself down. I tried singing in a way that I was unsure of and ended up not giving a good performance in my eyes. I love The Producers as a show and will not likely play Max Bialystock at any point in my life- though I have played the Wolf from Into the Woods, so who actually knows what might happen. This is theatre after all.
    After practicing the song in a different way for almost a week now, I am hoping to redeem myself. I care about the opinions of my peers and professors, but I care most about my opinion of what I do and I wish that I could go back to last Friday and do the performance differently. This level of regret doesn't come often to me, but when it does I take it very seriously, and this means beating myself up for days- sometimes weeks. I understand that this is not conducive to improving my craft, but I can't help feeling this way. Be assured that I am working on cutting down the time I feel bad about messing up a performance, however I'm not to the point where I can mess up and leave the bad energy behind once I'm done with the experience.
    That being said, I will do what I've been practicing tomorrow in hopes that I will feel a bit better. I've decided to go with more still energy instead of moving around like a cartoon character. I have also decided to belt and use a more legit sound when going up to the higher notes. Interestingly enough, I haven't found any women performing this duet as either part so this could be a sign I'm doing something unforgivable by the gods of theatre. Only tomorrow will tell.

"The Story" of Rock Musical/Top 40 Pick

    This has been one of the most difficult songs I've had to pick out. I know a lot of songs from all different genres so I can come up with a song that fits the audition I'm attending. Lately though, I've been steering away from rock and listening to more indie artists, so finding a song to audition for something like Once would be easy for me. I recognize now that there will likely be auditions that require me to sing classic rock-type songs. 

    So I didn't know where to start, really. I knew that for a top 40 tune I could do "Halo" by Beyoncé or "Hiding My Heart" in the style of Adele... anything Adele, really, but I'm sure casting directors are tired of hearing her songs. The thing is that "Hiding My Heart" is originally sung by Brandi Carlile and so I went to my iPhone and looked up any other music I had by her. The only other song I had was "The Story" and so I re-listened to it, hoping that it might work. 

    It was perfect. 

    The line where she sings "All of these lines across my face" and almost breaks on the word "lines" is so raw and so touching, and that is how I knew that this is my token rock song. Melinda said that rock is about feeling the music and the words and not necessarily about creating a prefect or beautiful sound. This reminded me of when Brad Carroll was teaching me how to belt, and said something to the effect of, "You know how to sing so you don't have to worry about that. What you need to worry about now is the character behind the song." Both of those things have helped me practice my song.       Now my only hope is that if I crack, it's as endearing as when Brandi almost does it.

Who Are You Now?

I am an INTJ personality type which means that I am extremely internal with everything. Most of the preparation I do for things is by myself and very thought out. What I have come to find is that the less I depend on a micro-organized plan for performance the better my performance becomes.
I recognize that it is good that I plan, but I really only need to plan who I'm talking to and depend on my words to reach my goal. The words inform my actions. I suppose that this also qualifies as having a tactic, but for me it's just part of the performance.
Things to incorporate: Stay in mixed, and when tilting to chest, go opera.