tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71273322323157835562024-03-05T07:38:48.641-08:00Living MonologuesGet YOUR website from ROI. Call 740.248.4936 or 480.599.4738Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-65819995740425961452013-10-04T11:30:00.000-07:002013-10-04T18:03:32.407-07:00Inciting and Encouraging the Imagination<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> As children, we develop our imaginations by envisioning a variety of circumstances, Custer’s last stand, the triumphant raising of the flag on Iwo Jima, being cowboys, riding horses, driving a locomotive, and driving a car. The ability was inherent, easy to do, easy to experience, easy to believe. Belief is at the basis of imagination. One cannot imagine something they don’t believe. So, as we grow up, our beliefs are challenged. The biggest change in belief for me, was the wonderful belief in Santa Claus, and later, in Superman.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I have heard of kids jumping off their parent’s roof with a cape around their necks, believing they could fly. As grown-ups, we struggle with many beliefs, the existence of God, </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">the responsibility of our law makers, and custodians of the public good. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> What is the driving force that challenges our ability to believe in something? Of, course there is our knowledge gained and experiences lived which temper our beliefs. That is somewhat governed by influential people around us, and by events which happen that appear to be unsettling. How do we respond to such incidents? We adopt a critical posture. In fact, that seems so right, that we embrace our ability to criticize ourselves, and eventually, others. Naturally, since it is human nature to be right in our choices, we justify our criticism as being “constructive.” Universities around the world accept this as an effective means to teach students, and evaluate professors. Customarily, researchers and educators utilize a critical approach, “constructive criticism” to evaluate and assist students in the creative process. However, criticism actually impedes creativity. Creativity depends upon complete belief, commitment and desire to share a distinct point of view with others, the audience, and recipients of the communication.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> “Creation is the artist’s true function. But it would be a mistake to ascribe creative power to an inborn talent. Creation begins with vision,”(Henri Matisse). Imagination is a visual ability. Since creativity involves the development of one’s imagination, the question is whether or not the critical approach is the most effective method in encouraging and inciting the imagination. Criticism has been known as the “killer of creativity,”(Tony Haze).</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> This chapter addresses an alternative approach, which is non-critical and allows the researcher/educator an opportunity to engender creativity and self-mastery of the student.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Possibly, this heuristic approach is applicable to all teaching. The author’s experience is based upon teaching and performing, and developing professional and amateur performing artists, as actors and singers, who thrive on inspiration, not criticism. Inspiration engenders oxygen, which serves to bring about a state of enthusiasm, increasing belief.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Imagination plays a vital role and is the most valuable asset that visual and performing artists have. An artist uses the imagination to portray a character or to interpret a work of art. It might also be vital to architects, engineers, businesses, educators, and politicians. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The author originally researched the imaginative process in London and Paris, where he observed artists as they copied the masters, and could not see an ounce of criticism in their eyes. Their process was gentle, evaluative, looking at what they liked about their work, of each and every detail. After they exhausted that, they thought to themselves, “What would I like to change?” Immediately, they had a burst of enthusiasm, and went from pallet to </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">canvas with direction and verve. From this came the thesis that criticism in teaching could </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">be counter-productive and actually inhibits a student’s ability to use the imagination, because it places attention on one’s lack of ability to perform well, rather than on the actual ingredients of the performance. If the talented student could be led to look at his/her work without criticism, their intuitive abilities would open them up to the beneficial change to be made in their creative/educational process. The teacher would thus be able to assist the student in their next level of achievement. In the case of the artist, he/she would be more able to get closer to the subject being created within their imagination, with more clarity and permission. Thus, a non-critical process works to improve the student’s attention, and enables him/her to utilize the rich treasures of their imaginations.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> There are obstacles which reduce the effectiveness of our imaginations. To imagine an event, a situation, a communication of thoughts, ideas, and images, one needs to have an understanding of the composition involved. One also needs a complete understanding of the traps that prevent the mind from imagining something. There are four basic traps which inhibit a person from assuming a viewpoint of a character or an interpretation of a work of art, which is essential to delivering a specific communication. The basic fundamental is rooted in how one places his/her attention. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">ASSUMPTION: Should one make an assumption that the character is wrong, evil, misguided, misinformed or unintelligent, it will limit the performer’s ability to understand the viewpoint of that character. It is a well-known premise that people consider their thoughts and actions to be right, and rarely consider themselves as bad, sad, angry and negative, even though they may show that to others. Making assumptions impedes one’s ability to effectively use the imagination.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">ATTITUDE: The second trap is to manufacture an attitude, which is pasting over the viewpoint something which hampers communication. It’s a barrier that imposes negativity between one person and another. It creates insincerity, and often, foolishness. It is an exterior fabrication that is in genuine. This barrier also distracts attention sufficiently to reduce the effectiveness of the imagination.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">ASSOCIATION: The third trap is association. This occurs when a performer thinks “this character reminds me of so and so.” If one’s ever gone on a date and told the person they reminded you of someone, the impact is severe and unless the person is extremely forgiving, it would be the last date for you. Our imaginations operate on thought processes, and when you can imagine the reaction of the character (whom you are representing) would have, you would decide to hold that thought, and see something positive about that specific human being instead. We are all fragile creatures who want to find people who like, admire, and adore us for who we are. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">ARBITRARY: The fourth trap is arbitrary, which is why they are labeled as the “Four A’s”. Arbitrary is by definition, something that comes out of the air, without rhyme or reason. I have known performers who utilize this trap; because they think it makes it more interesting. There is a difference between being “interesting” and actually interested in someone or something. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> There is a power of the positive choice, which improves one’s level of interest, which is far more dramatic and effective than drawing attention to one’s self. When a performer places attention on self, again it reduces an ability to imagine properly, because it introverts attention which can engender a form of criticism. Evaluating which of the four A’s is operating, will help one to alter the choice, and find a more positive one. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The entire process of getting closer to another person’s viewpoint is not radical, abusive, and indifferent. It speaks out that we need to see and admire qualities in others that draw us nearer to them. One needs to relate to them positively, from the subject’s viewpoint. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> In addition, as performers and artists we need to experience something significant, which is at the center and purpose of communication. It is an object lesson in life, as well. Often a performer thinks they need to lie to themselves in order to assume a viewpoint. Perhaps an attorney may make that choice when s/he is in the process of representing that person, and there may be consequences of that. However, a performer’s mission is a higher calling, one to experience joy in a viewpoint, and share that joy with an audience. It is an act of creating a bond with a character, which instructs us well. There is much truth in this method of approaching the work. This is the bridge that may exist in other fields and disciplines, as joy is not limited to artists, but can exist in all human endeavors.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><br /> “Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learnt. It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity, and where appropriate, profits.” (Edward de Bono, creativity writer)</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> “I think, therefore I am!” It is true that our thoughts direct us in our actions. It has been said there are barriers which prevent fulfilling communication. Other than criticism, lying, and deceit, there is anger, which has its focus on stopping people, things, situations, and solutions. When a performer plays the emotion of anger, it drowns out the thought, and ends the communication. Anger removes opportunities to use our imagination. Instead, there are other emotions which add joy to the equation, such as antagonism, which has the point of attention on bantering back and forth, as a New York cab driver enjoys. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Once we put value on the thoughts we have, and on understanding how another person views the world, we are able to increase our level of joy in the work. It’s what attracts audiences, who are seeking relief from daily challenges and disappointments.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> As one realizes how important these actions are, we are humbled by the opportunity to spread joy among the people we work with, we share our tasks with, and our lives with.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> Our families are benefited and our relationships are nurtured. It indeed is a greater calling to contribute such joy and provide moments of enlightenment. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Performers, and indeed others, have a need to understand how they can achieve balance and equilibrium, by being able to heuristically solve their problems, without the distractions of external criticism, consulting their own evaluation which is intimately connected to sensory receptors. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> We all have feelings that can guide us when we seek answers. As teachers, we can provide basic fundamentals which serve to direct the attention to details of each performance, as an artist uses paint colors, shapes, light and shadows, line, and content to tell a story. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Imagination is all thought driven. Emotions provide support, and thought monitors the degree of effort needed to achieve results. There is no difference between a performing artist and an athlete’s preparation and performance. When the artist and athlete achieve maximum thought and action with minimal effort, the whole process appears effortless and that fact increases the amount of joy we all experience. When one increases the amount of joy, one is inspired and incited to use imaginative abilities. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><br /> Only then can we have fulfillment, as we utilize the treasures of our imagination, unfettered by any negative influence. One increases the ability to find positive solutions and remove tendencies to create additional problems, by properly focusing attention. Instead of accepting criticism, one needs to ask ourselves what we liked and what we would like to change. That way, we can become more confident, secure, knowledgeable and effective. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The challenge remains; how can we exercise this premise in whatever research or instructional methods we pursue? Certainly, demand is there for more effective methods.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> There are many areas which lack joyful pursuits, and joyful participants. It is possible to employ instruction and research without placing blame on the student or participants of the activity? Rather than rationalize failures, it might be wiser to investigate the heuristic alternatives. Once the reader investigates the possibility, further development in other fields may prove fruitful. There are many disciplines that may benefit, and it is the challenge many researchers and educators may enjoy investigating with a variety of applications and trials.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Nevertheless, there are so many valuable uses employed with imagination, which creates more positive solutions, more beneficial results, and pave the way toward increasing knowledge, producing enlightenment, and culminating in joyful pursuits. Criticism rarely brings us happiness. Instead, it creates doubt, divisiveness, and divorce- separating one from another. Criticism is a bitter pill compared to taking in an imaginative image, thought, idea, or concept. Imagination restores beauty, harmony and unconditional love uniquely in all arenas. Art can only be created by artists who have vibrant, stimulating minds filled with compassionate intentions. Imagination is more a vitamin than a pill.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-65803386362653971762013-03-15T11:24:00.001-07:002013-03-15T11:24:43.774-07:00MUSIC COMPETITION<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.5258069662377238" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chapter Eight</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10 Reasons to Enter a Music Competition</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Have something special for which to practice</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10 Reasons to Study Music</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Music study develops the areas of the brain which are responsible for language and reasoning</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><ol start="12" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Students who study music score higher of the SAT and other standardized tests, and receive higher grades in school over non-music students.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><ol start="13" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With music study, students learn the elements of detailed work towards creating an aesthetic result. Students learn to overcome challenges and to break work down into understandable units.</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Discipline: Through music study, students learn the value of sustained effort to reach excellence.</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Music provides an important avenue towards self-expression.</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Performing music builds self-esteem.</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Music study provides a gateway to appreciate, understand, and experience world cultures, traditions, and histories.</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Music study and practice encourages creative thinking and artful problem solving, as well as the ability to see a viewpoint other than your own.</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Making music is fun and rewarding.</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Music amongst family and friends bring precious memories that last a lifetime.</span></li>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-57621483179524598202013-02-27T11:45:00.001-08:002013-02-27T11:45:44.983-08:00HOW TO PRACTICE SINGING<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.009214017074555159" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chapter Seven</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Forte; font-size: 27px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> How to Practice Singing</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Forte; font-size: 27px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: upper-alpha; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Warm Up the Voice with Exercises that:</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Check the Breath</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Create Good Posture</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thin, shorten, and loosen the vocal cords.</span></li>
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</ol>
<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><ol start="2" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: upper-alpha; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do Vocal Technique Exercises for 20-45 Minutes. Do Work that covers</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The following skills:</span><br /><ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Support:</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Breath Control drills</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The balance of the apoggio</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Legato singing</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Floating high notes</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Exercises that work air flow</span></li>
</ul>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Evenness throughout the range:</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Positioning the throat work</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">More thinning and release exercises</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resonance:</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Balancing the vowels</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even vibrato exercises</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tailor exercises to your songs</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><ol start="3" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: upper-alpha; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Communication & Monologue Work:</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use a cork</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Overdo consonants</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Focus attention on an imaginary viewpoint</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Expect a reaction or result from the distant viewpoint</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If applicable, monologue in both languages with a literal translation</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use SRS, and write down the thoughts of the character</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write down transitions on how one thought goes to another</span></li>
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</ol>
<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br /><ol start="4" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: upper-alpha; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Research</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Find the story line and research the song by:</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Looking on the internet to get a summary (wikipedia.com)</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Go to the library</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rent the movie or buy the soundtrack</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Find “side notes” about the characters</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Buy the sheet music or the entire work, if possible</span></li>
</ul>
</ol>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><ol start="5" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: upper-alpha; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learn the Music</span></li>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learn the notes on the piano or from a tape or CD</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hum or “ZZZ” or sing on a vowel to get familiarity</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Notice & understand all musical directions: Use a music dictionary</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mark where you need to breathe</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Get used to singing the melody with an actual accompaniement once you learn the notes</span></li>
</ol>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br /><ol start="6" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: upper-alpha; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Drill pre-determined section of the song to gain technical ability & translate it into a “sensation” or feeling.</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Merge technical exercises into the song</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Incorporate communication into tech difficult sections ASAP, merging the “sensation” with a “point of view.”</span></li>
</ol>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><ol start="7" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: upper-alpha; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sing and Practice the pieces a capella and:</span></li>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Check pitches along the way with a pitch pipe</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use a metronome</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use a cork</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use the viewpoint of the character who is singing</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sing with good, grounded posture, with initial use of the wall & then wean yourself away from the wall</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Step up to the Plate” with Performance Energy</span></li>
</ol>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br /><ol start="8" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: upper-alpha; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rehearse with an Accompanist and:</span></li>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Set Tempos</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Review the spots in the song that have tricky entrances & rhymes</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stay in the viewpoint once the song is “set.”</span></li>
</ol>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Additional Note: Some beginning students may find it helpful to rehearse </span><br /><span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with the actual tape or CD from their last lesson. Listening and/or singing</span><br /><span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with it will reinforce the learning process.</span></b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-90675653522485690942013-02-04T10:36:00.003-08:002013-02-04T10:36:16.458-08:00HOW TO MONOLOGUE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Chapter Six</span></div>
<span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">How to Monologue</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> Why do monologues? To establish a communication between one viewpoint and another. Any text information falls under the classification of communication, including texts from stories, plays, films, and SONGS. All communication occurs between viewpoints, whether real or imaginary. It is the performer’s job to create identities and points of view, so that communication can occur.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> What is a monologue? It is an imaginary viewpoint creation from a source to a destination, and requires imaginative abilities to create those viewpoints. It is also more of a telling than a reading, as you are telling someone something, usually of increased importance, in order for something else to happen, a desired result of the communication. There is a point to the communication, a reason you are telling it, and a consequence of getting the message across.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> What are the steps in a monologue? There are three steps: First, the act of SEEING what is in a text, independent of your own thoughts about it. See all of the thoughts and understand what they mean. Next, there is the step of RELATING the information to what you know about the communication, the situation (which you may have to imagine), the person you’re talking to, and the reason why you are communicating the message. The last step is to SIGNIFY, or to attach a degree of importance to the communication, usually dealing with why you’re delivering the communication. To add significance to the thoughts makes them special to a viewpoint, and to match your viewpoint to an imaginary character’s viewpoint is why you want to monologue your songs. The more you monologue them, the more certainty you receive, and the more you groove into the viewpoint of the character.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Once you have completed your initial investigation of the script or song, and have applied the SRS approach, you need to write out the thoughts to gain more understanding of the communication. I suggest you use a separate piece of paper to write out the thoughts that come to mind as you read the thoughts from the script or sheet music. Take advantage of each of the three steps, seeing, relating and signifying in this process. Essentially, you are getting familiar with the character’s viewpoint, what absorbs his or her attention, and what thoughts arise from that. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The next step is to isolate the thoughts from the music, especially in terms of rhythm, timing, rests, accents, and other musical demands. You need to approach the monologue from a timeless, even slower rate of absorption so that the thoughts have room to breathe and your understanding can occur. William Charles Macready, a well-known Shakespearean actor, in preparation for the leading role in Macbeth, secured his head to a wall by using rawhide nailed and hooked to the wall to restrict any motion that might distract his attention. He knew that having the correct focus was required to assume the viewpoint of the character. We don’t know if he wrote out his own thoughts, or if he just thought about them as he began the procedure of “monologuing”(a made up word for performers). Shakespeare’s language is often melodic and in a certain rhythm, and it’s wise to initially ignore it, for the sake of understanding the components of the communication, as we do with musical theatre. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Naturally, once a performer attains command of the communication, music and rhythm, and even rests can be added. All too often this step is either unknown or ignored by performers and the result is as Shakespeare said in the Scottish play, “…a poor player, acting his hour on the stage, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” In other words, we hear a singer or actor who has attention on the sound of the voice rather than on the meaning of the communication. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> It is preferable to start the process of “monologuing” quietly, even a whisper as if you are introducing the thoughts to the situation. After twenty or thirty times, the whisper will evolve to normal speech. Over the years, students have asked how many times they should monologue a script or song, and my response is “only you know.” The process is done by you, for you, and not for anyone else. It is similar to the process of getting to know someone, even dating someone you are attracted to. You start by taking baby steps, little moves, small talk, and feelings. The secret to this is letting or allowing the thoughts to come out, not forcing, pushing or demanding.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> It’s a gentile process, as it is when you’re learning and experiencing a new person, one you’ve been drawn closer to. You want to avoid the interpretative traps we’ve discussed, anything which causes you to dislike the person, or be critical in any way. The true test of thought is, “If I said or thought something negative or bad about you, how would you feel? What would you do?” Chances are, it would repel that person from you so much, they would want to leave.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Once you’ve “monologued” (another made up word) several times (Anthony Hopkins has said the best way to learn a script is to read and speak it up to 250 times!), you can experiment with ways to communicate the thoughts. I am a firm believer in shouting the thoughts as it raises the bar and often the importance of what you are saying when you shout or scream it out. It is an excellent way to increase vocal production and range, as well. You can try a variety of emotions, as long as you choose more than one emotion, because no one communicates in one emotional tone, even when a person is angry and full of hate, they go up and down the range of emotions according to the thought and what absorbs their attention. Angry people often have their attention on wanting to stop something or someone, and the only way to stop them is by summoning forceful means. Physical abuse starts this way, as the abuser is reacting to someone who is upsetting the situation and they feel they need to stop the upset. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Again, the purpose of monologuing is to discover how the three steps, seeing, relating and signifying contribute to the communication. You are working to achieve a state of unconscious competence, which happens by multiple sessions of monologuing, until you can feel the presence of the character, assuming his or her viewpoint, and focusing your attention on whatever is causing the character to respond. Acting is chiefly the process of reacting to something. The only reason we are not called “Reactors” is we don’t want to be confused with nuclear installations, although it may be helpful to consider ourselves explosive at times. However, nuclear reactors are unthinking entities, and we certainly are thinking and feeling beings.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> After completing these steps, you need to evaluate the experience, asking yourself “What do I like about this communication?” Be thorough, and pull out everything you like, as it helps encourage you to continue. Once you’ve done that, ask yourself “What would I like to change?” Usually, you know because you feel something’s missing or just not right. It may be on account of one of the four A’s present, causing you to be critical of the character, yourself or the situation. Find which of the four A’s is active, as there may be more than one, and address each of them one at a time. If you try to address more than one, the chances are you will become overwhelmed and think you need to quit or withdraw. If that happens, whatever you do, realize it’s a temporary feeling, and, just like a relationship, you don’t want to say or do anything that will make it permanent. It is wise to take a walk when that happens, get out, breathe fresh air (if you live where you can do that) or get on oxygen if you need to. But confront it, don’t simply shrug it off, because it will come back to haunt you. Treat this work tenderly as you would a serious relationship with someone you love. It’s difficult to maintain your composure at times, but know it is required of performers to keep a steady balance and control of your thoughts, emotions and effort expended. </span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.39412769209593534"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-71537518291301965792013-01-22T08:49:00.001-08:002013-01-22T08:49:40.056-08:00BE PREPARED<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Chapter Five</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Be Prepared</span></b></div>
<br /><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I realized, as a young performer, that the best thing I could do was to develop a workable technique, one that would produce reliable results, so that my work would not be left up to chance or intuition, and that I could be trusted to deliver a valuable contribution and product to the project at hand. So I prepared myself by moving to New York City, and studying with Uta Hagen, and later with Mira Rostova, and Robert Lewis. As wonderful as those years were, I was unhappy and unprepared for the work I would do in the coming years. So I looked around for more training, especially with professionals who also were educators. I understand that many actors do their craft and may or may not know exactly what they do, but rely on their imaginations and intuition. My experience showed me that my intuition was not always accurate, and that for certain roles, it didn’t help me find the special significance that helped me get the message across. In the middle of a run in New York, I discovered that the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art was holding auditions for their one year postgraduate course in the classics. That was the major turning point of my life, when I presented seven out of nine monologues to them, only to be surprised that they would invite me to join them in London! I was truly prepared for that moment. So my advice to performers is have an entire resume of audition pieces on hand. Be Prepared! You never know when someone will want to see what you have to offer.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> That motto has stayed with me my entire life, and has helped me deal with criticism, disorder and discouragement.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><br /><b> Dealing with criticism and discouragement</b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> One encounters all of these in high school, college, graduate school and in the professional arena of stage, film and television. Rather than react to discouragement, criticism and negativity, one largely ignores them and the people who present them. It’s best to consider such people non-existent. One should prepare for the occasional criticism, discouragement and negative reactions that can come along. It is one’s sole responsibility to protect oneself from anything or anyone who would act to suppress or discourage us from doing what we like and love. It’s best to have control over destiny as our thoughts and reactions shape our futures. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I had spent much time trying to understand why people would be critical and try to discourage me from living the dream I had as a young man. I read books, attended lectures, sought out others who had experienced setbacks and were confused and even dismayed. There was a time, when I was in the Navy, that I adopted two identities, one as a sailor and another as an interested college student, pretending to attend classes and doing homework.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />That deception eventually caught up to me, and a wise man from a local church said I didn’t have to do that. He said all I needed to do was to confront the person or people and disagree with the premise that they were right! All I needed to do was to stand up for who I am, and know what I believed, and just live my life based on that belief, and eventually the “naysayer” would believe me and either ignore me or acknowledge me for who I am. It didn’t matter to me that everyone would not like me. I had to live my life unfettered by the concerns of the few who were critical of me. I had to learn that there would be those who were attracted to me, who agreed with my unique viewpoint, and were interested in finding out more.<br /><br /><b> Making positive choices</b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> As a performer, this operating basis became valuable to me, and to the people around me. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Making positive choices is the only way to proceed as an actor, because people (characters) naturally consider themselves right, no matter what they do. Critics may have harsh words for them, but from their unique and interesting viewpoint, they believe themselves and their actions as true and righteous. Even Shakespeare’s Richard III believes, because of his deformity and ill fortune, he had to assert himself by killing others in order to gain popularity and control of his world. It’s a matter of viewpoint.<br /><br /><b> How to start a professional career</b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Whenever a young performer asks me for advice on how to get started, I say the same thing, over and over, “You need to develop a workable technique and a body of prepared songs and monologues that you can perform at the drop of a hat.” Once you gather those audition pieces, you’ll want to find your way into auditions for work, and it doesn’t matter much where the performance will take place, in a theatre or a church or a store front, as long as you can perform in front of an audience, any audience, even if it is in a retirement home. We recommend you perform as often as you can, because your improvement is dependent upon the number of performances you do. Performances prepare you for the many eventualities and situations that are possible, including sickness, accidents, conflicts and discouragement.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />You need to become a master over any and all distractions in order to be a valuable contributor to the industry. Being able to focus your attention amidst chaotic events makes you into a leader that people can follow and emulate. That takes a lot of preparation to achieve that status. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Some performers go from one venue to another, from theatre to film and television, from one theatre to several others, and there is no special way to build a career. A good friend of mine, back when I started my career at Berkeley Repertory Company, stayed with the company for ten years until someone from Los Angeles spotted him and invited him to audition for a television series, "Hill Street Blues." That jump started his career. I was too impatient and bounced around from theatre to theatre until a director saw me in <i>Richard II</i> and asked me to play R.P. McMurphy in <i>One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest</i>, which started my professional career.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><br /><b> Dealing with the issues of talent</b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Preparation comes in many ways. When one has talent, having discipline can be a problem. One can also lack diligence and perseverance, as it is easy to consider oneself invincible and can do no wrong. One feels it’s easy to get away with more things, being special and unique, and therefore more difficult to replace. That is an assumption one should not adopt. Having too many assumptions can be dangerous, as you can “burn your bridges” easily in this business. It is just too risky to let something like that happen and wind up “black listed” by the director or producer. Use the talent as a wonderful gift that can be shared by many people. Place attention </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Be a problem solver</b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Being a problem solver is important in any team activity, and performing is certainly a team sport. It takes an entire company of performers, coaches, technicians, designers and producers to create a wonderful performance. Everyone needs to contribute by being supportive, helpful, and keenly aware of the role you play in creating the whole story. We are story tellers par excel lance. In order for the story to be told, each valuable part must be delivered without incident, without errors, mishaps and miscues. Part of our preparation is to understand the rhythm, pace and meaning of the work. We need to understand the desired message we are sending out, bearing the right degree of importance and significance. Whatever we do, we need to prepare ourselves for the task, bearing in mind that we are not there to create problems, but to solve them.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><br /><b> Find a good mentor</b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> There are many situations we will not have answers for, and it is beneficial to find a mentor or person who can be trusted to help. Not everyone is eager to help, however. Seek out those helpers in every company, and usually one or two of them will be there to ask for guidance. It is not easy to ask for help, but it is often necessary. It is a humbling moment when you need to ask for help, but know we all need help from time to time, and there is no shame attached to asking for it. If someone shuns you when you ask for help, find a willing participant who wants to contribute to the production, no matter what position the person holds in the organization. I recall asking a stage hand for help making an entrance, as I saw no way to get around the moving scenery in time to make my entrance. That man went out of his way to alter the motions he made to provide me with a clear path to the stage. Again, some people know it is a team activity and respond amazingly well.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><br /><b> Read as much as is possible</b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Preparing your mind is another area of growth which is important to the performer. Sir Lawrence Olivier was told by Dame Judith Anderson to increase his abilities as a reader, that he needed to read more, especially histories to develop his mind and imagination in order to succeed as a performer. He discovered the world of research! He became one of the world’s finest actors ever after that. He realized he had to prepare his mind to understand the variety of roles and viewpoints he would adopt. Even as Hamlet, a role often laden with criticism and disgust for his uncle and mother, Olivier found positive choices to guide him through the process of “setting the world right.” </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Read historical accounts and read philosophy. Read to discipline the mind as one fills the stomach. Ponder all the thoughts as they come up. Gain a full understanding of the situation.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> Ask how such thoughts might be interpreted and communicated. Study and appreciated the stories available. Delineate the thoughts by writing other thoughts prompted by them.<br /> It is the thoughts we have that shape our futures. Thoughts attract vibrations which alter the nature of the physical universe and create new realities. By preparing our thoughts, we protect ourselves against adversity, falling into deep traps, and failing to produce the desired results we want to achieve. Use the thoughts to prepare for the tasks ahead. </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-81291087199190427762013-01-02T13:33:00.003-08:002013-01-02T13:33:42.940-08:00The Beginning Student<br />
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<b>The Beginning Student</b></div>
</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> What’s the quickest, surest way to get competency from the “rank beginner to professional?”</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Beginning singing students are from all walks of life: children, high school kids, adult </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">recreational students. They may even be professional actors or dancers who need to sing competently for an impending performance. As a community school for the arts, voice instructors at Utah Conservatory have to work with scores of beginning students, and find the challenges of the “community student” are unique. Usually, they are “recreational singers,” that is, they are looking for enjoyment of a new skill that enhances their quality of life, reduces stress, or accomplishes some personal goal; yet, their quest is not usually the central focus of their vocational goals. These students are part of our new “consumer mentality.” They are looking for maximum results from their “professional trainer” without a whole lot of leisure time to study at the “professional track level.” If they spend their time exclusively with vocal drills and exercises, they feel progress is too slow, as they have not “product” or songs to show for it. Conversely, if they only work on their favorite songs, they may not experience the essential basics of technique that the drills and exercises have to offer. At any rate, we usually find that they need to feel quickly that there is a change in their abilities for the better.<br /> These issues have brought us to put our heads together and pose the question: what have we, as a faculty, seen as the consistent methods, strategies and techniques that contribute to solid progress and competency for the rank beginner student, particularly the voice student who practices less than 45 minutes a day? And, when they do practice, they are usually double-tasking.<br /> The Answer for us is in “synergistic principals.” </span><br />
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />Here are some of our guiding strategies:<br /><br />Extrovert the student’s attention and strengthen their focus.<br /><b>Insist on Perfect Posture</b>:</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Why? Because perfect singing posture get the student out of his/her own way. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> It will prevent the student from overcompensating in other areas. This includes: feeling tall and loose; sensing broadness on both sides of the sternum with a high torso; teaching skeletal alignment, feet balanced and shoulder width apart, a feeling of “roundedness” and a “synergistic balance.”</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><br /><b>Breathe with the Student in Solidarity</b>:</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Proper breathing can be led by example. As we all recognize that correct breathing is foundational and synergistic to the rest of the singing process, the example of our breath with the student will help to re-pattern their habits. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />We recommend the instructor put her on own hand on her own abdomen while the other hand plays the scales. Let the student always see you breathe move and they will do the same. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Some basics: Keep the energy low, talk about the “pelvic floor” and the feeling of breath energy flowing through the body and into the floor, allow no tightness to come into the posture during the breath, practice long slow breaths, pant, “plie” with the inhalation, or prop the students entire back side, knees bent, up against the wall, and have them bend down while inhaling. Encourage them to practice low slow breathing while laying in bed with a dictionary on their abs, or when walking or driving.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Support</b>!</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The fastest way to get new students to progress is to really get them to support, even if the high sub-glottic pressures might cause them to over-sing a bit. We find that the over-singing can be quickly resolved by just noting to the student that their voice is doing a little more work than it needs to, and that they can release their voice through more air flow. We are so afraid of damaging beginning voice students with over-singing, that they go for months, even years, with unembodied, wimpy tones, never really finding out what their “real” voice sounds like. Conversely, teaching the student about the apoggio and its ability to build the voice is the key. The sub-glottic pressure can first be felt with bubbles and lips drills, then a little feeling of pressure with arpeggios on “ZZZZZ,” followed by the [u] vowel and then some sirens. Sirens get them to feel the way that the air pressure can raise their voices without any vocal work. Last, and perhaps the most controversial, we find that the student who know how to shout, can transfer than sensation to the torso strength that it takes to sing on the breath. We recommended lots of speech-to-singing exercises. We even recommend that students monologue, loudly, their pieces, and then sing them. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Lesson Structure</b>: A Balance approach in a small amount of time</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: x-large;">Basic drills and exercises (5-10 minutes)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-large;">Sieber or Concone (5 minutes)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-large;">Classical Style Song of teacher’s choosing (5-10 minutes)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-large;">Contemporary song selected by Student with teacher’s approval (5-10 minutes)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-large;">Taping the lesson as a pattern for practice</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-large;">Keep explanations concise so that the student is singing for most of the lesson</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-large;">Keep focus on actual learning time (reference)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-large;">Stay Socratic and positive</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-large;">Avoid critical evaluations</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Attention</b>:</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Immediately focus the student’s attention, and work to extrovert their attention. Most beginning students have introverted attention, which manifests in low energy, over-intellectualizing or processing, confusion, or constantly “judging” or “criticizing” themselves. It is the teacher’s first job to get the student singing and feeling the result, rather than listening to their voices. Listening to their voices is the surest way to introvert attention, reverting to an under-energized and unsupported tone. Direct the student to identify singing with communication. That will also increase their energy. Have them monologue their pieces several times (50 to 100) to a teddy bear, photo, tree, or another person. It is preferable that they use their imagination, rather than an actual person, but using a person is an acceptable gradient step in the process of developing communication skills. The ability to communicate is synergistic to their success. When you require the appropriate energy in performance, it is foundational to good singing. At all times, synergistically match your energy with what you would expect from the student. Even when the student is singing alone, pattern your energy to match or exceed what is required. Such involvement is synergistic, the solidarity of which keeps the student on task. If you lose this “matching energy, watch how the beginning student will quickly become introverted and critical. Conversely, as they gain more ability to extrovert their attention and send energy to a specific point of communication, you can help them to “feel” the success of the energy versus their mistaken postulate that singing is exclusively about listening to their own voices. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>So, to recap</b>: </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Extrovert the student’s attention, put their attention on communication, and get the student to non-threatening performance opportunities: master classes, friends at lessons, rest home, etc. The students who perform make the best progress. </span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.9270148640498519"><span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre;"> </span></b><br />
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</b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-49127462840038260572012-12-14T11:26:00.007-08:002012-12-14T11:26:59.022-08:00THE BASICS<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Chapter Three</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Basics</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> So, I say to you, <i>learn how to focus your attention</i>. Do exercises in attention and communication, because if you’re not communicating to someone you know, even if it’s only in your mind, then your attention will be dissipated, and you’ll be lost in the moment, because without an understanding of who you’re talking to, what you’re saying, and what the importance of the message is, what the point of what you’re communicating, no one will get what or why you’re saying it!<br /><br /> Let’s clarify with some basic definitions: <br /><br /><b><i>Acting</i></b> – Representing a unique character by assuming the point of view of that person to serve the character in the best, most positive light imaginable, understanding the exact situations a character is involved in. To serve an imaginary character as a spokesperson, believing all that he or she stands for.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Attention</i></b>- Mental concentration, looking toward someone or something, placing one’s mind and gaze on someone with an expectation of giving and receiving information, with the understanding that something will occur between two or more viewpoints.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Classify</i></b>- The act of arranging things according to subject matter, putting them into a particular category.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Communication</i></b> is the act of relaying information from one viewpoint to another viewpoint which includes the attention, intention and willingness to share data from all parties, originator and recipient.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Intention</i></b> – Having one’s mind strengthened by a specific important purpose.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Objective</i></b>- Something someone is trying to achieve or reach out for from a specific viewpoint.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Responsibility</i></b>- Having to account for your actions and recognizing the validity of your character’s and your own choices. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Specify</i></b>- Isolating details which describe something to be done or made, clearly distinguishing a unique choice deemed to be important. Finding a special item which emerges significantly within a particular classification, defined exactly, which increases its value.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Note</b>: Several schools of thought on the subject of performing encourage you to focus on objectives, the purposeful goal, but they don’t delve into the source of the attention, which is the imaginary character’s point of view. Ask yourself, “Do I ever focus on an objective?” Usually you focus on your thoughts, and the message you’re trying to communicate. The practice of focusing on objectives may work, if the </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">character is doing that. Most of the time, characters and people are unaware of actual objectives, but they know what their attention is on, how they need to respond to the situation at hand. It is an immediate attraction which leads you to understand the nature of the viewpoint.<br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Classify/Specify</b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> The entire act of creation is two-fold. Initially, when developing a character you need to place him or her into a classification, a category which allows you to see clearly the details and boundaries of the viewpoint. Next, you need to discover something specific about the particular, unique viewpoint given to you by the thoughts and considerations of the character, expressed in the script or song.<br />You need to first CLASSIFY the situation, and then to SPECIFY something about it; that is, to “specify,” is to make something more important than anything else. By classifying and specifying, you open the door to creative endeavors. You may have to repeat this process until something emerges more important than others. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I would say the vital task is to expand your ability is to imagine things, imagine situations, imagine character traits, and imagine new thoughts and new ideas. One exercise I’ve found useful is to go to a large shopping mall, and watch people shopping, coming and going to and from stores, and imagine what’s on their minds, what they’re thinking about, what their attention is on, and take notes from you act of imagining what absorbs their attention. It doesn’t matter what you imagine, as long as you don’t fall into the traps of interpretation: This process helps the performer focus his/her attention on the possible negative traps that may come your way, and find out how to reverse them to positive items grasping your attention.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> There is a sequence, that if placed out of order or if the steps are ignored, will hinder the accurate interpretation of a song, and produce little or no effect. In turn, it will leave an audience without an opinion of why you sang the song at all. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">That’s where the traps come in. They take us away from positive choices, and we become cynical and doubting, rather than positive and reassuring. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> You see, as people, we naturally look toward the hopeful, positive, and beneficial paths, those which lead us toward solutions, rather than into the mire of problems.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>The Trap of Adopting Criticism</b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> Our world loves criticism as it pervades the media, our universities, our schools, and our workplace, as well as in our homes. In many ways, it is easier to be critical of someone or something, than it is to take a positive outlook. Performers, as James Earl Jones recently said, “Have the responsibility to breathe life into our characters.” It’s hard to breathe life into an imaginary person when you’re critical of him or her, just as it is hard to love someone when you criticize that person. Performers are challenged to find the most positive viewpoint of the characters they represent in a scene, a song or a movie. That’s why we always look at the good things we do, what we like about our work and our choices. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I found there are four “A”s which serve as traps, as they hinder our ability to imagine and interpret a viewpoint. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Attitude</b>: Is a pasted on group of thoughts or actions which we feel are part of a character’s viewpoint, but are not really, because a character’s attention is absorbed with the problem s/he faces, not by attitude arising out of the problem.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />Attitudes are not real, but are nevertheless destructive to the process of assuming a viewpoint, as by striking an attitude, you lose the character’s genuine attention on what s/he is doing. It could also be the actor’s attitude toward the character. <br />By plastering ourselves in an attitude, we drive ourselves away from that viewpoint, because the character as an entity would reject that focus of attention. That creates distance from the location we need to be in, so that we can SEE what has our character’s attention. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Assumption</b>: This is the false act of assuming things are true when they are not, but imagined to be true out of an idea that you are obligated to make it true. If the character was aware of it s/he would separate him/herself from you to prevent being false. We are assuming that our character would react is a way that s/he may not.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">The key to discovering if we are making assumptions is to:</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><ul>
<li>go over the text of the song, find out who the character is directing the message to</li>
<li>imagine the person receiving the communication and viewpoint of your character</li>
<li>what reaction would s/he have?</li>
<li>Choose the most effective means to communicate your character’s viewpoint. Such means will be designed to get your character’s desired reaction from whomever s/he is talking to. </li>
<li>When that is done, no assumptions will be present.</li>
</ul>
</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><b>Association</b>: This is the false act of finding someone or something that is similar and adopting that in place of the true character, deciding that our character resembles “so and so.”It’s thinking “S/he reminds me of … and I know s/he is just like that person.” What effect will that have on our character? The result is alienation, the same thing happens when a person, attempting to create a bonding experience, uses an association to create familiarity, but it backfires because the other person is unique and special and s/he knows it’s not true. S/he wants to be seen as an unique individual, unlike any other person. Your attempt to pigeon hole them will only make them individuate from you, just like a real life friend. They know you’re not sincere if you make an associative comparison. <br /><b>Arbitrary</b>: This is the result of one’s spontaneous imagination and bringing in something out of the blue, without relevance or regard for the character’s true viewpoint. It often takes shape in emotions and actions you bring to the role. They are destructive to keeping the character’s attention on the actual reality of the situation. Arbitrary is something that comes out of the blue, without rhyme or reason, but just added as a substitute for communication, to make it “interesting or compelling”, but results in a showing that is neither. <br />Emotional outbreaks are among the arbitrary choices I’ve seen performers make. Excessive emotion has the ability to drown out the thoughts, which confuses audiences as they can’t understand why or how the emotion could fit in with the thought. Remember, performing is mostly thought-driven, and thoughts require accurate attention, from moment to moment.<br /><br /> These are the Four A’s: Attitude (pasting on ideas to yourself, covering your identity or the character’s identity with fabricated ideas), Association (uniting the viewpoint with someone you know as in “you remind me of such and such”) Assumption (taking a thought that it should be for this purpose by assuming that it is true, when most likely it is not) and Arbitrary (coming from nowhere, from a wild tangent or a “fun idea”). If you fall into any of these traps, your proximity to the viewpoint will enlarge, because the character, the imaginary character will be offended and won’t have anything to do with you, especially since your job is to represent the viewpoint to the best of your knowledge and wisdom. And in summary, that is why you are a performer, so you can take on the viewpoint of an imaginary character, find what his/her attention is on, locate that focal point, speak with all the feeling you have inside you, letting it come out naturally, as the breath from your soul. <br /> Use the Four A’s to help you locate the trouble spots. Sometimes they are illusory and difficult to perceive. If you feel something is not effective in your communication, and you’re “Not in the zone” so to speak, check yourself by evaluating your thoughts about the character, the situation, other characters and the entire scene. You may have an unknown critical thought which propels you into a void, like falling into a deep hole. You need to isolate the origin of that thought and acknowledge its presence. Once that “A” has been identified, you can discard the critical thought by changing it to a positive choice, then rehearsing it over and over again to remove any residual negative effect. <br /><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Positive Choices Enhance Imagination</b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> I looked at assumptions that I had made and realized that it was a trap, one that drove me further from the viewpoint, rather than closer. It became apparent that these traps would hamper, if not kill the communication process, and would also reduce my ability to use my imagination, which I feel is the most valuable and important tool a performer has. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> As children, we imagine everything, the Wild West, the presence of Indians, the battlefield with cannons and guns, the railroad trains and trucks; in short, our imaginations got us through childhood. So why as adults, do we lose the ability to develop our imaginations? </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> What is this process? I call it the SRS method, short for SEE, RELATE, & SIGNIFY. I have found this process to be very workable, and if used consistently, will produce great satisfaction and enjoyment in your performances. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><br /><i><b>See</b></i><br /> The first step is to SEE what is there.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">SEE what thoughts are there </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />SEE the transitions between the thoughts <br /> what brings on the change of thought <br />how that change from one thought to another is used to create a desired response?<br />What is actually happening in the music?<br />SEE the rhythm, tempo, and pacing of the piece, and any changes & transitions<br />SEE the instructions written on the music: dynamics markings, phrasing & articulation.<br />SEE how the composer integrated the text with the melody, and identified what kind of vocal line it is. Are there skips, scales, recitatives, etc?<br />Note what the accompaniment is doing in contrast to the vocal line.<br />SEE and hear the harmonies and dissonances.<br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Relate</b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><br /> The second step is to RELATE, that is, to: </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">compare one thought to another </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />compare how the thoughts are connected to an overall point of the communication.<br />Compare your thoughts to that of the character if you were in the same situation. Would you say or do the same thing? Why? Why not? <br />How do the character’s thoughts and works and actions originate from a positive place; where even an antagonist is making decisions because they feel it is the best path for them?<br />Often, this step is used extensively when a performer monologues the song, wherein the communication is enhanced, and discoveries about the character’s thought processes are revealed. With the monologue process, you , as the performer, understand how the “cycle of communication” is present. <br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Signify</b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> That leads to the third step, to SIGNIFY, to find something important in the communication that focuses your attention, that gives you purpose for the communication. The important thought that you choose as being significant can absorb you full attention and involvement, and will help bring in the emotional support for your communication. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The whole use of SRS is to take advantage of your creative abilities to classify and specify.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><br />Being a performer is different from being a person. Performers must “step up to the plate,” in terms of their energy and communication. They must be like tigers ready to pounce, and must have an antenna out for opportunities to find significance. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The most successful auditions I’ve had happened when I found something significant in the song or scene, something I could rally behind, and something that put me into the viewpoint of the character instantly. Most of the unsuccessful auditions lacked that clarity of purpose, and therefore reduced my ability to energize from that specific viewpoint. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Performers must also be excellent perceivers of human thought and emotion. I recommend going to a shopping mall and watching people, SEEING, RELATING and finding SIGNIFICANCES. It is a good, worthwhile activity to prepare you for this work. Performers should be positive role models, people who are problem solvers, not problem makers. Most of our activity involves groups of people, and whenever one of us becomes a negative influence, the result is disastrous.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Our lives will impact us, and we need to develop our techniques to survive as performers, to not dredge up bad times to artificially energize ourselves, but rather to use our imaginations to place us in the moment. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> So, how do you get setup for a performance? You start by imagining what just happened five minutes earlier, and you place yourself in that viewpoint, so that when you begin singing or acting, you are already in the MIDDLE of the scene or song, so that you are involved and communicating, rather than BEGINNING to communicate. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I realize that to prepare performers one needs to direct their attention and energy to mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual realities, which are brought about by clear and present thoughts. This demands much from a performer, inasmuch as mental work can be as trying as physical work. Yet, this mental work is a known necessity and requirement of the performer.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Much of this discipline lends itself to the task of living. I encourage performers to overcome adversity, illness, laziness and apathy. By challenging ourselves to remove criticism from our lives, we set our sights on finding positive choices, which edify our families and friends. We set a standard of living which is higher than life itself.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />It is the secret to living a life of joy.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-17432448320183780712012-12-09T10:08:00.001-08:002012-12-09T10:08:20.564-08:00OUR PHILOSOPHY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="font-size: xx-large;">Chapter Two</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Our Philosophy</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> Your attention is the most valuable asset you have. Your mind is guided by your thoughts and your thoughts lead you to either success or failure. Accepting criticism from people minimizes your energy and reduces your effectiveness as a performer. The best way to take criticism is to thank the person who gives it to you<br />and let that be the end of it.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Performing is a team sport. Each performer contributes to the total event in concert with one another, supporting each other’s preparation and delivery to achieve a desired result. Technique is how you know, have and use a workable, patterned approach to the work which allows you to assume the character’s viewpoint. Performing requires specific attention which cannot be distracted</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />by anyone or anything. Performers are masters of maintaining their attention, regardless of audience responses. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Singing is sustained talking as you are communicating to a specific person always.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />The most effective tool for communicating is having a strong imagination which can establish and form an event. Building the ability to imagine is essential for performers, as it provides an anchor point, a recipient of your communications. Discovering your source of energy is important in developing your technique and abilities to perform any task. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Performers are special people. They are dedicated to challenging and moving audiences to change personal considerations, adjust their habits, alter their actions in life toward improvement and thereby improve the performer’s life and situations.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The process of learning is a gentle, gradient-based progression which is free of negative input so as to engender cooperation, enhanced understandings, quality communications and wonderful performances. Learning is something that occupies a performer’s lifelong ambition. Age is not a factor when it comes to learning if the person confronts success, failure and adversity with a relentless willingness to be challenged. Much like the early forefathers of our country, we are all faced with </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">trials, tribulations, conflicts, economic reversals, emotional upheavals, disappointments, and disasters. George Washington suffered many defeats before the victory at Yorktown and the eventual defeat of the British. He suffered through<br />Valley Forge, the death of hundreds of soldiers, disgrace among his peers and countrymen, and periods of hunger, cold and starvation of his men. Yet he persisted in spite of all that was thrust upon him. He was a military “performer” who never gave up his belief in his country and determination to survive the adversity. He learned that the only way to withstand a storm is to drive directly to the heart of the matter without running or hiding from it.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> So it is with performers. You may encounter criticism, which is prevalent in our society, and may be affected by it, may even cause you to become sick, depressed, rejected, and ashamed that you let it happen to you. Just know that you are special, unique, and spiritual in nature. Know that people love you and that God loves you as your father or mother loves you. Remind yourself that you are a good person; you seek after joy and learning. Know that you may have to defend yourself on occasion, and know that you will survive, you will be fine. Adversarial attacks come out of nowhere, and if you refuse to be the effect of them, they soon fade away into the darkness they come from. Seeking light is the best way to defeat darkness. Turning to spiritual realities helps you conquer the world’s ills. You are primarily a thinking, rational being who is loved and loves. Adversarial attacks occur without provocation, randomly and are not the results of any specific target. Things happen. It is your responsibility to maintain a cool head, not be provoked into making a mistake which will drop you down a deep hole. Once, I remember walking down a street on the lower east side of New York City, and a man came out of nowhere and grabbed me. My initial reaction was to take the hand and dance with him! I instinctively knew it would prevent the attack, and I was right. He recoiled saying, “You’re crazy!” Only later did I discover that criminals are afraid of crazy people. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> As performers, and indeed, people, we are responsible for our personal condition. We can point the finger that other people are responsible, but when we do, four of our other fingers are pointing directly back to us. The odds are four to one we are responsible for our choices in life, and indeed for our performances. I can’t say that I haven’t had the desire to blame someone, especially my father, growing up, but as I matured, I realized I had to forgive him, and understand his particular viewpoint, not discounting that his actions were wrong and indecent, but that we all respond to life’s pressures, and as a performer, we need to be able to “walk a mile in that person’s moccasins.”</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> It’s a matter of being “pan-determined,” going out of the world and standing on the moon to get the whole picture, seeing the truth of a situation from another viewpoint other than our own, relating to how a person arrives at a place where they could do something negative, destructive, and self-deprecating. Some people believe in Karma, what goes around, comes around. There may be some truth in that, but to react because of that is foolish, and is an assumptive trap, because it might be that a person responded to a chaotic event which had nothing to do with a causative action supposedly committed earlier. Things happen, and for us to assume that we are the cause of what happens to us is naïve. What is more important is that our choices in response are what we have control over. Imagine if people thought what happened in New Orleans was the result of the sinful or wayward actions of the people. No, it just happened. What they do in response is the issue. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Now, when 9-11 happened, we were attacked, similar to Pearl Harbor. Certainly, no one viewed either of those incidents as provoked by causation. What did we do? </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">How did we interpret those acts? We declared war on the enemies, who represent an adversarial force wanting to eliminate our freedom to exist, the same way Israel responds to the Palestine or Iranian desire to extinguish their people from the earth.<br /> Some time ago, I was in a touring production of “Antigona Perez” a rewrite of Anouilh’s <i>Antigone</i>, and we were sent to Boston to perform around town. Little did we know that the climate was hostile, that the Cuban refugees in the neighborhood were reacting to us as the invaders, suggesting that they return to Cuba, and that the play was a message to “go home?” So guerrillas came on the scene armed with weapons, and threw bottles at us on the stage, forcing us to seek refuge in our touring bus, and two of them boarded our bus, and threatened us mortally if we did not run away and not present this “propaganda” anywhere else in Boston. We ran for our lives and witnessed our bus, costumes, and clothes left behind burning behind us. I was the Equity deputy, and had the responsibility of contacting the union to demand two weeks pay and return transportation back to New York for the cast and crew. There are times when it is wise to not resist evil, but to preserve yourselves and friends, away from harm. I was responsible for that decision to comply with the terrorists and leave while we still could. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I pray that no one will ever have to endure that situation. In forty five years, it only happened once, and I am grateful for that. We learn from life’s turns of fate or we expose ourselves to a repeat performance later on. It’s what we do in the clinch that makes a difference. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Our philosophy is basically, that students need to be prepared for as many situations they can imagine, like what the New York Water Authority did recently with the US Air crash in the Hudson river. They were prepared and acted decisively to save lives. We believe that students should be ready to assume full responsibility for their actions, especially their reactions to whatever comes their way. We believe we are problem solvers, not problem makers.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-17111494673763478822012-12-04T21:28:00.001-08:002012-12-04T21:28:37.950-08:00A JOYOUS LIFE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Chapter One</b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>A Joyous Life</b></div>
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I believe it began, this quest of mine, as a young man wanting to serve others, as an acolyte in the Episcopal Church. It brought joy which I could share with others. Then, in my last two years of high school, I performed on the stage as an actor and in a local night club, as a stand up comedian. I also wanted to be an officer and a gentleman, and was accepted into Kings Point Military Academy, but fate would turn. I grew up the son of a first generation Italian father and a first generation German mother. My father was an alcoholic and beat both my mother and I. I sincerely thought he wanted me dead, especially when he refused to take me to the hospital when I was crippled over in paid from a ruptured appendix. Fortunately, my mother successfully took me in only to hear the doctor tell her that I had a twenty percent chance of living, even if the surgery was successful. I guess I was an optimist from that time on, because I decided I would live and that twenty percent was better than no percent. I learned then to make the positive choice in life, that I would always treat others with dignity and compassion, especially children I knew I would have later in life, and that I would never strike a child, or adult. I became an Eagle Scout, got a part time job, and found my way into performing, if no other reason to bring joy to myself and others. <br /> Which is why I am writing this book. I could have been an officer in the Navy, had my father not prevented me from pursuing that interest, by stealing the money I had saved for college to make his mortgage payment. I understand he resented me and wanted me to pay for that, and now, in retrospect, from his viewpoint, he considered he was entitled to some repayment for my lack of obedience. He wanted me to work my last summer, and I went to Scout camp to achieve a gold palm for my Eagle Award, forsaking my part time job, as I had saved the money already. However, I am grateful my life took a turn, after enlisting in the Navy, being sent to Pensacola, Florida to train as an Naval Aviator, which was thwarted on my first day after gaining a new-found friend in the program who was excited about his first solo flight and invited me to watch him take off. Now, I had studied aeronautics and knew the basic principles of flight, one of which you need to lower your flaps on the wings to get sufficient lift on take off. I sat in horror as he taxied to the runway without lowering his flaps and began screaming at the top of my lungs to lower them. He could not hear me of course, and proceeded to take off without lowering his flaps. I witnessed him crashing at the end of the runway and found out later that the engine went through his body, leaving a pool of blood and tiny bones. I was shocked to think that one error might cost someone his life and decided to bail out of the program, another major turn.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I began to study history and philosophy in the Navy, and after my four year tour, applied to universities to study history. I decided to start at a small junior college in Louisburg, North Carolina, since I was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia at a naval air station, and had trained as a radio operator on P2V’s - patrol planes. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> I had no fear of flying, only the fear of being a pilot, so letting someone else fly the plane was fine, and after three years of flying, I was ready to live on the ground.<br /> So I was accepted and decided to major in history and philosophy, writing as my first assignment, the <i>History of Utopian Thought</i>. My professor was duly impressed and ratified my interest in becoming a historian, or at least, a professor of history. But my first semester presented yet another turn of fate, as I was eating lunch in the cafeteria and an older gentlemen joined me, announcing that he was looking for a carpenter to prepare a theatre for his drama classes. Since I had learned as a child to do carpentry, and later used that skill to pay for graduate studies in New York, I asked if it came with a scholarship, and it did! So, I solved a financial problem I was facing, paying my tuition in my second year, as I had saved enough from the Navy to pay my first year’s tuition and now I could save enough to get me through my second year. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I loved carpentry work, and began to rekindle my joy from being in theatrical productions, and was asked to play a small part in Elmer Rice’s <i>Adding Machine</i>!</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> I built a small coffin (because of the small stage area) and then climbed into it, before the audience arrived, and had to remain quiet for the entire first act until my cue came, which prompted me to rise up in white face make-up and shout “Won’t you shut up and let a man sleep!” It created a shocking moment just before the lights went out and intermission began. I went on to act in several productions for the next two years, and transferred to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, still intending to major in History. But the first production that fall in my Junior year was <i>My Fair Lady</i>, in which I played Doolittle, and sang “Get me to the church on time” to a thunderous applause in the 1800 seat theatre. I thought to myself, “What am I doing in History, I can make history in Theatre!” Again, the joy it brought to both myself and the audience was special, unique and provocative.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> After graduation, I went to Europe seeking more information about the arts, and was curious about fine artists I witnessed at the Louvre in Paris. I watched them working on reproducing the great masters, especially DaVinci. There was no criticism in their countenance, only looking at what they liked about what they did, evaluating the color, line, shadows, light, and composition. Then, after doing that, they searched the canvas for something they would change or add to it. It struck me, that it is the only true way to proceed as an artist, to evaluate what you like about what you do, getting everything you liked and then asking yourself, what would you change? I went to London, and checked out different drama schools, thinking that I would like to further my education, but my money ran out and I had to return to the states. Once I got back, I looked up a girl friend in San Francisco, and we went to Berkeley, to check out the University programs. I found a theatre set up in a store front, called the “Berkeley Repertory Theatre” and got a job as a carpenter and stage manager. It was their first season! After all, it began my interest in college, so why not continue it? It seemed a great way to introduce myself to the area, help them build the theatre’s reputation, and I met some fine actors, one of which I would meet later in Los Angeles on "Hill Street Blues," Joe Spano, who stayed at Berkeley Rep for several years. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />Berkeley Repertory was terrific! I acted in several plays, once in Norman Mailer’s <i>Deer Park</i>, as Herman Teppis, a sixty year old man (I was 26). I had learned make up in college, and was a dancer and singer, and was considered a “triple threat.”<br />I brought such joy to the part that my age transformed and after the show, no one recognized me, in street clothes and out of make-up. I enjoyed bouncing out of the theatre as a young man, instead of limping my way through life as Herman Teppis did. Even now in my late sixties, I have the same energy I had then, having just completed my sixth production at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, Utah as Mayor Shinn in <i>The Music Man</i>. I realized some years ago, that whenever I was either in a film, play or musical on my birthday, I would not age, and it’s true! Spreading joy has its rewards!</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> After two years at Berkeley Rep, I got hired as an actor as Richard II at the Mill Valley Shakespeare Festival, and was noticed by a director who offered me the role of R.P. McMurphy in <i>One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest</i>, which was picked up by a producer who offered me my first union contract at the Little Fox Theatre in San Francisco. That was 1969, and I have continued to act to this day! In fact, I have two pensions from acting, one with Actor’s Equity and another with Screen Actor’s Guild. From that production, I moved to New York City, and played the same show Off-Broadway as Cheswick, as McMurphy was played by Billy Devane, and Martini was played by Danny Devito. Peter Yates saw our performance and I was cast in my first movie, <i>The Hot Rock</i> , with Robert Redford and Zero Mostel, joining SAG in 1971. It’s usual to be a member of more than one union. In fact, I joined AFTRA, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists shortly after that. It prompted me to frequent the downtown Actor’s Equity lounge to gain insight on older performers. Often they were bitter, sarcastic, and critical of other performers, directors and producers. I couldn’t understand how they expected to get hired with such negative attitudes, and decided then and there that I would not let sarcasm and bitterness get the best of me. I would retain the positive choice in life. For two years I performed eight shows a week, and also studied with Uta Hagen, Robert Lewis, and Mira Rostova from the Moscow Art Theatre, but decided I needed to increase my education and started a master’s degree at Hunter College, in Directing, to gain another viewpoint of the profession, and especially since professional theatre people were teaching: Harold Clurman, Lillian Helman, </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Arthur Miller, and Joseph Anthony, a Broadway Director. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> It was the best two years, I thought at the time, of my professional career. Just before I graduated, I noticed that the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art was holding auditions for their one year post graduate program in the classics. I had prepared several Shakespeare monologues and submitted an application. I had so much joy in that audition, they asked me to do seven monologues, one right after the other, and invited me to join them in London! It’s a rare occasion when you’re offered a role or invitation to participate on the first meeting. Fortunately, after graduation I was hired to act in Ibsen’s <i>Masterbuilder</i> at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut in the Fall, the time I had set aside for going to London. So I called LAMDA and asked if I could come the following year, 1974-75, and to my surprise they said yes! Once again, the joy saved the day. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> When I arrived at LAMDA in September of 1974, I went up to the headmaster, introduced myself and asked him a very important question, following this remark, “I have performed and studied for the last ten years with some of the top people in Theatre, but not one of them could say in a nutshell what the secret to acting is!” He smiled and said, “It’s quite simple, it’s knowing what your attention is on, moment to moment.” My jaw hit the floor. It’s a matter of viewpoint. That year turned out to be the best year of my life, because it made me aware of the source of the communication, and what absorbs the character’s ATTENTION. That simple truth has made sense out of every performance I have done since then.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> On my return to the states, I arrived in New York, and flipped a coin (talk about fate) and flew to Los Angeles, where within three weeks I secured an agent as I was already a SAG member. Two weeks after that I was called to audition for <i>Jackson County Jail</i> opposite Yvette Mimieux and Tommy Lee Jones (his first movie). After three weeks of auditions, they were worried that such a kind guy couldn’t play a rapist cop and Ms. Mimieux had doubts. I asked her what did she need to know (what was her attention on?) and she said we needed to arm wrestle, which I gladly did, convincing her that I could physically overwhelm her. It was my first starring role in film. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Once I was established, offers came in to do other similar roles and I turned them down, because I didn’t want to be pigeon holed as a sexual deviate. But the word got out that I knew something about acting, and people began to ask me to help them learn how to act, so I started an acting class in my apartment, which became so successful the neighbors said I had to take it elsewhere, and so I did, I opened the </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Los Angeles Academy of Dramatic Art, which Neil Simon used in <i>I Ought To Be In Pictures</i>! Neil became a friend of the Academy, which lasted eight years, and the Academy produced some fine actors, who are working to this day. We produced several plays at the Academy during those late seventies and early eighties, and had three theatres operating simultaneously. I continued to work in film and on television until I left again for New York, as I knew my true wife would be there (I had married once in San Francisco and once in Los Angeles) so it was time to find the right one. As fate would have it, I married in New York to the wrong one, and because of her career and children, we moved back to LA after three years teaching at Hunter College in the Theatre and Film departments. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Back in California, the work picked up, but the marriage failed, and so I went back to New York, where I taught at a small theatre company close to 14th Street. I had a sudden interest in opera, (another wonderful turn of fate prompted by providence as one of my actresses was hired by City Opera at Lincoln Center and recommended I audition. I did and was cast in Carmen. Sure enough my first rehearsal answered my lifelong question, as I saw the woman I had sought for many years. I was cast as the priest and she was cast as the nun, because her young son was in the children’s chorus, and, rather than sit backstage, she signed on as a supernumerary, although she is really a wonderful soprano who had done several professional leading roles herself. She had real joy in her work, even as an actress! It was love at first sight, and I made the mistake of telling her. I said, “Where have you been? You are my true wife!” That freaked her out, and she stood me up so many times, even for concerts at the New York Philharmonic. (I was hired to promote concerts, call patrons and sell season tickets, for which I was paid well and received complimentary tickets, many of which I gave away after waiting for her to arrive.) </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> She finally told me she was in a relationship with another man and was reeling from a recent divorce and had no room in her life for an actor! That did it. Although I loved her, and told her so, I could no longer remain in the same city knowing that the woman I’ve looked for most of my adult life would not consent to be my wife. I returned to Los Angeles to continue my career, even though I knew my agent was completely fed up with me and I would have to find other representation. So several months went by and due to a freaky motorcycle accident (the bike fell over and I extended my leg to catch it, which torqued my knee and I was laid up for a spell. I called her and she was excited to hear from me, as she had broken up with the other man. I asked her what we should do with 3000 miles between us. She asked if I would write her, and I jumped at the opportunity. After several months of writing letters back and forth, one of her friends read one of my letters and she told her, “This guy loves you, if you don’t marry him, I will!” Like I said, it’s always a question of viewpoints! That was another spiritual moment, one which convinced her to move out to Hollywood, marry me and begin our life together.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> We ran a studio teaching vocal performance at Beachwood Arts & Music for almost three years with some notable success, but a handful of students. We were prompted to visit Utah, where Debra worked for seven seasons at Utah Opera as a soloist and had graduated, where she had taught for eleven years, with honors, a Masters Degree in Vocal Performance from Brigham Young University. We drove to Provo, which was okay, but nothing special in terms of living there, and then to Salt Lake City, which was covered with a temperature inversion, much like smog in LA. She recommended that we drive up to Park City, and I thought “A city of parked recreational vehicles?” But as we came up Parley’s Canyon I told Debra that “for the first time in my life I couldn’t see the air!” Then I said, “What are we doing with our lives? Let’s move here!” So we sold our house in Hollywood, bought another in Park City, and wondered what we should do. I said, “We should go to the local music store, pick up some sheet music and do a duet!” There wasn’t a local music store, the nearest store was thirty miles away in Salt Lake City. We knew why we moved to Park City and established Park City Music twelve years ago, and music instructors came out of the woodwork wanting to teach in our store. So we did, out of a little seven hundred square foot store within the Treasure Mountain Inn on Main Street, which grew to over one hundred fifty students in three years. We applied for a non-profit organization named Park City Arts & Music Conservatory and opened in June, 2000. We received a few grants to do concerts but had a difficult time raising funds and decided after four years to relegate the non-profit to a scholarship program depending upon support from the community, which we continue to do every year, and have opened up the opportunity to students of other teachers in Salt Lake City. We added a studio in Salt Lake City and changed our name to Utah Conservatory. Recently we added the Paul Green School of Rock as an experimental program to encourage performers to prepare and improve their skills for audiences. Currently we have over 400 students with several students winning competitions and gaining paid performance work. Moreover, Debra has been teaching actors how to sing and perform for the last nine years at the University of Utah, which is where I studied in the Doctoral Education Program for seven years and finally graduated from Rochville University with a PhD in Educational Studies in 2004. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Age should not be a factor in our lives. It is essentially mind over matter. The prospect and progress of our lives is to have enthusiasm and joy, which sheds light over darkness, brings optimism instead of criticism, ushering in hope to the equation. I consider this the responsibility of the performer. Like a race horse, performers need to guard and protect themselves from negative influences so that they are able to feel, express passion from a viewpoint, maintain compassion for others, forgive people rather than harboring resentment and ill will. Performers should desire a life of joy so others can follow. Performers can be leaders. It is a choice one makes. Performers are capable of instilling courage, hope and happiness.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-55972229495687820122012-11-25T12:18:00.001-08:002012-11-25T12:18:18.349-08:00THE BEGINNING STUDENT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>The Beginning Student</b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> What’s the quickest, surest way to get competency from the “rank beginner” voice student. These students are from all walks of life: children, high school kids, adult recreational students. They may even be professional actors or dancers who find they have top learn to sing competently for an impending performance. At any rate, the teachers at Utah conservatory have been working with the “community student” and the “professional track” student for some years. Yet, the challenges of the “community student” to the voice teacher are unique. Usually, they are “recreational singer,” that is, they are looking for enjoyment of a new skill that enhances their quality of life, reduces stress, and accomplished some personal goal, yet, their quest in not the central focus of their vocational goals. These students are part of our new “consumer mentality.” They are looking for maximum results from their “professional trainer” without a whole lot of leisure time to study at the “professional track level.” If they spend their time exclusively with vocal drills and exercises, they feel progress is too slow, as they have not “product” to show for it. Conversely, if they only work on their favorite songs, they may not experience the essential basics of technique that the drills and technique have to offer. At any rate, we usually find that they need to feel quickly that there is a change in their abilities for the better.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> These issues have brought us to put our heads together and pose the question: What have we, as a faculty, seen as the consistent methods, strategies and techniques that contribute to solid progress and competency for the rand beginning student, particularly the student who practices less that 45 minutes a day? And, when they do practice, they are usually double-tasking.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> We have noticed that the pursuit is in “synergistic principals.” </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Here are some of our guiding strategies:</span><br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.27816688222810626"><span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Insist on Perfect Posture:</span></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.27816688222810626"><span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why? Because perfect singing posture get the student out of his/her own way. It will prevent the student from overcompensating in other areas. This includes: </span><span style="font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">feeling tall and loose; sensing broadness on both sides of the sternum with a high torso; teaching skeletal alignment, feet balanced and shoulder width apart, a feeling of “roundedness” and a “synergistic balance.”</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Breathe with the Student in Solidarity:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Proper breathing can be led by example. As we all recognize that correct breathing is foundational and synergistic to the rest of the singing process, the example of our breath with the student will help to re-pattern their habits. We recommend the instructor put her on own hand on her own abdomen while the other hand plays the scales. Let the student always see you breathe move and they will do the same. Some basics: </span><span style="font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keep the energy low, talk about the “pelvic floor” and the feeling of breath energy flowing through the body and into the floor, allow no tightness to come into the posture during the breath, practice long slow breaths, pant, “plie” with the inhalation, or prop the students entire back side, knees bent, up against the wall, and have them bend down while inhaling. Encourage them to practice low slow breathing while laying in bed with a dictionary on their abs, or when walking or driving.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Support!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The fastest way to get new students to progress is to really get them to support, even if the high sub-glottic pressures might cause them to over-sing a bit. We find that the over-singing can be quickly resolved by just noting to the student that their voice is doing a little more work than it needs to, and that they can release their voice through more air flow. We are so afraid of damaging beginning voice students with over-singing, that they go for months, even years, with unembodied, wimpy tones, never really finding out what their “real” voice sounds like.</span><span style="font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conversely, teaching the student about the apoggio and its ability to build the voice is the key. The sub-glottic pressure can first be felt with bubbles and lips drills, then a little feeling of pressure with arpeggios on “ZZZZZ,”</span><span style="font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">followed by the [u] vowel and then some sirens. Sirens get them to feel the way that the air pressure can raise their voices without any vocal work. Last, and perhaps the most controversial, we find that the student who know how to shout, can transfer than sensation to the torso strength that it takes to sing on the breath. We recommended lots of speech-to-singing exercises. We even recommend that students monologue, loudly, their pieces, and then sing them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lesson Structure: A Balance approach in a small amount of time</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Basic drills and exercises (5-10 minutes)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sieber or Concone (5 minutes)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Classical Style Song of teacher’s choosing (5-10 minutes)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contemporary song selected by Student with teacher’s approval (5-10 minutes)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Taping the lesson as a pattern for practice</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keep explanations concise so that the student in singing for the majority of the lesson</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keep focus on actual learning time (reference)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stay Socratic and positive</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Avoid critical evaluations</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Attention:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Extrovert the student’s attention</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Put attention on communication</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Get the student to non-threatening performance opportunities: master classes, friends at lessons, rest home, etc. The students who perform make the best progress.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-16626636612320894762012-11-25T12:14:00.000-08:002012-11-25T12:14:05.632-08:00WHAT IS ACTING?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="font-size: xx-large;">What is Acting?? </b></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> For years people have been asking me What is Acting?? My customary answer is the same one the headmaster at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art told me over thirty years ago as I was a student who had worked professionally as an actor in New York for ten years and had studied with several well-known actors, Uta Hagen, Mira Rostova, and Bobby Lewis which had confused me and didn’t get right down to the core of the matter. So my answer is: It is knowing what your character’s attention on moment to moment, knowing what s/he is communicating, to whom and having a point to say, something of significance, something relevant and pertinent to the scene or song you are delivering. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> That is what acting is.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> So the problem is: How does one do that?</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> When I opened the Los Angeles Academy of Dramatic Art, I had to figure out a technique, something an actor or singer could do that followed a pattern, and guided the person through the treacherous process of interpretation, which itself is laden with traps, but that’s another article called the 4 A’s Worksheet. There is another article you might consult, Six Things Every Voice Student Should Do When Performing, but for now, I’ll sum up the technique I developed and have used as a performer over and over again. It’s called SRS,</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> See Relate Signify, the three steps to assuming a viewpoint of a character.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> For that there is the SRS Worksheet, which you can ask for to help you discover the treasures that await you. Acting is mostly mental with some emotional and physical work attached, but the most important thing is to align your thoughts with the character’s thoughts so you can assume his/her viewpoint readily and sometimes not easily… The only way I know it to experience doing it, and the number of times you do that, the better it is.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Have fun and above all Enjoy your work!!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-8296616097987320772012-11-19T12:00:00.001-08:002012-11-19T12:00:45.381-08:00AN ODE TO JOY<b id="internal-source-marker_0.993343906942755"><br /></b>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.993343906942755"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">An Ode To Joy</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 27px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> An Ode is a structured piece praising or glorifying a topic, namely what Joy does for us. It is normally done intellectually as well as, emotionally. It is somewhat difficult to write about joy without experiencing the effects of it. This is classified as an irregular ode as it is fashioned in prose rather than poetry, although it is written in three parts: an introduction of my history discovering the presence of joy, then examples of achieving joy in my experiences, and an explanation of how I discovered the ways and means of seeking, finding and sharing joy.<br /> Some time ago, due to certain events in my troubled life as a teenager, I started seeking ways and means to find joy in my life. It seemed like I was always struggling, absorbed in troubles and not involved in finding solutions. After high school, I realized that it was time to become a man, matured, more interested in good things, good people, and attempted to distance myself from negative, hostile influences. So, I joined the US Navy! I was seventeen and would be out by the time I was 21! Out of boot camp, I thought I would become a Navy pilot, so I went to Pensacola, Florida for training. I felt light, positive, and that there was a bright future for me. My first acquaintance was a student who had his first solo flight at the end of the week. Now, as an Eagle Scout, I had studied aeronautics, knew the principle of lift, how a plane needed its’ flaps down in order to take off, and I regret not bringing that fact up with my friend, just assuming he would have learned that six months earlier. Not so. I watched his plane taxi up to the runway, and watched him rev up his engine. I thought, okay, when will he lower his flaps?<br />He never did, and I witnessed the crash, watching him crushed by the engine, and felt utterly helpless. I tried screaming at the top of my voice “Lower your flaps!” Over and over again, until it was too late. I was a religious guy, brought up in the Episcopal Church as an acolyte, the cross bearer and candle lighter. But I was at sea after that incident, for a few years, and opted out of the flight school, studying aviation technology, becoming a radio operator in a P2V, patrol squadron, out of Norfolk, Virginia. It was apparent that I needed to create fun and experience enjoyment in my life, so I became a prankster, living a double life, one on the base, another in town. I rented an apartment, bought a car, and as soon as I left the base, I put my military sticker in the glove compartment. I volunteered at a local church to be assistant scout master, pretending I was a college student. It lasted over a year, until one of the parishioners saw me on base, in uniform! He came over to my apartment and asked why I had created a double life. I told him that it cheered me up, made life easier pretending to be someone I was not. He said I couldn’t help the scouts and would have to end the charade. This, after much thought and consternation, agreed to. I actually, enrolled in a history course at William & Mary College, which gave me more trouble, ducking out of the base without approved liberty, and finally, being brought up in front of a court martial! <br /> I continued my duties, being transferred to Quantanimo Bay during the Bay of Pigs nuclear standoff in 1962. Shortly after that, I was accepted to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, interested in becoming a history teacher, after reading many books on history and philosophy. My first semester started and a new drama professor met me in the lunchroom and asked if I was a carpenter? I thought he must be a psychic as it was the only trade my father taught me. He gave me a generous work scholarship which got me through the first two years of college, More importantly, he asked if I would act in an Elmer Rice play, The Adding Machine? I had done a play in high school, Where’s Charley ? But that was a one -time thing. But that little moment in time stuck with me. Why? Because it was 30 seconds of unadulterated JOY! <br />That was the moment I cherished. It lifted me out of troubles that came my way.<br /> However, it took me two years before I had the courage, will, and desire to change my major from history to hysterics, which is what the study of drama was presented to be, nevertheless, it brought me joy.<br /><br /> After I graduated, I went to Europe, lived in Paris, London and Berlin, went to art galleries, like the Louvre and the National Gallery in London. I stood in front of DaVinci’s Madonna for two days, looking in her eyes and having her look into mine. At one point, I openly asked her to move because there were two roads behind her head, converging upon one another, and I wanted to know what was there! I discovered DaVinci’s purpose, which I understood as: “When a person’s attention is riveted to beauty in a person, we often lose track of where we are, what we are going for, and what in life brings us meaning.” I have come to the conclusion that JOY is the Glue in Life. It encourages us to love someone, share ideas, thoughts, and feelings with others. It demands that we place more attention on others than we do on ourselves. It bypasses the trap of having an ego. It focuses our attention on others, on communicating something worthwhile. Joy extroverts our lives as we experience, and share it with people.<br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Years later, I was in New York, acting Off- Broadway in <i>One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest,</i> and Peter Yates, a movie director saw me as a character in his movie, <i>The Hot Rock</i>, with Robert Redford and Zero Mostel. I played Otto, a prisoner who enjoyed picking his toes, and got into a fight with Paul Sand, another inmate. The key to the scene was finding the joy the character had, and defending his right to do what he liked, no matter what. It was my first film, one which I will never forget. Because, once again it brought me joy. I went back to graduate school at Hunter College, to learn more about the industry. My professors were Harold Clurman, Arthur Miller, Lillian Hellman, and Joe Anthony, a Broadway director. I also studied acting with Uta Hagen, Mira Rostova from the Moscow Art Theatre, and Robert Lewis from Yale Drama School. I continued acting on stage and television in New York, and discovered the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art was auditioning for a one-year Post Graduate Course in the Classics.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> In college I had performed several Shakespearean roles, and had prepared nine monologues for that audition. Why did I want to go to London? Because I felt there were things I hadn’t learned which would help me create a workable, reliable,</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />effective technique to approach each role, with a deeper understanding that I knew was available to me. On the spot, and believe me, I can count the times on one hand that I was cast or accepted for the assignment at the initial audition. They said, “Mr. Cook, you are why we are here, looking for performers who want to create wonderful characters.” I was ecstatic! Unfortunately, that summer I was cast as Ragnar in Ibsen’s <i>Masterbuilder</i>, at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut in September. I called the academy in London and asked if I could attend the following year. He asked how old I was and informed me that I would have to come next year, before my age would keep me out of the program. “I promise I will be there next year, without fail! So, after that Fall, I moved to Los Angeles, and did episodic work, and some theatre, but was dedicated to moving to London for the year.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The first day I attended LAMDA I went up to the headmaster and said, “My name is Fredric Cook, I am a professional actor in three unions, in New York, regionally, and in Los Angeles. The reason I am here is because, after all the training, education and experience, I have no clue about what I’m doing.” He smiled, and I asked, “ Can you tell me the basic fundamental principle of acting?”</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />(I had asked this question before without receiving a positive response). He was a true mentor, wise, compassionate, interested in my well-being, and exhibited a lot of joy as he said, “It’s quite simple, actually, it is knowing what the character’s attention is on, moment to moment.” <br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I was stunned. Speechless. In my mind, I raced through years of coaching, years of ‘acting techniques.’ Finally, after what seemed an eternity, I thanked him and left, to sort out the meaning of what I had just heard. It is thought-driven. It is a process of overcoming my individual thoughts and ideas, and gaining the character’s viewpoint. I understood, for the first time, what it means to be an actor.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> It is a progression of thoughts, ideas, actions and feelings that capture a character’s attention. Emotion does not drive the character, it is the thoughts and reactions s/he has that propel him/her through the scene. Previously, I felt the emotions of the moment, not necessarily the accurate emotions of the character, but my emotions. And, I discovered that the misalignment I had created lessened the degree of joy I had as the character. A lot of the roles I had created came up to me, like spirits urging me to recognize the true nature of their viewpoints. Immediately, I began to slow down the process, rather than leaping to assumptions that propelled me into emotional states, the thoughts became dominant. I began to understand that the process of gaining compassion with the character is very similar to life’s challenges in relationships. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I recalled days in New York, as a young actor successfully active in theatre, I would bounce into the Actor’s Equity lounge, and attempt to have conversations with the older, wiser (I thought), balanced actors. Unfortunately, I was encountered by bitterness, blame, shame, and regret. Here I was, full of joy and my fellow actors were miserable and negative. I made a decision at that point in time, to never fall into that trap. I was dedicated to discover how I could avoid the perils of thriving on myself, being absorbed in me, me, me. Finally, after these many years preparing myself for this joyful work, I found where the light comes from. It comes by having your attention on others, giving support, assistance, acknowledgment, and sharing joy with as many people who will receive it. We all have choices in life. The secret is predicting the outcomes of each choice you make, and taking personal responsibility for making that choice and dealing the cards that follow. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I have been performing and teaching since 1975 when I opened the Los Angeles Academy of Dramatic Art. I have mentored many students following the principles taught at the London Academy. One of the most valuable lessons I learned was teaching is entirely collaborative, without criticism, opinions, declarations, etc. As a performer, I realized when I’m on stage, television or in front of a camera, I am responsible for every choice I make. I had brief encounters with a few bullish instructors, whose philosophy was to belittle, badger, and berate artists to toughen them up for the profession. I had the privilege to work with some of our best actors, all of whom were sincerely interested people. I remember on the film set of Gideon’s Trumpet, working with Henry Fonda, how he was open to all fans who wanted his autograph, and he even had conversations with some of them. There was nothing bullish about him, or Gregory Peck on the set of The Blue and The Grey. I worked with Robert Duvall, Ed Asner, Elizabeth Montgomery, and others, none of which were pushy, arrogant or aggressive. For the most part, they followed the policy, “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything.” That is not what they said, but how they behaved. Criticism leads to a dead end street. Criticism is an enemy to joy. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Whenever I see a documentary film that exploits people who are negative, critical, eager to blame others for their plight, I feel sorry for them, They have succumbed to the many traps laid and hidden in front of them. They have had many people steal their thunder, by making choices for them, rather than helping them make choices with someone.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I have six children, all grown, some of which fell into difficult situations. One of them spent time in jail. Some struggled with addictions and the difficult recovery process. Whenever they called me, asking for me to solve their problems, I said, no. One thing to know is that your choices pave the way through life, and once you make a decision, positive or negative, the learning process begins. I was not cold, or indifferent. After I saw them make better choices, I supported them, mentally, physically, emotionally, and monetarily. It is extremely important that we provide opportunities for loved ones, friends, neighbors, students, parents to make well-thought out choices in their lives, because the only way we experience true joy is through the recognition and acceptance that, “I built that!” “My choices made that happen.” Personal achievement is far more valuable than the praise people give you. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Occasionally, my students are told, “You’re a Natural Talent.” Why, because they perform positively, honestly, without criticism, envy, bursts of reactivity and anger. Why people think a performer is natural is based on the fact that there were thousands of hours preparing for this work, which is much like the foundation of an iceberg. The Titanic went down because the crew couldn’t imagine the base of the iceberg below the water, which ripped the ship apart. Your results are the top ten percent of the iceberg, with ninety percent supporting your work, which people never see or even imagine. I encourage performers to thank people who call them a “Natural.” I also encourage them to know that the true result of their many hours monologuing, reading, rehearsing, understanding the viewpoint of their characters, contributes to the compassion they have in their lives. It is important for performers to know what they do, how they achieve results, and discover first, and foremost, what they like about what they do. Only after evaluating all the things they like, they are prepared to ask themselves, “What would I like to change?”</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I discovered this principle initially at the Louvre in Paris, watching student artists copy the masters. I looked into their eyes, and saw no criticism of their work, only evaluating what they liked, the colors, the shapes, the light vs. darkness, the message conveyed, and the structure of the painting. After reading their thoughts, I noticed them sit back, tilt their heads, and think, “What would make this better?” Immediately, a burst of enthusiasm took over, they put the brush to the palette, grabbed the color they needed and applied it to the canvas, with confidence and assurance. They built the picture by making positive decisions: thus they were filled with joy. It’s a heavenly concept, one of achieving serenity and peace.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> When Stanislavsky formed the Moscow Art Theatre, he collected workers from farms as his cohorts. He would pronounce to them, “Leave your toiling and troubles at the door. When you enter the theatre, you are living examples of</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />the best of humanity.” He encapsulated a truth about our native state: Everyone wants to be right with the choices they make in life. It is an act of justifying ourselves, each and every moment. No matter what they’ve decided to do, say, or think, they must believe that it’s for the greater good. Even evil people follow this unwritten, unsaid code. Now the performer needs to understand that joy can be achieved in the middle of heinous acts. I site Richard III, seducing queen Anne over her dead husband’s corpse, and the joy he takes achieving it. Even more despicable, is the joy he takes in killing the two little male children in the tower.<br />As actors, we cannot judge our characters, because we are representing their viewpoint. Much like a trial attorney does not have license to be critical of his/her client. We are supporting a viewpoint, and we leave the judgment up to our audience. If we are critical of our clients, they go to jail. (i.e. lose an ability to experience joy)</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> It is for each of us to decide the road we want to travel, and what our destination is.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />I encourage you to adopt Einstein’s Thesis: “In the middle of difficulty, arises opportunity.” When you seize upon the opportunity, joy is the inevitable result.<br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Fredric Cook, Instructor, Actor, Executive Director</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-8885684834698058332012-11-07T09:28:00.003-08:002012-11-07T09:28:44.133-08:00VIEW POINTE PROPERTIES (2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="font-size: xx-large;">Business Description</b></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> View Pointe Properties, LLC began as a service oriented company dedicated to help clients who do not meet conventional requirements, having high FICO scores, excellent credit, clear of bankruptcies, excessive debt, histories of default, and often incapable of raising funds for the customary twenty per cent down. It was structured as a means of solving issues which prevent them from gaining ownership in real estate. We formed the service organization to help people gain equity through a lease option contract which gives them three years to pay towards ownership, accruing equity with each principal payment, which is deducted from their cost after three years, and makes it easier for them to refinance, building up their credit history and gaining ownership of their home. We realized it takes a team of professional people to make this possible, which is part of View Pointe Properties efforts to gather investor partners, which make their profit on the shared interest and initial consideration presented at the beginning of the lease option agreement. Our business is unique in that regard, that we offer a professional collaboration of time, talents, funds, and guidance to help them overcome past errors and mistakes. We formed View Pointe Properties as a 401K LLC, which is set up to reinvest profits into real estate acquisition, to establish a retirement fund for the members. Dr. Fredric Cook and his wife, Debra Cook have successfully built Park City Music for the last fifteen years, which brings in income day to day, but does not create a retirement income. View Pointe Properties 401K, LLC is the vehicle which will gain equity, income properties, and funds for retirement.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Although we live in Park City, where the average income is higher than our neighboring Salt Lake County populace, t</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">here are still individuals who need to overcome challenges, and as far as we know, there is no other group set up to help them at this point in time. This is our mission, to make it possible for more people to gain home ownership, gain self-esteem and confidence in their ability to be responsible for their condition, and not rely on government hand outs or bail outs. This is our way of assisting our clients gaining worthwhile values in their lives, and setting an example to their families, friends, and neighbors that it is possible. It is our dream that within the next five to ten years, we will have a strong, vibrant company serving less fortunate people, helping them to increase their self-worth, their innate abilities, as well as providing them opportunities to become self-reliant, self-sufficient and somewhat free of fears that crop up when we are subject to the will of others, employers, family members, and those of us who thrive by taking advantage of their weaknesses and naïveté.</span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.570665318518877"><div dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: -22.3pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<b>Services</b></div>
</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Initially, we hold an interview with the client, gathering a brief history of their situation, how they came to be where they are, and what their current state of mind, health, and wealth is. This is not an interview designed to be critical of their situation, but rather gathering a view of what they understand, what challenges they are having, and what they’ve done to confront those challenges. We ask what resources they have, a job, an income source, some savings, some credit available, and if they have family members who can help them in whatever capacity they are able to. It is meant to produce insight into their predicament, not directed to making them feel bad, angry or in any way hostile to themselves or others. It is not an indictment, but an indication of what available solutions exist. We are not here to make anyone wrong, or blame anyone for their condition, but rather focus on positive choices which can help them recover, gain stability, and prosper in life. We are not psychologists, just interested, compassionate people who offer help, without draining their current resources. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Secondly, we offer assistance to landlords, investors, and private lenders by establishing a screening process suitable to their needs, guiding people to adjust to each individual’s situation. We have resources to set up rent collection services to collect monthly rents automatically from either a client’s bank account or credit card. The service we currently use guarantees protection against credit card fraud, and is accepted by major credit card companies.</span><br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.570665318518877"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Market</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></h2>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.570665318518877"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Park City</i>:</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Demand is greater in a ski resort community for suitable housing, and therefore, there is less flexibility with market values, however, there are occasional owners who may have purchased properties before the 2008, 2009 bust in real estate values, who are interested in selling, even less than market rates. There are also distressed properties that come available which can be purchased at a discount. Investors are attracted to Park City real estate, but know they will ultimately pay more per square foot than Salt Lake County properties. The question is, “how much rent is customary?” We have sources to clarify and resolve that question. The best news is Park City has a wealth of industry professionals who are interested in helping one another understand and create solutions. Park City has been a magnet attracting innovative and creative people to our mountain resort, many of which live here year around. Although there are many realtors in Park City, they are limited by a variety of regulations levied by lending institutions, and by clientele who can afford luxury properties. They do not have the time or desire to focus their attention on buyers who cannot qualify for conventional loans. It is estimated that 25-35% of people seeking home ownership fall outside the parameters and will welcome our team to help them gain equity and ownership.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Salt Lake City</i>:</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Supply is greater in Salt Lake County, and investors have been actively purchasing properties there, which make the area more competitive. Because the size of the area is much greater, they have more time to invest in securing and selling properties. As we expand our network of landlords and private lenders to Salt Lake City, we will supply them with resources and vetting services which will save them a major percentage of screening buyers and tenants.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> It may be possible that a greater percentage of people in Salt Lake City fall into the similar plight, not having sufficient means to gain home ownership. We will reach out to community groups to find these people, who like those who have given up the task of seeking work, may have reached a foregone conclusion that it is impossible to work out the problems of securing their own home. What has happened in Park City will eventually happen in Salt Lake City that the word will go out that View Pointe Properties, LLC is here to help you bypass the usual channels and find creative solutions to gaining home ownership. These are the people who make up our targeted market.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> When they come to us, we educate our clients in a variety of ways of overcoming the barriers that have surrounded them in this process.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Competition</b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><span id="internal-source-marker_0.570665318518877"> There are property management companies who address some of the issues, but take little time or effort to consult their buyer-clients in available means to that end. Often, the good managers have most of their attention on providing the best service to handle their properties, and so the client is left to his/her own devices. The concept is to place their emphasis on the quality of the work done, and exchanging that service for funds directly. Our concept is to question, collaborate and come to workable solutions. That’s how they get referrals, primarily on the healthy satisfaction from their clients. Their attention is directed to maintaining a viable facility for them to live in. Our attention is on creating a client interested in finding and discovering effective solutions that are exchanged by fees.</span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> It places our clients in a positive mindset to be able to continue making positive solutions. So, in many ways, we have little or no competition, because of the emphasis and importance we place on our services. Unlike a tradesman whose sole attention is on exchanging a product or service, our attention is to help our client gain more certainty, belief and practical knowledge s/he can build upon to confront and solve problems and issues. Unlike the tradesman who collects for products delivered, estimates and fees for labor costs, installation, and finishing services, our service is complementary, and the only payment we require is not hourly, daily, weekly, but the compensation we receive initially, and the monthly interest charged over the three year period. We know we can help people make adjustments in their lives that are intellectual property that they can retain for the rest of their lives, and that, to anyone is priceless.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span><br /></span></span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.570665318518877"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Operations</span></div>
</b><span id="internal-source-marker_0.570665318518877" style="font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Operations are defined as the processes used to deliver our services to our clients, landlords, and equity partners. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.570665318518877">At this stage in our development, we have no employees, only independent contractors, who work part-time for us and have other sources of income. We only provide 1099s for our contractors, professionals, attorneys, CPAs, Limited Equity partner investors and members of our LLCs. There are two LLC organizations, View Pointe Properties 401K LLC, which is our retirement organization that reinvests all profits back to the organization, and View Pointe Real Estate, LLC which handles the execution of Lease Option Agreements, Tenant-Landlord contracts, and member acquisitions and distributions of profit. They are separate entities, one for retirement only, the other for profit.</span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> At the start up stage, we work both companies from our home office and Park City Music. We have secured legal representation from Robert Saunders in Park City, Utah for contractual agreements, adjustments to our operating agreements for each entity, and Landlord contracts, tenant contracts, Lease Option Agreements, and creation of distribution agreements between equity partners, landlords, and members of each LLC.</span><div>
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<b>Management Team</b></div>
</span><br /><span id="internal-source-marker_0.570665318518877"><b> </b> Dr. Fredric Cook has been a businessman since 1975 when he opened, managed and taught at the Los Angeles Academy of Dramatic Art, sharing his knowledge and success as a professional theatre, film, television actor and director. He founded and was the Executive Director of the Alexander Repertory Company from 1977 to 1982.</span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> He taught as an Associate Professor at Hunter College from1982-1985 developing a cross-over curriculum between theatre and film. When his wife gave birth to their two children, they moved back to Los Angeles to raise them, a</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span>nd resumed his film, theatre and television career until 1997 when his family moved to Park City. Upon discovering that there was no music store, he and his wife, Debra, and son, Aaron opened Park City Music that year.</span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> This drew in musicians who wanted to share their knowledge with students. Dr. Cook completed his PhD at Rochville University in Sarasota, Florida and became the Executive Director of Utah Conservatory which was formed in 2000 and has grown with 22 instructors and 350 students. The idea for View Pointe Properties came up in 2010 when students needed help getting their families relocated to Park City. View Pointe Properties, 401K LLC was formed March 11, 2011. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> Debra Cook has been a teacher and entrepreneur since the mid seventies, and has successful private studios in Provo, Utah and Hollywood, California. Debra co-founded National Realty Counselors, Inc. in 1990 (through 1995) thin Fort Lee, New Jersey. NRC does negotiations to reduce real estate and personal property taxes for commercial, industrial properties throughout the United States. Debra was responsible for office management, initial evaluations of properties, and property analysis. She was involved in some negotiations with clients such as Lever Brothers, Lipton Tea and National Starch & Chemical. As a voice teacher and professional singer, she collaborated with Seth Riggs, a well-known vocal performance coach who has had several Broadway and Hollywood performers as his students. Debra is a member of Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, who has performed on stage, film, television and opera, having completed seven seasons at Utah Opera. She has a master’s degree in music from Brigham Young University and has several of her students who have been given major scholarships at universities coast to coast. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-36578695513382629552012-10-30T13:11:00.002-07:002012-10-30T13:11:56.233-07:00VIEW POINTE PROPERTIES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Executive Summary</b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> View Pointe Properties 401K, LLC was established to fill a void in the process of acquiring home ownership for those of us who do not qualify for conventional loans. There are people in trouble these days, with the number of foreclosures, short sales, abandoned properties, loss of jobs, lowered incomes, lowered credit scores, bankruptcies, divorces, and most of all, people who lose a major portion of their retirement because of high medical bills. These people, who have suffered losses and failures, are why we formed our company. We are putting together a team of industry professionals who are driven by the need to help people while they earn a living for themselves and their families. We began just a year ago and currently have a half dozen people who need our help. Word of mouth is getting out, and people are calling us. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Our first priority is to find limited equity partners; people who would like to get a decent return on their investment, currently 7+% and are willing to gain that over time, three to five years, if necessary. There are special people who have a desire to utilize their talents to benefit less fortunate of our neighborhood, who don’t want to give up their dream of pulling themselves out of despair, gaining some equity and being able to grow into a place where they can uplift themselves, and reject government bail outs, and even charity. Why do they have this posture? Because they want to recover what self-esteem they can muster, and they know it’s not by waiting for others to do something, but to find their own solutions and discover the actions they need to take to become whole, healthy and be able to have loving relationships with family and friends. Once we find limited partners, and are able to acquire property that we can either set up a lease option agreement or provide low income housing rentals, we have begun to help them help themselves. The very worst thing we could do, as many others have, is to be critical of them, and ignore the fire and drive they have, even if it is a wavering light, a sign of failure normally. It takes a village to raise a child. It takes good people who believe in people who can turn themselves in a positive direction and overcome the many “nay sayers” who relish in putting others down, so they can inflate their own pride and stature. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Our second priority is to find distressed properties, finding ways and means to prevent a homeowner losing his/her home. All too often, because they have fallen into financial delinquency, the system judges them, which causes some of them to just give up, because they are over-whelmed with the sheer number of losses they have sustained.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Failure causes addictions. When someone cannot confront the many assaults that come with financial disasters, they try to escape from view, wanting to disappear to prevent an onslaught of criticism, negativity, blame and shame. For centuries families have supported one another through trying times. Why? Because of the love they have for each other. It is our goal to care for our clients as if we were family members, who are honest and sincere with each other,</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Not manipulating or controlling for a specific agenda to forward a parent’s, aunt’s, uncle’s needs. At the same time,</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> However, we must insist that we don’t fall into traps of diverting our attention to our own needs over the concerns a brother, sister, mother, father, grandparents might have. We must retain our natural values, areas of our lives we cannot compromise. We must encourage each other to be responsible for our condition, our circumstances, and not be tempted to place blame on the weather, bad luck, or any of many distractions from the truth. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Our third priority is to find properties on the market which can be purchased at a discount, to provide opportunities to gain equity in the future. View Pointe Properties is set up to get comparable sales within a mile from the subject property, and to make offers which correspond with actual market values. We need to evaluate the length of time the property has been for sale, the condition of the property comparable to neighboring houses, as we need to factor in the cost of rehabilitating properties offered at a discount, and establish a range of recovery that will correspond with our income needs and wants.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-23196015013789924082012-10-29T10:49:00.001-07:002012-10-29T10:49:15.024-07:00TEN REASONS TO STUDY MUSIC<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.04596127080731094"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">10 Reasons to Study Music</span></span></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.04596127080731094"><a href="http://www.macphail.org/Assets/uploads/images/WhyMusicMatters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.macphail.org/Assets/uploads/images/WhyMusicMatters.jpg" /></a></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.04596127080731094"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></div>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.04596127080731094"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /></b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Music study develops the areas of the brain which are responsible for language and reasoning<br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Students who study music score higher of the SAT and other standardized tests, and receive higher grades in school over non-music students.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">With music study, students learn the elements of detailed work towards creating an aesthetic result. Students learn to overcome challenges and to break work down into understandable units.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Discipline: Through music study, students learn the value of sustained effort to reach excellence.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Music provides an important avenue towards self-expression.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Performing music builds self-esteem.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Music study provides a gateway to appreciate, understand, and experience world cultures, traditions, and histories.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><br />Music study and practice encourages creative thinking and artful problem solving, as well as the ability to see a viewpoint other than your own.<br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Making music is fun and rewarding.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Music amongst family and friends bring precious memories that last a lifetime.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-48405969268366121842012-10-21T09:08:00.001-07:002012-10-21T09:08:10.313-07:00MONOLOGUE INFORMATION<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Monologue Information</b></div>
</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <i>Why do monologues?</i> To establish a communication between one viewpoint and another. Any text information falls under the classification of communication, including texts from stories, plays, films, and SONGS. All communication occurs between viewpoints, whether real or imaginary. It is the performer’s job to create identities and points of view, so that communication can occur.</span><div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <i>What is a monologue?</i> It is an imaginary viewpoint creation from a source to a destination, and requires imaginative abilities to create those viewpoints. It is also more of a telling than a reading, as you are telling someone something, usually of increased importance, in order for something else to happen, a desired result of the communication. There is a point to the communication, a reason you are telling it, and a consequence of getting the message across.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>What are the steps in a monologue?</i> There are three steps: First, the act of SEEING what is in a text, independent of your own thoughts about it. See all of the thoughts and understand what they mean. Next, there is the step of RELATING the information to what you know about the communication, the situation (which you may have to imagine), the person you’re talking to, and the reason why you are communicating the message. The last step is to SIGNIFY, or to attach a degree of importance to the communication, usually dealing with why you’re delivering the communication. To add significance to the thoughts makes them special to a viewpoint, and to match your viewpoint to an imaginary character’s viewpoint is why you want to monologue your songs. The more you monologue them, the more certainty you receive, and the more you groove into the viewpoint of the character.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Keep up the good work and be prepared always!</span></div>
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Dr. Fredric Cook</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-37013927593299916222012-10-18T13:12:00.001-07:002012-10-18T13:12:04.942-07:00THE BENEFITS OF MUSIC EDUCATION<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Society / Life</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances. – Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse Report. Reported in Houston Chronicle, January 1998</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “…Arts are a compelling solution to teen violence, certainly not the cause of it!” – Michael Greene, Recording Academy President and CEO at the 42</span><span style="vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">nd</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Annual Grammy Awards, February 2000</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Disruptive behavior of frequent skipping of classes , times in trouble, in-school suspensions, arrests and drop-outs total 12.14% of the school population compared with 8.08% of students involved with music classes. – NELS:88, second follow-up, 1992</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> “Many colleges view participation in the arts and music as a valuable experience…” according to the U.S. Department of Education. In addition, one year of Visual and Performing Arts is recommended for college-bound high school students. – Getting Ready for College Early: A Handbook for Parents of Students in Middle and Junior High School Years, U.S. Department of Education, 1997</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The very best engineers and tech designers in the Silicon Valley are almost all practicing musicians. – Grant Venerable, “The Paradox of the Silicon Savior” as reported in “The Case for Sequential Music Education in the Core Curriculum of the Public Schools,” The Center for the Arts in the Basic Curriculum, New York, 1989</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The arts create jobs, increase the tax base, promote tourism and growth in related businesses and the overall quality of life for local cities and towns. This results in $3.4 billion in federal income taxes from nonprofit arts institutions and organizations each year. – American Arts Alliance Fact Sheet, October 1996</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The “No Child Left Behind Act of 2002” defines 10 core academic subjects including the arts. – Title IX, Part A, Section 91011 (11)</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Children receiving piano training scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than students that received computer math training. – Graizano, Amy, Matthew Peterson, and Gordon Shaw, “Enhanced learning of proportional math through music training and spatial-temporal training.” Neurological Research 21 (March 1999)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Math proficiency by 12</span><span style="vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">th</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> graders was significantly higher in students that received consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music through middle and high school years. This is true no matter the child’s socio-economic status and is more profound the more they are involved. – Catterall, James S., et al. “Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: General Involvement in Music and Theatre Arts.” Los Angeles, CA: The Imagination Project at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, 1999</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Students with studies in music performance scored 57 points higher on verbal SATs and 41 points higher in math SATs. Students with studies in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal SATs and 44 points higher in math SATs than those with no arts courses. College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT Program Test Takers. Princeton, NJ: The College Entrance Examination Board, 2001</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Pre-schoolers given eight months of piano lessons had 46% increases in spatial-temporal IQs (important for math-reasoning) – Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Ky, and Wright, “Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Causal Relationship,” University of California, Irvine, 1994</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The percentage of music participants receiving academic honors, As, A/Bs, and Bs was higher than that of non participants. – NELS:88 First Follow-up, 1990, National Center For Educational Statistics, Washington DC</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> 66% of music majors that applied for medical school were accepted, the highest percentage of any major. Only 44% of biochemistry majors were accepted. – Thomas, Lewis as reported in “The Case for Music in the Schools,” Phi Delta Kappan, February 1994</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> 36% of minority students listed music teachers as their role-models, the highest of any category. English Teachers were the closest with 28% and physical education/sports teachers were only listed at 7%. – D.L. Hannan and L.M. Walker, “Music teachers as role models for African-American students,” Journal of Research in Music Education, 41. 1993</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Two Rhode Island elementary schools implemented a music program that showed improvement in reading and math skills. In fact, students that were behind their peer caught up in reading and pulled ahead in math. – Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey and Knowles, as reported in Nature, May 23, 1996.</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Reading music scores and playing music activates areas in all of the brain’s four regions called “cortex lobes” and parts of the cerebellum. – Sergent, Zuck, and MacDonall, B. (1992). Distributed neural network underlying musical sight reading and keyboard performance. Science, 257, 106-109 </span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Students participating in music education had significant increases in self-esteem and thinking skills. – National Arts Education Research Center, New York University, 1990</span></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Brain scans show musicians have larger planum temporales (a region of the brain related to reading skills) and thicker corpus callosum ( the bundle of fibers that connect the two halves of the brain) than those of non-musicians. This was even more dramatic in those beginning training before the age of 7. – Schlaug, Jancke. Huang and Steinmetz (1994). In vivo morphometry of interhem ispheric asymmetry and connectivity in musicians. In I. Deliege (Ed.) Proceedings of the 3d international conference for music preparation and cognition (pp. 417-418). Liege, Belgium </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Monotype Corsiva'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Researched & Prepared by Laura Bennett, Intern with Utah Conservatory, July 15, 2004</span></div>
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</b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-44294169831246596432012-10-09T15:33:00.001-07:002012-10-09T15:33:09.438-07:00STORY OF UTAH CONSERVATORY<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Utah Conservatory</b></span></div>
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<b>Our Story</b></div>
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It began in upstate New York where Dr. Fredric Cook was born, and his mother named him after a famous actor, Fredric March. For seventeen years his father used him, his eldest son, to establish disciplinary standards for his siblings, by beating him almost every day of his teenage life. He discovered drama in High School as a means of escaping the punishment, as he was respected and admired for his performances. He joined the Navy after graduation and spent four years exposed to criticism, hostilities, and jealousies. His solution was to study history and philosophy, which played an important role in his life. He knew as a young man, that the way out of bad situations could be handled by having a definitive philosophy that would provide options from which he could make choices before responding or acting. By the time he went to college, he thought he would major in history/philosophy, again offering solutions to the many problems confronting him. However, the Lord had presented him with the opportunity to act in a play in his freshman year. As a sophomore, he played Mr. Doolittle in My Fair Lady, and the applause in that spacious theatre questioned his decision to become a history or philosophy teacher. He changed his major to theatre and went on to do several plays and musicals before he graduated. He approached one of his revered professors at the University of North Carolina, asking if he thought he was good enough to become a professional actor. The instructor said no. Shocked, amazed, angry and in tears he went back to confront his professor, asking why he had that opinion. Smiling, he said, “If you don’t know yourself, the answer is always no.” That was the first time he realized that a performer must be aware of his ability, not dwelling on it or prideful, but humble, grateful and dedicated to the mission of a performer, which, discovered later in life, is to experience joy in the work, and share it with colleagues, teachers, and audiences. He also realized that his mother’s postulate for him to take on the responsibility to be a professional actor came with the name he was given. After graduation, he went to Europe, watched student artists at the Louvre in Paris, studied improvisation as well, toured London, and watched British actors perform with ease and clarity, much of which he put together years later. Returning to California, he was a founding member of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and performed in several productions, where a young director saw him and offered the lead role in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest at the Little Fox Theatre in San Francisco.<br /> That was his first professional role as he joined Actors Equity Association in 1970 and later performed in the Off-Broadway production, while studying with Uta Hagen, Mira Rostova from the Moscow Arts Theatre, and Bobby Lewis from Yale Drama School. He attended Hunter College studying under Harold Clurman, Joseph Anthony, Lillian Hellman, and playwright, Arthur Miller, completing his master’s degree in directing, while continuing to perform in film, theatre and television. He had joined Screen Actors Guild and The American Federation of TV and Radio Artists. After that, he worked at the Long Wharf Theatre with E.G. Marshall in Ibsen’s Masterbuilder. After that he auditioned for the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art. <br /> He went up to the Headmaster at the Academy, explaining he had been a professional actor for four years, was a member of all three unions, and had performed over two dozen roles in theatre, film and television, yet did not know the basic fundamentals of acting. That was why he accepted their invitation. He asked; “Please tell me, what the essential truth about acting is?” The headmaster smiled and replied, “It’s simple actually, it’s knowing what your attention is on, moment to moment, from the viewpoint of the character.” He said that none of his mentors in New York ever said anything like that, and wanted to know why? The Headmaster again smiled, and said; “They probably don’t know.” At that moment he recalled seeing and understanding what he had seen on his first visit to London, after college. It all came together. It transformed his ability, gave him higher self-esteem, and awareness of what he needed to know, which helped him in later years to formulate his own special technique-a patterned approach in sequence which produces a definitive, unique, and desirable result. When he returned to the states, he flipped a coin; “New York or LA?” Three weeks after arriving in Hollywood, he secured his first agent, and within three months had his first lead role in a film, with Yvette Mimieux and Tommy Lee Jones (his first film). When he had shared what he had learned in London, actors wanted to study with him, and the Los Angeles Academy of Dramatic Art was created in 1975. It took him eight years to understand how to approach actors through the perils of navigating toward a character’s viewpoint, seeing images through his/her eyes, and the proper gradients he had to use to maintain the actor’s self-esteem and confidence. <br /> It wasn’t until Dr. Cook and his wife, Debra Cook moved to Park City, Utah in 1997 that he realized that he needed to research educational methods to teach performers what they need to focus on without offering his personal opinions, or criticism, because he knew that a performer’s natural self-esteem is reduced when subjected to criticism. He began a seven year program in Educational Studies, before completing his PhD in 2004. He had studied, and recalled what he saw at the Louvre many years earlier. He realized that, as an instructor, his attention must be 100% on the student, and as Socrates’ philosophy dictated, only questions are viable in discovering the truth from the student. Statements and opinions of others are outside the realm of a student’s reality and understanding. Also, he had witnessed several teachers over the years that had too much attention on themselves, almost justifying why they were teaching, rather than guiding and leading the student to having his/her own recognition of what they liked about what they did, and subsequently, what they would like to change! That was what he witnessed in Paris, looking at the artists’ eyes that had not an ounce of criticism, only evaluation of what they liked and what they wanted to change. <br />This is the solution! This is how a student can appear to be natural, effortless, and passionate from the viewpoint of the character. We have one of our students, Talon Ackerman, who has been in three Broadway musicals, for which the Director of Mary Poppins remarked in a newspaper interview, that his “Focus is beyond his years.” Talon is 12 years old. Another reviewer from his most recent performance of Leap of Faith said he’s a natural talent, yet “Just a kid” without the pretensions of being an actor. What appears to be an “Inborn talent” is actually the result of a non-critical pedagogy and years of being asked those two important questions; “What did you like about what you did?” and “What would you like to change?” This philosophy pervades Utah Conservatory, and several students have received major scholarships, paid performance work, invitations to perform in regional theatre and opera productions, and received kudos in the Classical Singers Competitions. Comments at the recent competitions were extremely positive, although they assumed that the students were all born talented, which removes the tribute that should be paid to them for years of dedicated work acquiring their abilities to perform effortlessly, all the while appearing to be “Natural.” It is the goal of the performer to have audiences assume that, but is disappointing to have professionals, who know how difficult the preparation can be, to assume they were born talented, discounting the countless hours of monologuing, rehearsing, singing and performing.<br />So, in conclusion, artists need to develop early a collaborative approach with colleagues, performers, directors, instructors and others. Asking questions with a positive intention engenders more artistic collaboration than do opinions, criticisms, evaluations and negative assessments. Positive questions which search for solutions increase the performer’s ability to be responsible for their condition and their original creations. This philosophy protects and prepares the student against any abuse, from often well-meaning instructors and colleagues. We also encourage our students to be gracious, and acknowledge well-meaning contributors with a simple “Thank you.” Thus, the student maintains the right to accept or let go of another’s evaluation of their work, which strengthens their ability to make choices and decisions on their own.<br /> Over these past twelve years, our students have become more compassionate and understanding of how a person’s viewpoint directs their decisions and choices. Most of all, students become non-critical, non-judgmental, and are devoid of cynicism. Basically, they improve their abilities to confront and handle any situation they are presented with, which is very important in their later years. It has been said that, when a person can master his/her attention over the distractions presented, their employers, producers, and decision makers will pay much more money to them, than to those who are unable to focus their attention completely on the tasks they perform. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-27430010787490328292012-10-07T12:17:00.002-07:002012-10-07T12:18:22.416-07:00THE MULTIPLE EFFECTS OF CRITICISM<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="font-size: xx-large;">The Multiple Effects of Criticism</b></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />Does this look familiar? How do we get confused and frustrated? How does criticism affect our ability to produce results? What actually occurs? <br />There is a question of our point of view that pops up when we are distracted by critical thoughts, usually coming from others, parents, teachers, “friends”, and foes alike, especially when we adopt the practice and become critical of ourselves. It throws us into doubts of our abilities, our choices, the decisions we make, and how we respond to problems, adversity, difficulties, and challenges. Primarily, it reduces our SELF ESTEEM. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> It could be assumed that our agreement with critical thoughts make such </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">uncertainty a reality. So, how can we disagree? Especially when we create the criticism ourselves? Take, for example, you’re on a date with a friend, who can’t help telling you that what you’re doing is wrong, lame, ineffective, stupid, crude, and generally wrong. And, because it’s your friend, you accept the judgment and go into agreement with his or her viewpoint, because you don’t want to create a scene or an argument over it, because it’s not that important. Or is it? Well, we have to be socially acceptable, or the word will get out that we are losers and negative and no fun to be around. So, we take it away with us, and like a virus, our minds are affected, and our productivity is reduced. We mull over the critical thoughts and get down on ourselves as an inevitable conclusion surfaces: “I’m not very smart, or popular, and how can I live knowing other people know that about me? </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Criticism is prevalent in our world, in school our teachers tell us what to do and not </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">do, they chide us for our mistakes, our foibles, our idiosyncrasies and screw ups! We should know better to recognize critical thoughts for what they are… other peoples’ problems! And if we “catch what they throw at us” we take on the illness as well. Why should we “catch” them? Because if we can recognize critical thoughts, we are ahead of the game, we are not affected adversely, and can maintain our own knowledge, security and sanity in spite of wild attacks. Consider yourself as a steel plated battleship and the critical thoughts are pebbles which naturally bounce off us unharmed, and we survive, we stay afloat despite the assaults.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Okay. Now that we assume that viewpoint, we have to rise above the unknowing, </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">unwittingly attempts to put us down, because our friends usually don’t mean to hurt us, or minimize our ability to handle life’s many challenges. No. Albert Einstein believed: “In the Middle of Difficulty Lies Opportunity.” Often, we experience traumatic events, which throw us into despair at the time as we are hit unaware and are surprised by the incident. And how long does that take to get over it? It depends upon our constitutions, our stamina, and our ability to recover and find joy in life. And what happens? We find ourselves sharing it with a friend or family member, finding irony (the opposite of a literal meaning, marked by such a deliberate contrast between the actual incident’s meaning and another intended consequence which we can see as humorous! In that understanding is it not possible to realize the critical thought as it is uttered, and responds immediately with a humorous response?</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> One very effective response is a sincere, honest “thank you!” When it is genuinely </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">offered, the offender who shared the criticism has an opportunity to acknowledge the act as somewhat foolish or uncharitable. It can be socially approved method to deal with the situation. Why? Because you see what’s actually transpiring, and can, without criticism, but with unconditional love for the person, respond positively with the intention that you like or even love them and understand that we all have moments that move from positive to negative, like the terminals on a battery, with no malice intended. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Now, that is a tall order, isn’t it? But, consider the consequences. You come home </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">from a hard day at school, or work, and your spouse has had a more difficult day, and is upset and angry, even frustrated and lashes out at you. You have two choices: mirror the hostility, or show how much you love him or her. It takes a lot of confidence to do that, and a great deal of unconditional love. You have to evaluate the importance of each moment in your life, as your tendency to yield to emotional trauma can multiply so many times that you drive that friend or lover away from you, which both of you must justify as “s/he doesn’t really love me.”</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Why would people succumb to such temptation? “I think, therefore I am!” Surely, c</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">riticism is not powerful to give, and is easy to adopt, and is a “hidden standard” (which is not welcome in any relationship we desire to create) yet we take it on,<br />without an understanding of the consequences that evolve.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> This ability, to instantly evaluate your reaction to critical thoughts to provide a </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">warm, genuine response often of a humorous, joyful manner takes years of constant awareness and sincere, unconditional love for mankind. It is far from easy to say, but exceedingly difficult to achieve, much like a wide receiver’s opportunities to field a long pass which produces a touchdown and victory. The joy is not just in winning, but playing the best we can each and every time.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-74636021490596360762012-08-23T15:32:00.000-07:002012-09-20T13:04:12.519-07:00SUCH AS IT IS WITH FAMILY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> Such as it is with family. So, what happens when a family member is critical of you? What goes through your mind? S/he wants the best for me… s/he is doing it for my own good… S/he loves me and wants me to change, adjust, alter my actions, my habits, my behavior… or s/he is upset and doesn’t know that I am a handy target… S/he will change his/her mind once s/he calms down and comes back to his/her senses…S/he will apologize, say that s/he’s sorry and will ask for my forgiveness… What if s/he doesn’t do that? Do I challenge him/her, and ask for a change in his/her heart? Or do I just ignore it, and let time heal the wound? <br />
What is the risk I take by either reacting or ignoring the criticism? Surely, if I counter it with antagonism or resentment, it will impair our relationship…or will it? Some people enjoy being antagonistic and playful especially with family members… You might look at that possibility, before deciding to react. Regardless, what is my best choice? Again, you might consider the default decision, that is, all criticism is positive, and is engendered by a honest, healthy desire to offer an opinion which might bring more happiness, joy, and pleasure to my life. So, would it be best to be grateful for that? So, a genuine acknowledgment with a sincere, “Thank you” could resolve the minor conflict… <br />
As a family member, we have a desire to love each other unconditionally, regardless of whatever we do or say to each other… Frankly, we are being tested in the spiritual universe to deliver words, emotions, thoughts, ideas, and actions in an unconditionally loving manner. We certainly don’t want to cause barriers between us. Why would we do that? <br />
One of the greatest traps in navigating through treacherous waters of a relationship is having our attention primarily on ourselves, justifying our thoughts, and actions in spite of anyone else. Unknowingly, we may do or say something to someone we love which has less to do with them, than with ourselves, and results in a negative moment in time… which we would normally wish we could go back in time and change it, and would apologize readily, as long as we could abort the default position of defending and justifying ourselves, and be heartfelt and sincere is our apology. <br />
The basic fundamental here, is that your family member loves you and if they are critical of you, the best gift you can give them is your gratitude for their love, and your love which you continue to support them with, by silently forgiving them without expressing it, but rather having joy in your relationship with them. It all depends upon what you want out of life, whether you want to be right all the time, or whether you want to love and be loved all the time. It’s your choice. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-44191244638225014762012-08-23T15:21:00.000-07:002012-09-20T13:04:40.800-07:00SIX THINGS EVERY VOICE STUDENT SHOULD DO WHEN PERFORMING<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Forte; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Six things Every Voice Student <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Forte; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Should Do When Performing<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Focus on Communication from the View Point of the Character<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Know who you are talking to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Know the point of what you are saying<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Imagine that you are in a conversation with someone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Show an understanding that the viewpoint is constructed by what the character’s attention is on from one moment to the next<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Know the thoughts of the character<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Use Vocal Production to hit the back wall<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Create a Singing Posture<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">5.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Open your Mouth and Release for good Resonance<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The mouth is open enough to help the voice to travel freely<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The tone is efficiently produced and healthy</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">6</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">. <b>Practice Good Diction</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Pure vowels are used to create an even vibrato and beautiful resonance<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Attention to consonants connects the support to the voice and increases the communication</span><b><span style="font-size: 26.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02053339515883234325noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7127332232315783556.post-42479531185841708742012-08-23T14:53:00.002-07:002012-09-20T13:05:13.805-07:00BIOGRAPHY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> Fredric Cook was last seen at the Egyptian Theatre as Mayor Shinn in <i>The Music Man</i>, and previously as Herr Schultz in <i>Cabaret</i>. He sang as Scrooge in <i>Mr. Scrooge</i> , as the Wizard in <i>The Wizard of Oz</i>, as Mr. Biggley in <i>How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying</i>, and as Mr. Greenstreet in <i>Mr. Popper’s Penguins</i>. He was Polonius in <i>Hamlet</i> with the Emily Company at the Rose Wagner Theatre in Salt Lake City and has performed over 100 roles in theatres coast to coast. His favorites were Ragnar in Ibsen’s <i>Masterbuilder</i> at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, R.P. McMurphy in the San Francisco production of <i>One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest</i>, Galileo in <i>Brecht’s Galileo </i>Off-Broadway, Major Marcus in <i>The Best Man</i> at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles with Buddy Epson, and Thurio in <i>Two Gentlemen of Verona</i> at the San Diego Old Globe Shakespeare Festival. On Film he was Earl Long in the <i>Assassination of the Kingfish</i>, <i>Hobie in Jackson County Jail</i>, Otto in <i>The Hot Rock</i>, and the Curator in <i>Scavenger Hunt</i>. On television he has performed in several series including "Murder She Wrote," "Hill St. Blues," "Cheers," "Starsky & Hutch," "Today’s FBI," and "Paris." Television movies include <i>Gideon’s</i> <i>Trumpet</i> with Henry Fonda, <i>Stand By Your Man</i> with Annette O’Toole, <i>In The Arms of a Killer</i> with Jaclyn Smith, and <i>The Blue and the Gray</i> with Gregory Peck. He received his BA degree in Theatre from the University of North Carolina, then completed his MA degree in Theatre from Hunter College, finished a one year post-graduate course in the classics at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and completed his education with a PhD degree in Educational Studies from Rochville University. Dr. Cook is the founder and executive director of Utah Conservatory and teaches vocal performance. Dr. Cook has been a member of Actor’s Equity Association and Screen Actor’s Guild for almost forty years. Dr.Cook was the founder and director of the Los Angeles Academy of Dramatic Art and the Alexander Repertory Company from 1975-1982. He was an associate professor at Hunter College in Theatre from 1982-1985. After moving to Park City, Utah in 1997 He founded Utah Conservatory in 2000 with his wife and partner, Debra Cook.</span></div>
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