Andrews Osborne Academy Performing Arts Instructor
As an aspiring young actor, my automatic “go to” audition piece was a song entitled “If I Loved You” from the musical, Carousel. I have always enjoy performing this song because it was light work for an accompanist to sight read, it was lyrical, it was well suited by bass-baritone and I could pop off a solid G4 on any day of the week. When I was asked to perform a song for an acting class as part of a training exercise, I went with my “go to” piece. The performance went well. While the other acting students in the class stood and applauded, the acting instructor placed a bench next to the piano and selected a young co-ed to be seated. The young student was instructed to stare down at the ground. I was then asked to sing the song again while seated on the bench next to her. I was asked to have a simple conversation with her. I was asked not to perform the song for an audience, but simply remove the audience from the equation and have a conversation with another human being. Everything changed.
“If I loved you, time and again I would try to say, all I’d want you to know...Longing to tell you but afraid and shy. I’d let my golden chances pass me by. Soon you’d leave me, off you would go in the midst of day. Never, never to know, how I loved you. If I loved you.” - Billy Budd from Carousel
My usual, powerful high G was now barely audible as words became more difficult to sing. Now that I was focused on conversation rather than performance, the weight and meaning of what I was saying became profound. Many of the performance tricks I used were gone and simple words, melody and two people remained. At the end there was no applause from my fellow students. There was no ovation, only silence. For me, it was a quiet moment that resulted in a powerful acting lesson and an important life lesson.
“Face to face conversation is the most human and humanizing thing we do,” says Sherry Turkie in her book Reclaiming Conversation - The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. “Fully present to one another, we learn to listen. It is where we develop the capacity for empathy. It’s where we experience the joy of being heard and of being understood. Conversation advances self-reflection, the conversations with ourselves that are the cornerstone of early development and continues throughout life.”
We are immersed in technology today. Most have experienced the text message or email that was misunderstood by the person on the receiving end. These technological advances are taking away important skills from our students that only come from face to face interactions. Conversation without the presence of facial or physical expression, inflection or spatial relationships can misrepresent intent. That is why a balance is so important. I have yet to experience a stage play or musical that takes place online as an instant message, (but I’m sure some Millennial is working on it). So, for the meanwhile, onstage we are met with the challenge of looking another human being in the eyeballs and expressing ourselves.
This school year at Andrews Osborne Academy, students have an opportunity to explore this idea in all of our productions: Duets, A concert featuring the music of Jason Robert Brown, Mamma Mia, Barefoot in the Park, Disney’s Frozen Jr. and A Raisin in the Sun. This year also brings back the Phoenix Guest Artist Series with Actors Equity Association’s songstress Colleen Longshaw and Maestro Malik Khalfani.
The idea of how we communicate to our family, our friends, neighbors and our acquaintances is paramount in all of these productions. Through this year of theater, I want to give our young performers an opportunity to share in the same experiences I remember. I want them to understand that everything we do as a performing artist is a duet, a conversation. When we sing, dance or perform a monologue, there is another person engaged in the exchange, whether they are present or implied. The beauty of acting and the beauty of conversation is the verbal and physical exchange of thoughts, ideas, dialogue and approval between two or more people. Disappointingly this beautiful culture of dialogue between people is no longer existentially as strong as it used to be. People seem to not have time these days to engage in a head-to-head, or better yet, a heart-to-heart conversation. Hence failing to realize the importance of acknowledgement of another person. If this season be nothing more than an exercise, then I hope it will prove to be a beneficial life lesson for our young performers. I hope to see you at a show or two. It all begins Thursday, October 10th at 7 p.m.
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