Personal Narrative: Low Enough To Be A Bass

“On Broadway, although some female roles are narrow, demeaning, passive, or long-suffering and convey weakness, the performer sings with incredible strength. Listening to the female singing voice is a more complicated phenomenon. Visually, the character singing is the passive object of our gaze. But aurally, she is resonant; her musical speech drowns out everything in range. A singer, more than any other musical performer, stands before us having wrested the composing voice away from the lyricist and composer who wrote the score.” Said Musicologist Carolyn Abbate (Wolf, p.31)

Anne also needs to convince the musicians of her commitment to the arts and her ability to lead such a prestigious organization and to do so, she will need to highlight her past accomplishments. Anne has had enormous success in directing operas, including serving as stage director for over 60 opera productions world wide, including the adored San Francisco Opera. In addition, she had stints as assistant director at the San Francisco Opera and the Canadian Opera. She also sought to increase the amount of productions during her time at the Boston Lyrics Opera instead of decreasing them to help retire the debt there. This should convince the musicians not only of Anne’s ability to lead them but also of her desire to build an elite arts

This past fall, I was given the opportunity to audition for VA district 13's district chorus. As a member of the FUMA choir, I saw this as a breath of fresh air. Our choir is ok, but it has its strengths and weaknesses. Passing the audition would be easy, a short song and sight reading, I mean, it's not rocket science. Passing the audition with flying colors, I had about two months to prepare the chosen songs. (Learning a part solely by piano can be a long and tedious process, but thankfully we were provided practice recordings of our parts.) With only two months to learn my part, I hit the ground running listening to the mp3s whenever I had a chance to.

I went to acting workshops to perfect my monologue for my audition. After I auditioned, the director commented on my improvement; I felt acknowledged and that maybe I would get a part. When the cast list was posted, I again dashed to it and scanned it. It took no time for my eyes to catch the sight of my name, "Shyanne Leon" written on the cast list. I was casted as "fairy" and had no lines. I felt irrelevant to the production, but I did not want to take my part for granted so I stuck with it. It was a great experience, but I could not help but wonder why I got such a small part when the director said I had improved, and I began to doubt my acting

At twenty one years old, while others my age explored life, I was examining mine. Sue, assisting me in the process, was my co-pilot covering as the therapist and played the part well because she represented everything you 'd imagine a therapist to be: the soft voice becoming stern if need be, the sympathetic look yet retaining an air of detachment and the clothes: pastel colours, beads, turtle neck. However, the therapy itself was not exclusive to self-exploration, I was there to sing but not to Sue; this wasn’t drama therapy. The dominant reason I initiated therapy was to free up the unconscious repressions I believed or was convinced were holding my voice back. In relation to the repressions, there could have been a few reasons but it was why Sue got paid; her job was to locate and release my repressions because my job was to make music.

This section in Blink presents the realization behind the change and how people learned to judge with their ears instead of their eyes. Julie Landsman and Sylvia Alimena are two women who were saved from prejudice, which led them to their common goal of playing the French horn professionally. “At the time [Julie auditioned], there were no women in the brass section of the orchestra, because everyone ‘knew’ that women could not play the horn as well as men (Gladwell 254).” Still, from behind a screen blocking the judges’ views, Landsman landed the role of principal French horn at the Metropolitan Opera. Gladwell shares how the judges were initially surprised- not only because she was a female, but because she was previously only a substitute horn player at the Met. Only five feet high was another musician looking to play the French horn, this time for the National Symphony Orchestra. She too was separated from the judges by a screen, and she too earned her desired role. Greatly due to the screens put up, these ladies were judged

When your interest is as broad as theatre it’s almost impossible for your identity to not be represented. However, like many of my peers, I’ve struggled to find my identity and have floated between different adjectives for the past seven years. Luckily for me my love for Broadway guided me to a perfect show that let me know it’s okay to be confused about who I am.

We won a bass tournament.After qualifying for the tournament.We caught a lot of bass.My dads friends fished the tournament two.We all traveled from Central,Alabama To Waterloo,Alabama.The weather interferred with the fishing that day. Wejoined the tournament to have fun doing what we love,and to panick seeing the big bass caught.The tournament was on a Sunday and it was saturday we fished a little bit that morning but we skied more that day.We launched the boats that Sunday morning and fished until two o'clock that Monday morning.We won two hundred dollars and we bought a new rod and reel.We got a phone call from our neighbor we rushed home a package was here it was my brand new reel from Tackle Warehouse.That reel caught me two fish the

I wish I was able to practice and experiment more with my voice. For the midterm scene, there was mostly one emotion going through my mind as I was in character: annoyance… and possibly exasperation. There was not a great variety of emotion in that one scene. However, during in-class exercises, I think that I am able to experiment more thoroughly. Right now I am okay with my vocal strength, range, and flexibility, although I do see room for improvement especially in expressiveness in adapting to the script. If I were to continue acting I would like to play with lines

Starting in the golden age of 1950, a Broadway musical's critical judgement depended on how well the show’s elements were formally integrated. Meaning the outlook of the plot in relation to the music, lyrics and characterization of gender roles. Gender is a fundamental element of Broadway musical theatre, constitutional to the musical’s architecture. It is essential as a building block for characters, music/lyrics, and stage settings. Broadway musical is a popular art, in which conveys social issues in the female gender from the representations of women in the 1950's to today. The Broadway musical participates in a larger conversation about gender and sexuality because it is a commercial, profit-seeking, artistic commodity, entertainment form, and cultural product. Broadway musical is a mainstream form that needs to relate to middle-class audiences’ desires and expectations, one might expect only social issues and stereotypical representations of women. The female gender stereotypes are represented in Broadway musicals portrayed by the character's roles. As time went by, the portrayal of the female characters in musicals changed because of the representation that women in today receives. Thus, these musicals explore social issues of the day, including women’s rights and changing roles in U.S. culture, sometimes directly and sometime obliquely. Therefore, the Broadway musical venerates female performers and provides substantial roles for women.

Despite all the cons of being apart of this musical Moore and her fellow school mate junior Andrew Gibson have learned from this experience and grown as an individual. Moore personally felt more humble to the behind to scenes work. Gibson participated in crews for plays and musical in prior years and it has helped him with teamwork skills. Moore also had met man friends through the drama department here, while Gibson hopes to use this as a career in the

As a musical theater junkie, I was ashamed to admit that Bucknell’s performance of Spring Awakening was the first production of the show I had seen. It was a show I was always interested in and had listened to a few times over, yet I had passed over the opportunity to see it on Broadway (or at other play houses). Despite my excitement to see Bucknell’s performance, there was something missing in the show that kept it, in my opinion, from being truly great. It appeared that there was an imbalance of acting, singing, and dancing skills, where one talent excelled at the fall of the others.

Our choice to tell stories should exist in the same moment that we identify an audience who needs to hear that story – now, in this context, in this time, and in this medium. The best relationship with an audience begins dramaturgically, at the beginning of a rehearsal process. We must ask: How can we keep our minds open to the audience we have and also to the audience we want and the audience with whom we hope to collaborate? How do we enter a community and work with new people, learn from them and hope they learn from us? Partner with our similar goals and share resources. Work with them and never for them. Theatre isn’t a service—it’s a

When wanting a lead or supporting role in a musical at Westminster Christian School, a person must attend multiple auditions. An audition is period of time where the audition committee—the director, producer, vocal coach, and a few other people—get a glimpse of your vocal and acting abilities. During this short snippet of time a hopeful actor or actress must astonish the audition committee in hopes of getting the role of their choice. Auditions are critical as they will determine the role that you receive, so if you really desire a certain role you must be prepared to astound the audition committee.

Though I was fortunate to receive a role in the show, I was yet again disappointed because it was not the role I wanted. Following our spring musical, I had the opportunity to receive a role in every show my school has presented. Unfortunately that was not enough for me because I continued to ruminate on the fact that I was never able to obtain the role I wanted. However, during the process of our most recent production I observed a shift in my attitude toward the situation. After the cast list was revealed and I did not earn the role I auditioned for, I took some time to contemplate on my time in our theatre department. Initially, I considered myself a failure because after three years I was still incapable of securing any of the roles that I desired. However, after a conversation with my parents and the director of the shows at our school, I was able to comprehend why I was a failure. It was not because I was inadequate in receiving any of the roles I wanted, I was a failure because I neglected to understand the lesson that this experience was attempting to teach. Although you may not secure the role of your desire, you as an actor must learn something from every character that you