Underneath It All, An Actor
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009I’ve had a chance to go out and see two terrific performances this last weekend. The great thing about living in NYC is by far, for me, the talent. This place is just alive with phenomenal talent.
Friday night it was The Accidentals at The Rubin Museum, the Himalayan Museum here in town and last night I caught a first time opening of a new developing piece called “Women of a Certain Age” at the Bitter End in the Village. Both pieces were generated by Watchfire Music’s inspirational music artist, Margaret Dorn.
Both pieces were beautifully done and each in a different stage of development. It was a fascinating contrast of performances, but what jumped out at me most of all this past weekend is really the essence of this post.
For my money, no matter how great the instrument, a singer only works as well as the actor inside. I had the opportunity to watch 12 different performances of professional singers all with wonderful voices. Some were better than others. Why? What it came right down to was that some were better actors than others.
Moms, if you want your kids to grow up and be good singers, besides all that vocal training, get ‘em into a good acting school with a good teacher. It’s just as important as good vocal training.
Occasionally some young person comes along and they just do it naturally, that is, they just have some hooked-in talent that places them right in the middle of the reality of doing so that when they sing, they are really there right smack in the middle of the moment. They may not even know what they are doing, but they just do it naturally.
