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The Stagecraft Specialist

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24.01.2022 I will be judging AusAca this weekend for the national finals for Vocal Australia, and a few things come up to do with performance that are worth mentioning... Check Yourself (before you wreck yourself) Checklist Check:... 1) Your face. 2) You have made performance choices before you hit the stage (or record) 3) That your movement reflects your response to the song 1) Your face takes up a big part of our brain real-estate. We notice most what happens with your face and hands. Check that your face communicates what you want it to...The alternative is a face that tells us how difficult thst note is, or how awkward you feel. Record your group or yourself so you can see what's going on and choose if you want to do do that. 2) If you don't make choices before you perform your audience ends up with whatever your 'default' is. That is usually the opposite of your best choice. Check it before you wreck it. I see a lot of arms waving around with the gesture of 'I mean it, I really really mean it.' What do you mean? Dig deep- or just look at the lyrics and decide how you might respond to them. (And no, there's usually nothing on the ceiling or floor...if you look there, your audience will too.) 3) I get called in to judge performance. Sometimes that makes singers think they have to move around the stage... (because someone is judging movement!) IRL (in real life) we move because something motivates us to move. There is usually a reason we shake our head, stamp our foot or cross the floor. When we move around for no reason at all it can look weird. This is great if you want to look weird. If you don't want to look weird, you can check 2 things: 1) Does the movement support what I'm trying to communicate? 2) Is that my best choice? When it comes down to it- that's our ultimate movement and performance question. Is that my best choice? Audition those choices for their right to be in the performance. Then your only thing to do in performance is to be in the moment. Chukkas to everyone performing this weekend!

21.01.2022 A message for Hobart's female musicians for the Engage From Stage Workshop. It's all about building confidence and growing connections. Looking forward to enjoying great company (ok, and great Tassie food and wine) Link to workshop is here http://www.musictasmania.org//engage-from-stage-confidence

13.01.2022 MVP - A Cappella were so wonderful to work with. It was all about booty and ice cream....The booty was about working curves for a super-sassy song (some people think they can't get curves...but think again!) And the ice-cream? We all need a motivation to move towards or away from something on stage .... We looked a lot at lyric content and contrasting movement qualities. And how the group can continue the work with quality feedback- especially because one of their members was missing. I love working with groups that are so open to new ideas on how to level-up their performance. Looking forward to seeing the new videos (and the bootylicious performances )

08.01.2022 I have been meaning to write a post about AusAca national finals for Vocal Australia - there was so much to say about how well the groups did, but there are a few main points of significant improvement across the board. 1) Groups movement/stillness choices were deliberate and told the story of the song. Performance choices amplified meaning and communicated emotion. The movement moved the audience to connect with meaning, or surpise, or laughter (and in some cases- provoked ...Continue reading

05.01.2022 I tried to tell Drums of War I could make them 30% hotter on stage just from a head tilt. I don't know if all of them believed me, but I have a feeling there will be another chance to try this out. Watch this space