There is Some Truth in That

Pirates is over. A good experience, on the whole. Things were a little rocky during late rehearsals, and there was a time when I was concerned and discouraged, but everything turned out ok, and I felt good about my performances, on the whole. A bit of the Brown Daily Herald review:

Although the operetta's plot ended suddenly and a little confusingly, the musical and comedic performances by all the cast members made up for this minor flaw. In particular, the male leads, Jonathan Ichikawa GS and Alexander Ebin '07, displayed their wondrous singing and acting abilities as the Pirate King and Frederic, respectively. Ichikawa's deeper, more resonating voice complemented Ebin's clear tenor.

I feel like in this production, I took some steps toward connecting my on-stage performances with the things I'm doing in my voice lessons. I identified one of my problems, which is always an important step: I like to be very intense and focused on stage -- one of the ways this happens is by literally tensing up various muscles in my body. This past weekend, I learned that an important step for me is to maintain that physical intensity on stage, consistent with relaxing my body in the way my best singing requires. I have a long way to go, but I think I know where to be focusing now. For as long as I've been taking voice lessons, there's been a disconnect between what I can do in the studio and what I can do while I'm acting, and now I'm starting to close it. That's exciting.

Now that Pirates is over, I can devote myself further to learning Robin! Director Robert sent me a number of thoughts a few days ago -- it's time to start working on that.