Singing Masterclass with Elaine Paige

Just got back from an informative masterclasss with Leading Lady Elaine Paige. The class felt nicely informal and Paige had a relaxed and friendly teaching style. She spoke in length about the voice as our instrument and that vocal exercises were essential to do every day as "there are no shortcuts". We were all up on our feet as she took us through some vocal exercises with Chris Egan on piano.

"Singing is like driving a car there is lots to remember to make it run"

We were each given a handout with seven objectives of how to give a successful performance. She talked in length on posture in performance and every day life and briefly touched on the issue of heels when singing and how they tilt our pelvis foward and through our bodies out of alignment.

The main notes that I took down were to keep yourself in good physical shape and to exercise/go to the gym before auditions/performances. When learning new material "repetition is essential" and to never just be singing without knowing what you're singing about, conciously think about the line you're about to sing.

Finally she directed three performances of songs from musicals she had been in and directed them . To summarise the major points that came up, these included : NEVER gesture meaninglessly, Plant your feet firmly on the ground, don't fight against the musicand what the composer wants, think before you sing, don't let emotions hinder the performance and when learning a song paraphrase the lyrics so you can relate to them more.

Elaine Paige recommended the following books as being essential for any actors embarking on thier careers:

The voice book- Michael Mccallion
Masterclass- Terrence Mcnally
The voice and the actor- Cicely Berry
Strasberg at the actors studio

'Waiting for Godot'

Sir Ian McKellen truly is a master of his craft!

I advise everyone to go and see 'Waiting for Godot' at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

For a play concerned largely with the idea of 'waiting', you might think that not a lot happens, and yet everything that does is rivoting. It is a play that will intrigue you and leave you questioning what you have seen long after the curtain comes down. The set is perfectly minimalistic, the poetry beautiful and the actors superb.

This really is a masterclass in acting including the longest monologue I have ever seen, finishing with raptous applause.

'Waiting for Godot' is a must see piece of Theatre.

CV

Useful ways of finding work in the industry...

As we are often told, we are entering an 'overcrowded profession', but how do we go about finding the work (not using an agent)?

• Talking to friends and teachers in the industry and finding out how they obtained thier jobs.
• 'The Stage' is the obvious one that everyone knows about but is highly useful as has adverts for open calls from West End Musicals to Disneyland.
• Literature: I have many brilliant books on Musical Theatre auditions that inform where to find out about auditions and how to prepare for them.
• http://www.spotlight.com/ Via 'Spotlight Link', performers can see breakdown's for castings and electronically send forth thier Spotlight Cv's.
• http://www.castweb.co.uk/ Castweb is a site that you need to subscribe to, for one month it will cost you £17.95 and for a year £139.95. Castings are then emailed straight into your inbox for you to sift through and find what is apprpriate.
• http://www.castingcallpro.com/ is an online directory which enables you to create your own profile and upload your CV and headshot and is free.
• http://www.crimsonuk.com/ : Advance Production news is a weekly bulletin of castings in television, tv and film but again you have to pay an annual fee.
• http://www.castingnetwork.co.uk/ Casting network is an agency for supporting artists. Register and your details are included in a directory for casting agents to o through. (At the moment not looking for women between the ages of 16-30 with long hair). Therefore before subscribing to a directory check that they do not already have lots of your type on thier books.
• I was once told by an actor that her preference of finding jobs was to join PCR. It is a newsletter that is delivered every monday either by post or online. It concerns future castings as well as up to date castings. To access all the information on castings you need to subscribe to become a member. http://www.pcrnewsletter.com/
• FACEBOOK, there are so many groups which you can now join which load current castings for example: 'Constant Casting' (although you need to subscribe on thier website), 'Jayne Collins Casting' , 'the castingscene.com, 'facebook actors registry' etc

B+W Headshots