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Owning The Stage at Harmony University
Harmony University was awesome! That's an event that brings together some six hundred ardent a cappella singers from around the world for a solid week of first-rate education and instruction in the a cappella arts. This year of course they asked me to offer Owning The Stage as a 12-hour class, and I think it was a huge success. Both the morning and afternoon classes had a great time, and covered some really interesting ground. I believe they all walked away with a better understanding of what it takes to put a great performance on the stage.
Even better, I've been inspired - I've got more than 30 article ideas in the hopper now, which I'll be writing and posting over the next few months.
I'm thinking about assembling the Owning The Stage ideas into a complete program for vocal groups that want to be awesome on stage, in contest or otherwise. I just need a few guinea pigs to volunteer. So let me know if you know anyone who might be into that. Theory is all well and good, but I'd like to be able to demonstrate real results.
Any takers?
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Tom- Thanks for the great class. The quartet bit we developed for sweet and lovely with the baby's crying in the nursery has turned out to be a huge hit for our quartet. Tied in with Lullabye in ragtime and some funny physical comedy and the package brings much laughter and positive commenting. Anyway....I just wanted to express my appreciation for helping me see the experience on stage through better focus.
April 12th we are performing this bit for the Governor, Senator Orin Hatch, Some Congressmen and a few Mayors of Utah!
i love this idea and theme and have to use its interesting for me and i have to use it. its marvelous. but right now i am doing my mcse and hunt a job to establish my career, i suggest you to do the same may be your career lies in it.
Hey Tom,
I would love to be a guinea pig with our chorus and quartet.
- Jamie
Now we just have to figure out what that means! :) I guess the central thing is to have a compelling, meaingful and vivid story for everything you perform, and letting all creative and artistic decisions come from that. Then cultivating the ability to stay "in" the story the whole time you're on stage, rather than worry about technique or allow distractions to throw you off your game. That concept comes straight out of method acting, tailored somewhat for vocal performance.
So... how about you try it and report back on how it goes?
Our chorus is doing Georgia On My Mind and I Miss Mother Most Of All. We spent some time last 2 rehearsals talking about the songs. We are trying to answer your 4 basic questions. I find it difficult to make the most compelling story. To one guy, it might be compelling and to another it isn't as compelling. How do you decide on the best one?
- Jamie
Tom,
Two replies from the same small chapter in Eastern Iowa...you've got fans here! What does a guinea pig for your experiment look like? My quartet might be interested, too!
Sean Smith
Hi Sean,
I answered a previous post with my initial thoughts on what it would look like. I could walk you guys through it on Skype some time if you're interested.
Tom
Tom,
I heard only good things about OWNING THE STAGE at Harmony University. As I already had mentioned to you, your web-site came up in several classes as a resource for singers. (You must be doing something right!)
Our quartet, the Choir Boys, reads and often discusses your blogs and tries to follow your advice. I'd say we'd be good Guinea Pigs (crash-test-dummies) for you if it weren't for the fact that we live half-way across the continant from you. (Darn!)
Keep up the great posts and we'll keep reading!
Great to see you in St. Joe!
John Donehower
Dubuque, Iowa
Hey Tom,
Thanks so much for a great class at HU this year. I've been thinking about all the things you post on this site a lot, and your course really helped clarify and solidify many of the key aspects of developing a great stage performance.
I've mentioned this entry and your desire to develop the course into a vocal ensemble package. I hope the music team and BoD seriously consider your offer.
I'm really looking forward to reading all the new articles you've mentioned.
Thanks.
Kevin Sullivan