Signature Summer: Stage One

“The Stage One program was an incredible transitional experience for me. Having participated in the program the summer before my senior year of high school, it fostered my growth from an excited yet inexperienced young performer to a more confident, emotionally-intelligent actor, singer and dancer.” – Edward Simon

This coming Saturday the 26^th, the Signature Theatre Education Department will be holding auditions for its 2014 summer Stage One musical theatre workshops at 10:00 am.

The Stage One workshop is a two-week program that gives anyone ages 14-17 the chance to experience in-depth the world of professional musical theatre and to hone their vocal, dance and acting skills. Musical theatre professionals provide students with personalized, supportive instruction in daily dancing, singing, and acting courses. As the prequel to the successful Overtures Musical Theatre Institute, Stage One aims to create fully-developed young musical theatre performers. At the conclusion of the program, students will demonstrate what they’ve learned in a performance for friends and family members.

Education Director David Zobell (center) with the 2011 Stage One crew

In addition to daily training in acting, music and dance, this year Stage One will be a full hour longer to incorporate daily master classes from a professional from the DC theatre scene. With a different instructor everyday, this is an incredible opportunity for high schools students to work with award-winning actors, directors, choreographers, musicians and casting directors.

Check out the comments former Stage One students have had about their involvement with the program and how it has helped them as performers.

Eitan and the others warm up at the start of the day.

“I came into Stage One already knowing I wanted to pursue  musical theatre as a career, but when I left, my love for the art was even stronger because I was so heavily exposed to the varied disciplines within the art form. Stage One is the right program for anyone who loves performing musical theatre, wants to learn much more about it, and simply wants to have a fantastic time with other kids that share the same passion.” - Eitan Mazia

You’ve heard it from some of our past students so now why don’t you audition to be one of our students? Come out this coming Saturday at 10:00 am with 2 contrasting musical theatre pieces, no more than 16 bars a piece, and be prepared for a short dance call. We look forward to hopefully seeing, meeting, and working with you.

Read More

I Will Be Presenting...

Alexandra, one of our many talented Overtures students, has taken over our blog. Check back for daily updates and come to the Overtures showcase Saturday at 11 AM in Signature's MAX Theatre! 

Today was the day: auditions. Auditions are nothing new to the 17 members of the Overtures company. We auditioned to get into the program, after all! Many of us have lost track of the number of calls we have been seen at, let alone those we were not seen at, and we are sure to forget many more in our long careers. But today’s call with casting directors from Arena Stage, Olney Theatre Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company and, of course, Signature’s Matt Gardiner, certainly had our nerves on edge. Though the past two weeks have amply prepared us for today’s casting session, the inevitable jitters arose right on cue. But when the time came, we gave it our all.

There is a moment in a performance when the actor’s eyes widen slightly, their breath connects, the hair on the back of their neck rises in anticipation of that note they just recently discovered was in their range, and as the crisp clear sound of a perfect pitch meets the audience’s ears, a smile spreads across the actor’s face. There were many well-deserved smiles in today’s auditions.

We have spent the past two weeks intensely training for moments just like today – standing in front of casting directors and delivering a performance to remember in hopes of landing that gig and another chance to perform. We can second-guess material, we can over think an outfit and feel uncomfortable performing, or we can hold tight to the confidence we have gained and trust in the smart choices we have learned to make. Of course, it helps to have 16 other company members going through the exact same thing looking on with only admiration and support for all the work you have done!

As we shared dinner conversation after a long afternoon of auditions, it was so clear how much our company has grown to care for one another. Heartfelt congratulations and words of reassurance were not in short supply. Our work, all of our work, was and is something to be extremely proud of. With only one more day together and a final showcase Saturday morning, we will, no doubt, pass along many more good vibes and sentiments of affection. We have watched each other grow as students and artists, and I can only imagine how far we will all go in the very near future. Watch out!

Read More

A Multi-Talented People Who Need People

For the next two weeks, Alexandra, one of our many talented Overtures students, is taking over our blog. Check back for daily updates and come to the Overtures showcase Saturday at 11 AM in Signature's MAX Theatre! 

Wednesday, June 26

We were never told that Overtures would be easy. We have come to expect the highs, the lows, the tears when our confidence waned and the moments of pure joy as we make new discoveries. Through it all, we have also come to create incredible friendships with our fellow company members.

Competition in acting is partly inevitable and can be stiff, but there are also strong bonds formed through shared trials and successes. A master class with Signature’s Artistic Director, Eric Schaeffer this evening reminded us, “There is no better family than your theater family.” For the six weeks of rehearsal, the month or so of a run, or for the two weeks of a musical theater intensive, your company is family. They see you at your best and your worst. They are there to give you a word of encouragement, share song suggestions, or give an honest opinion about your audition outfit. We can learn so much from our family.

Outside of a classroom we do not often have the opportunity to see other actors work and gain insight from their processes. Overtures has given us the chance to see how someone else does it. Of course we have been sponges to every note and piece of advice our instructors have imparted to us, but we have also benefited greatly from watching our cohorts take on their own challenges. With the incredible range of experience, training, ideas and personalities among our 17 company members, there is plenty to learn from.

And so, as we anxiously prepare for tomorrow’s casting session in front of four of Washington’s biggest casting directors - worrying over 32 bars and our monologue choices, frantically printing headshots and resumes, hopefully getting at least a little sleep - we can all keep one very important thing in mind: as our adrenaline rushes and apprehension takes over, we will have a 17-person family smiling back at us because they have seen how far we have come and how much, much further we will all go. 

Overtures students chat during a break in their master class with Eric Schaeffer.

Read More

Words to Live By

For the next two weeks, Alexandra, one of our many talented Overtures students, is taking over our blog. Check back for daily updates and come to the Overtures showcase Saturday at 11 AM in Signature's MAX Theatre! 

Overtures student Ines listens to words of wisdom from Marcy and Zina.

Tuesday, June 25

We hear it every day - there are thousand of aspiring artists competing for many of the same roles. Just like us, many of them have trained to belt a high A, others have “the right look" and still others have more experience, more training and stronger credits on their resumés. However, none of us entered into this business wanting to be just like all the others. Our little kid dreams were to be stars, each entirely unique and truly captivating.

Even if we learn nothing else this week, we'll have learned to be ourselves. Every session discussing the business of show business, each master class, every time we slip into old habits of performing songs the way we think our instructors want them performed, we are encouraged to revisit the work and make it our own.

This evening’s reminder came from contemporary lyricist, Marcy Heisler, and composer, Zina Goldrich. The duo, whose “Taylor the Latte Boy” and “Alto’s Lament” are just two of the incredibly witty compositions in their songbooks, offered us each personalized advice on our song choice and interpretation. It wasn’t long before we recognized a theme to their suggestions – be yourself. There may be 20 other girls singing the same song, “but no one in the room has heard you sing it before,” said Zina.

Candid casting critiques are invaluable at this early stage of our careers. So often we are corralled through 90 second monologues or 32 bars of music in an audition room and hurried along with a “thank you” or, even worse, the dreaded “that’s all we need today”. We long for feedback. After all, we are in the business of being judged! Without feedback it is all too easy to worry ourselves for hours about what we could have done better, what notes we might have missed, what acting points we forgot to hit.

Marcy and Zina offered us their honest opinions as well as suggestions on ways to further work on our performances. But they, along with all the Overtures instructors we have had the privilege of working with this past week and a half, also gave us an important mantra to live by: “Yay me! I make art!” We can spend every audition concerned about our look, being the wrong “type”, or singing a wrong note, or we can be our most confident, art-making, high A-belting selves. “Yay me! I make art!”

Read More

What Do You Do with a BA in Theatre?

For the next two weeks, Alexandra, one of our talented Overtures students, is taking over our blog. Check back for daily updates!

Overtures students during a Tap class.

Monday, June 17

On our first morning of Overtures, group introductions included the standard answers to “who are you,” “where are you from” and “what’s your background”. A few of the college graduates in the group, sounding only slightly jaded and world-weary, claimed diplomas declaring theater or, more precisely, “glorified placemats”.  Quick to add a litany of goals and hopes for near-future successes that would change our feelings towards those fancy pieces of paper, we also recognized we had perhaps skipped a few steps along the way and still had much to learn.

Enter “The Business of Show Business," a class with Matt Gardiner, Signature's Associate Artistic Director. Following a second go at Karma’s ballet class (two and a half hours of strong technical breakthroughs, if you could make it through the warm up!), half our company pulled out headshots and resumes for an insider’s scoop. Feeling like a high school English student again, dreading the red correction pen, I readied myself for circles and x’s all over the 8”x10” page. After all, as young actors entering an often trying industry, we are all too familiar with the stories of bags of trashed headshots in the hallways of New York’s casting agencies, auditions gone horribly wrong and many young actors simply giving up to follow a “more sensible” career path.

And yet, there was no scary red pen. Sifting through copious notes this evening I find myself perusing insightful questions from a fellow company member, a funny anecdote from our Matt, a “NO” in all-caps followed by several exclamation points next to possible outfit choices for an audition (perhaps a little retail therapy is in my future). And tucked away in a margin are the words “persistence” and “respect”.

           

Overtures students warm up at the start of dance class.

        
Persistence has helped bring many of us to Overtures. Daily persistence is needed in our fledgling careers, especially when the industry is at its most unforgiving. Persistence will undoubtedly lift us over the next two weeks when we are at our most vulnerable, learning new skills and breaking down old habits in pursuit of our artistic goals. But persistence must be countered with respect. Respect for the industry and the incredible professionals we have the opportunity to learn from over these next two weeks. Respect for our fellow company members who have just as many questions as I may have . And especially respect for ourselves and those 8”x10”s that really aren’t all too horrible, those turn outs that even after only two days are already better, those discoveries we continue to make in voice sessions on songs that were intentionally picked for us to be challenges.

So, what do you do with a BA in Theater? Proudly list it right at the top of the “Training” section of your resume, just above your “Special Skills” and right below your growing list of “Theater Credits.”

Don't miss the Overtures Showcase! Saturday, June 29 at 11 AM in the MAX Theatre. Admission is free and seating is on a first come, first serve basis.

Read More

Summer at Signature: Stage One and Overtures

It's generally acknowledged that it's in the theatre industry's best interest to nuture the next generation of talent: The best way to ensure the quality of your future shows? Provide top-notch training. Signature is no stranger to this principle. In fact, Signature has been hosting summer musical theatre programs for young performing artists for over ten years. In both Stage One Workshops and Overtures, students are given the opportunity to further develop their performing skills in a professional and focused environment.

Overtures students rehearse for their final showcase.

Stage One Workshops: A Musical Theatre Intensive for Ages 14-17

In Stage One Workshops, high school students go through two weeks of all-day training in singing, dancing, and acting. An audition-based admission program, Stage One is competitive and those admitted have their work cut out for them. Trained by some of the best in the DC Metro area, students learn what will be expected of them as theatre professionals.

Overtures: Signature Theatre's Musical Theatre Institute 

Overtures in the next step in a musical-theatre hopeful's training. It is designed to benefit college students, recent grads, and early professionals seeking to advance their performing abilities. While two weeks in length like Stage One, Overtures requires longer hours, includes mock auditions in front of real casting directors and master classes with NY actors, provides individual as well as group coaching, and concludes with a public showcase performance. Overtures is grueling, but ultimately rewarding: "I have gotten some of the best training I have ever received here at Overtures... I really love that we are pushed out of our comfort zone... I can feel my growth as a performer" (2012 Overtures participant). Students leave Overtures with a better understanding of the business and more mature as artists.

 

"It's amazingly complete... I feel like I learned more that was practical for a life in the theatre than I did in four years of college." (2011 Overtures participant)
2011 Overtures Showcase. Photo: Dennis Deloria

Auditions 

Auditions for Overtures and Stage One typically occur in April and May, although this year we're having an additional day of auditions for Stage One on June 1 (read more here). For both programs, auditioners are asked to prepare to contrasting vocal selections and demonstrate their movement abilities in an open dance call.

The Pay-off

Do these programs really produce "good" performers? We'll let you be the judge:

• Matthew Gardiner: Associate Artistic Director at Signature Theatre. 
• Michael Mainwaring: DC actor currently in Thunder Knocking at the Door at Creative Cauldron, recently in Signature Theatre's Dreamgirls.
• Florrie Bagel: NYC actor, recently in the US National Tour of Sister Act.
• James Gardiner: DC actor currently in Company at Signature, book writer for the musical Glory Days. 
• Hannah Willman: DC actor, recently in My Fair Lady at Arena Stage.
• Nick Blaemire: NYC actor, recently in the Broadway revival of Godspell, lyricist and composer for the musical Glory Days.
• Aaron Reeder: DC actor, currently in Show Boat at The Kennedy Center.

Looks like Signature should simply keep up the good work!

Read More