master classes

“I’m so glad I was able to stay for Sierra’s master class this afternoon at Mosaic Youth Theatre (a performing arts program for inner-city Detroit Public Schools students), which I think I actually enjoyed more than last night’s shows.

If you’re not familiar, here’s how a master class works: A student performs a portion of a song (like an audition), Sierra offers advice and critiques, and then the student performs it again.

The highlights of her advice (which also, as it turns out, are applicable to writing):

*Your performance will always be better the more specific you can make the context of the song you’re singing. So, for instance, imagining the specific person and moment when you were told you’d never make it to Broadway rather than singing to a crowd of “haters.” Sierra talked about the importance of taking songs out of the context of the show they’re performed in and personalizing them with your story (ex. “Whispering” from “Spring Awakening,” which one girl imagined she was singing to her mother who didn’t accept her lesbian identity).

*One student performed Cole Porter’s “Were Thine That Special Face” from “Kiss Me, Kate.” He and Sierra talked afterward, and he envisioned the song as a chance meeting between two cars in a high-school parking lot, sung from the point of view of a guy who loves a girl he never expected to meet there, and he’s singing words he’s thought for forever but is saying out loud for the first time. His second performance was noticeably more emotional and vulnerable. As Sierra said, “You weren’t acting out a conquest that time, you were achieving it.”

*It’s rare for a stellar writer to be able to break down their process and explain exactly how they do what they do  (see: the curse of knowledge — you’re so good at something that you can’t step back and explain how the magic happens), and I assume the same is true for elite performers. But Sierra is that rare performer who can expertly guide others to a personal understanding of where the song is coming from and how they can allow their audience to both feel the singer’s personal journey and appropriate it to reflect their own stories (As she told one performer, “You’re having the experience, but allowing us to have the experience with you”).

Many, many tears were shed by students who tapped into moments they didn’t anticipate sharing or maybe even thinking about — and by those who listened to the outpourings — and the Cabaret 313 assistant I was attending with said it was the most emotional master class they’d ever hosted. Now I’m curious to see other performers do these, as this one is currently my only point of reference.

In short, the afternoon was a fascinating window into an experience public doesn’t normally get to see, and which I hadn’t previously been exposed to (as I don’t have a performing arts background and am not a singer or dancer).  It surprised me that Sierra didn’t critique any of the technical aspects of the performances, but rather helped the students understand and crystallize the places they were singing from to elicit the most powerful renditions.

Finally, something she said that’s valuable to remember, whether in writing or acting: The only person you’re competing against is yourself. When you’re preparing for an audition (or, in my case, drafting an article), you’re wrestling with yourself to produce the best piece or performance possible. For these students, that involved being brave and tapping into moments and memories that they’d rather gloss over or bury. Those were the stories Sierra teased out and encouraged the students not only to sing from, but embody in every moment of their chosen pieces.”