Last week’s adventure was probably one of the biggest and hardest so far. Even though I was a musical theatre major in college, it’s been over 5 years since I’ve sung in public. I get so nervous now that my knees literally knock. Instead of doing karaoke, which I still have on my list and am totally dreading, I signed up for a class called Singing for Actors. At the second level, our final was a public performance of a well-known pop song. One caveat, it had to be a gender-bender, a song sung by the opposite sex, about the opposite sex. This way the actor had to find a way to identify with the words even though it’s not written the way that gender would speak. I sang Pink Floyd’s “Mother.” (for example- “Mother do you think they’ll try to break my balls?”). Then after the song, which was backed up by acoustic guitar, we had to give a monologue that we wrote about something in our life that we have never said publically. That fed into the final component which was an acoustic version of a popular song that flowed from the last line of our monologue.

My Pink Floyd rendition was definitely full of nervous energy but I made it through. My monologue was more relaxed and even got a few laughs. My acapella song made everyone, including me (just a little) cry. It was such an amazing adventure. One that I wish more of my friends would have shared with me (only 3 of the people I invited came). But more importantly it was a transformational experience that makes me stronger as a singer and an actor.

This week it’s off to the pottery studio. (More …)

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