Well, Ball State is back from Spring Break and the campus is once again full of life. It was awfully lonely here during Spring Break...I swear I was one of the only Muncie-ites in the city of Muncie that whole week. Nonetheless, everyone is back, all is well, and things are gearing up for the end of the semester (and what a busy one it's going to be!).
Yesterday evening I partook in a master class that featured guest artist Nova Thomas. She was here for two days; one day focusing on classical techniques and one day focusing on musical theatre techniques. I had University Singers rehearsal during the classical techniques class, but I participated in the musical theatre class; I was one of 6 or 7 that sang. My piece was "Marry Me a Little" from the musical Company by Stephen Sondheim. It was most intimidating from the start for 2 reasons: 1) I was singing in front of a majority of the musical theatre department who do this stuff for a living, and 2) Mrs. Thomas said during my introduction that this was one of her favorite songs, so that put a new sense of pressure on me to do well! Throughout her time with me, she gave me a lot of good information when it comes to performing pieces, the main thing being that if a song is not in context, you may have to do something completely different with it than what you would do during the show because in a show, you have the whole story line behind you; in the solo piece, the audience won't have the rest of that plot, so it may not come across like you want it to. So, she gave me tips here and there, and by the end of it, I had a whole new intake of the song and the closing performance was quite different than the first. I can only hope that I can get yet another experience like this before I leave good ol' BSU. If you'd like to see a performance of the song by Raul Esparza (the lead role from the 2006 revival), click here.
Another thing really pushing the end of the semester is University Singers' Spectacular which is coming up in 15 days. The cast is hard at work putting our final finishing touches on the show before we take it to LaPorte, Indiana next Tuesday and then move to Emens Auditorium the following week for the 44th annual Spectacular. Knowing I only have just over two weeks left as a cast member before becoming an alum is...well...I don't even want to think about that yet. I really am going to miss the group and all that goes with it. I live to perform and, well, this will be it for me. I'm going to have so much time on my hands after this that I won't know what to do! Below is a flier for our end-of-year show; feel free to come watch!
