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michael-radi-the-glamorous-life · 5 years

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As We Stumble Along...

This week I had the pleasure of being part of the first NYC externship for my Alma Mater’s brand new, and now fully developed, Musical Theater Program. I had the chance to work with some lovely SUNY Geneseo Juniors and Seniors in a new musical theatre workshop - an entirely new experience for all of them - and attended the first ever Senior Showcase. The talent was wonderful, the interactions were lovely, and the entire experience got me thinking…a dangerous pastime, I know.

As a part of the workshop I had to essentially explain to the students who I am, what I do, how that’s relevant to Geneseo, and how I got to where I am. And you know what? That was much more difficult than I expected.

At this moment in my career, these are the titles that I can, and generally do, give myself:

Composer-Lyricist/Librettist (technically 3 titles?)

Performer (Musical and non-Musical Theatre)

Musical Director

Vocal Coach

Accompanist (I do this less often)

Arranger/Orchestrator (though mostly my own material these days)

One of the Geneseo students said “You do so much!” and I guess that’s true. But I think the better question is, how the heck did I learn to do all of these things?

Broadway Standard

The one area from the above list where multiple straightforward and comprehensive paths of education exist is performance.

The theatre as a whole has always recognized that performers are necessary to train in large numbers since shows and theaters exist all over the place with roles that need filling. And performing is the most visible aspect of theatre, which makes it a great entry point for those interest in the business. So plenty of paths exist for people to become performers, and I won’t bore you with the details of mine. Everyone has their own stories on this one.

The other item on the list that is fairly straightforward, though certainly less common than performance, would be accompaniment.

***Quick PSA***: Someone who accompanies is called an ac-com-pa-nist. Not an ac-com-pa-NEE-ist, or any other version. Not a crucial thing to know, but I figured I’d throw it out there :-)

Usually the story I hear from pianists is that they were, at one time in their early life, cornered by some teacher or choral director or other and told they should play piano for a choir, jazz group, or school musical. And thus was born another accompanist.

For me, it was basically the same. My piano teacher told me I should, my choral teacher lost their previous student accompanist, and thus I was tagged for the job!

Where I diverge a little is that I found out I really enjoyed playing musical theatre songs for my friends, and started wanting to be better at it. So I made a point of finding all of the musical theatre music that I could in books and scores, sitting down, and attempting to play it. This is a pastime I continue today, and it has made my skills as an accompanist must stronger - so I would recommend this to anyone looking to hone this particular skill.

Barely Knowing Left From Right

My time at SUNY Geneseo ended up being quite crucial to the accidental development of two other items on that list: musical direction and vocal coaching.

Because I was already a pianist and accompanist, something that was well known by the beginning of my Junior year, I was tapped to be the Musical Director of one of our a cappella groups (and eventually the other as well). I knew from watching previous MDs that the basics of this job was to simply teach notes, but that the good ones could do oh-so-much more. And I wanted to be a good one.

(Anyone surprised? You may have gathered from my blogs thus far that I’m a little competitive about being good at what I do… :-D )

So I went to it. I learned by watching what others did, listening to my favorite arrangements and performances, and started trying things out. It was a lot of trial by fire. But soon I figured out what worked and made the music better, and what to avoid. I had already been arranging for the two groups for over a year at this point (something that I was allowed to just try and found I could do fairly well), so I had some sense of what I was doing. So I took the knowledge I had, added it to the skills I already possessed, and created a new skill set.

Was it perfect right away? Ohhhhhh no. It took me plenty of time to figure it out. But by my Senior year I was comfortable calling myself a Musical Director of both a cappella and musical theare.

As for the vocal coaching, this came from my accompaniment skills as well.

We had a club at Geneseo called MTC (Musical Theatre Club - nailing that name, right?) for which everyone would always stress about auditions each semester. So, being one of the 3-4 pianists in the club, I was often asked by people to help them prepare for their auditions by choosing songs and creating cuts. I found that I was naturally inclined toward this work - something I’d probably not have known if I hadn’t just tried it.

Then, in my later college years, I started gaining the confidence to give some vocal notes to people. I had zero reason to think I had any authority in this matter, but from what I was seeing and hearing I thought I might be able to help.

As it turns out, I was right.

With not an ounce of training (not something I’d really recommend) other than my own vocal training, I found that I had a natural ability to help people adjust their voices. And then of course I wanted to know more, so I began doing my own research and self-education. By the time I left college, I was well on my way to being able to do this sort of work professionally. And now, since it’s how I make the majority of my living and because it’s also an ever-changing field of study, I continue to educate myself on new techniques and styles.

But I’d never have known I could even do this if it hadn’t fallen into my lap and, more importantly, if I hadn’t decided to take the risk and try.

We Pull Our Bootstraps Up

And then we come to the remainder of the list: Composer-Lyricist, Librettist, Orchestrator.

It has been said that “failure is the best teacher,” and in my personal case of these above skills, I must agree.

If I had no business being a Musical Director or Vocal Coach, I had even less business writing music or words for the theatre. I mean, what experience did I have?

None. Not a bit.

Sooooo…?

I love creating. I’ve always loved creating. I had dabbled in some music writing when I was in grade school and did some light composition as part of my Music Theory class in high school - absolutely loving it - but that was the extent of my composition experience. And never had I written a play! I wrote a 5-minute piece once at the NYSSSA Theater Program, but it was terrible and I never tried again.

Until Geneseo, that is.

Playwriting was being offered as a class in my Junior year, so I decided to take it. I had loved my Creative Writing classes in the English Department, but I really longed to write for the stage. So I took it. And I was terrible.

Oh boy, I couldn’t write a play to save my life. And I certainly did try.

I understood the mechanics and the theory and the basics of what to do, but the best thing I could come up with was a murder-thriller spoof called Clue-less, which was actually an out-of-class pet project. It was fairly funny and had some nice dramatic moments, but it still wasn’t good. After getting a solid B- on my final assignment for the class I said that was it for me and playwriting. No more. But then I thought…

What about Musical Theatre? I’m certainly more inclined to writing music than a script…

So, to try out this idea, I decided to take Oscar Hammerstein II’s advice to Stephen Sondheim and attempt the exercise of adapting a play that I admire into a musical. Not for the world to see, necessarily, but for myself and to learn.

The play I chose? A Streetcar Named Desire. I love me some Tennessee Williams, and the high theatricality of the style seemed ripe for some music additions. And best of all, I didn’t have to write the book, just adapt.

I spent 4 weeks over the summer trying my hand at finding song moments, writing in character voices, adapting dialogue into lyrics (though without much structure), and composing a world that sounded like these characters. I tried to tell their stories, moved the action forward, and give a hint of New Orleans. And you know what? It was pretty damn good for a first attempt.

I was encouraged. I decided to be bolder for the second go-round and write an original musical as my Honors Project at Geneseo. Due to some college politics, the project could only be approved if I wrote the book, music, and lyrics, as well as stage the entire thing in my second semester acting as musical director, director, and producer. Certainly a tremendous undertaking - and the point of this was to scare me off - but again I said yes. Bring it on.

Thus a musical - and mediocre one at best - called PICk Love was born. I did all that was asked of me, and an audience of ~300 people ended up seeing it over two performances at the end of my Senior year. I had even gone through the process of learning how to orchestrate in a direct study (since I wasn’t wearing enough hats already) and continued to work on the show after graduation.

Loooooong story short, I was hooked. I wanted to learn more, and correctly now. So I auditioned for the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Writing Workshop. Didn’t get in fully, but only as an auditor. Said yes. Met some amazing people and some of my best friends. Re-auditioned the next year. Got in. Said yes again. Met more amazing people, including one of my current collaborators and best friends. Learned so much. Got a ton better. Wrote and re-wrote The King’s Legacy. Met more incredible people. Kept saying yes.

We Live And We Learn

Most of the things on my list are skills I received no formal education for. In fact, there aren’t a lot of ways to receive a formal education in some of them. And this thing I had no idea how to do, let alone whether or not I could actually do it, is now one of the main parts of my career. But how did I get here?

Everyone has skills, whether from natural ability or because they’ve been honed. Everyone has interests and passions, even if they’re mostly unexplored. And, if you want, these things can come come together to create new skills and pathways that you previously may not have known existed. All you need to do is try.

Try and fail. Try again. Dislike you work. Research. Watch and listen and learn. Try and fail again. Like a little of what you’ve created. Reignite your passion when necessary. Continuously hone your skills. Try again. Fail. Succeed. And most of all, just say yes.

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serpensthesia · 7 years

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The first rule of the ever-evolving 11-question meme is that you must always post the rules! The second rule is you must answer the questions given by the person who tagged you. The third rule is you must then write 11 questions of your own and tag 11 people (or however many, you do you, bb) to answer them!

(If it is your first time at the ever-evolving 11-question meme, you do not have to fight though.)

I was tagged by @silveredglass and @devinesis, who are both amazing like whoa. Please go check them out right this instant, you will not regret it! (Very long) Answers below the cut! My questions at the very, very bottom... just keep scrolling, just keep scrolling...

Answers to @silveredglass's questions:

1. Have you ever had something happen to yourself (not as a baby) that you didn’t remember until someone else told you about it?

Oh my goodness, all the time? I could truly be a living, breathing version of that psychology experiment given how often people remind me of things I have done but have no memory of them. A good example is that I do not remember reading Hamlet in high school, but bestfran, who was in the same class as me, swears up and down that we did. And not only that we did, but that it was like... a thing. Like parts were given out. People got into it. It's possible that costumes were worn? And I had no memory of this until she started talking about it. I very seriously thought she was lying to me, that's how much I had forgotten this happened. It was only after she started talking about it and telling me that it definitely happened that I was like "oh shit, you are right... you are so right." (Or she has some weird thing about wanting to implant false memories about Hamlet, which I guess I would also be okay with.)

2. Best food combination that shouldn’t work but does that you have ‘invented’?

This is actually really tough. I have made some pretty odd cupcakes in my day, but the one that is most often requested is my pear, feta and hefeweizen cupcake, which I am told is a pretty strange combination? But I guess not that strange because people want them all the time?

3. Do you like live theatre? Art exhibits? If so tell me about something you’ve seen that made an impact.

Very much so! We have a free museum here that houses many of my most favorite surrealist paintings, but it is also associated with the Rothko chapel, which is one of the most peaceful places I think I have ever been? The picture does not do those monolithic paintings justice, either... they are easily 3 or 4 times my height and truly overpowering to see up close. They look just all black, but they are filled with so much movement. Rothko is certainly a difficult painter to capture in photography. I could (and have) stared at them, lost in the shades and hidden colors, for moments that seemed very long. It's just silent in a loud way. 10/10, do recommend.

4. Do you have an accessory or jewellery or makeup that you wear almost always?

I have a silver ring with a little cross on it that my mother gave me, I think right before I started college? I wear it on my left ring finger, but it is neither a ~*purity ring*~ (because I am not religious and also purity rings are creepy) nor is it meant to signal any sort of message... it's just the most comfortable finger. Fun story. Not long after HGD and I started dating, he had my ring in his mouth (I don't know?) and bit (yes, with his teeth) it out of shape. He didn't think it was real silver? I don't know what he was thinking. But I was so angry. We took it to the place where it is from and they were not sure they would be able to reshape it because it looked like HGD had fucking bitten a stress fracture into my ring?! But it was fine (HGD got so lucky). So now it has little tiny teeth indents, which is dumb but also kind of wonderful. HGD isn't allowed to touch the ring anymore, though.

5. What is your strongest olfactory memory?

Any time I smell Chrome (the terrible, cheap cologne that every teenage boy seems to own?), I am transported back to being 16 years old in the early evening heat of August, and a boy is handing me his Pink Floyd shirt that is many sizes too big and saying "I heard a rumor that you liked me?" and kissing me on the cheek.

6. What album that has been released in the past two years should I go buy?

Okay. If I had to pick just one album, and it doesn't even matter if you like rap, it would be DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar. It is undeniable how good it is. But I am bad at picking one, so I might also recommend World Eater by Blanck Mass, Humanz by Gorillaz, or Dirty Projectors by (you guessed it) Dirty Projectors!

7. When you were a kid did you have a favourite make believe game you’d play? Or dress up you’d wear?

When I was a little girl, my cousins and I all very much liked to play with my grandfather's wife's square dancing skirts. We would just twirl around in them for hours, pretending that we were all beautiful dancers!

8. Tell me something that made you feel proper chuffed with yourself. In a nice quietly contented way.

Oh, any time I corral my team into agreement, or really even any time I get them to go *a* direction, I feel very quietly content with myself! Or! And god, this is so dumb, but any time that I put a lot of things in my queue for this blog so that it doesn't seem like I'm dead for days on end!

9. IS MISSING. Is this one of those things where I am supposed to notice? I will take this chance to tell you all that you should go read Silv's first lines meme answer, then.

10. Have you ever had a scary or very odd animal encounter?

Well... this is more about an animal encounter that I didn't have, but when I was a kid, my family stayed the night in Yosemite National Park in a canvas tent (which was surprisingly nice... or 10-year-old me had lower standards than current me, maybe). When you park, you watch this TERRIFYING video of bears just RIPPING CARS APART if they smell food in your car so you have to throw away EVERYTHING that might attract bears. And I mean everything, even gum wrappers. So you can imagine what they would do if they smelled food inside your tent, right? I slept surprisingly well that night for being terrified that I might be mauled to death in my sleep by a hungry bear, though.

11. Share a link to a fic or fan art that you love?

Oh... oh, so tough. Wildfire by abbycadabra makes me feel things everytime I read it. And I really, really love atalienart's "Spell Series"!

Answers to @devinesis's questions:

1. What’s something in this world that you just don’t understand and wish you could?

I very sincerely wish that I could understand the conservative mindset of putting businesses or profits or churches before actual human lives. I mean I wish I could understand it in the way that they must feel it, because I jokingly say that Ted Cruz is obviously the Zodiac Killer in a Lizard Person's body (*cough* he is *cough*), but I can also (begrudingly) admit that he is maybe also a human bean (even if a v bad one)... and how does he, or any person that voted for him, or any person that votes along beside him in Congress... well, how do they justify their own seeming lack of humanity? It's a mystery to me.

2. What show or movie does everyone love and tell you to watch but you just hate no matter how many times you try?

I'm probably about to lose so many followers but THE HARRY POTTER MOVIES?!?! Like I disagree with nearly all of the casting, I will never forgive them for not making Harry's eyes fucking green, and even the movies that I watched... it felt like they glossed over all of the most magical parts?

They are irredeemable trash in my opinion and even though we got some cool actors out of it, I have no interest in even trying to love them. AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON SIRIUS BLACK, OKAY.

3. The first book you ever really loved? (If it’s HP, cool, but you have to say something else, too. LOL)

Oh. Anything by Francesca lia Block... I devoured her books when I was younger. I wanted so desperately to be one of those manic pixie shangri-la fairy girls that she wrote about. Or To Kill A Mockingbird because... well, Atticus.

4. If you were going to be in a relationship (platonic or sexual) for the rest of your life with a character from the Harry Potter universe, who would you choose?

Sorry, Draco, but I'm going with Hermione Granger. Helpful for studying? Check. Sometimes problematic but woke af? Check (better than most other characters in the book). Will be down to sometimes do girly things? Check. Is good at keeses because most girls are? Check. Likes to know things? Check. Is a badass? Check. Knows muggle AND magical shit? Check. Is def a ride or die, and down for adventuring without being a baby (looking at you, Ron)? CHECK.

5. Your most hated book you were ever assigned to read in school?

Tess of the D'Ubervilles. *rolls eyes* She should have just killed everyone and rolled out of there with two middle fingers up in the air instead of complaining about everything for the whole book (I realize this is not a very nuanced look at this novel, but lord, did I hate this when I had to read it in school... we also had some nightmare-level assignments related to this book, which is probably part of the reason I hated it so much).

6. If you had a personal uniform like a cartoon character, what would it be?

All black everything (which is not far off from what I usually wear now), except, like a cartoon character, everything would fit perfectly and never fade and always look cool and I would also never have to actually put on eyeliner, I would just rock the perfect cat-eye all the time.

7. Where is your “happy place”?

Any place where I can get a (good) vanilla latte or listen to music very loud and just dance around like an idiot.

8. Favorite form of exercise?

I really enjoy yoga, but I certainly don't do it often enough. I also kind of like the monotony of elliptical machines?

9. If you had a crush when you were, like, 12–14—looking back, is it embarrassing, or do you nod at your younger self in approval?

Mostly I am embarrassed but I did crush hard for a few hours on a total stranger at a battle of the bands when I was probably 14. He had long black hair and weird tall shoes and was defintely wearing eyeliner and looked like the closest thing I might ever see to Davey Havok in person and I just wanted to talk to him because he was so pretty (but also clearly much older than me). I still approve of that one, 4-hour crush on a dreamy goth stranger. Other than that, 12-14 year old me definitely had trash taste.

10. What, for you, are the most hated and most enjoyable tasks of adulthood?

Most hated? Having to ever wake up early and be somewhere on time while knowing that if I'm late I have no one to blame but myself? Most enjoyable: Being able to decide when I want to do things, if at all (within reason).

11. What small-talk question do you most hate answering from strangers at a party?

In high school it was, "where do you want to go to college" because I did not know where I wanted to go to college, or even if I wanted to go to college. In college it was "what's your major?" as if there are not a million other things you could say to a perfect stranger that would be more interesting. In grad school it was "oh, so why did you want to study this"... we all have the same answer, guys. We aren't here for the money. We're all here because we want to help. Come on. Currently, it's "oh, what do you do?" because my job is sort of difficult to explain and I always get "the look" of like "oh, that sounds like it must be really sad" and I know it's not necessarily what I should be doing, but it's what I'm doing right now, damn it. Also because we could talk about literally anything else, why does it always have to be work?

Okay... so I'm just going to do 22 questions and you can pick your favorite 11 to answer (if you decide you want to do this).

1. What are some of your favorite song lyrics and why do you love them so much? 2. If you could live in a fictional reality from a novel (or show, or whatever), where would you live? (Hard mode: you can't choose Hogwarts, or anything from the HP universe... womp womp) 3. What will you FIGHT a person about (in the internet sense of the word)(or also in the literal sense of the word)? 4. What was your first fandom and how did you find yourself there? 5. Not a question but post a picture of whatever you want. 6. What is something not enough people understand and you want to explain to me right now? 7. What is your favorite thing that you have ever studied (doesn't have to be in school, or even studied formally)? 8. You are suddenly allowed to keep one real, wild animal as a pet and it's not going to kill you or hurt you, it's just going to be sweet and awesome... what animal do you choose? 9. Least favorite activity that you have grown to bedrudingly accept as necessary (and maybe even a little fun)? 10. Give past-you a cryptic message - no context, just the message: 11. Who is your problematic fave and why do you love them so much? 12. What is the last thing that someone radically changed your mind about? How did they do it? 13. You are trapped on a desert island. There is no escape. No one is coming to save you. You are going to die. What 3 things do you bring with you so that you can die happy? 14. What 3 dumb as hell things make you stupidly, infectiously happy? 15. What do you create? 16. You've gone down the YouTube k-hole and have been binge watching nonsense for the past 2 hours. Where did you start? 17. If you could have a magical tattoo a la moving tattoos in HP fanon, that would appear when you wanted it and disappear when you didn't, what would it be of? 18. What stereotype actually pretty accurately describes you? 19. You have a kid in your possession, that does not belong to you, that you get return at the end of the day. What do you teach that child that is going to make their parents hate you? 20. What is the last fic you read that you would recommend everyone read? 21. What do you love about yourself? 22. Send a message using only emojis. Let your readers guess what it means!

Okay, tagging (only if you want to!): @deadsdemona, @sprout2012, @fleetofshippyships, @oceaxereturns, @ourloveislegendrarry, @o0o-chibaken-o0o, @fizzingwhizweezes, @goldentruth813, @phd-mama, @acciotomriddle, @synonym-for-life (and @silveredglass and @devinesis, if you guys want to answer more questions, lol!) Or if I didn’t tag you and want to do it, consider yourself tagged!

#tagging meme #memes that evolve!#a choose your own adventure at the end #silveredglass #devinesis #<-- literal rockstars

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