Pursuing musical theatre in Singapore
The first musical I've ever watched live was Sing To The Dawn, a musical set in rural Thailand where Dawan, a girl who won a scholarship to study in the city, has to show her conservative family that everyone deserves a chance to fly. I was perhaps eight or nine, and though I remembered so little of it and documentation is scarce, I never forgot the story or the girl who sang to me from the large raked stage.
One whole decade later, I am training as an actor, stepping into this very weird and wonderful state of understanding that I may never actually make it to Broadway, while working my guts out to do everything that might get me one step closer to NYC. In the last five months of 2021 and even back in 2020, I have been hopping into every musical theatre masterclass and workshop I could possibly attend without breaking the bank. Masterclasses and ask-me-anything sessions with Lindsay Heather Pearce, JJ Nieman, Desi Oakley and Laura Bell Bundy? Yeah, and whatever opportunity turns up on Eventbrite or SISTIC - I snatched it real quickly. A new online musical pops up? Bought my license. Mine for life. Checkpoint Theatre has a live concert of musical songs? I am ashamed to mention that I threw $5.90 straight into the ticket box, never mind the exorbitant booking fee of $0.50.
Nevertheless, I know that so long as I don't have any voice training or experience, I'm hardly ready for musical theatre anywhere, let alone on the Great White Way. So far I've had a decent start in actor training and learning the principles of voice production and music theory on my own (thanks Coursera and Berklee), but I have a long way to go before I even am eligible to audition for a BFA in Musical Theatre, much less compare with a working musical theatre performer. Of course, there are many who circumvent the traditional BFA approach, but even then, it's often clear that they were very careful to engineer their training route into their individual journeys as an actor - so clearly, you can make it without a BFA. You won't get very far without some training.
This post is divided in two sections - I'll provide a broad overview of musical theatre in Singapore, and then we'll delve into the various avenues and opportunities that might line up to form a training regimen which works for each of us. My goal is to prove to you that you don't need a BFA to begin. If you're reasonably determined, the long list of classes covering every aspect of musical theatre on your resume might look even more charming than the one line that most conservatory programs occupy.
Musical Theatre in Singapore
 |
| Forbidden City: Portrait of a Lost Empress. Leads: Kit Chan, Steffanie Leigh. |
 |
| Wicked on the West End, Leads: Willemijn Verkaik, Suzie Mathers. |
I'll first begin by stating that contrary to popular belief, musical theatre in Singapore is not dead at all. From new contemporary works such as The Monster in The Mirror to extravagant megamusicals like Forbidden City: Portrait of An Empress, Broadway is well and alive in here. Complemented by the frequent touring productions at Marina Bay Sands from Wicked to The Lion King, I'd argue that for all of our complaints about the dying arts scene, we certainly aren't faring too badly at all. We even have our own musical theatre greats - Dick Lee and Stella Kon are two shining examples.
Despite that, there is little documentation of what is available for the budding musical theatre performer in Singapore. Theatre is already a niche field, musical theatre is a niche within a niche, so it's no surprise that actual auditions for musicals are more or less exclusive to the point that no one hears about them outside of the community. This makes it really tough for any newcomer to get started, especially if they don't have connections or knowledge of where they can get trained yet.
Building an actor training curriculum which can stack up with the likes of Carnegie Mellon and Juilliard is thus an uphill task, that's for sure, but with plenty of research on what four-year conservatory programs actually do with their students, you would be equipped with enough information to look for the right instructors and resources.
Before I go into this, I'd like to issue a disclaimer: LaSalle College of the Arts Singapore has a great musical theatre program. It's comprehensive, intensive and their curriculum is absolutely on par with many other schools around the world, and I say this as the friend of many talented MT graduates. However, not everyone can afford to go to LaSalle - perhaps they have already finished their government tuition grant on a first degree, or they plan on going to an autonomous university, or they simply aren't cut out for conservatory education (rejected and withdrawn applicant fam, where y'all at?). So I'm not saying that a thrown-together training regimen is the way to go, especially if you have the conservatory option. Rather, if for whatever reason you aren't able to go for a conservatory education and you want to see how private and self-sourced training can compare to the Broadway greats, the options are all there and if you are smart about them, you can absolutely optimize it up to a respectable standard.
Planning your musical theatre training regimen
I'll start by stating the obvious. Acting is expensive, and so is musical theatre. You're going to spend thousands of dollars on this journey, and I'm not even going to hedge this because you are. I wrote a little about survival jobs and finances for the actor here, so maybe take that as pre-reading for this segment because it's going to be a wild ride, both for you and your wallet (and mine).
When reviewing acting programs in international universities, the first thing I would look at is the total amount of credits they allocate to the major. Pennsylvania State University is home to one of America's most sought after musical theatre programs, and they offer a whopping 86 credits of training across 4 years, with 45 credits reserved for general education. In other words, other than a few breadth courses, the student spends 40 to 50 hours every week training in their craft - which is pretty intense compared to Marymount Manhattan College's 63-credit program.
Case Study: Penn State Musical Theatre BFA
 |
| Pennsylvania State University (Source: CR80 News) |
Penn State's Musical Theatre BFA program has been described as one of the finest in the United States, and rightfully so, with a sound degree structure that covers everything from lectures in theatre history to private instruction in musical theatre singing and repertoire.
In their first semester, students take a 1-credit first year seminar on professionalism and production practices as well as a 2-credit class called Acting Foundations. They also take Beginning Ballet I, Music Theatre Voice I, Music Theatre Theory I as well as a theatre history and culture core requirement.
At the end of the 4 years, the students are expected to have completed the following major courses:
- Acting foundations, three acting studio courses, three voice and speech studio courses and one movement studio course
- Two courses in theatre production and design, and a practicum
- Two courses in theatre histories and cultures
- Six courses in musical theatre theory and voice with additional private voice instruction
- Beginning ballet, jazz, tap and musical theatre dance and either advanced ballet, jazz or tap
- Four courses in musical theatre performance, and two courses in musical theatre ensemble voice
- A course on musical theatre analysis and a course on American musical theatre
- 2 credits of performing arts extracurriculars
So first off, let's analyze this. There's a lot going on in here, but acting, movement and speech courses alone take up a whopping 16 credits. Another 23 courses are spent on music theory, sight singing and voice lessons. Dance classes take up 15 credits, and musical theatre training itself account for about 10 to 12 credits. Aside from that, there's also a bunch of production and history courses but we won't be counting those today.
College credits are confusing, but fortunately we hardly need to know about those when we just need to know what to learn. It boils down to:
- Actor training
- Theatrical voice and movement
- Music theory and singing skills
- Working on musical theatre performances and productions
- Being familiar with all three of the major dance forms, specializing in one of them and then combining all three forms into musical theatre dance
Case Study: Marymount Manhattan Musical Theatre BFA
Located in the Upper East Side of New York City, Marymount Manhattan College is less than a 30-minute jog away from some of the largest theatres on Broadway. MMM is responsible for some of the industry's biggest names including Legally Blonde's Annaleigh Ashford, potential film Elphaba Emmy Raver-Lampman and actress-producer Jenna Ushkowitz.
Here's a summary of Marymount's major requirements:
- Acting process and technique as well as voice and speech
- Three semesters of scene study from beginner to advanced levels
- Script analysis, Shakespeare and directing
- A year of musical theatre fundamentals, a year of musical theatre techniques, scene into song and the musical theatre song portfolio
- Professional preparation and advanced studies
What do you need?
From this, we may conclude that a good musical theatre program would ideally include comprehensive classical actor training as well as individual singing lessons. They would also cover dance forms such as ballet, jazz, tap and musical theatre at least to a fundamental degree in order to produce the exalted "triple threat" - a fascinating epithet for the skilled Broadway performer. The best programs teach their students to represent themselves properly in the business and connects them with opportunities.
And all of this costs money. As of 2021, the cost of attendance for Marymount is north of $60,000 USD a year. A year at Penn State costs an estimated $53,000 USD for an out-of-state student. So... how can we get training, good training, without breaking the bank?
Let's start with actor training in Singapore.
With some resourcefulness, you'll find a few exemplary acting instructors right here on this island. They offer a variety of training programs from foundation acting classes all the way to private scene study sessions, and by knowing your options and mapping out the various specializations of each instructor, you will be able to obtain a very high standard of pre-professional training.
A good small-sized acting class of five to ten students should run you no more than S$600 for eight weeks of three hour lessons (or a variation of it). I paid S$520 for my first 24 hours of training and and I literally only had four classmates, so if you're paying anything more than that for a class that has more than five people and that is not in-person, there are better deals out there. A logical progression of private acting class would be to take the foundation class offered by the instructor or studio first, and then to move on to intermediate or advanced classes which usually focus on character work and scene study. Where such options are scarce or not available, working with an acting coach privately is also a (very costly) option.
Apart from this, it's also wise to look into informal training sessions. Eventbrite is constantly full of free online masterclasses - for the month of May, I've been in a Meisner intensive by Meisner International and an acting open class from HB Studios. Both at very ungodly hours in the morning, but for the price of free, it's as worth it as it gets. The only catch is that we usually don't list free classes on your resume unless we actually participated (read: sang a song, did an exercise, recited a monologue) in them, and they're the first to go off the training list the moment you obtain a better training credit.
By knowing where to look and managing your time properly, you will definitely be able to build a comprehensive training regimen. Acting is a craft - just being in a class, any class, will help you strengthen that muscle. It helps to be exposed to many different methods and techniques but eventually, it's finding your own voice as a performer that matters.
Next up, musical theatre and singing - a niche within a niche. Sing'Theatre has a rather extensive range of musical theatre programs from entry-level classes (Stage Door) to audition only intensives (Conservatoire), so those are definitely worth looking at. The classes typically cost about $600 each which is quite worth it - they work out to about $25 per hour. There are also many singing coaches in Singapore and they may charge anywhere from $30 to $120 an hour for a private session depending on their level of experience. For music theory, there's good news - Coursera offers many music theory courses for free, up to the intermediate level, and you can always read up on the rest on your own.
For dance classes, you can get a good foundation in tap, jazz and ballet from most dance schools in Singapore - they're widely available and you've probably come across at least a few. Unless you are more interested in physically demanding roles, you're usually in good standing once you have the basics of each genre down. As many others before me have said, if in doubt, go with ballet.
There are also plenty of standalone classes online and in-person that covers everything from American accents to improvisation - those classes vary widely in their pricing. It's wise to attend a masterclass or two on audition protocol and business advice including obtaining your headshots, resume, reel - and hopefully, an agent.
If you accomplish all of the above, you might potentially be able to get the same training as a BFA actor for a small fraction of 200 to 300 grand that they have to pay.
Mapping modules like you're a student perpetually on exchange
Next question, how do you make sure that you're doing it right? It boils down to keeping track of your progress as far as you can.
I like to keep a nifty little checklist of all the courses that I've completed thus far, free and paid, online and in-person, so that I can constantly check in with myself on where I stand and how I can improve. In this list, I would roughly compare my current standard against the module descriptions of BFA programs such as the ones we looked at above to figure out where I currently stand. For example, my current actor training would probably place me as a first-semester student actor taking either Penn State's Acting Foundations or Marymount's Process and Technique. A further scene study class lined up for later this year (previously June, but we're back on lockdown.) might take me up to Acting I or Beginning Scene Study. By carefully analyzing the curriculum material of those BFA classes and drawing comparisons to what I've learnt, I can form a clearer picture of what they have and what I should endeavor to obtain next.
In a way, this almost feels like you're an exchange student trying to map modules back to your home course (Acting). Sometimes you may discover that your training is more advanced than a certain BFA course. Sometimes you may realize that you fall short of what a BFA student would have achieved by their first semester. You may then fit a few masterclasses and workshops into your schedule to compensate as much as you humanly can, and that is how you gradually train yourself in this elusive art form.
How do you know if you have trained enough? The answer is you don't. You probably never will. But the moment you feel like something is lacking in your performance, it's wise to drop back in for some guidance.
What next?
When you realize that you've really looked past the first ten pages of search results on Google, it's time to look elsewhere. College is a great place to engage with theatre and performances, and if you are currently in school or higher education, the theatre scene is growing increasingly vibrant as more students become enthralled by the magic of theatre during the pandemic. By joining a drama club or a theatre production, you create opportunities for yourself to learn and grow as an actor. Even if little singing is involved, you still stand to gain from developing your stage presence. Besides, there's always the acapella group where you can properly develop your singing abilities in your free time, and dance classes throughout campus to refine your jazz moves. And if all else fails, you may consider looking online for paid intensives and masterclasses to supplement your learning.
Where do you stand after you've completed your pre-professional training? That's a deeply personal question that only you can answer. Nevertheless, by charting your progress and ensuring that you are moving in the right direction, you can give yourself a better shot at landing roles here and abroad.
Comments
Post a Comment