Musical Theatre Master Classes

Prior to this year, I had never had the opportunity to attend a musical theatre master class. On the other hand, I am extremely accustomed to dancer master classes and I found it interesting to compare and contrast the way classes are held. Each Friday the dancer department takes a master class with a different professional dancer. Besides the specific dance genre, the classes possess numerous similarities to each other. This was not the case for the two musical theatre master classes I attended this year. I found it intriguing that each teacher chose a different structure the their class. Upon attending John Bucchino’s master class, I was introduced to an immense amount of new facts. I found it interesting that each performer was to perform one of his pieces. It was nice to see everyone’s different perspective of the pieces and it was even nicer to hear his feedback on how his own pieces were performed. Throughout both master classes I attended this year, I am always very impressed by the students ability to adapt and adjust to what the teachers are suggesting. I felt that this was extremely evident during Bucchino’s class. It was nice to see the students appreciate and
apply his feedback, especially since the songs were all his own personal works. Bucchino brought up many corrections that I have heard before and also many new ones that I was unfamiliar with, which I found interesting.
I found Julianne’s’ time with Bucchino to be extremely relatable because she received a lot of correction that I also receive.
Bucchino spoke with Julianne a lot about the importance of body posture. Not only did he mention how much conviction body posture possesses over the mood of the song, he also mentioned how your body posture can either support or constrict your vocals. I have a tendency of bringing my head out of alignment when I sing by ‘lifting’ too much. Julianne seemed to have to opposite problem; Bucchino corrected her multiple times for slouching or finding too much relaxation within the body. He also corrected her hands, which I found extremely interesting since I viewed them as having miniscule importance. I never noticed that body posture includes your entire body, even the
hands.
Another correction Julianne received was to find the excitement in repetition. Throughout the piece she chose to perform, there was a great amount of repetition. Bucchino instructed her to make each time different. Not just seemingly different but actually different. He wanted each time she repeated to have a new meaning to her, enough so that each new meaning would be conveyed to the audience. The audience is supposed to recognize the repetition but also continue to experience new things. I found this interesting because this is often a correction I receive in dance. Often choreographers will use repetition as a choreographic tool. As a performer, I find it difficult to repeat something without doing it the same as before. To me it seems inconsistent but to the audience it is interesting.
Overall, I found the John Bucchino master class to be extremely insightful. I was able to broaden my musical knowledge while comparing a few of the things I was previously taught. I am interested in attend more musical theatre master classes in the future and I hope I am given the opportunity to do so. I look forward to being able to compare and contrast each new class I am able to attend.