Role Preparation Master Classes for Singers

MassOpera is partnering with renowned Stage Director, Chuck Hudson, to present a series of virtual Role Preparation Master Classes for Singers! The five week session provides comprehensive and practical instruction on how best to tackle performance material and how to best present oneself at an audition. Please note that these classes tackle text, movement, character development, and will include plenty of discussion. There will be no singing taking place in this series, but you are encouraged to apply this new acting technique knowledge to your singing work. Read below for further details.

NEW DATES STARTING APRIL 1ST!

CHUCK HUDSON, INSTRUCTOR AND STAGE DIRECTOR (Click for Chuck's Full Bio)

Chuck Hudson has directed opera productions at major international companies including Cape Town Opera (South Africa), Cincinnati Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, Atlanta Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Seattle Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, and San Francisco Opera Center among others.

In addition to directing, Chuck continues to focus on work with young professional artists. He was a co-creator of Seattle Opera’s Young Artist Program where he directed productions as well as created and instructed specialized classes on Acting and Movement skills for singers. He has directed productions at San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Santa Fe Opera’s Apprentice Artist Program, AVA Opera Theater, BU Opera Institute, USC-Thornton Opera, Carnegie-Mellon, Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater, Cincinnati Conservatory, Indiana University Opera Theatre, and Music Academy of the West.

For 7 years Chuck was Artistic Director of The Immediate Theatre in Seattle: a physically based company committed to the creation of visually exciting dramatic works.

CLASS SCHEDULE

1. April 1st – Mining the Text for Character and Action

2. April 8th – Acting Bigger: Movement Master Class

3. April 15th – Creating the World of the Opera through the Given Circumstances

4. April 22nd – Creating Action

5. April 29th – Arias and Action

ALL CLASSES FROM 6 PM to 8 PM

1. Mining the Text for Character and Action (2 Hours)

A simple 6-step technique to mine a libretto for clues to create Character and Action.

We train actors to read a script not simply for storyline, but for Character and Action. Reading “the story” is like me having a complete orchestral score in front of me and only reading the melody line. I am missing a huge percentage of the orchestration. It is the same with the libretto of an Opera.

2. Acting Bigger: Movement Master Class (2 Hours)

A particular challenge for presentational forms of performance like Opera and Musical Theatre is “making things bigger” while remaining dramatically truthful. Directors often say, “I loved what you were doing in rehearsal. It was intimate and connected and truthful…but now we’re onstage and I need you to be bigger.”

Movement Work: The 5 Movements of Pure Thought. Making the invisible visible without “acting it out”

3. Creating the World of the Opera through the Given Circumstances (2 Hours)

The Given Circumstances are everything that you know about your character from the information provided by The Textual Evidence (session 1).

This 6-step Technique, combined with 3 Pairs of Opposing Environments, will allow you to create THE WORLD OF THE OPERA in specific detail.

4. Creating Action (2 Hours)

Combining the preceding sessions, this Master Class addresses how to use the Textual Evidence and Given Circumstances discovered in the previous sessions to create visible action while working with a Director.

This Master Class takes the mystery out of Acting and makes it “easy as pie” to generate a logical sequence of actions you can play moment to moment, rather than trying to “play an emotion” that might interrupt your singing.

5. Arias and Action (2 Hours)

This is the Result Oriented session in the week when we apply all the previous individual techniques specifically to an Audition Aria using my unique framework for presentation called The Cube of Space. The framework provides a genuine multi-dimensional structure that helps singers make the invisible visible by creating a grounded, motivated, and honest performance. By focusing imagery in a way that imprints the voice with specific dramatic action, The 5 points of the Space, the 3 Levels of Consciousness, and the 5 Movements of Pure Thought combine to create a tangible and reliable foundation, freeing singers to make bold and active choices, and to become more physically expressive during the audition.

REGISTRATION DETAILS

COST: $150 TOTAL for all five sessions

CAPACITY: No more than 15 participants

FREQUENCY: Weekly for 5 Weeks – 2 hours each class

DATES: April 1, 8, 15, 22, & 29

TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

TO REGISTER: Fill out the application and make payment

*Please note that we will be offering a PART II to this class later in 2021