By Piaf possessed Essay Example For Students

By Piaf possessed Essay As a teacher of singing for musically untrained theatre majors at Columbia College in Chicago, Ive observed that the most daunting obstacle novice singers face isnt lack of talent or technique. Its lack of confidencea paralyzing fear of failure that stems from more serious problems than musical inexperience. One method to combat this fear is what my fellow teachers and I call the celebrity gamea role-playing exercise in which students sing their chosen songs in the persona of a famous performer; this experience of stepping outside themselves allows students to approach singing with less anxiety and self-consciousness and move toward finding their own natural voices. We will write a custom essay on By Piaf possessed specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now The premise of Jim Cartwrights The Rise and Fall of Little Voice sounds a bit like one of my classes. The play (a critical and popular success in its 1992 world premiere at the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain) tells of a mother whose relentless verbal abuse and overhearing presence have left her teenaged daughter LV (Little Voice) a painfully shy neurotic whos unable to speak above a whisperexcept when, holed up in her tidy bedroom, she plays and sings along with the records bequeathed to her by her late father Frank. Little Voice, which recently concluded a two-month run in its American premiere at Chicagos Steppenwolf Theatre Company, showcases Cartwrights vivid writing, which came to the attention of American audiences in his breakthrough environmental-theatre piece Road, a grittily poetic portrait of an impoverished English town which received its U.S. premiere at Chicagos Remains Theatre in 1987. Deeply buried talent As directed by Cartwrights fellow Briton Simon Curtis (who staged the premiere of Road at Londons Royal Court) and well-realized by a trio of Chicago designersThomas Lynch (sets), Allison Reeds (costumes) and Kevin Rigdon (lights)Steppenwolfs mounting of the play adopts a realistic yet fabulist tone. But its themes of familial conflict, the psychology of singing and the struggle of a young person to find her own identity are developed in superficial, sentimental terms. The albums LV playsby Judy Garland, Edith Piaf, Marilyn Monroe, Shirley Bassey and other divas of classic popprovide an outlet for her deeply buried talent. Belting along with the records since childhood, LV (played by Hynden Walch as a pale blond urchin out of a Dickens novel) develops the ability to mimic the original singersand, ominously, to incorporate the exciting but unstable emotional states they embodied into her own. The records infuriate her mother Mari (Rondi Reed), whose own tastes run toward Elvis and Tom Jones. Hearing LV sing along with Garlands Over the Rainbow or Basseys Goldfinger reminds Mari of her dead husband, and the frustration she felt as a wife whose child, she believes, stole his love from her. Maris none too pleased when her new boyfriend, a sleazy talent agent named Ray Say (played by George Innes, the one authentic Briton in the otherwise all-Chicago cast, as an aging hipster in ponytail and gold chains), is so entranced by LVs vocal talents that he wants to make the kid a star. Of course, Rays plans are doomed by LVs obvious ill-suitedness to public performance: Its only a matter of when, not whether, her voice will overtake her (in a crackup scene that makes Sunset Boulevard and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? look positively understated). But never fear: Like Vicki Lester in A Star Is Born (the Garland movie that LV absorbs from late-night telly), LV will be redeemed by true lovein this case a gentle romance with Billy (Ian Barford), a sweet, tongue-tied telephone installer who comes to court LV in her upstairs bedroom, arriving on a hydraulically elevated cherry picker. This Romeo brings his own balcony. .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2 , .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2 .postImageUrl , .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2 , .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2:hover , .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2:visited , .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2:active { border:0!important; } .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2:active , .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2 .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u5158eaa2591580c0aaec266e5e375dc2:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Michael John LaChiusa: looking for love EssayBlend of comedy and pathos Little Voice is a calculating blend of broad, ribald comedy and pathos, with many scenes that shimmer with comic energy and bravura characterization. The roles of Mari and LV can be dynamic showcases for the right actorsin London, the parts were played by Alison Steadman and Jane Horrocks, known to film audiences for their roles as mother and daughter in Mike Leighs Life Is Sweetbut neither Reed nor Walch imbued their characters with the complex inner life needed to lift them beyond the cliched characterizations of brassy broad and winsome waif. Still, LVs breakthroughwhen the girl with the greats queuing up in her gullet takes the stage of a tacky nightclub (outfitted with blinders to compensate for her agoraphobia) to belt out a grotesque medley of impersonations (Garland at Carnegie Hall, Bassey in Vegas, Marilyn Monroe panting Happy Birthday to President Kennedy)is a surefire crowd-pleaser. So is her second-act breakdown, in which shes taken over by the women she impersonates, which in Chicago resembled Linda Blairs possession in The Exorcist as much as anything else. Debt to fairy-tale literature But then, much of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice resembles something else. Like its heroine, its a patchwork of influences ranging from A Taste of Honey to fairy-tale literature. Theres plenty of Cinderella and Rapunzel in the story of a girl abused and imprisoned by her mother until shes rescued by a charming princein this case Billy, who bears LV to safety though her bedroom window when her house burns down. Fairy tales can be a valid inspiration for theatre, but The Rise and Fall of Little Voice only toys with this rich mythic dimension; it seems to use make-believe wish fulfillment to avoid dealing seriously with the psychological concerns it has raised. Albert Williams is chief theatre critic for the Chicago Reader, and an artist-in-residence at the Columbia College Theater/Music Center.