The day started with Ian Weinberger, the Musical Director of Hamilton on Broadway talking about rehearsal practices. He started with the bad news, that we need to accept the reality that rehearsing music together online is not yet possible. This has definitely been bothering me since the start of this, and I am still trying to come to terms with it. He then continued with suggestions as to what we can do online. Music direction, like other forms of direction in the theatr

Jenn Colella opened the day with a brilliant example of how you should coach singers online. She was incredibly positive and kind. There are teachers who are very tough on their students but Colella believes that the students will be hard enough of themselves and that the world is tough enough without their teachers also being like that. She was warm and welcoming to both of the students that she worked with. She provided positive praise and showed demonstrably that she w

The day started with a talk from Jeffrey Seller, who is the Tony winning producer of Hamilton. I have been really enjoying hearing the stories from professionals in the industry. It's encouraging to hear about the amount of work that goes into making something successful. We often just hear the end of the story. We know that Hamilton is a major success but we don't always know that it took a year to write the first song. John Cariani's workshop on play writing was very pra

The day started with a chat with Gavin Creel who originated the role of Elder Price in The Book of Mormon in London. This was followed by a talk on "Scenic Design: Teaching Remotely and Tips and Shortcuts for Scenic Solutions" given by Rob Bissinger. He talked about understanding the play poetically and applying visual elements of colour, shape, form, and texture to that poetry. He showed examples of his mood boards for contrasting shows, and then the finished sets. It wa

Not everything about no international travel has been bad. Many more conferences have moved to being virtual so that I can now study from my sofa. This week I am virtually attending the Broadway Teachers Workshop. This is their 20th year and the conference was amended so that the focus would be on teaching the arts remotely. The shift to teaching and rehearsing online has been difficult and having the opportunity to find ways to do this so that sparks creativity is very we