singing

Deutschlandlied – Hatikvah

By |2022-07-15T16:54:01-04:00January 27th, 2022|Singing, Stagecraft|

On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, Noa Levy and I offer Deutschlandlied-Hatikvah, our reimagining of the German and Israeli National Anthems performed acapella as the closing piece of our show "The Home I Love." Our concert was sponsored by the German Consulate of San Francisco and presented at Temple Emanuel-El on June 7, 2017. One day we'll sing it live for you [...]

Workshop for JazzVoice.com (virtual)

By |2022-08-10T19:00:46-04:00October 10th, 2020||

From Karen's Stagecraft series ~ ROOM: The Great Big Art of the Small Are you drawn to intimate performance art? Do you have material in mind to bring to a cabaret room, open-mic or salon? Do you find the technical aspects of performing in a club daunting, irrespective of its size? Would you say that even your pop songs are [...]

Improvisation: Language Beyond Words

By |2020-04-29T17:07:50-04:00October 25th, 2017|Acting, Blog Post, Public Speaking, Singing, Stagecraft|

Words! Words! I'm so sick of words! I get words all day through; First from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do? Don't talk of stars burning above; If you're in love, show me! ~ from My Fair Lady (lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) Think about the last time you played with a baby. How [...]

Edge Play: Creating Art that Challenges

By |2020-04-29T17:09:27-04:00January 30th, 2017|Acting, Blog Post, Performance Art, Singing, Stagecraft|

Performers are revealers; we lay a thing bare. To cultivate as broad a landscape of potential revelation as possible, we venture from the center of familiarity and recognition to the edge of mystery and uncertainty. Just as there are edges to the stage space, there are edges to us performers too. I consider the edge that place where there's nothing to hide [...]

Harmony is for the Birds

By |2020-04-30T16:29:50-04:00January 23rd, 2014|Blog Post, Life Arts, Self Mastery|

Let's face it: some music is really hard on the ears! I don't mean the noise that's out there, I mean the real and serious music. What makes music rough is this beautiful, unstable and highly useful thing called dissonance. In a dissonant chord, the notes aren't aligned harmonically and so the sound is tense and unpleasant. But dissonance [...]

Don’t show us, let us find it

By |2020-04-30T16:30:25-04:00November 24th, 2013|Acting, Blog Post, Public Speaking, Singing, Stagecraft|

I attended a screening of the new film, Nebraska, with my Canadian actor and pal Jean Brassard. What a truthful bit of film-making it is and what amazing casting! In the live chat with Bruce Dern that followed, he shared some of his wisdom: 1. Don't push. Don't perform. Don't show us anything. Let us find it. 2. Always [...]

Still Body, Animated Mind

By |2020-04-30T16:28:50-04:00November 9th, 2013|Acting, Public Speaking, Singing, Stagecraft|

What is it that's so powerful about the performers who can command the stage in stillness? I've felt their confidence and comfort in their bodies. I've felt the force of their imagination. In striving for this stage stillness and power in myself, I've watched them. And I've watched the video footage of my own concerts (yikes! - there is no more [...]

Drawing Blanks, Forgetting Lines

By |2020-04-30T17:31:27-04:00February 21st, 2013|Acting, Public Speaking, Singing, Stagecraft|

The other night I was on stage with my singing partner, leaning back on a chair as her next song began. Only it didn't begin. The pianist played the intro, but when it was time for her to sing, no words came out. This is the nightmare! The singer's, actor's, speaker's nightmare: Forgetting. Drawing Blanks. It happens to all [...]

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