Complex characters represented with sensitive and powerful performance is part of what draws audiences to drama, including live theatre.
This is no less the case for musical theatre — but what is the role of music in character development?
Part of my research has been concerned with developing a method for young actors to begin building characters that involves listening to subtle cues in the music. For example, a rising melodic line could be interpreted as reaching or pleading. A pause in the music could feel like doubt or hesitation.
I call this method score-based character analysis. I had the chance to apply it this past spring with a cohort of students at MacEwan University’s theatre department who presented the world premiere of the new musical Monoceros.
It’s based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Canadian author Suzette Mayr. The story follows a high school student, Faraday, on a journey of grief and discovery after the death of a fellow classmate, Nathan, whom she hardly knew.
Faraday, who is longing to find her purpose, gathers some of her school friends and they set off on an adventure to finish the quest Nathan never got to finish: acquiring a unicorn assistance certificate from the Unicorn Society of Lethbridge.
The show enjoyed a sold-out run this past March.
New roles and stories
Tackling a new role in an original musical can be a daunting challenge for any actor.
In addition to the performances, Monoceros‘s run was also recorded live by Bent River Records, which will release an original cast album recording later this year.
A huge part of my job as musical director was to ensure that the words and emotions the actors were singing would translate to an audience that did not see the show live.
Creating a character without a blueprint
Most modern Broadway musicals have bootleg performances or “pro shots” that can be viewed on sites such as YouTube that can serve as a starting point for actors to see how the original roles were portrayed.
However, generally, directors expect actors to show up to rehearsals with their own choices rather than reproducing the original performer’s interpretation. Casting directors also warn actors that watching a famous performance can lead to unconscious imitation and invite direct comparison with the original actor.
Aside from a few demo recordings from earlier workshops, the Monoceros actors had little reference points to begin building new characters.
While building a character is highly interpretive work, listening carefully to what the music is telling them can encourage actors.
The score becomes a critical key in unlocking interpretive choices while anchoring performance in embodied movement — using one’s body to tell a story. Monoceros was the perfect opportunity to put my research into practice.
Seeing versus hearing
Watching live theatre gives the audience physical and visual information. Listening to a cast album recording asks the listener to understand the story and feel the emotion through sound alone. While rehearsing and performing the show for a live audience, I also had to be conscious that the show would also be recorded.
An audience watching a musical in person can understand character through the help of facial expressions, movement, gestures, design and staging. While listening to a recording, the emotive power of the acting must be audible.
Cast recordings also allow musicals to circulate far beyond the audiences who encounter them in the theatre. For many listeners, the album becomes the primary — or only — means of experiencing a work, while individual songs can develop lives of their own through repeated listening, performance, teaching and popular culture.
A cast recording therefore functions not merely as a souvenir of a live production, but as an independent, mediated version of the musical that helps shape how its score, characters and original performances are remembered.
Each night of the run, Paul Johnston, head of recording at MacEwan University, and his team of students at Bent River Records would record and upload the recordings of the show for me to begin the process of selecting takes.
During show week, I listened each morning to the previous night’s recording with one question in mind: without the stage visuals, was the acting and emotion present in the voices alone?
Throughout show week, I had regular check-ins with the actors and let them listen to their own performances and reflect on what they heard. Together we identified the moments where the acting and emotion was clear and other moments where they could lean into musical clues to elevate the text.
In doing so, the recording process not only served as merely a documentation of the production; it shaped and deepened the performances as the actors continued to explore.
Expanding how we create musical theatre
As we transitioned from rehearsals to performance, this process reinforced the main idea in my research. When the actors used the score as a primary tool for building character, their performances became elevated and more visceral through sound alone.
This approach offered interpretive tools so that young actors didn’t need to rely on imitation, but rather used their own imagination to bring the music to life.
Often when I’ve listened to a cast album recording, I’ve felt the need to see it live in order to truly connect with the material. For me, a studio album rarely carries the same magic and emotional resonance as a live performance.
The original Broadway recording of Rent, however, is an example of a musical that I listened to and immediately felt a connection between word and song. I believe that this is, in part, to the fact that the recording wasn’t overproduced.
Actors feed off the energy from a live audience — that’s evident as I listen to the individual takes of Monoceros.
Live theatre is unpredictable, and no two shows in a run are the same. By encouraging actors to take risks and try different choices throughout the run, it has created an energy and magic that is heard through the microphone as it unfolded in real time.
When this cast album is released it is my hope that when audiences listen closely, the music does more than simply support the story; it becomes the story.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source theconversation.com ’
