Video Master Classes for Singers: 13 Videos On-Demand
So many Opera singers are not confident in their acting skills, and feel intimidated in rehearsals and auditions.
If you are worried about upcoming auditions or getting back into rehearsal after some time away, I can help you.
I understand how challenging it is to commit to specific dates and times to focus on gaining the Acting Skills you need to succeed. With this video series, YOU DECIDE when and where to work!
Stream individual videos one at a time or each 5-Session Series for additional savings.
Watch each video in part or in whole on your own schedule.
- Contact me using the SIGN UP Button below.
- Tell me which video or which series you want to stream.
- I will send you information for payment and a link to a private video you can access
as often as you like for 5 days, making the work fit into your schedule on your own time. - For a series, we select the date you’d like me to send the first link and then I will then send the next links to in the series 1 week at a time from that date. Each link will remain active for 5 days.
Revolutionize your approach to Acting in Opera for Auditions, Concerts, Competitions, and Performances!
I will be adding new video Master Classes throughout the year!
Series 1: Preparing a Role
1 hour 10 minutes
Mining the Text for Character and Action
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 hours
Acting Bigger-an Online Movement Master Class
A particular challenge for presentational forms of performance like Opera and Musical Theatre is “making things bigger”. Directors love what you do in rehearsal, but when you move onstage and they want you to “be bigger,” and you lose touch with the dramatic truth you had before. Learn how to “make the invisible visible” without “acting it out.”
1 hour 5 minutes
Creating the Character’s World
Imagery is everything for creating character and action. This session teaches you another simple 6-step technique to generate that Imagery and to use it. Learn how to flesh out the Given Circumstances and to combine them with 3 Pairs of Opposing Environments, allowing you to create THE WORLD OF THE OPERA in specific detail.
1 hour 52 minutes
Creating Action
This session 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 can interrupt your ability to sing well.
1 hour 22 minutes
Arias and Action
Auditioning with Arias demands that a singer generate a multidimensional “performance” when they will not have the production elements and context of a performance on stage. The Cube of Space Technique is designed to “sculpt the space” around solo performance and I have successfully employed these concepts with singers over the past 20 years. It is the “bang for the buck” part of my instruction that helps the singer to stand out from the herd, to gain control over their audition arias no matter where they are performed, and to truly enjoy performing them again.
Series 2: Creating the Arc of Character
1 hour 30 minutes
From Beginning to End
The Story Arc clarifies the external conflicts the character confronts during the production. The Arc of Character maps the inner growth and changes the character undergoes during the external action.
“A character succeeds or fails to grow and change (character arc) within the context of the conflict that is unfolding (plot) from the writer’s point of view (theme).”
1 hour 43 minutes
Scene by Scene Progression of Story Arc and Character Arc
Each scene has its own dynamic Arc of Change based on how the character rises to meet the challenges in the Story Arc. In this session, we will identify the obstacles for the character in each scene and create the Dynamic Line of Action for your character moment by moment.
1 hour 35 minutes
Character Arcs in Arias.
The Initial Stages of the Complete Arc of Character.
After defining the Beginning and Ending of the Arc of Character in the show, this session explores how the arc of each aria contributes to and supports the arc of each scene as we define the first half of the Complete Arc of Character.
1 hour 41 minutes
The Latter Stages of the Complete Arc of Character
Drawing on examples from Opera, we will continue to identify the stages of the Character Arc from the Mid-Point to the End of the Story Arc, defining what makes a character Heroic or Tragic.
1 hour 47 Minutes
The Hero’s Journey and the Transformational Arc of Character
Modern approaches to Character Arcs and Story Arcs are often combinations of the Dramatic Structure of Classical Drama with the Hero’s Journey from Classical Myths and Legends. We will compare the Male Heroic Journey with the Female Heroic Journey revealing how these structures appear in Operas.
Finally, we will combine all of the elements we have explored over the 5 sessions into a single pattern: an image you can use as a guide to create the Dynamic Wave Pattern that moves the action of the Opera forward and develops characters.
Single Session Videos
The Psycho-Physical Warm-up:
1 hour 27 min
Like training the voice, the singer’s body must also be trained as an instrument of expression—both are parts of the Performer’s Instrument. Corporeal and vocal behavior, how and why a person moves and speaks the way they do, is psycho-physical in nature: both mental and physical. This behavioral life is employed onstage, under the pressure and scrutiny of performance, to make the invisible visible without “acting it out”.
This is the work I present on the first day of my In-Person Series ACTING AND MOVEMENT TECHNIQUES FOR SINGERS recorded as part of my collaboration with Bel Canto Boot Camp.
Developing Dramatic Presence:
1 hour 40 min
Presence is the goal of the surplus energy and tension in the performer’s body while onstage. This surplus of energy is linked with display, or offering up to the public’s attention, and would be considered a waste of energy in daily life. This enlargement of energy “feeds” Presence and is psycho-physical in nature: both mental and physical.
This session was recorded as part of my collaboration with Bel Canto Boot Camp.
The Cube of Space Technique: Auditioning for Opera Live and on Camera
2 hours 5 minutes
Are you curious about what a Dramatic Coaching is like? Watch me coach 2 different singers on their Audition Material for both Live and On-Camera auditions, and learn about my Cube of Space Technique.
We do not want Park-and-Bark, and we do not want Performance Art. So what do we want? We will explore various techniques for “what is too much” for an audition, and what is “not enough,” and then explore the application of various proportions of movement designed to audition in large houses, small houses, and for the camera.
The Cube of Space Technique provides a genuine multi-dimensional structure that helps performers 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 singer creates a tangible and reliable foundation, freeing them to make bold and active choices, and to become more physically expressive during the audition.
This video is part of my collaboration with the Bel Canto Boot Camp.
Spoken Monologues for Singers:
COMING SOON
Many opera and music theatre companies are adding spoken monologues to their audition process. Perhaps you worked on monologues in school or perhaps you have never learned to approach one–either way many singers find themselves struggling with their voices and acting skills because they believe monologues are intimidating. In this 2-Hour Master Class, Chuck Hudson offers you the keys to enjoying monologues. Like singing an aria, you must divide the speech into playable beats of action and not be tempted to play it as a single wash of emotion. Working with 4 different monologues, both classical and contemporary, you will learn to discover your argument and intention, to arrange the beats of action in a dramatically compelling way, and to select Operative Words and Active Verbs to color your vocal choices with clarity and meaning as you speak. Similar 2-hour Master Classes designed for actors range between $75.00-$110.00 per person, and can be confusing for singers who are not familiar with the vocabulary they use.
Creating the Arc of Character in an Audition Aria:
COMING SOON
Auditioning with arias demands that a singer generate a multi-dimensional performance when they will not have the production elements and context being on stage. In addition to the musical, vocal, and language demands, we need to be able to sense the emotional and dramatic range of a singer during an audition. Your character must not be the same at the end of the aria as they are at the beginning. The Story Arc clarifies the external actions and conflicts the character confronts during the aria, and The Arc of Character maps the inner growth and changes the character undergoes during those external actions. This master class helps you construct this Dynamic Arc of Transformation in performance, and during an audition.
This session is adapted from my 5-Session Series CREATING THE DRAMATIC ARC OF CHARACTER IN OPERA
Thanks so much for making these; I’m so excited to bring what I’ve learned to the characters I’ve been working on. The information has been both very practical and imaginative. I especially appreciate the way you used space, particularly with the cube in the last video and the second video’s levels of the body. It’s calming to know that I can have a plan on ways to make changes while working with a director in the moment instead of only relying on previous study and inspiration.
So many great tools, I don’t know even where to begin. I want to go do the work with all of the characters and arias. You provided us with a great frame work that not only could benefit us as artists, but also in those odd situation where the director is “green” or if there’s no director.
I’m performing Countess at the end of the month, and your workshops have been a game changer for me. I truly feel that I can translate what my director is giving me with the tools I’ve learned from you, and I can’t thank you enough.