How to Become a Triple Threat

You can act: that much you’re sure of. You’ve been to drama school, you’ve done a few screen acting workshops and you’re reading a lot of plays/preparing monologues/doing daily warmups. But what’s this? Your housemate has trained in musical theatre and they’re getting all kinds of juicy auditions because, let’s face it, there are a lot more big budget musicals out there than there are big budget Harold Pinter plays. Wouldn’t it be awesome if your agent started putting you up for those musicals as well as commercials? What if I told you, dear reader, that it’s possible? It’s time to make Warren Buffet proud and diversify your portfolio: become a triple threat.

Learning how to act is great, but learning how to dance and sing as well can multiply your opportunities in the industry. Becoming a triple threat is possible for any performer, but requires strict training and dedicated practice.

Note that “possible” doesn’t mean easy. If it were, we’d all be doing it, and the musical would be the dominant global art form. In this article, we’re going to talk you through the required steps to become a triple threat. The considerable effort required is all up to you…

The Draw of Musical Theatre

Musical theatre is incredibly popular, and for some lucky producers in the industry it’s a license to print money. In drama school, one of my tutors suggested it’s because of how exciting the artform is. It’s energetic and explosive: the performers could launch themselves across the stage in a triple pirouette, or burst into song in an instant. The music is often exciting and emotionally charged. The scripts can be pretty dynamite, too.

Generally, musical theatre is more appealing and accessible to more people because it has more to offer. It’s not just acting, it’s music. It’s not just music, it’s dance. Musical theatre is spectacle. It’s larger-than-life stories that fill an auditorium with seats for thousands. Think Hamilton.

The demand for musical theatre performers is usually higher than it is for full-blooded actors, because they generally draw in larger audiences. So, higher demand means more auditions which means more chances at a job. Great!

The Benefits of Becoming a Triple Threat

The skillset crossover between acting, singing and dancing is really significant. While actors receive pretty good vocal training (depending on the institution and the teacher of course), singers generally develop a more holistic understanding of their voice through training and practice.

That’s not to say voice for acting is inferior. Actors, for example, generally hone their articulators more precisely than singers do, but singing can build more vocal fitness. This is because singing activates a person’s full vocal range and requires the voice to shape itself to the music.

Dancing and movement for acting also have plenty in common. A lot of the best movers in my drama school classes were very good dancers. Both dancing and movement build awareness and physical fitness, but dancing, like singing, is a more technical and precise art that requires specificity in training and execution.

I can confidently say that an actor will be a better actor if they have even a little experience in singing and dancing. They go together like vanilla milkshakes and hot chips. Singing and dancing integrates an awareness of the body and the voice that supports the skills behind good acting, and vice versa.

Where Should I Start?

Okay, I’ve made an assumption here that you already have a background in acting. What if you’re starting from scratch? Where should you begin?

If you’re coming to this scheme without any experience, you’ve actually got a unique advantage. When you hone in on one specific skill and dedicate an inordinate amount of time to it, you can start to fixate. Theories and practices all start to blur together and it can be paralysing in some cases. For instance, when I was studying at drama school, I had so many juicy techniques thrown at me I didn’t know what was appropriate to apply when.

My advice, if you’re starting fresh, is do a little bit of everything. Go to drama school if that’s something you want to do, but take the odd singing and dancing class outside of it, as well. Keep developing these three skills alongside each other from the get-go and notice the crossovers as they develop. Try to stay open-minded to the fact that some things will really click with you and other things won’t. Don’t be afraid to let go of things that don’t work for you; this business doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all technique.

Now let’s break down each of these threats and dig into the specifics of how to develop them.

Acting: The First Threat

I’ll keep this paragraph brief because we have a whole website full of useful guides and articles that explore different approaches, techniques, warm-ups and skill-building for acting. The very least you can do, and should do, when it comes to developing the skill of acting is to read lots of plays, see lots of theatre and movies, prepare a couple of monologues each month and get connected with the acting community.

Drama school isn’t for everyone but it’s a great way to train rigorously for a few years. Acting classes can be expensive, but they’re accessible and available whenever you’re able to fork out the cash. Most of us at StageMilk agree that some kind of training is essential, and continued training and honing of skills is required throughout your life and career.

When it comes to warm-ups for acting, they coincide nicely with singing and dancing warm-ups! However, make sure you’re filling in the blanks. From talking to my musical theatre friends, I’ve noticed that singing warm-ups and exercises don’t spend as much time on the articulators; that is, the teeth, the tongue and the lips. Work your consonants and strengthen your tongue so that when you deliver your lines, you can be heard and understood.

Singing: The Second Threat

Singing, more so even than acting, is something that comes naturally to a lot of people. I’m not a trained singer, and yet I’m confident I can hold a tune. However, if you want to secure professional work, look into singing classes. You don’t have to do a huge number of classes to develop a basic understanding of the skill, but make sure you walk away with a really good set of singing warm-ups. (If you’re pressed for cash, there’s a great app called “Warm Me Up” that personalizes a singing warm up for you.)

Pick one song and spend a couple of weeks practicing it and really pay attention to how you improve as you practice. When you first start practicing, there’ll be notes that sound a bit off and your voice might not have found the shape yet. But it will, and it’s just as important to notice how your voice is changing as it is to warm up and sing regularly. Once you’ve started to develop your singing skills further, start practicing songs from musicals. See if you can identify the differences between genres and the different demands for your voice.

When I was growing up, my parents forced me to learn piano and I was fortunate enough to have a really cool piano teacher who taught me songs that I could sing along to. If you can play any musical instruments, you have a huge advantage when it comes to learning singing. Your ear is already trained to listen for specific notes so you’ll be able to match them with your voice more easily. And if you don’t know a musical instrument, I highly recommend that you learn one: it’s a great skill for any actor to possess.

The Singing/Acting Crossover

Now for the cool part. In most musicals, the songs aren’t there just so the performers can show off their singing, they’re integral to the expression and emotions of a character in a particular circumstance. It’s similar to Shakespeare in that the given circumstances are so enormous and inexplicable that the character has to express them with vivid and abstract language (or in the case of a musical, a song.)

As a singing actor, use your acting to perform the story of the song. Put images into the words, find the story and the objective: the want that drives the character to sing in the first place. You might find that the song becomes a lot easier to sing when you’re fully engaging your imagination and your body. And while a trained-from-birth singer might have a sweeter voice … you’ll make it more appealing to an audience for the way it comes to life.

Dancing: The Third Threat

Do you like jazz? I hope so. Jazz dance is the foundation for musical choreography. If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to dance classes, start with jazz. It’s important to diversify, of course, so as you build confidence, start to experiment with other styles like ballet, ballroom, hip-hop, contemporary. It’s all good stuff that will support your development as a dancer. But jazz is your bread and butter for musicals.

If you’ve seen a few musicals, you might have noticed that the principal roles often don’t have nearly as much choreography as the ensemble do. This isn’t always the case, but it’s very common—maybe because the principals are the anchor of the story in the show, and the chorus builds the world that story takes place in around them.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that you don’t need to be able to dance to do a musical with dancing in it … but you can often get away with a little less than the dedicated, trained dancers in the ensemble can bring.

The Dancing/Acting Crossover

Dance increases your awareness of your body and your physical fitness. A healthy body is an emotionally intelligent body. A relatively recent approach to acting called PEMs focuses on using the body to create emotional responses appropriate to a character and their given circumstances. The greater your awareness, the greater your capacity for embodying powerful emotions. Not to mention that physical fitness improves your breath capacity and breath support which in turn improves your voice. It’s all connected.

Triple Threat: A Practical Application

So what’s the practical application of all of these new-found, newly-developed skills? Start to look at opportunities that accommodate them. If you’re trained in acting, singing or dancing first and foremost, you’re obviously going to have an advantage in that field. But there’s nothing stopping you from showing up to a casting and putting yourself out there: you never know what a casting director might be looking for.

In the independent sector (where, let’s be honest, some of the most exciting work is being done) you’ll find the ability to hold a tune or know a few steps will be a great asset. Singing and performance within even a non-musical play is incredibly popular these days. To write down on your audition form that you can sing or dance will set you apart in the auditions process.

Just remember to be honest about where you’re at and what your ability is like. “I’m a musical genius.” doesn’t really apply when your abilities end at a late-night party rendition of “Wonderwall”. However, if that’s what the director is looking for, you’d be silly not to mention your mastery of six entirely separate chords.

Conclu-

Well, there you have it folks: the journey to becoming a triple threat-

The Fourth Threat

What’s this? A secret fourth threat? It can’t be! What other skill could possibly support an embodied, versatile and highly employable performer? Allow me, gentlefolk, to introduce the fourth threat.

Writing. It improves and supports your imagination, your emotional intelligence and your career. My colleague, Alex, is our local expert on the subject and has written a heap of articles on how to get started with writing and how it can make you a better performer.

Developing a writing practice is pretty easy. I would start with journaling, every day. (Local writing expert Alex, here: I’d heartily agree with this!) Buy a notebook and write whatever is on your mind for at least three A4 pages every single day. Writing like this is your direct line to your internal world and will help you develop a map of your mind and all of its complexities. This can lead to a greater emotional awareness and intelligence and help to drive you towards tangible action that will support your artistic career and practice.

Once you’ve got a handle of the art of writing, you can start making your own work, which I would argue is an essential skill for any artist. If dancing, singing and acting are the vanilla milkshake and the hot chips of an artistic career, writing is the delicious hamburger. Start writing. It’s free and it’s one of the best things you can do for yourself and your career.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it, folks: the journey to becoming a triple threat! (We’re concluding for real this time, I promise.)

My script-writing tutor in drama school told us that pure-blooded acting careers don’t really exist anymore. In the years since graduating and navigating the industry, I have really come to agree with that. Look up any famous actor and you’ll find that more often than not, they’re also producers, writers, directors, musicians, painters and so on. Part of becoming an actor is staying open and enthusiastic about creativity in all of its glorious forms.

So by all means become a triple threat: act, dance, sing and dazzle your way onto stages and sets everywhere. Just don’t stop there. Why not a quadruple threat? Or a quintuple threat? The avenues of an artistic careers are endless. So get out there, get passionate and get learning.

Hope this helped. See you around the traps!

The post How to Become a Triple Threat appeared first on StageMilk.

Source: View source