To: vocalist
Subject: Re: before I give it all up....(long)
Date sent: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 16:55:00 PST
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

>From: Molly McLinden
>Hi list,
>I don't know
>where I am best or how to market myself. I also enjoy
>doing comedic things and acting. there are lots of
>possibilities......and I don't know if it is worth
>thinking through and trying out all of this.
>Sincerely,
>Molly

Honey, I'm old enough to have worn platform shoes the LAST time they were in
style, and I've only gotten good at marketing myself in the past few years.

Molly, lean in close, I'm going to whisper a bit of heresy.

Take a semester off. Or even a year off. Explore the other performing
groups and venues in your town. Go to auditions where you WON'T know
everyone else there (for good or ill). Getting out of the closed loop of
your college's music department will do you a world of good. Yes, show
business is full of egomaniacs, musical Nixons and big fish in small ponds.
But I've also found lovely, friendly and generous people there.

You've mentioned your "Messiah" solo. Good for you! Instead of grinding
your teeth over the role you didn't get, consider focusing your energies on
your choral group and just do college for the technique basics and the
degree.

And yes, your teacher is being VERY un-professional by cancelling your
lessons without notice. See if you can make a change.

Also, you might want to consider the statement of a casting director who was
quoted in a San Francisco theater professionals' magazine, Callboard: You
may not have been cast because 1) the stage director wanted to create
visible family resemblances in the cast, or 2) because the other girl
provided a better physical contrast with the leading man, or 3) she might
fit the costume!

Elizabeth Finkler
mightymezzo-at-hotmail.com

"I find that the best way to ride the Schuylkill Expressway is to scratch
two rabbits' feet, pat my lucky moonstone, count my worry beads, count ten,
spit into the wind, say my private Devil-Worshipper's prayer, and merge into
the traffic stream." --Alfred Bendiner

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