Student Blog: Musical Theatre During a Pandemic

When we all heard about the breakout of COVID 19 in China, I don't think any of us would have guessed that it would find its way over here and that it would be so bad. COVID 19 forced us to do many things including putting our careers on hold. I believe that our career suffered the most and we had to completely reinvent our training process.

With Broadway being shut down and singing together not allowed much of the world asked how are these people going to survive? Well, we did, and I believe that we came back stronger than ever. We had to work even harder to train and keep our voices in shape. Voice lessons and coaching on Zoom were not easy at all. No one had a live pianist in their room so we all had to use a recording of one or get recordings off of an app.

Getting used to this skill was tough because you didn't have the freedom of someone playing live for you. There is something wonderful about two people in a room connecting in order to make beautiful music. Because of the pandemic, we had to throw all of that away. However, this new skill was very helpful in some ways. We learned how to be self-sufficient and not rely on anyone else.

Then, there comes the problem of auditioning. Zoom auditions and self-tapes were suddenly the new normal and the only ways to be able to advance our careers. This was a nuisance because oftentimes we had to watch ourselves while auditioning or recording something. I personally can't stand looking at myself on camera or hearing my voice recorded and that was definitely something to get used to. Self-tapes were also sometimes helpful because they gave us multiple chances to try and get it right. Although then we had to get over our perfectionism and force ourselves to just submit it.

These were extremely difficult obstacles that all of us in the theatre industry had to overcome in the past two years. I am especially in awe of the vocal teachers, coaches, directors, production staffs, and everyone else who had to sacrifice so much to keep us going and learning. Now with the vaccine and Broadway opening back up, there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel. Let's show the world what it was missing. And always remember The Show Must Go On.

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