Sunday, 27 November 2011
Debbie Bridge's - A Singer's Thoughts: Reeling them in ....
Debbie Bridge's - A Singer's Thoughts: Reeling them in ....: Well I'm in the midst of finalising a singing and acting show reels, both I hope will be further tools to help show my abilities as a singe...
Reeling them in ....
Well I'm in the midst of finalising a singing and acting show reels, both I hope will be further tools to help show my abilities as a singer and as an actress in a better and easier light.
I can't tell you how long it's taken me to find the courage to troll through all those filmed versions of my singing. I've never found this to be a pleasurable experience, as I have a tendency to see and hear every imperfection of a performance.
So I can honestly say, I'm quite pleased with the final edit we've managed to come up with which ranges from TV, live productions, events and pre-edited material. To say I'm amazed at how in a few hours’ time, Alex from the Actors One Stop Shop http://www.actorsone-stopshop.com/, was able to edit things down to something that makes some sense, is nothing short of a miracle to me.
At the moment, I've just got the pieces memorised for the acting show reel and next week, I go in for filming. The only debate, at this point, is to decide as to whether to add any bits from previously filmed acting DVD's?
I'll just have to wait and see, but I'm looking forward to next week and having them both completed by the end of the month.
Who knows....maybe by the next blog, I can say how I really will be 'reeling them in...' with my new show reels?
Much love over this holiday season and looking forward to what January 2012 holds!
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Opera Façade vs. the Opera Wisdom
Well, as many of you know, my explanation of the plots of opera at my events is strictly my own ‘reduced opera version’. To be honest, I just love the plots of operas and it really helps me understand why people today still love story lines the likes you can find in ‘Coronation Street’ and the ‘Young and the Restless’ (for those State/Canada side). Let me give you an example: the Marriage of Figaro well, let’s just look at the first Act – Figaro starts off measuring a room, that his master has given to him and his, fiancée, Susannah, and during this interchange he’s going on about how wonderful the room is and she is trying to tell him that it’s not so great as – ‘everything comes at a price.’ In other words, the Count, who is ‘giving’ them this special room in the estate, next to the Count’s bedroom; isn’t because the Count is so generous and thoughtful nor wanting Figaro at his side, but so Susannah, being the clever little creature she is, can be close, so that the Count can have easy access to Susannah for those times that he sends Figaro on an ‘errand’. By the end of this scene, she finally gets through to Figaro, but ladies, you know what it’s like to get through to them sometimes, especially in the early days of a relationship, when it seems to matter more that you don’t argue too much, but keep it all bliss and happiness.
What I have described above is a bit of the façade of what happens with Opera, it’s busy, it’s full of all these little plots. For the tale above I have only introduced 3 of the 11 characters which are involved in this plot, so that will give you an idea of what is to follow of the many plot lines which can come up in an opera of anywhere from 2 to 3 hours. Where I want to encourage you to look is not at this façade of complication, but let’s just dig out the ‘wisdom’ that Mozart is really pointing to; at this time in history, servants where seen, but not heard – like that old Victorian ideal of children. Mozart was the first to show what really happens when you scratch the surface a little to see what was really going on behind closed doors and rub it in the noses of the wealthy. Plus, and because she is a woman in the 17th century who has fallen in love with a flawed, but delightful man, who can’t see the reality of his employers desire to gain access to his soon to be wife. In the end, Susannah has sussed this out, manages to break the news to Figaro, but as the story goes on, she then manages to save her reputation, as the Count tries to renew an old write of gaining access to the Bride on her wedding night before the groom – not going to go too much into this plot line, but suffice it to say, it’s a nice little twist, she then manages to outwit the rest of the characters, the other 10, to make an ‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ ending.
So here we are in the 18th century, a man is writing, what today would be the equivalent of a TV soap, as that is how popular opera was at the time, and he is telling everyone that a young female servant is smarter than all the wealthy people around her, the men and even the older characters, which should have so much more wisdom than her. So what would be the equivalent? A modern story in a soap might be, the council estate waitress, who is about to marry her, council estate boyfriend, but the owner of the chippie they work at has offered them free accommodation in the flat and/or house which is attached to said owner’s home/restaurant and only because he thinks he has a right to black mailing the young lady into having sex with him, as otherwise he’ll kick them both out and they will not find another job in their town. Oh, almost forgot, she can’t tell her husband as the results will still be the same. I suppose in today’s world she may even be pregnant, but by the end of the TV soap story line, not only has she kept her job, but she has outwitted the evil owner and managed to keep her job, get the wife of said employer to help her to catch her owner husband out and keep the nasty older couple from marrying the younger couple themselves – can’t tell all about the older couples plot line as it would take too long. Anyway, as you can see, in TV soaps this would happen over weeks, but Mozart manages this feat in a matter of hours and the audience actually understands and has a great laugh along the way.
I guess sometimes I fear that opera is seen as this thing for only the educated, but I think they are wrong, it’s just an earlier form of TV soap operas, so if you love the later, you will love the former. I just find that understanding a bit more of the history just helps bring out the wisdom and genius of Mozart, but you don’t need that to enjoy this very fun piece, with some tunes I am sure you have heard in a commercial or movie at some point in your life. You see this classical stuff is being played all around us all the time, we just don’t realise it. The people who do know how timeless this art form is do know and use it to their advantage, in my case, it’s to sing at restaurants and do my best to bring it back to the people and pull it down off the top shelf of stuffiness. Really, the best thing to get to know Mozart’s characters today, would be to dig out that old film, Amadeus, which I’m sure the history buffs will pull their noses up at, but while it may not always be historically correct, it does capture the personality of Mozart and he was anything, but a stuffy shirt – he really was a fun loving guy, with an extraordinary talent.
So, my only thing against Mozart when it comes to naming this piece is he wasn’t able to go the full distance and actually call it, for me, what it needed to be called, which is the Marriage of Susannah, as this piece really does show how women, as the clever creatures we truly are!
What I have described above is a bit of the façade of what happens with Opera, it’s busy, it’s full of all these little plots. For the tale above I have only introduced 3 of the 11 characters which are involved in this plot, so that will give you an idea of what is to follow of the many plot lines which can come up in an opera of anywhere from 2 to 3 hours. Where I want to encourage you to look is not at this façade of complication, but let’s just dig out the ‘wisdom’ that Mozart is really pointing to; at this time in history, servants where seen, but not heard – like that old Victorian ideal of children. Mozart was the first to show what really happens when you scratch the surface a little to see what was really going on behind closed doors and rub it in the noses of the wealthy. Plus, and because she is a woman in the 17th century who has fallen in love with a flawed, but delightful man, who can’t see the reality of his employers desire to gain access to his soon to be wife. In the end, Susannah has sussed this out, manages to break the news to Figaro, but as the story goes on, she then manages to save her reputation, as the Count tries to renew an old write of gaining access to the Bride on her wedding night before the groom – not going to go too much into this plot line, but suffice it to say, it’s a nice little twist, she then manages to outwit the rest of the characters, the other 10, to make an ‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ ending.
So here we are in the 18th century, a man is writing, what today would be the equivalent of a TV soap, as that is how popular opera was at the time, and he is telling everyone that a young female servant is smarter than all the wealthy people around her, the men and even the older characters, which should have so much more wisdom than her. So what would be the equivalent? A modern story in a soap might be, the council estate waitress, who is about to marry her, council estate boyfriend, but the owner of the chippie they work at has offered them free accommodation in the flat and/or house which is attached to said owner’s home/restaurant and only because he thinks he has a right to black mailing the young lady into having sex with him, as otherwise he’ll kick them both out and they will not find another job in their town. Oh, almost forgot, she can’t tell her husband as the results will still be the same. I suppose in today’s world she may even be pregnant, but by the end of the TV soap story line, not only has she kept her job, but she has outwitted the evil owner and managed to keep her job, get the wife of said employer to help her to catch her owner husband out and keep the nasty older couple from marrying the younger couple themselves – can’t tell all about the older couples plot line as it would take too long. Anyway, as you can see, in TV soaps this would happen over weeks, but Mozart manages this feat in a matter of hours and the audience actually understands and has a great laugh along the way.
I guess sometimes I fear that opera is seen as this thing for only the educated, but I think they are wrong, it’s just an earlier form of TV soap operas, so if you love the later, you will love the former. I just find that understanding a bit more of the history just helps bring out the wisdom and genius of Mozart, but you don’t need that to enjoy this very fun piece, with some tunes I am sure you have heard in a commercial or movie at some point in your life. You see this classical stuff is being played all around us all the time, we just don’t realise it. The people who do know how timeless this art form is do know and use it to their advantage, in my case, it’s to sing at restaurants and do my best to bring it back to the people and pull it down off the top shelf of stuffiness. Really, the best thing to get to know Mozart’s characters today, would be to dig out that old film, Amadeus, which I’m sure the history buffs will pull their noses up at, but while it may not always be historically correct, it does capture the personality of Mozart and he was anything, but a stuffy shirt – he really was a fun loving guy, with an extraordinary talent.
So, my only thing against Mozart when it comes to naming this piece is he wasn’t able to go the full distance and actually call it, for me, what it needed to be called, which is the Marriage of Susannah, as this piece really does show how women, as the clever creatures we truly are!
Thursday, 29 September 2011
To Blog or not to Blog, that is the question…
Well, it’s been awhile since I have written a blog, well there is a reason for that. I thought no one was reading, so I went and did a blog seminar to help me gain a better idea of how to use this media and what I discovered was that people have been reading it, I just hadn’t realised.
So here is my latest on this new media and how much I enjoy at least writing what’s happening and, still live in hope, that I may hear more back from my readers.
One of the things I learnt on this course which has been a real help and time saver was all about Hoot Suite (http://hootsuite.com/). A free time saving device for people like me, with little time, but much need to reach all of you who want to know what I am doing and when. Well with Hoot Suite I can update my daily notices weeks in advance of the event on all the social media places I post events up on. So places like, Facebook, blogger, linked in, and twitter, I can now go to one site and update all these daily in one place and schedule updates weeks, months in advance. It’s brilliant, so when I go on holiday, like this last week, I can input updates while I am away, so I keep up the SEO’s (Search Engine Optimisation) and the sites keep active.
The scariest thing about all of this for me is I am not a techie, I am a Trekkie, but not a techie, so the fact that I am learning all these new words and acronyms is really something for me and shows how easy it has to be. If I can do it, anyone can do it, with a little initiative and desire to learn something new and useful.
So for all those others out there like me, just dip your toe in the water and the world will expand wonderfully. The key thing I have learnt over the years is to take it all slowly. I have been learning that I need to do these courses every so often to pick up a few tid bits which I will then try to do and then do another course again later and so on, just doing a little along the way until I learn all these new skills as and when.
So I say blog away, it’s good fun, gives me a vent for some of my pet subjects and keeps me learning new skills. Hopefully I’ll be hearing back from more of you soon, but if not, at least I know that some of you are reading and that is a great thing in itself! For those of you who don’t want to respond directly through this blog, you can always email me through the website at http://www.debbiebridge.com.
So here is my latest on this new media and how much I enjoy at least writing what’s happening and, still live in hope, that I may hear more back from my readers.
One of the things I learnt on this course which has been a real help and time saver was all about Hoot Suite (http://hootsuite.com/). A free time saving device for people like me, with little time, but much need to reach all of you who want to know what I am doing and when. Well with Hoot Suite I can update my daily notices weeks in advance of the event on all the social media places I post events up on. So places like, Facebook, blogger, linked in, and twitter, I can now go to one site and update all these daily in one place and schedule updates weeks, months in advance. It’s brilliant, so when I go on holiday, like this last week, I can input updates while I am away, so I keep up the SEO’s (Search Engine Optimisation) and the sites keep active.
The scariest thing about all of this for me is I am not a techie, I am a Trekkie, but not a techie, so the fact that I am learning all these new words and acronyms is really something for me and shows how easy it has to be. If I can do it, anyone can do it, with a little initiative and desire to learn something new and useful.
So for all those others out there like me, just dip your toe in the water and the world will expand wonderfully. The key thing I have learnt over the years is to take it all slowly. I have been learning that I need to do these courses every so often to pick up a few tid bits which I will then try to do and then do another course again later and so on, just doing a little along the way until I learn all these new skills as and when.
So I say blog away, it’s good fun, gives me a vent for some of my pet subjects and keeps me learning new skills. Hopefully I’ll be hearing back from more of you soon, but if not, at least I know that some of you are reading and that is a great thing in itself! For those of you who don’t want to respond directly through this blog, you can always email me through the website at http://www.debbiebridge.com.
Thursday, 26 May 2011
A Life Outdoors
This last month has seen me dawning a new tan (despite sun factor 50 on!) and act the 'Merry Bard' of Shakespeare in a park, just down the road from me. To speak the truth, this is a venue and an event I have been wishing to take part in for some time - who says dreams don't come true! Since I first watched a play in St. Anne's Well gardens, Blithe Spirit, I have had a hunkering to do a show there, to have it then coupled with the chance to do some Shakespeare - its heaven. I play 3 small roles: Martini Pink (singer), Ursula and Georgia Seacole (spoken part of the watch or trouser role turned Italian Mama in this production). Do you think that 'no' was ever in the equation when I was offered the opportunity to do this?
I have done a lot of out door venues in my career, luckily enough. It started back in Canada with 'Theatre Under the Stars' an outdoor theatre, in Stanley Park, Vancouver, if you are lucky enough to see something there; it's worth any weather to watch. That too was a dream come true, but then I was only the understudy. I have toured all over the UK with various touring opera companies, a great way to see the back of beyond in the UK, and sung at estate/country homes in all sorts of weather and costume; nothing like playing a sexy, hot gypsy in English weather. Naturally the busking I do has literally put me on the streets of London, in particular Covent Garden, I love it when they come up to me and ask me if I'll be singing at the main house tonight, it even happened this week. Just a hint there Covent Garden opera, I'm just a few steps away, you could have a new operatic star!
I don't know why I love performing outside so much, I know for the Shakespeare, it feels like it used to be, at least as close as we can get in modern days. The idea of going from village to village to earn your crusts of bread is a real theatre experience, one that I truly appreciate, but I know I'll need the big houses, so I can earn a big more than a crust of bread, so don't worry West End, I will not turn ya down if ya open your doors to me.
In the mean time the little girl from the great wilds of British Columbia, is loving being outside again and doing what I love most - pleasing the crowds with a good tune and some fun filled antics. Plus the costumes and Vesper are good fun!
Next month sees me back inside, doing various smaller projects, plus making plans for that third CD, I will get it done, if all goes well.
I have done a lot of out door venues in my career, luckily enough. It started back in Canada with 'Theatre Under the Stars' an outdoor theatre, in Stanley Park, Vancouver, if you are lucky enough to see something there; it's worth any weather to watch. That too was a dream come true, but then I was only the understudy. I have toured all over the UK with various touring opera companies, a great way to see the back of beyond in the UK, and sung at estate/country homes in all sorts of weather and costume; nothing like playing a sexy, hot gypsy in English weather. Naturally the busking I do has literally put me on the streets of London, in particular Covent Garden, I love it when they come up to me and ask me if I'll be singing at the main house tonight, it even happened this week. Just a hint there Covent Garden opera, I'm just a few steps away, you could have a new operatic star!
I don't know why I love performing outside so much, I know for the Shakespeare, it feels like it used to be, at least as close as we can get in modern days. The idea of going from village to village to earn your crusts of bread is a real theatre experience, one that I truly appreciate, but I know I'll need the big houses, so I can earn a big more than a crust of bread, so don't worry West End, I will not turn ya down if ya open your doors to me.
In the mean time the little girl from the great wilds of British Columbia, is loving being outside again and doing what I love most - pleasing the crowds with a good tune and some fun filled antics. Plus the costumes and Vesper are good fun!
Next month sees me back inside, doing various smaller projects, plus making plans for that third CD, I will get it done, if all goes well.
Monday, 14 March 2011
A time of firsts...
My life is full of topsy turvy and really this is the way I like it. In the past few weeks I've done a radio show interview on Brighton Free Radio with Phil Baker - 40 mins of me talking about me - never done that before. I'm used to being on the other side of the mike and asking the questions, so it was quite nice to be the one who only needed to respond and not fiddle with all the buttons.
Then it was a sell-out gig at a local restaurant which has led to another restaurant asking me to do a gig at theirs, once again a first and very flattering, to say the least. I've never been head hunted before.
Then on the Underground, I was asked if I wanted to do stadium charity gigs, which I had to turn down as they weren't able to cover my expenses. Once again, a first to say 'no' to what sounded good initially, but I just can't afford to do 8 gigs for 'no pay'.
Then it was my first steering committee meeting with the North American Actors Association where I was Chairman. This too brought up a lot of firsts, so I'm reminded that a challenge needs to be seen as an opportunity, so my life is full of the later.
Then to round it all off, I auditioned for a role I've never sung before. It was for a lovely company who actually arranged a lift for me from the train station and back - very nice!
This reminds me with so many new things, I require more time to absorb and understand them, so, if ya don't mind, I think it's a good time for a coffee break, or in my case, a herbal tea break.
I look forward to where the next blog takes me, I have a feeling there are a lot more new frontiers for me to cross. Where are you treading new ground, in the topsy turvy world for the arts
Then it was a sell-out gig at a local restaurant which has led to another restaurant asking me to do a gig at theirs, once again a first and very flattering, to say the least. I've never been head hunted before.
Then on the Underground, I was asked if I wanted to do stadium charity gigs, which I had to turn down as they weren't able to cover my expenses. Once again, a first to say 'no' to what sounded good initially, but I just can't afford to do 8 gigs for 'no pay'.
Then it was my first steering committee meeting with the North American Actors Association where I was Chairman. This too brought up a lot of firsts, so I'm reminded that a challenge needs to be seen as an opportunity, so my life is full of the later.
Then to round it all off, I auditioned for a role I've never sung before. It was for a lovely company who actually arranged a lift for me from the train station and back - very nice!
This reminds me with so many new things, I require more time to absorb and understand them, so, if ya don't mind, I think it's a good time for a coffee break, or in my case, a herbal tea break.
I look forward to where the next blog takes me, I have a feeling there are a lot more new frontiers for me to cross. Where are you treading new ground, in the topsy turvy world for the arts
Saturday, 12 March 2011
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