Performing at The Muny at 11 years old was an experience I’ll never forget. Nearly swallowing a lightning bug during the Act I closing number (yes, that actually happened), looking out at row upon row of seats under the stars, and watching my mother, Victoria Mallory, as Marian, sing “Goodnight, My Someone” in The Music Man.
Witnessing her grace, her connection to the words, and her acting choices is part of what inspired me to pursue my journey as a crafter of character within song. These early impressions taught me what storytelling can mean at its deepest level.
For what are we, as performers, as storytellers, and as crafters of character, if not dreamers, beings fueled by desire and wishing upon stars?
Musical theatre shows, and the stories told within a production, help performers and audience members alike give themselves permission to feel deeply, to experience, and to connect to a world outside their own lives. And in turn, they take away something they needed to learn, something they needed to hear, or something that was shaken loose inside them, something that could only have been surfaced by an exterior force that became the catalyst for understanding.
In “Goodnight, My Someone,” Marian says:
But I must depend on a wish and a star
As long as my heart doesn’t know who you are
Don’t those words, if you really hear them, really think upon them, connect to a tender part of you? Your hopes? Perhaps your loneliness? Your desires?
As performers, it’s our job to find the truth in our work, to create a believable world for the audience so they can become not just witnesses, but a part of it. So they can walk away from a performance and feel the lingering effects and catalysts for change for moments to years to come.
Find the truth. Be the catalyst.
accompanist:
@jd.fisch
director/photographer:
@chattaroy_rt1
sound engineer:
@coffee_music_mixing
@themuny
#musicman #themuny #victoriamallory #storytellingthroughsong #musicaltheatre
