Something I have always found to be lacking in the world of musical theater teaching is compassion for the vulnerability of actors. What we do is hard! When we do it well, we offer up our hearts and souls and stand in an extremely vulnerable space. The worst thing that a teacher can do is to make a performer feel self conscious thus disabling them from telling their unique truths as a performer. 

My goal as a teacher and director is to guide the actor toward emotional bravery. Our job onstage is not to feel our feelings but to help the audience feel theirs. The best actors are active in their performance, overcoming and transcending emotional and intellectual obstacles. When an audience watches that action, they relate and they connect deeply to our collective humanity. When we do this through song, the impact is doubled - the lyric gives the actor the roadmap of what to act and the music carries the tone of the world they are living in straight to the soul of the audience. 

Believe it or not, doing this well isn't just about being innately brave. There is a technique to truthful acting through song. My students find that when they can integrate these repeatable techniques, they can easily drop into any role or song  - whether in an audition, a cabaret show or a full length production - with abandon and with repeatable results.