Pulling back the curtain
Integrated Artistry workshop
For teaching-artists who want to perform and teach using cutting edge, elite techniques
If you are an advanced singer who also teaches, this immersion training is for you. The goal is to support you as a creative artist – while giving you the tools you need to bring out the best in your own students.
This is a unique opportunity to enhance your performance skills while learning the pedagogical engineering embedded within elite high performance practices – in areas of:
1. Courageous and truthful performance
2. Freedom through mind-body integration
3. Vibrant and impactful vocalism
Classical and musical theater teaching-artists welcome!
A special collaboration Between
Living inside the story and Sonaura voice
The training integrates the work of Bill Wesbrooks (Dramatic Circumstance), Marcia Lesser (Mind/Body Integration) and Kristen Ruiz (Expressive Vocalism)
Location
Online via zoom
Dates
January 15-22, 2022
hybrid training format
FULL & SMALL GROUP SESSIONS | Performance & pedagogy | application & discussion
What you'll Experience
- Find Your authentic self in any narrative
- Explore your imagination
- Expand your boundaries
- Tap into the power of a Dramatic Circumstance
- Experience the freedom of taking an action
- Apply concepts to any and all repertoire
- Learn neurobiological and movement models that lead to embodiment on and off stage
- Understand and calm performance anxiety
- Discover tools to help your students find regulation
- Look at the vagus nerve and its vital importance for engaged performance
- Experience how your nervous system affects your students
- Create extraordinary vocal freedom for more spontaneous, expressive vocal artistry
- Explore nuanced strategies to maximize vocal efficiency, increase vocal presence and create repeatable, dependable results
- Discuss how to improvise effective, customized solutions to vocal issues using cutting edge tools – across a variety of voice types and stylistic vocalisms
- Learn a holistic pedagogical framework for teaching that synthesizes the neuromuscular, psychological and social aspects of vocal expression
- Discuss the teaching-artist identity and what it means to cultivate other singers while honoring your own vocal/creative energies
3 areas of focus
This 8-day training integrates the work of Bill Wesbrooks (Dramatic Circumstance), Marcia Lesser (Mind/Body Integration) and Kristen Ruiz (High Performance Vocalism)
Acting
1. The Power of Story
The single greatest benefit for singers who work with the Dramatic Circumstances process is how that work empowers them as individuals. The process draws from the inherent power of a story and is designed to enable the actor to embody the strongest elements of the story that will lead to a compelling need to take an action and a clear objective that stimulates both energy and momentum. The results manifest themselves in performances that are truly authentic and, therefore, bound to have the greatest impact on the people who see and hear them – whether those people be agents, casting directors, directors, or audience members.
Embodiment
2. Mind/Body Integration
The foundation of this work rests on the regulation of the autonomic nervous system. The capacity for presence and engagement is dependent on mind/body integration, which deeply affects our physiological state. This state, in turn, is directly linked to the ability to embody a character, to step into the character’s nervous system. The body reflects the state of the nervous system. and it is most helpful to assess where in the body this state is most exposed and thus more available to shift and expand. To facilitate these assessments, we will explore ways to look at the body through a mind/body lens, learning tools that facilitate a shift in habituated mind/body patterns. Questions regarding your work with students will be welcome.
singing
3. Expressive vocalism
This voice work is based on a fusion of art and science, integrating the anatomic, physiologic and acoustic aspects of the vocal instrument – while tending to the internal and external psychosocial factors facing the singer when communicating through song. We’ll examine the 3 essential shifts singers need to make in order to create extraordinary vocal freedom. One is to address and coordinate the physical vocal instrument – so the voice is malleable and immediately responsive to artistic whim (ie: technique). The next shift is to address the singer’s internal voice (mindset), as this informs the pre-phonatory maneuvers that shape sound production. Singers who know what they want to say through their songs, and who embody empowering beliefs about themselves and their singing have remarkable access to bold and nuanced expressive energies. The third shift is to address the social (and psycho-social) aspects of singing. Singing takes place within social and environmental contexts. These factors need to be taken into account in the singer’s preparatory process, as they inform the other 2 shifts previously mentioned. When a singer leverages these 3 shifts, they create an authentic, free and expressive vocalism that has both professional polish and magnetic presence.
Location Freedom
Join us from anywhere in the world. This training experience is 100% online.
About
The FORMat
Here is the general layout. Specific times will be annou
Sat-Sun, January 15th-16th
Mon-Fri, January 17th-21st
Saturday, January 22nd
Sat-Sun, January 15th-16th
Full Group Session
During the full group sessions on these two days, there will be:
- An introduction to essential key concepts
- Opportunity to apply the strategies to your own material
- Discussions on pedagogical frameworks, with a focus on application techniques
- Ample opportunity for Q&A and specific feedback
Mon-Fri, January 17th-21st
Special Breakout Sessions*
During the week, you’ll meet in small groups to delve deeper into the three areas of training: Dramatic Circumstances, Mind/Body Integration and Expressive Vocalism.
These break-out sessions will focus on the application of pedagogical concepts – so you can skillfully apply these frameworks to both your own artistry and your work with your own students.
In this more intimate setting, you’ll get to work closely with the instructors, ask your questions and learn about the pedagogical engineering embedded within this work.
2 (2-hr) Sessions with “Dramatic Circumstances” Small Group
2 (2-hr) Sessions with “Mind/Body Integration” Small Group
2 (2-hr) Sessions with “Expressive Vocalism” Small Group
*Tentative Mon-Fri Times: 7:00-9:00p ET // 4:00-6:00p PT
Saturday, January 22nd
Full Group Session
After a week’s immersion in these 3 key performance areas, you’ll see it all come together on this final day.
You will have the opportunity to see Integrated Artistry in action as participants perform their works, incorporating the strategies they learned throughout the week.
There will also be an opportunity to discuss pedagogical implications and strategic application using real-world scenarios – so you increase your repertoire of techniques to use with your own students, based on the Integrated Artistry framework.
is this Workshop
FOR ME?
This 8-day online intensive is designed for professionals who work as teachers and singing artists. Classical and musical theater styles are welcome.
This training is best suited to those who have experience acting, singing and performing on stage – and who have experience teaching. The training is in the advanced integration of three distinct, yet complimentary skill sets.
Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
Acting coach/co-founder of living inside the story
Bill Wesbrooks
University training in psychology, music, and theatre provided the foundation for Bill’s45-year career as an actor, director, playwright, and teacher. He served as the Director of the Program in Vocal Performance in the Steinhardt School at New York University for fifteen years where he taught and oversaw the training of singers earning both undergraduate and advanced degrees in Music Theatre, Classical Voice, and Vocal Pedagogy. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild, Actors Equity, and The Society of Directors and Choreographers. His book on acting for singers – Dramatic Circumstances: On Singing, Acting, and Living Inside the Stories We Tell – is available on Amazon.
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
Marcia Lesser
Marcia Lesser, SEP, is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Psychomotor therapist, and a somatic psychotherapist. She has been on the adjunct faculty of Vocal Performance in the Steinhardt School at New York University for ten years, and has had a private practice for over thirty years. She has presented her work at Tisch Grad Acting, Juilliard, Lucid Body House, College of Music Society, and in Munich, Germany and Oslo, Norway. Marcia has coauthored a number of articles, and her work has been cited in various psychoanalytic journals.
vocologist/singing voice specialist
Kristen Ruiz
Kristen is an NCVS trained vocologist and the founder & director of Sonaura. She has taught advanced vocal technique in academia and currently works with professional and professional track singers. While on faculty at NYU, she directed the advanced voice pedagogy program and she continues to train trainers in evidence-based voice pedagogy. As a singing voice specialist, she works with recovering voices, partnering with medical voice care teams. Kristen has appeared as a vocalist in beloved regional and historic halls including Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Kristen has been a featured soloist and creative director for a number of national and international tours and continues to pursue creative performance projects. As a researcher, Kristen is currently working on projects synthesizing voice pedagogy and adult learning and development theory.
Enrollment is now open. Limited spaces available.
We keep the cohort sizes small by design.
Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
Pay in Full*
Valued at $1500 with 30 hrs of High Performance Training
$1500
$
750
-
30 Hours of Instruction
-
Elite Practices for Enhanced Performance
-
Pedagogical Frameworks that Produce Results
-
Nurture Your Inner Artist
-
Plug Into a Vibrant Community of Teaching Artists
Option 1
3-Installments*
Valued at $1500 with 30 hrs of High Performance Training
$500
$
250
-
30 Hours of Instruction
-
Elite Practices for Enhanced Performance
-
Pedagogical Frameworks that Produce Results
-
Nurture Your Inner Artist
-
Plug Into a Vibrant Community of Teaching Artists
Option 2
*Due to the pandemic’s financial impact on our industry, if you need to discuss potential accommodations, please email bill@livinginsidethestory.com.
Would you prefer to just observe?
Take in the content through observation and collective discussion
(with no performance requirement)
Special Audit-Only Option
30 hrs of Instruction | Participate in Discussions as Desired| No Performance Requirement
$1500
$
500
-
30 Hours of Instruction
-
Elite Practices for Enhanced Performance
-
Pedagogical Frameworks that Produce Results
-
Plug Into a Vibrant Community of Teaching Artists
Option 3
Information informs
experience Transforms
You won’t just be listening to concepts and ideas – you’ll EXPERIENCE them for yourself. You’ll make discoveries and watch your cohort delight in breakthroughs and AHA! moments. And you’ll learn a process that makes all of this repeatable.
You’ll also learn the architecture and engineering behind the strategies that unlock artists – so you can more confidently guide the artists in your care.