The art of the lip sync...embodying the role and the sacred art of not upstaging oneself

As you know, we are in rehearsals for our Daylight and Friends New Years Eve Celebration; and practice makes perfect. I am so blessed to have the family I have; the one I was born into for sure!!! And the one I gave birth to most definitely!! I really appreciate how hard they are willing to work! Just today, I started my day rehearsing with 3 different people. The first rehearsal was for the opening of act 2, don't want to give it away, so I will just say it is in Italian (wink).

So, for the last several weeks I have been letting the music seep into my being. I am faced with a few challenges: well, I'm not an opera singer for starters. The piece goes from deep fond longing love to the decision to commit suicide in order to provide the others a greater chance at happiness. There is a certain vulnerability that has to be reached and waded through to make it to that point. For myself, I have lost way too many friends to suicide and I have compassion for people who get to that edge of everything and it seems like the only option. I have stood on that edge with several people encouraging them through the pain to be able to stay with us in the living world. We can only encourage we can never enforce.

I have been taking all of those memories and breathing with those friends as I work on this role. The trick is to not allow it to take hold of me. Sometimes, it can get a bit too inner woven with the fibers of my own being and I have to remind myself of that. The heaviness is so intense. Especially coupled with the intensity of where I have been this past year, this is a highly therapeutic piece for me to be working on... Am I sharing too much? I don't think so. It's like a fart, better out than in.

The other aspect for this particular piece is to learn the meaning of each word I lip sync. What is it she is singing here? I can feel it in the music, but to express it well, it must be understood and embodied.  The song becomes my world. I see the smoke rising, I watch him climb the hill to me as I hide to tease and out of fear of dying at first sight of him. I breathe into the floor and out of the top of my head as I allow the memories of my friends past to surge through me giving me the understanding I need to lip sync my way through to the end.

It is also a challenge rehearsing out of costume. I find it a strong tool. I work to find the honesty of the tale from the inside out. So what if I have a beard right now, I did just shave it off...but still, I must allow the flight and passion of the voice I am embodying to lead me through the range of emotions just craving to be expressed. 

I battle with this a lot. Especially, during rehearsals, Marco will be out chilling with his friends and all of a sudden here she is!!!! Daylight just takes over. It is usually in the shift of a position or maybe a song or attitude that gets turned on.  Makes me giggle every time; this is all part of the show, the masterpiece of life. I work hard at keeping my two worlds separate. When I am Daylight, I do my best to be fully realized, Marco is in third person. And now that I have had such a run, Marco has the pleasure of speaking of me in third person when he is discussing our shows.

I mean, right now, he is leading the rehearsals, so it has been interesting watching the show develop from a bystander perspective. That all changes this week. It is all part of the gout game. Sometimes he is just too physically in pain to allow me stage time, so I sit it out while he wrestles through it all, trying to gain strength so that I, Daylight Cums, can always be fully charged when I take to the stage. He really is so thoughtful. Bless.

Anyway(sssss), what was I even talking about? Oh right. The art of the lip sync. So, the piece I am working on is stunning, just dripping in emotion and finality. The problem is, this particular singer, and I am really trying not to give too much away, really butchers the piece. Don't get me wrong, it is gorgeous, it lifts and carries the listener; that is what she is incredible at; her diction is just not all that. So, I'm learning how to say it all so that I may let it all go and fall into the spaces in between the notes so that I can live in the moment of the music.

This right here is what I love most about rehearsing. We only get to perform it once, but we dedicate hours upon hours in rehearsals to get it right. Learning from our mistakes, picking up our cues each time we run a piece. Learning every subtle nuance of whatever it may be that we are working on so that we can give you the best time you could have ever hoped for. 

That is what I love about my life. I love practicing so that I can get it right. I love the joy I get from every mistake I make in rehearsals; I always try to hold onto that so I can be a part of the final product. And by product I mean performance and by performance I mean life.

We are all in rehearsals together figuring out this silly game of life. We get multiple roles in our lives to help inform as we audition for the next role. Always searching out the challenging roles because they always bring the most growth.

Ah, the theatre. Have to love it!!!