Comments on: An Actor’s Pre-Show Music /2009/11/an-actors-pre-show-music/ Theatre Information Fri, 18 Jul 2014 23:55:37 +0000 hourly 1 By: Ty Unglebower /2009/11/an-actors-pre-show-music/#comment-62 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:46:45 +0000 http://www.showbizradio.net/?p=4332#comment-62 Thanks for the comments.

I do agree in concept, and I personally would not be able to be as focused as I would like to be for a dramatic role, if I had been listening to blaring music before hand. But if I have learned one thing, it’s that sometimes very strange things help people either get pumped or calmed down. (I think of that Iron Eagle movie.) If listening to whale sounds help any of my fellow actors turn in their best performance, that’s what I want them to do. (Just don’t make me listen to it…yikes.)

I personally prefer to listen to nothing for at least 10 or 15 minutes before I go on, for this very reason.

]]> By: Dave Bayles /2009/11/an-actors-pre-show-music/#comment-61 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:08:38 +0000 http://www.showbizradio.net/?p=4332#comment-61 Personally Ty, I as a director of several shows, discourage the listening of music before a performance. Unless it is “pre-show” music selected that sets the play to begin with. let me explain. I directed the musical “Return to the Forbidden Planet” which has a lot of Rock and Roll music. So, I had the cast listening to Rock and Roll before the show, after warm ups. It really set the stage for them. It set them thinking and feeling the show. When performance time came their mind set was, Rock and Roll. I think it made for an outstanding production and the cast really got into it. I’ve used the same technique for other shows, non musicals, and it seems to work. My actors have seemed to enjoy it, and it does get their energy up. I can only imagine what frame of mind any actor would have say playing Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, if before show time they had been listening to Rap, Heavy Metal, or Grunge. Just my take on pre-show music listening by the cast.

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