By Jo Valentino
On October 9th, 2019, I was in line at Starbucks. A woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked if she knew me. More specifically, she asked if she saw me on the stage. She thought I was an actress in a play that the local theatre company was showing that Summer. I remember thinking I wish. It’d be nice to be an actor, paving my path to Broadway. On October 9th, 2020, it was made official that Broadway will be closed until next summer. So there go any plans I had--or any other aspiring actor had--of working on getting their big break. So it looks like we’re stuck as aspiring actors and theatre fans who have no theatres to go to. With no auditions to go to, no plays to see, and with many of us running out of “slime tutorials” to watch, what else can we do?
Enter Katherine Steele, YouTuber, and savior to us all. Her main audience is theatre fanatics like you and me. Her content mainly consists of advice on how to make it as an actor, her personal opinions of musicals, Broadway news, and so on. Her video “50 Theatre Things You Can Do AT HOME!” gave her viewers a good list of things to do during this quarantine. I highly suggest you all give it a watch, as I won’t be giving a thorough synopsis of that video. Her voice is a lot more entertaining than my words, trust me. However, I will give you a few reasons why you should watch her video and maybe subscribe to her channel.
Just as I am recommending my favorite theatre YouTube channel to you, Steele recommends her favorite theatre podcasts and sites. One of my favorite things to do that Steele suggested is watching the Broadway Princess Party. Through that suggestion, I found the Broadway Prince Party and the ever-so dreamy Derek Klena (famously known for playing Dmitry in Anastasia) singing “A Prince in Their World.” This also lead me to following another piece of her advice: pick your favorite Broadway stars and listen to their entire discography. The three I chose were Derek Klena, Aaron Tveit, and Sutton Foster. Klena now has me listening to Dogfight on a regular basis and Tveit has me singing “I Could Be in Love with Someone Like You” whenever I shower. While looking through Sutton Foster’s discography, I found out she has a brother who was in a Frankenstein musical. That musical monstrosity is an absolute fever dream...and my new guilty pleasure.
Her video gave also her fellow aspiring actors some ideas such as planning audition outfits and rehearsing scenes or monologues they would love to do in the future. She also lead her viewers to Backstage.com, a site that many aspiring actors use to get auditions. She explained how user-friendly the site is and how it’s more than a site for casting calls. (I had absolutely no clue that there was a magazine and community for Backstage.) With this shut-down, many people have resorted to working from home. Steele also made a video for any actors who are working from home called “10 Self-Tape Audition Tips EVERY Actor Needs to Hear | *How to Audition from Home in 2020*” Auditions are nerve-wracking enough, without having to learn how to film yourself and hating every take. Steele clearly understands that and is here to help.
As much as I’d like to, I can’t talk about every Katherine Steele video I like. I hope my little rant inspired some people to get their resumes ready for Backstage, stalk their favorite actor, or join a YouTube cult. First, we take over Broadway, then the world. (That’s a catchphrase of Katherine Steele’s. I swear it’s not an actual cult with ill intentions towards Broadway.)
No comments:
Post a Comment