In whatever language you say it, Toni Crowder is building audiences for opera—and you can come up with your own way to do it too.
Like many opera singers, there was a time when I felt that anything other than a major main-stage operatic career was a failure. One day, lying sick in bed and frustrated with my career, I finally said to myself, “If I ever get up from here again, I’m not going to take myself so seriously. I want my singing to be about more than rungs on the career ladder.”
It was one of those defining moments. I thought about what I really wanted to do with my music, and about the lives I wanted to touch. That is when the light dawned. “Aha!” I proclaimed. “I’ll be an opera clown! And I’ll call myself ‘Tessitura!’”
Like the classic television program for kids, Sesame Street, my show can be enjoyed on many levels. I have had the pleasure of seeing everyone—from 2-year-old children to senior citizens—laughing and singing along with Tessitura. It is very rewarding to know that I am bringing opera alive for all kinds of people who might not otherwise be exposed to this wonderful art form. After all, I didn’t have the opportunity to hear my first opera until I was in college. I grew up in Springdale, Ark. and first visited an opera house while on tour with my college choir. We saw La bohème in Paris—and I was hooked!
Now, I try to share that excitement with all sorts of audiences across the country. I especially love performing for young people. I know they won’t all grow up to be opera lovers, but at least I have planted a positive seed.
The Show
As the audience is called to attention, the “presenter” they see is dressed in ordinary professional attire. A brief prologue prepares the students for the show. I establish a rapport with them, they hear me sing, and they become acquainted with the “face behind the clown.”
First, I ask the students to help me create the Opera Clown. With a little sprinkle of imaginary magic dust, I suddenly have an operatic voice. Another of the students helps me with the physical transformation into a clown. Once I have completed the transformation, I go behind the curtain and start “the show” as Tessitura.
Brünnhilde is the first character to appear—that favorite stereotype, complete with helmet and spear, ready to rescue Siegmund. Upon discovering the children, I react with great surprise and fear. My sidekick, Wagner—a horse puppet with a thick Arkansas accent—thinks the children look friendly, however, and persuades me to stay.
In an original song, self-accompanied on a toy piano, I introduce myself and provide just a bit of opera education. I define a few opera terms for the students and explain why “Tessi” communicates only in song.
“I was born at the Metropolitan Opera house, where lots of singers sing stories or operas,” Tessi explains. “Since I heard so much singing, I simply learned to speak in song.”
Wagner gets his two cents in during the song as well—and together we decide to stay and share a little more about opera.
To tell Tessi’s story, I set my script to the recitatives from various Mozart operas. I use themes from more than 20 other operas throughout the show, as well as several complete arias in Italian, German and Czech. I sing the arias exactly as written, but to involve the students, I take a great deal of liberty in staging each piece. For example, in Rusalka’s aria “Mesícku na nebi hlubokém” (Song to the Moon, from Rusalka, by Dvorak), I lasso the moon (played by a girl from the audience) and convince her to give a message to the prince (played by a boy from the audience). I present each aria with clown antics, audience participation, and costume changes. In closing, I lead the students in a song that recaps the terms learned throughout the show. Then Wagner and I ride away, back to our mission of rescuing Siegmund.
After Tessitura and Wagner take a bow, I go behind the curtain and reappear as Toni Crowder to guide the students through one last magic trick. The students read aloud from cards about all the wonderful elements of opera: orchestra, conductor, costumes, sets, etc. One by one, they place the cards in a bag. Finally, I call upon a student to reach in the bag and see what all these components have made. Only one word is left—opera—a truly magical art form!
Putting it all together
The show today has come a long way from where I began. I had the basic idea that day in my sick bed, but it took a great deal of work to write the material that would hold together the arias I wanted Tessi to feature. I wrote an opening song, new words for the borrowed recitatives and themes, and changed the words to a familiar nursery rhyme. The clown craft I learned by attending a semester of clown school, and subsequently joined Luv-n-Laffs, a local Clown Alley chapter. I had to practice and develop the ventriloquism skills, but my background in singing actually made the process go rather quickly. I am fortunate that my mother is an excellent seamstress—she made all of my costumes.
Even better, the show has had a positive effect on my voice. The children are quite attentive, and from a vocal standpoint that is essential. I have never had to compromise my technique to sing over them. I warm up and prepare the same way I would for a main-stage show. I prefer to do one or two shows a day. On rare occasions, I will do three shows a day, but that is the limit. Performing the show takes a great deal of physical energy, and a tremendous amount of singing.
Tessitura’s show is the performing I do most, but I also do roles or concert work whenever possible. I used to supplement my performance income by teaching voice lessons. When it became too difficult to schedule lessons around performances, however, I stopped teaching. Before Tessitura came into being, I developed a program for the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and remain on their Artist-in-Education Residency Roster. Through this program, I help students create and produce original operas. The program gives students the opportunity to work with an artist, and the artist gets to spend part of the day honing her own artistic skills.
The Business Factor
Setting a fee requires you to consider many issues. If you are booking your show independently, you need to factor in mileage, per diem expenses, housing, etc. Many artists offer a discount for back-to-back shows at the same school. Your publicity should include both your single show fee and your back-to-back fee.
Artists usually offer a different rate for school shows versus non-school venues. One way to find out the going rate in your area is to attend a local showcase. Showcases provide artists with the opportunity to perform a brief portion of their show for potential customers. In addition to learning about fees in your area, you can learn about what other artists are doing and how your program would fit in the local market. I highly recommend the book Make Money Performing in Schools, by David Heflick, which addresses the topic of fees and many other key issues important to performing in schools. The book is available through Classical Singer.
Many artists find it difficult to make a living with school shows alone. Some artists, who have been performing school shows for many years and have multiple shows, are able to make a living that way, but many performers also have shows designed for adult audiences, such as corporate venues. These adult venues usually offer a more lucrative per-show fee than school performances. The combination of several different types of performance venues can provide for an adequate income.
I have other Tessitura show ideas in the development stages. This summer, I performed several library shows. I did the same basic school show, with a few changes to support a summer-reading-program theme. Also, I am always pleased to get other singing jobs out of the clown work. When people express an interest in the show, that interest sometimes leads to other types of singing engagements. It’s true that work begets work.
In addition to networking, you have to hone and revise your materials and publicity constantly. Seek out expert advice, and listen to what you hear! I recently had the pleasure of attending the Mark Stoddard and Cindy Sadler Marketing Master Workshop. Thanks to what I learned, I created all-new publicity materials. I realized that my original brochure was much more about the “product” and not enough about the “benefits, benefits, benefits” to employers. Along the same lines, I am also developing a supplemental opera company flier that highlights how Tessitura the Opera Clown can help build future audiences, increase ticket sales, and provide a cost-effective, successful program.
You Can Do It Too
If you’re thinking about carving out a unique venue for yourself, here are some basics to consider:
1. Analyze all of your gifts and talents to discover what you have to offer in addition to your voice. Talk extensively with coaches, teachers, and colleagues who know your strengths and weaknesses. I also drew on my background and training in music education and music therapy.
Now, when I perform as Tessi, I feel great, knowing that I am using so many different skills and experiences. I love young people, and teachers often say to me after a show, “You’ve obviously taught school, because you know how to relate to the kids.”
2. If you have an idea, go for it! It seems so simple. If you have an idea for a way to make a living through your singing, you should go for it. Unfortunately, it’s easy for singers to see only limitations and obstacles, easy to develop a sort of victim mentality. Once you set a performance project in motion, however, you have no time to worry about obstacles. You simply have too much to do, so you have to get busy and make things happen. We make our own luck!
3. Do not wait until you “have it all together” before trying it out. The initial idea and concept of Tessitura the Opera Clown came to me rather quickly—but creating a final product took a great deal of additional time and work. Tessitura’s preview performance was a free 15-minute show at a summer program for underprivileged kids. They responded well, and I knew I was on the right track. After several more free shows, I had created enough material to begin marketing Tessitura.
4. Look into arts organizations. Once you have a show, many different arts organizations might be interested in booking you. Young Audiences of Virginia has exclusive rights for booking my show in schools, libraries, and museums in Virginia. Young Audiences is a national organization. Look on the Web to see if your state has a chapter. Contact your state arts council. Look into area showcases. I participate in the Fairfax Arts Council’s Creative Arts Programs, a three-day showcase featuring numerous local and out-of-state artists.
There is always more to be done, but if you are willing to work hard, you can succeed. I have read several Classical Singer articles about one-woman shows, and there are two recurring themes: The shows require a tremendous amount of effort, and they are highly rewarding. Nothing is more empowering than seeing people smile, laugh, and have a great time experiencing a show you have created from start to finish!
The Rewards
I recently enjoyed a weeklong tour of shows and workshops sponsored by Young Audiences of Virginia and Opera Roanoke. An overview of a day in the tour reveals some of the exciting feedback I was privileged to enjoy.
I began the day singing “Ah Non Giunge” from Bellini’s La sonnambula to kick off a master class at Patrick County High School in Stuart, Va. The students were quiet as mice while I sang. Then they applauded, cheered, and squealed as if they were at a rock concert! As individual students came on stage to sing the national anthem, my 90 minutes with them seemed to fly by. They were totally attentive, eager to learn, pleased with their improvement, and thrilled that their peers could hear the changes in their singing.
More of those students would have liked to sing, ask questions, or persuade me to perform again, but I had to get on the road to my next engagement. As I reluctantly packed up, the choir and drama teachers told me how psyched the students where from my class. They could hardly wait to see Opera Roanoke’s production of Rigoletto that Sunday. Who says teenagers can’t get into opera?
After an hour-and-a-half drive back to Roanoke, I did not have much time to unload the costumes and props from my car or prepare for my gig as Tessitura the Opera Clown at Mount Pleasant Elementary. Thank goodness my visits to the gym meant that the physical demands of the tour would not wear me down! Once again, the students were terrific, and I enjoyed performing for them. When I was ready to leave, the principal sang “thank you” to me in operatic style. When I asked, “Are you a singer?” she responded, “Not at all…I’m just inspired!” What a great feeling! Just like when a teacher told me yesterday, “My son saw your show at Burlington Elementary. He sang all evening and wouldn’t stop talking about the Opera Clown.”
I grinned and gave a silent “Yipee!”
Several students came over to ask for autographs, and I asked one of them how he had enjoyed the show. His response thrilled me. “Actually, I didn’t see it, but I heard your voice down the hall, and it was lovely.”
Now that was a priceless moment!
Once the car was loaded, I did a final check of the gym. A teacher poked her head through the doorway and said, “You may not realize this, but you called many of my students on stage today. I teach special-needs children, and you made them feel like kings and queens.”
I’m making a difference and that feels great.
It Takes a Team
I perform a one-woman show, but the “curtain call” should actually include a host of people. Numerous coaches, directors, friends and family have assisted me in a variety of ways. I am especially grateful to Ryan Edwards, who has been a wonderful teacher and mentor in this journey. My team also includes a very supportive husband and my biggest fan: my 4-year old daughter.
If I can be of any help, I am only an e-mail away, at
toni@operaclown.com. If you want to learn more about Tessitura and Wagner’s adventures, check us out at www.operaclown.com.
