Rhonda Carlson has taught theatre and writing
at a number of universities throughout the country, including The Boston
Conservatory and The University of Nevada. As a playwright/composer, her
original musical, DEAR EMMA, has received critical acclaim from such sources as
The LA Times and The Las Vegas Review Journal. She recently won The Larry Corse
International Playwrighting Competition for her play, FLY OVER LAND. The piece
was premiered at Columbus State University. Rhonda has produced and directed
over 200 productions, but her first love is teaching. Her students have appeared
on Broadway and in national tours, and her workshops have been featured from
coast to coast.
I was lucky enough to get the chance to sing in a workshop with Rhonda this weekend. My voice teacher originally just wanted me to come and observe, but a slot opened up and she got me a chance to sing with her! I learned so much in the 3 hours. There were 6 of us who were signed up to sing. And the age ranged from 15 to 30 in this particular workshop. And the songs ranged from people's original songs to pop to country to musical theatre. It wasn't particularly a singing workshop as it was a performance workshop. She got every one to connect to the audience teaching us so many differnt ways we could do it. And it was amazing!
After each person preformed their 2nd or 5th time after taking her instructions, some of the audience or they just cried because they were really relating to the audience. She got everyone to play make believe without wondering what anyone else was thinking and it was so cool!!! I am so lucky I got to do it.
Then after it was over she talked to me and said "Is this something you wanna do? Cause you can really do this. You have a natural instinct and you have a good chance at getting into some of the best musical theatre Universities out there."
It was so crazy. Then the next day I went to 2 more 3 hour sessions to just observe and more professional people sang at these workshops. Holy cow Utah really has so much talent. This one guy who sang was So good like I can't even tell you. Rhonda said to him "Where are you auditioning right now? Vegas? New York?" And he was like , "Just here in Utah." Then she said, "I am telling you if you auditioned for Phantom in Vegas they would have cast you as Raoul. They would have cast you as Raoul."
I thought it was really cool and it was so cool! I was very nervous to sing though but it is good to get out of your comfort zone.
