{"id":9127,"date":"2010-12-26T15:08:50","date_gmt":"2010-12-26T22:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=9127"},"modified":"2010-12-30T03:50:26","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T10:50:26","slug":"michael-mayer-master-class-in-tel-aviv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=9127","title":{"rendered":"Michael Mayer – Master Class in Tel Aviv"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An intimate chat with director Michael Mayer, theatre professionals and several photographers\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Questions ranging from the innocent (where was your father\u2019s father born) to the illicit (details deleted to protect the not-quite-so-innocent) were part of the warming up exercises as Michael Mayer, Broadway musical superdirector, was here last week to share the secrets of the trade in master classes at the Stage-Center Theatre Workshop in Tel Aviv. From observing Mayer in action the secret seems to be \u2013 hard work, talent, more hard work, excellent listening skills, more hard work, empathy, and\u2026did I mention hard work?<\/p>\n

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In search of answers to Michael Mayer's questions\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 15 participants had been instructed to prepare two songs: one of their own choosing and one from the Eagle\u2019s album Hotel California. Mayer explained that the two day class would be like a condensed version of preparing for a musical. The first song would be their audition, then in a magical immediate call-back, Mayer worked one on one with each person, giving notes and suggestions \u2013 that was expected to take up the first day. The second day involved more magic \u2013 everyone would receive a second call-back and perform the song they chose from Hotel California, then everyone would be cast and they would begin a rough draft of working on a musical.<\/p>\n

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Assor Elkayam\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Midnight East was with the group on the first day, Wednesday, December 22, 2010, taking pictures as long as the camera battery allowed. The group began with some cultural mapping on the stage of the black box that is historic Nahmani Hall, getting to know one another as they moved from simple questions to some that were a little trickier to answer. When Mayer had them present answers in the form of a continuum, lining them up from stage left to stage right, master accompanist Assor Elkayam didn\u2019t miss a beat and began the first measures of A Chorus Line. Throughout the day, Assor not only accompanied all the performers, but was there to consult, support and even squeeze in a little run-through during breaks.<\/p>\n

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Michael Einav\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mayer demonstrated amazing powers of stamina, concentration, and empathy \u2013 focusing on each of the 11 singers and songs heard that day and was still funny, clever, insightful and charming at the end of 8 hours! First up was Michael Einav, who sang Shiksa Goddess from Jason Robert Brown\u2019s The Last Five Years. Although the song has many inherently funny moments, Mayer suggested shifting the focus to the source of conflict, \u201cturning it into a story that we care about, and then the laughs come in unexpected places.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Merav Feldman\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next up was Merav Feldman singing another Jason Robert Brown: Mr. Hop a Long Heartbreak from Urban Cowboy. Despite declaring himself unfamiliar with the song, Mayer jumped right into it, yet did not hide his enthusiasm when the next song was Don\u2019t Rain on My Parade, by Bob Merrill and Jule Styne from Funny Girl, saying, \u201cThis is fun, I\u2019m enjoying this, I know this song.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ola Schur-Selektor\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mayer gave notes like a good friend would do \u2013 managing to be direct, honest and 100% supportive all at once. He told Ola Schur-Selektor that the song she chose comes with \u201ctwo huge obstacles: it\u2019s a mother fucker to sing and everyone knows exactly how it\u2019s supposed to go.\u201d It was interesting that Schur-Selektor who plays the part of Yentl <\/a>in the Cameri Theatre production chose a song so closely identified with Barbra Striesand.<\/p>\n

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Ola Schur-Selektor singing in her socks\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clearly nothing was going to rain on Schur-Selektor\u2019s parade: when her boots fell apart, she just took them off, put them aside and went on with the show.<\/p>\n

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Michelle Shapira\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michelle Shapira announced that she would sing Defying Gravity from Wicked by Stephen Schwartz. \u201cWe\u2019re in for another big belty moment,\u201d said Mayer. But the day took a turn for the dramatic when Michelle blanked out on the lyrics and despite a lot of encouragement, just couldn\u2019t get into the song. Unfazed, she said, \u201cI really want to defy gravity now and just fly the fuck out of here.\u201d Mayer took advantage of the opportunity to have a spontaneous educational moment, explaining the importance of having a repertoire of songs at the ready. \u201cWhat else do you have in your book?\u201d he asked Michelle, \u201cWhat song do you love to sing? Honestly, I hate Defying Gravity, I fucking hate that song. I don\u2019t think it means anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Michelle Shapira\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michelle moved on to New York New York (music by John Kander, lyrics Fred Ebb) \u2013 as the song says: \u201cIf I can make it there\/I\u2019ll make it anywhere\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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Shir-El Bitton\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We heard the other side of the story in Jason Robert Brown\u2019s The Last 5 Years from Shir-El Bitton and Mayer insisted on figuring out the underlying themes within what appeared to be a relatively simple song, saying, \u201cHe\u2019s too good of a writer to let it just be one thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tami Alon\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tami Alon sang Easy To Be Hard from Hair (music by Galt McDermot and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni). As Mayer noted that this was one of the few musicals that generated popular hits from a Broadway show.<\/p>\n

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Yolana Zimmerman\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Chorus Line returned with Yolana Zimmerman, who sang (music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban) Nothing. Mayer not only said \u201cbe an ice cream baby\u201d \u2013 he actually made her do it. He even demonstrated himself, but I wasn\u2019t fast enough with the camera to catch him in the act.<\/p>\n

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Sivan Kaynar\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sivan Kaynar sang Patterns (music by David Shire, lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr.) from Baby, of which Mayer said \u201cthis is kind of an OCD song\u201d and suggested she try out a little finger counting behavior on the chorus.<\/p>\n

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Michael Mayer going over song lyrics\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sadly, at this point, my camera battery gave out so unfortunately there are no images of Oshri Sahar singing Maybe This Time (music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb) from Cabaret, Libi Tennenboim singing Sherman and Madeline (music by Michael Kooman and lyrics by Chris Diamond) from Homemade Fusion and Ruth Resiuk singing Roxie (Kander and Ebb) from Chicago. Mayer had interesting suggestions for all \u2013 Roxie as sung to a prison therapist, a long dramatic stage walk for Oshri, but the one song that stopped him in his tracks, at least momentarily, was Sherman and Madeline, a song no one knew, which was, well\u2026full of surprises, and even the sophisticated director from New York required some edification with regard to certain terms which modesty prevents me from sharing with the gentle reader.<\/p>\n

AYELET DEKEL<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Questions ranging from the innocent (where was your father\u2019s father born) to the illicit (details deleted to protect the not-quite-so-innocent) were part of the warming up exercises as Michael Mayer, Broadway musical superdirector, was here last week to share the secrets of the trade in master classes at the Stage-Center Theatre Workshop in Tel Aviv. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}