"You collect the tickets; I'll park the car".
How do you identify the start of a significant journey in your life? And what on earth is an escaped lawyer doing in Cabaret Summer School, singing alongside professional performers and music and drama students?
Everything is linked and one thing led to another, but I think that evening during the Adelaide Festival 2010 was what really got me started in cabaret.
We were going to a show at Her Majesty's Theatre, and it didn't take me long to get the tickets. While I waited for my husband, I sauntered along Grote St and came across a place called La Boheme. I had never been inside, but had occasionally wondered what it was. Now I stood outside this little French-style bar, looking at the posters on the windows. That's when I saw the sign - "Have you been singing in your lounge room? Have you outgrown it? Would you like to sing here accompanied by a wonderful pianist?" I answered yes, yes and yes. When Bill turned up, I dragged him to see this poster advertising Cabaret Live. I said "We have to go to that". He said "Why?" I'm not sure why. Instinctively I just felt I needed to be there.
Cabaret Live is an open-mic night that attracts wonderfully talented performers. The first time I performed there, I had no idea what to do. I wandered in and out of the spotlight, and forgot my lyrics more than once. Each month I went along, watching what other performers did, and gradually getting used to the very strange feeling of being on stage in a spotlight, utterly alone in front of a crowd.
I'd never really had any burning desire to perform. At school I was in a choir for six years. It was a very disciplined and successful group. We sang very challenging pieces and it took up a lot of my life. We won several national Eisteddfod competitions. It was a wonderful experience, but by the time I left school I was really over it. I didn't take up the offer to go with the choir to Singapore, nor did I join the Old Scholars choir. By this time I was at Uni, and I'd had enough of rehearsals and strict commitment. Apart from the occasional Christmas carol, I didn't sing again for more than 25 years. I focused on being a lawyer and later on bringing up my children.
Then a friend gave me a shove and got me into the Weekend Warriors - a group which gets middle-aged people into rock bands. He enticed me along to a jam session - "Just come along and watch". I dived down the back with a friend, to watch. Next thing, our names were called out over the PA system, to sing backing vocals in the first group. The drums started up, the electric guitars started, we began to sing, and I wondered "Where has this been all my life?" I found myself in a group called "Shelley and the Pacemakers" and I think we did quite a good job, considering that none of us knew each other at the outset.
Over the next few years I had the opportunity to sing with a few rock bands, and started to build up some confidence with the singing. I started singing lessons and wanted to challenge myself to sing better. I was also working towards a career as a professional speaker, with all the ups and downs of trying to engage an audience, with varying degrees of success.
Cabaret combines speaking and singing, stories and humour. Cabaret and professional speaking have a lot in common. In both cases you are striving for authenticity on the platform and connection with the audience. Cabaret is like a speech with songs in it - adding a "pike and twist" to what is already a challenging task.
Cabaret Summer School last year was a wonderful experience. It was fascinating to see what each participant created, and to see such wonderful performers on stage. During the week, each of us created a 10-minute solo segment consisting of 3 songs with connecting patter. By the Thursday, none of us had a show ready, so there was a lot of frantic writing of patter and memorizing of lyrics that night. But at the end of the week, everyone had created a show; something that hadn't existed at the start of the week; something unique.
I'm looking forward to more magic this coming week, and to two wonderful shows on Saturday.
If you'd like to see the show, here's the link to book tickets. Please use the booking reference "Dunstone":
http://www.cabaretconfessional.com/summerschool/
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