Students can receive excellent vocal training and performance opportunities at many university opera programs. But one thing that's often overlooked in the operatic training process is acting. The current era of opera has been referred to "The Age of the Stage Director." Now more than ever, the demands of the industry are requiring young performers to have skills beyond a good voice. Here are some ways to incorporate dramatic training into the study of your craft. 

Read Shakespeare

The meter and language in Shakespeare is comparable to the treatment of language in opera. Learning to understand text through Shakespeare’s lens will help you explore the use of word stress and phrasing in a scene. Exploring the world of poetry in general is beneficial for the same reasons. Take a look at some works by Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, or Edgar Allen Poe. You can also find opera source material, like the prose of Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin. For an extra challenge, try reading poetry in another language! The reading possibilities are endless. 

Study Monologues

Monologues are useful for more than auditions. By learning monologues, you have the opportunity to explore different characters and new ways to express text. Find contrasting characters and tones in your monologues to give you a rounded exploration. Keep in mind the types of characters you are likely to play. If you are unsure what your “type” is, play around with different characters and see which ones seem to fit you well. If you are struggling to figure out where to start, take a look at Wolf Trap Opera's list of monologues. It is a great resource to explore!

Play with friends

This method can be fun. Grab a script and read plays out loud with your friends over cocktails. Recitation is essential to improving your acting, as is interacting with people. What better way to do both than by hanging out with friends? To add another level to the fun, try filling a bowl with specific actions to help give your lines some intention. A great resource is the book "Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus" by Marina Caldarone and Maggie Lloyd- Williams. Pick a few actions to fuel your character every scene! Reciting scenes with friends gives you different opportunities to work on your acting compared to monologues. Having colleagues to react to creates an environment where you can explore acting and reacting with others.

These techniques are just a few ways you can brush up your acting. In some cities, it can be difficult to find acting classes, but these methods are inexpensive and can be done in the comfort of your own home. The increasing demands of an opera career can be daunting, but with new ways of heightening out skill set it can also be enjoyable. Opera is an emotionally demanding craft. If we explore different ways of expressing those emotions through our acting, the power of our performance can move an audience the way we know opera can.