December 1, 2021 • 34 mins
You may know Stephanie Beatriz as an actor in Brooklyn 99, but after starring in In the Heights and Encanto, she proved she’s a singer as well! In this interview, Stephanie and Eric talk about her being Disney’s first Latinx Disney princess, Lin Manuel Miranda, what it means to see yourself on screen, and how to train your voice and sing while pregnant.
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. I don't normally have people introduce themselves here on
Backstage Pass, but I had to share this one with
you because well, in a second you'll see why. My
name is Stephanie Beatriz. I'm an actor. You might know
me from such programs as Brooklyn nine nine. I play
(00:36):
Rosa Diaz on there, and I also recently played Carla
and In the Heights and Eric is my voice teacher.
You left out one important thing. Oh what's that you said?
I'm an actor and I'm a singer. Yeah, oh my god.
Very hard to sort of wrap my brain around the
(00:57):
fact that I can sing still, but you can and
you've done two musicals. So yes, this is Backstage Pass
with Eric Vitrop. I'm Eric Vitro. I have to say
I love my job because I get to coach some
of the most talented and famous singers working today. On
(01:18):
this show, I talked to them about their lives, their craft,
and what it really takes to make it big in
the music business. I work with a lot of singers.
But as you heard, even though Stephanie's been in musical
features like In the Heights and the animated Disney musical Acanto,
Stephanie didn't consider herself a singer. She didn't call herself one.
(01:39):
To be honest, she was surprisingly apprehensive about her singing.
At first. She wasn't even sure she should audition for
In the Heights. I remember my friend Melissa Fumero from
Brooklyn nine nine saying, you have to audition for this,
you have to, And I was like, I'm not a singer.
They're going to choose singers like Adam, what am I doing?
I'm not a singer. Have you heard that track the
(02:00):
Carlo things? It's not easy. She was like, get a
voice lesson, get prepared, go in there and do your best.
So you called me yes, And then I remember calling
and being very nervous. So I was like, I don't know,
I haven't taken a voiceless in college like years. You
were a little like, you know, I'm not really a
real singer. They probably need great singers for this and
(02:23):
all of that, And in my head I'm thinking, if
I say yes to this person, it means I'm saying
no to that person, right, So I think I remember
the first half of the call going, oh, should I
recommend her too? Who should I tell her? She? Because
I don't have time but you were so charismatic, so funny,
you had such a great personality. I so enjoyed talking
to you. I was like, Oh, what the hell? And
(02:46):
then you came in and I don't get this feeling
all the time, but I kind of thought, Oh, this
is gonna work. She's gonna do it. Like I actually remember,
and I think I said it to you too, that
I have a really good feeling about this roll of
Carla in the Heights you did and boom it happened. Yeah,
(03:08):
what do you remember about that process? What I really
remember about the first lesson was that you talked to
me about singing the song like it was a monologue,
and it was so helpful to me because I was
so nervous about the sounds coming out of my mouth.
I didn't have a lot of technique at the time,
Like I was quickly learning from what we were covering
(03:29):
in the hour that I spent with you that first time.
But you talked about Emily Blunt and how you gave
her some notes that were the same notes that you
were giving me, which was like, think about what your
character desires in this song and why that might connect
to where the notes are going. And I was like dull,
(03:50):
you know, like it was like someone just opened a
door and was like, over here some new tools to use,
and it was really extremely helpful. I remember that being like,
oh my god, I'm way less worried about the sound
and I'm way more invested in what I'm doing as
an actor, and I think that's what got me the role. Well,
(04:11):
I'm so happy to hear that that was helpful. You know.
I say that truly everybody, because everyone's voice always sounds
better when they stopped listening and thinking about it, right,
and especially in your case, because I thought, well, she's
a really good actress, so she's going to respond to
thinking about this as an actor as opposed to as
a singer. And it's funny you bring up Emily because
(04:32):
she was even more reticent about auditioning than you. Or
she was like, what a waste of time. I'm wasting
your time, I'm wasting my time. And then she started singing.
I was like, oh, she has a beautiful voice. Then
she did Into the Woods and then became Mary Pop
and with you you did Into the Heights and now
are Disney Princess. I mean, it just shows you that
(04:54):
you can't hold yourself back. You can't make those decisions.
If someone sees something in you, take it in, absorb it,
go with it, don't fight them on it. Yeah, your
voice has been such a huge part of your career obviously,
and so like when you're doing different people like Rosadeaz
or Carla, what do you think about beforehand? Do you
(05:17):
spend a lot of time thinking about what each character
is going to sound like? For me, at least it
comes more in the rehearsal process or like in the
process of starting to work with the other actors and
see like what the fit is. Sometimes I have like
a really strong take on it. Like I think for
Carla during in the Heights, I knew I wanted to
do something like much higher higher and pitch higher in
(05:40):
pitch yes, because she sort of lives in this place
of like she lives in the top of her head, right,
meaning that she kind of lives in this like floaty.
I'm involved, but I'm also like half of my brain
is maybe somewhere else half of this time. You know, Well,
there's a funny line in the song where she doesn't
get she doesn't get what's going on. Yeah, you know,
she doesn't always get what's going on? Yeah, I mean
(06:03):
that happens multiple times, right, Like it happens in the
beauty salon, it happens in the lyrics. Come on, I
don't think I know what you mean. And then it
happens where she she's been witnessed the same as everyone
else to Usnavi and Vanessa's relationship, and she has to
(06:25):
have it directly pointed out to her. And then she's like, wow,
now that you mentioned that's sexual attention, it's easy to see.
I love that. The way that he wrote it is
so indicative of what that character is. It's like totally
do do do do do do do do do do
do do? So she's like adding it. You can see
(06:46):
her doing a math, you know, and you can hear
her doing the math, which is really cool. Exactly exactly.
It's so sweet. There's something very sweet about it. So
for me, I was like, well, she probably lives and
like got much higher. Such a good choice, such a
good choice. Yeah, and for Rosa than Brooklyn ninety nine,
the opposite, right, I mean, yes, she does not suffer fools.
She does not. And also like side note, this is
(07:08):
something that I don't talk about very much. But when
I auditioned for the pilot, I was teaching workout classes
in Hollywood, and I was yelling and using my voice
a lot, and so it was raspy. When I went
in for that audition, it was raspy, and I thought,
how am I gonna like work with this a little bit?
(07:29):
And so it sounded better to me if I placed
it just a tiny bit lower, not as low as
I eventually placed the Rosa voice, but a little bit
lower in my register helped me sound stronger in the auditions,
because I auditioned originally for the Amy Santiago role, and
then they called me back for the Amy role and
for the Rosa role, so I wanted to differentiate between
(07:49):
those two two and so for Rosa, I just placed
it a little bit lower in my register. So she
talks a lot deeper than I do. She's very straightforward.
She got and talks on this register, and she doesn't
suffer fools. She thinks everyone's an idiot. Well, I plans
on Saturday too, I'm having dinner with my parents. So
you don't even like your parents. You call them smiley,
moral and hug freaks. Plans or plans, I'm a badass
(08:11):
and I'm an anarchist. So once you determined that that
was Rosan, like you really go, Okay, this is who
she is. I love this, this is her. Do you
do anything vocally to prep for that or do you
just go in and it just happens. I did not
prep for it, and it caught up with me at
a certain point. It caught up with me. I think
(08:32):
like second or third season. It was like uncomfortable. Sometimes
I can slide into it really easily now because I
know where it lives comfortably, right, But there was a
point where, and I think it was like coming back
to the show after like the break, because we shoot
for x amount of weeks and then we have a
break while they decide whether or not they're going to
kill us or not, you know, and then coming back
(08:56):
it would be like, oh no, what is this voice?
Like where is it? Over time, I'd sort of tried
to like train myself to like slide back into it easily,
and now it's like second nature. I don't need to
do that. But there was a point where I realized, like,
you have to think about this a little bit more. Yeah,
I'm glad we talked about that because I do think
people need to think about that, Like, if you are
going to do an unusual character voice, sometimes you should
(09:17):
really warm up your voice, do exercises, practice doing it,
build up a strength and a stamina to be able
to do it totally, especially with I think accents, and
people don't think of accents as related to singing, but
they are because it's so much about sound. Where the
sound is in your mouth yea, and what sounds natural
(09:40):
to an audience, you know, like if you don't practice that,
you will say your hard are on stage when you're
not supposed to. I just will. Stephanie sounds confident about
her voice and her skills now, but she was insecure
about singing for a long time. She told me it
all started back in middle school. I went to a
public school in Houston, and my school had three electives.
(10:02):
They had acquire art and speech and debate. And art
was very expensive because you had to have money for
all these like supplies, So that was kind of out
of the question. Choir The first day that I was
in there, literally the first day that I was in there,
the teacher was like, I'm not sure that you have
the best voice, so I would consider switching your elective.
(10:25):
She literally pulled me aside outside that to me, so
I switched. I switched to speech and debate because I
was mortified. And in speech and Debate, that was the
first time that I sort of started acting. The speech
and debate class would do like a play, and they
did a melodrama and I was cast as the bad
(10:46):
guy in the melodrama. So I wore like a top
hat and a mustache and it was really fun. I
had a blast. I had such a blast. I bet
we had like three performances. You know, six and seventh
and eighth graders all go to the auditorium and watched
the performance. And I remember the next day at school
there was a boy in my science class who had
(11:07):
never talked to me before, and he came up to
my desk and was like, Hey, your brother was really
funny in that play. You gotta tell him. I was like,
and I didn't know. You know, that was my first
experience with like, oh, I fooled you. Wow, I really
deeply fooled you. Because you've been in classes with me
since sixth grade. Now we're in seventh grade. You've seen
(11:29):
me every day in your science class, and I fooled you,
and I made you laugh, and I made you come
up to me to communicate to my non existent brother
that you liked what I did in the play. What
a light bulb moment. Yeah, it really was doing a
movie like in the Heights and then becoming a latinox
Disney princess. What would you say to that teacher? Now?
(11:51):
I think I would take her a side gently and
not in front of her whole class, or like send
her an email or something and say I would think
twice about how you pose things to students that might
take them really seriously. But also thank you, because yes,
you booted me out of your choir and I found
(12:12):
my way to a theater. So yes, you probably got
so much more out of it I think I did. Yeah,
I'm just like thrilled you didn't let it hold you
back or stop you from singing the rest of your life.
Because if I could think of a few choice things
to say to her, and maybe I'll hunt her down
and say, well, you know, that just really struck to
my core, you saying that, because my father used to
(12:34):
always say he had heard me singing along with some
TV commercial when I was three and said I was
out of key, off key, I was out of tune,
and he wouldn't let go of it, like he held
onto that thing for years. And he did get me
a piano and gave me piano lessons, so I'll give
him that. But he was like, stay away from anything
singing because like, you don't have an ear for it.
(12:57):
And I don't know what inside of me got me
to keep going because he was so negative. And then
when I would watch people on TV sometimes because I
knew right away, I say, oh, I'd love to play
the piano for them, or I'd love to give them
some notes, like I'm thinking, like even as a kid,
I used to think that, and he go, what makes
(13:17):
you think You're gonna get to Hollywood and meet these people?
And somehow, if you have that thing inside of you,
you have to listen to it. Yes, it is about
honoring it and trusting it and allowing yourself to listen
to it and not let other people drown it out,
especially people who are these big figures in your life,
(13:37):
like teachers, like parents, like you know, like people you
look up to and say like, oh, it's not for you,
right if that is painful to you to have somebody
say like, that's not for you. If there's pain there,
I think that that's a sign of like, oh that
must be for me, because it's that it costs me
something to hear that. Oh that's a great point. Well,
(13:59):
I've observed with you that even when like the music
is challenging, like when you get a new song, like
for example, when Kantos songs were coming, you were always like, oh, yeah,
this is can be challenging, but you never backed away
from it in any way. And I thought that was
such an admirable quality that you were like, Yeah, I'm
gonna do the best I can. I'm gonna go for this,
(14:19):
and I'm gonna make it happen. Thank you, stay right there.
Next on Backstage Pass, Stephanie and I will talk about
the biggest challenge she faced while working on Disney's and Kanto,
singing with an unexpected partner. Welcome back to Backstage Pass.
(14:48):
So Stephanie and I worked together for In the Heights
and then we started working on Disney's and Kanto. In
the movie, Stephanie plays the lead role of Mirabelle, a
fifteen year old Colombian girl, but pretty soon after she
started recording, she found out she had a new singing partner.
I didn't know that I was pregnant until we I
(15:09):
had already done dialogue and stuff before I found out,
and then I found out and was like, like what
do we do? And it didn't affect me for a while,
at least singing wise. It didn't affect me for a
while until really like this last what they called the
third trimester, so like that's sort of when it started
really being like, whoa, this is different? Dumb, dumb? Yeah, no,
(15:32):
I know. You know, it's funny because I think of
it as you carrying two people along with you. You've
got this baby inside that you're carrying, but you've been
carrying and helping Mirabelle. Yeah to you know, so it's like,
how interesting that you're doing both at the same time.
It is really wild. You know, we should talk about
Obviously there were new challenges singing, yes, as the pregnancy
(15:56):
went on. Yes, So would you like to talk about
some of them because you felt them. I was, you know,
I was trying to be empathetic. Yeah, but I'm not
feeling and I don't know what it feels like. So
I would try to think if I ate a lot
one day and I'd be really stuff to go. Maybe
this is what feels like I'm having trouble breathing. This
is what it must be like very similarity to tell me.
(16:16):
I think one of the biggest things, and that was surprising,
was breath. One of the things that we work on
was like diaforumatic breathing, right like inhaling and then exhaling
while you're saying to allow the breath to support the sound.
At a certain point, it was holding the longer notes
and like very quickly, it was like I would inhale
(16:41):
and then when I would exhale and sing the note,
I could feel where the baby was inside me, which
was such a trip. I don't think I've ever heard
anyone say that. Because you said I feel an elbow, Yes,
I could feel like, oh, that's a shoulder, Like that's
a shoulder and that's an elbow. And sometimes when we
were doing those exercises, when we were holding those long breasts,
(17:01):
the baby would let me know like I don't have
enough space, and it would shove into a side or
move a leg. That was like please give me more space,
you know. Wow. So towards the beginning of singing the songs,
for in Gonto, it was really fun to sing through
the entire song during the recording session. You know, we
would break it up obviously, like do smaller chunks and
(17:24):
work on the smaller chunks and see what's going to
be best for storytelling. But then at the end of
the session we'll go through the whole song just for fun.
There's actually no way at this point in the pregnancy,
which is like quite late, there's actually no physical way
for me to get through the entire song because I
don't have enough breath to make it through the whole
(17:45):
song in one chunk, which is like, sorry for my language,
but it's a mind fuck because like you go, oh, Noah,
does that mean that I'm not good? Am I failing people?
Because I can't do the thing that I want to
be able to do so badly, which is like sing
this song from front to end and give the performance
that I want to fully give. And the answer is
(18:07):
like somewhere in the middle, which is no, it doesn't
let me speak up about Yeah, let me give you
the answer. No, it's ridiculous, But I'm glad you said that,
because I think people think those kind of things about
various things in their life, and the truth is it's
been the opposite. Everybody has been so impressed that you
have done such a great job. Well, I don't want
(18:29):
to say despite being pregnant, because that's kind of a negative,
but it's true. Everyone's so impressed that you were able
to do what you did do so instead of anyone
going out or disappointed, she's not saying it from top
to bottom, which very rarely do people record that way. Anyway,
you were doing big chunks of the song and it
was great, and I think everybody was so thrilled and
(18:51):
happy that you never you never canceled. You never said
I can't do this. You never said I need to
get a break. Oh what was me? I need to
sit down? Oh I need a break. Someone massaged my feet.
I mean, there was never a diva moment or anything.
If people didn't know you were pregnant, nobody would be
the wiser because you saying through it so beautiful, great
(19:13):
to hear. So yeah, so let me just put an
end in that game. I was amazed because I did
get to see you getting a little larger time did yeah,
And I was like, how is she? That's why I
would ask you, like, can you bend over on this
exercise because well, the truth was like toward toward the
end there like I couldn't been but I didn't want
(19:35):
to just take anything for granted, like, oh, she'll be
fine with dad. I was like, well, can you do this?
And yeah, and then we just worked around everything. I
think the internet is helpful sometimes you learned a lot research. Yes,
I sent you a study that I found. I found
some exercises, and you know, I started going to physical
(19:55):
therapy just like on the side for the pregnancy, and
I asked the physical therapist. I was like, I'm worried
about She was like, no, you're fine. Like I've been
watching you. We've been working on stuff. Your abdominal muscles
are strong, you can handle it. Go for it. Don't
worry about like someone's gonna snap or break, you know,
like it's not. Your body's built to do this. You're strong,
(20:18):
you can do it. Yeah. Well, I kept saying I
was convinced it was helping you. I thought it might be,
but I certainly feel like way more connected to my body.
I think that's the thing about singing lessons. They connect
you to yourself, you know, they really do, Like some
people connect in yoga. Some people connect through sports, but singing,
(20:39):
I think, is like there's so many parts of your
body that are working together in unison to create sound,
and you become really aware of what your body is doing.
Why are your shoulders up by your ears? Like? What's
going on with your chest? You know? Like how come
your neck is all tight? Like right? You know, it's
(20:59):
like all of it starts to make you go like, oh,
why am I doing that? Wow? I'm carrying tension in
a lot of places. You know. Well, By the way,
if you do feel like you're going into labor, I
will drive you right now to the house quid. But
I'm going to keep recording because fantastic with I was
thinking this point, if she goes into labor, that'd be
great for the podcast. Oh my god, that's so funny.
(21:22):
That's what I was thinking. But so I don't want
you to force it, but in case, just in case.
So in end Conto, you played Mirabelle. She's fifteen years old.
Now in real life you're not fifteen. You're correct woman,
and you're pregnant and you're married. Yes. What was it
like though, channeling or going back to your inner team
(21:42):
for her? It was really fun. I mean, I think
in true Disney tradition, she is like a combination of
a lot of things that I love about Disney heroines
and Disney sidekicks. It's almost like she's both at once.
And I say that because a lot of times the
(22:02):
heroines in Disney movies have not been written funny. The
sidekicks are often the edic support, you know. I think
that's changed in the last few years with films like
Frozen and Mowana, where the actors are much more free
to make fun and funny choices. And I'm so grateful
(22:24):
to them for sort of paving that way, because I
think that's the thing that I loved about helping create
this character of Mirabelle is like, you know, in the
world of Encanto, her entire family has magical powers except
for her, and so she's in this space in which,
like everyone in town knows them, everyone depends on them.
(22:45):
Her grandmother is like this matriarch of this magical family.
Nobody's paying attention to Mirabelle a lot of the time
because people are focused on the magic and the familial
performance that has to happen, because like, in a way,
they're like the famous people in town, right, like they
are the magic family, and so like, who cares about Mirabelle?
(23:07):
You know, I'm not super strong like Louisa, but Donkey's
gone out of your money or effortlessly perfect like Sabella.
But Mama, why am I the only one that didn't
get a gift? You're just as special as anyone else
who is Mamma, you just heeled my hand with a
(23:29):
nat I think for her, some of her comedy comes
from covering that feeling, and some of it just comes
from being allowed to be whoever she is because no
one's paying attention. So what that allows me able to
do is like kind of figure out maybe who she
is or she's trying to And that to me is
(23:53):
something that like I really deeply understand because like as
a teenager and as a young person, I was really
trying to figure out who I was. I didn't feel
like I fit in. I didn't feel like I looked right,
sounded right, was right. I didn't fit what I saw
(24:16):
around me as like the standard of beauty, especially in
Texas at that time, which was you know, white, blonde,
beautiful that takes a toll on a kid. I think,
and also I felt like, well, my family's different. My
mom and dad speaks Spanish at home, and we don't
have a lot of money, and I don't feel like
(24:38):
I fit in, or I don't feel understood, or I
feel like I'm in these like smart advanced classes and
it makes me feel like a nerd and I just
feel like I stick out. My parents were well, they
were trying to get us to assimilate, and my sister
and I they were really worried about us being accepted
(24:59):
and assimilating quickly. And that was kind of the way
that things were happening back then in the eighties and nineties.
It was like, have your kid fit in, don't let
them stick out so much so that my sister doesn't
even speak Spanish. She can understand that, but she can't
speak it with your dad being Colombian, right, Like, what
does this role like mean to you? It's really I mean,
(25:23):
and it's I have no words, really, I will say.
My dad is on a WhatsApp chat with all of
his family in Colombia and the day that the news broke,
my phone was exploding, like they were all losing their minds.
One of the things I think that they've done really
beautifully is they've kind of created this world in which
(25:46):
multiple regions of Columbia are represented in this film in
the way that they can be in an hour and
a half animated film. But I think visually, visually they've
done something that I've never seen before in a Disney film.
The visual style of this film is really really rooted
in magical realism, which is a deeply Colombian literary thing,
(26:11):
you know, And I think it pays homage and pays
respect to Colombia, but also the people of Colombia and
the myriad of different ways those people came to Colombia,
what they've dealt with as Colombians, and the wave look,
(26:32):
and I think all of those things are subtly layered
into the film, but they're also really important. Yeah, and
it's not just the visuals, it's the music too. It's
so peppy and like welcome to the Family Madrigal, the
home of the family Madriga. I know it sounds a
bit fantastical, the magical, but I'm part of the family Mariga.
(26:56):
One of the things I'm so excited about is seeing
it with people, because like I've only seen little clips
of it, so like, what's gonna happen when there's like
little kids in their seats, like, are they gonna be
moving around? What are they gonna do? Dancing? Yeah? I
can't wait, I can't wait. God. So, my earliest memories
of music actually were and it's funny because it's very
(27:17):
full circle, but they were Disney. They were us with
the VHS tapes, watching them over and over and connecting
really deeply, really quickly to these Disney songs. I loved
Sleeping Beauty, I loved Cinderella. I can remember standing in
the bathroom with the door locked, acting out the solo
(27:39):
from Mulan, Who's that girl? I see You're kidding? And
then recently, when we were recording in Gunto, one of
the things that Lin Manuel Miranda, who wrote the music
for in Gunto, one of the things that he texted
me was, you know, I'm really trying to write a
song that little kids will want to sing to themselves
alone in the mirror. And as soon as he sent
that text, I started bawling because I thought, that's exactly
what I did. That's exactly what I did. Do you
(28:02):
have a piece of advice you would give to a
younger Stephanie Beatriz. Oh ah, I would say, trust yourself,
trust yourself way more than you are already. You can
allow yourself to believe even more. And I think I
(28:23):
wish I could just go back and sort of like
stand her in front of a mirror and be like,
look a she's so great, Like look at what she
has to offer, Like, don't be so hard on yourself.
You know it's like it's honestly the same conversation I'm
having with myself all the time. Still, you know, That's
what I would say. Trust, trust yourself, trust yourself, trust yourself,
(28:48):
trust your instinct, and always trust your heart. That's what
I did. I had a knowing deep down inside that
this is what I was meant to do, despite all
the negative comments my father had, I sold you it
on and I'm so glad I did because I have
a career, I truly love in treasure, and if I
hadn't trusted myself, I would have missed out on all
of it. Stay tuned, we'll be right back after the
(29:16):
break with this week's vocal tip. Here's our vocal tip
of the week. One aspect that sets apart a really
fantastic performance from kind of a mediocre one is dynamics,
(29:37):
the variations of volume from soft to loud. If someone
sings with very little variation and the whole song is
either just loud or just soft, it will usually be
a bit boring. Of course, there are always exceptions, like
a really soft, beautiful lullaby or a quiet, intimate love song.
Dynamics can completely create or even destroy the mood of
(29:58):
a song. I always have my students practice singing in
a wide range of dynamics to prepare them for when
they're performing or recording, to achieve the most compelling and
powerful performance as possible. An easy way to start practicing
dynamic exercises is to pick a musical pattern, for example,
this one. Try singing it twice, first soft and then
(30:24):
loud like this me me maybe me me me maybe
mey me. Bases, baritones and tenors start on a sea
below middle cea, transposing down by half steps and then
back up by half steps to go to your lowest
note and then to your highest note. Sopranos and altos,
(31:21):
you try starting on a B flat below middle C,
again transposing down by half steps and then back up
by half steps to go to your lowest note and
then to your highest note. For example, if that pattern
(32:02):
seems too complicated and it is a little tricky, try
a simpler one like this bases baritone antennas. You start
on a C below middle C for you sopranos and alto's,
try starting right on a middle C and there you go.
(32:28):
If you want to share how you practice your vocal dynamics,
I'd love to hear you. Use the hashtag Backstage Pass
pod on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or wherever you like to post.
I can't wait to see your videos. I'll see you
next week. Maybe maybe me maybe maybe me me, me,
(32:49):
me me. Backstage Pass with Eric Vietro is written and
hosted by me Eric Vietro and produced by Morgan Jaffee.
Katherine Gerardou is our showrunner. Emily Rosstek is our associate producer.
Kate Parkinson Morgan is our edit. The show is mixed
(33:11):
and mastered by Ben Tolliday. Additional engineering help is from
Jacob Gorski and Martin Gonzalez. Mia Lovell as our executive producer.
Our development team Litl Mulat and Justine Lange helped create
the show, thanks also to Jacob Weisberg. Heather Fame, John Schnarz,
Carl Migliori, Christina Sullivan, Eric Sandler, Maggie Taylor, Nicole Morano,
(33:33):
Daniela Lakan and Royston Basserve. The original theme music is
by Jacob and Sita Steele for Premier Music Group. We
record at Resonate Studios. Fred Talkson does our videography and
the photography is by Ken Sawyer. A very special thanks
to Michael Lewis for his inspiration and the best guidance
anyone could ask for. Backstage passed with Eric Vitro as
(33:56):
a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like the show,
please remember to share, rate and review it. I mean
that really share, rate, review it, and if you love
the show and others from Pushkin Industry, consider subscribing to
Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus as a podcast subscription that offers
bonus content and uninterrupted listening for four ninety nine a month.
(34:19):
Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcasts subscriptions. To find
more Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Pushkin. I don't normally have people introduce themselves here on
Backstage Pass, but I had to share this one with
you because well, in a second you'll see why. My
name is Stephanie Beatriz. I'm an actor. You might know
me from such programs as Brooklyn nine nine. I play
(00:36):
Rosa Diaz on there, and I also recently played Carla
and In the Heights and Eric is my voice teacher.
You left out one important thing. Oh what's that you said?
I'm an actor and I'm a singer. Yeah, oh my god.
Very hard to sort of wrap my brain around the
(00:57):
fact that I can sing still, but you can and
you've done two musicals. So yes, this is Backstage Pass
with Eric Vitrop. I'm Eric Vitro. I have to say
I love my job because I get to coach some
of the most talented and famous singers working today. On
(01:18):
this show, I talked to them about their lives, their craft,
and what it really takes to make it big in
the music business. I work with a lot of singers.
But as you heard, even though Stephanie's been in musical
features like In the Heights and the animated Disney musical Acanto,
Stephanie didn't consider herself a singer. She didn't call herself one.
(01:39):
To be honest, she was surprisingly apprehensive about her singing.
At first. She wasn't even sure she should audition for
In the Heights. I remember my friend Melissa Fumero from
Brooklyn nine nine saying, you have to audition for this,
you have to, And I was like, I'm not a singer.
They're going to choose singers like Adam, what am I doing?
I'm not a singer. Have you heard that track the
(02:00):
Carlo things? It's not easy. She was like, get a
voice lesson, get prepared, go in there and do your best.
So you called me yes, And then I remember calling
and being very nervous. So I was like, I don't know,
I haven't taken a voiceless in college like years. You
were a little like, you know, I'm not really a
real singer. They probably need great singers for this and
(02:23):
all of that, And in my head I'm thinking, if
I say yes to this person, it means I'm saying
no to that person, right, So I think I remember
the first half of the call going, oh, should I
recommend her too? Who should I tell her? She? Because
I don't have time but you were so charismatic, so funny,
you had such a great personality. I so enjoyed talking
to you. I was like, Oh, what the hell? And
(02:46):
then you came in and I don't get this feeling
all the time, but I kind of thought, Oh, this
is gonna work. She's gonna do it. Like I actually remember,
and I think I said it to you too, that
I have a really good feeling about this roll of
Carla in the Heights you did and boom it happened. Yeah,
(03:08):
what do you remember about that process? What I really
remember about the first lesson was that you talked to
me about singing the song like it was a monologue,
and it was so helpful to me because I was
so nervous about the sounds coming out of my mouth.
I didn't have a lot of technique at the time,
Like I was quickly learning from what we were covering
(03:29):
in the hour that I spent with you that first time.
But you talked about Emily Blunt and how you gave
her some notes that were the same notes that you
were giving me, which was like, think about what your
character desires in this song and why that might connect
to where the notes are going. And I was like dull,
(03:50):
you know, like it was like someone just opened a
door and was like, over here some new tools to use,
and it was really extremely helpful. I remember that being like,
oh my god, I'm way less worried about the sound
and I'm way more invested in what I'm doing as
an actor, and I think that's what got me the role. Well,
(04:11):
I'm so happy to hear that that was helpful. You know.
I say that truly everybody, because everyone's voice always sounds
better when they stopped listening and thinking about it, right,
and especially in your case, because I thought, well, she's
a really good actress, so she's going to respond to
thinking about this as an actor as opposed to as
a singer. And it's funny you bring up Emily because
(04:32):
she was even more reticent about auditioning than you. Or
she was like, what a waste of time. I'm wasting
your time, I'm wasting my time. And then she started singing.
I was like, oh, she has a beautiful voice. Then
she did Into the Woods and then became Mary Pop
and with you you did Into the Heights and now
are Disney Princess. I mean, it just shows you that
(04:54):
you can't hold yourself back. You can't make those decisions.
If someone sees something in you, take it in, absorb it,
go with it, don't fight them on it. Yeah, your
voice has been such a huge part of your career obviously,
and so like when you're doing different people like Rosadeaz
or Carla, what do you think about beforehand? Do you
(05:17):
spend a lot of time thinking about what each character
is going to sound like? For me, at least it
comes more in the rehearsal process or like in the
process of starting to work with the other actors and
see like what the fit is. Sometimes I have like
a really strong take on it. Like I think for
Carla during in the Heights, I knew I wanted to
do something like much higher higher and pitch higher in
(05:40):
pitch yes, because she sort of lives in this place
of like she lives in the top of her head, right,
meaning that she kind of lives in this like floaty.
I'm involved, but I'm also like half of my brain
is maybe somewhere else half of this time. You know, Well,
there's a funny line in the song where she doesn't
get she doesn't get what's going on. Yeah, you know,
she doesn't always get what's going on? Yeah, I mean
(06:03):
that happens multiple times, right, Like it happens in the
beauty salon, it happens in the lyrics. Come on, I
don't think I know what you mean. And then it
happens where she she's been witnessed the same as everyone
else to Usnavi and Vanessa's relationship, and she has to
(06:25):
have it directly pointed out to her. And then she's like, wow,
now that you mentioned that's sexual attention, it's easy to see.
I love that. The way that he wrote it is
so indicative of what that character is. It's like totally
do do do do do do do do do do
do do? So she's like adding it. You can see
(06:46):
her doing a math, you know, and you can hear
her doing the math, which is really cool. Exactly exactly.
It's so sweet. There's something very sweet about it. So
for me, I was like, well, she probably lives and
like got much higher. Such a good choice, such a
good choice. Yeah, and for Rosa than Brooklyn ninety nine,
the opposite, right, I mean, yes, she does not suffer fools.
She does not. And also like side note, this is
(07:08):
something that I don't talk about very much. But when
I auditioned for the pilot, I was teaching workout classes
in Hollywood, and I was yelling and using my voice
a lot, and so it was raspy. When I went
in for that audition, it was raspy, and I thought,
how am I gonna like work with this a little bit?
(07:29):
And so it sounded better to me if I placed
it just a tiny bit lower, not as low as
I eventually placed the Rosa voice, but a little bit
lower in my register helped me sound stronger in the auditions,
because I auditioned originally for the Amy Santiago role, and
then they called me back for the Amy role and
for the Rosa role, so I wanted to differentiate between
(07:49):
those two two and so for Rosa, I just placed
it a little bit lower in my register. So she
talks a lot deeper than I do. She's very straightforward.
She got and talks on this register, and she doesn't
suffer fools. She thinks everyone's an idiot. Well, I plans
on Saturday too, I'm having dinner with my parents. So
you don't even like your parents. You call them smiley,
moral and hug freaks. Plans or plans, I'm a badass
(08:11):
and I'm an anarchist. So once you determined that that
was Rosan, like you really go, Okay, this is who
she is. I love this, this is her. Do you
do anything vocally to prep for that or do you
just go in and it just happens. I did not
prep for it, and it caught up with me at
a certain point. It caught up with me. I think
(08:32):
like second or third season. It was like uncomfortable. Sometimes
I can slide into it really easily now because I
know where it lives comfortably, right, But there was a
point where, and I think it was like coming back
to the show after like the break, because we shoot
for x amount of weeks and then we have a
break while they decide whether or not they're going to
kill us or not, you know, and then coming back
(08:56):
it would be like, oh no, what is this voice?
Like where is it? Over time, I'd sort of tried
to like train myself to like slide back into it easily,
and now it's like second nature. I don't need to
do that. But there was a point where I realized, like,
you have to think about this a little bit more. Yeah,
I'm glad we talked about that because I do think
people need to think about that, Like, if you are
going to do an unusual character voice, sometimes you should
(09:17):
really warm up your voice, do exercises, practice doing it,
build up a strength and a stamina to be able
to do it totally, especially with I think accents, and
people don't think of accents as related to singing, but
they are because it's so much about sound. Where the
sound is in your mouth yea, and what sounds natural
(09:40):
to an audience, you know, like if you don't practice that,
you will say your hard are on stage when you're
not supposed to. I just will. Stephanie sounds confident about
her voice and her skills now, but she was insecure
about singing for a long time. She told me it
all started back in middle school. I went to a
public school in Houston, and my school had three electives.
(10:02):
They had acquire art and speech and debate. And art
was very expensive because you had to have money for
all these like supplies, So that was kind of out
of the question. Choir The first day that I was
in there, literally the first day that I was in there,
the teacher was like, I'm not sure that you have
the best voice, so I would consider switching your elective.
(10:25):
She literally pulled me aside outside that to me, so
I switched. I switched to speech and debate because I
was mortified. And in speech and Debate, that was the
first time that I sort of started acting. The speech
and debate class would do like a play, and they
did a melodrama and I was cast as the bad
(10:46):
guy in the melodrama. So I wore like a top
hat and a mustache and it was really fun. I
had a blast. I had such a blast. I bet
we had like three performances. You know, six and seventh
and eighth graders all go to the auditorium and watched
the performance. And I remember the next day at school
there was a boy in my science class who had
(11:07):
never talked to me before, and he came up to
my desk and was like, Hey, your brother was really
funny in that play. You gotta tell him. I was like,
and I didn't know. You know, that was my first
experience with like, oh, I fooled you. Wow, I really
deeply fooled you. Because you've been in classes with me
since sixth grade. Now we're in seventh grade. You've seen
(11:29):
me every day in your science class, and I fooled you,
and I made you laugh, and I made you come
up to me to communicate to my non existent brother
that you liked what I did in the play. What
a light bulb moment. Yeah, it really was doing a
movie like in the Heights and then becoming a latinox
Disney princess. What would you say to that teacher? Now?
(11:51):
I think I would take her a side gently and
not in front of her whole class, or like send
her an email or something and say I would think
twice about how you pose things to students that might
take them really seriously. But also thank you, because yes,
you booted me out of your choir and I found
(12:12):
my way to a theater. So yes, you probably got
so much more out of it I think I did. Yeah,
I'm just like thrilled you didn't let it hold you
back or stop you from singing the rest of your life.
Because if I could think of a few choice things
to say to her, and maybe I'll hunt her down
and say, well, you know, that just really struck to
my core, you saying that, because my father used to
(12:34):
always say he had heard me singing along with some
TV commercial when I was three and said I was
out of key, off key, I was out of tune,
and he wouldn't let go of it, like he held
onto that thing for years. And he did get me
a piano and gave me piano lessons, so I'll give
him that. But he was like, stay away from anything
singing because like, you don't have an ear for it.
(12:57):
And I don't know what inside of me got me
to keep going because he was so negative. And then
when I would watch people on TV sometimes because I
knew right away, I say, oh, I'd love to play
the piano for them, or I'd love to give them
some notes, like I'm thinking, like even as a kid,
I used to think that, and he go, what makes
(13:17):
you think You're gonna get to Hollywood and meet these people?
And somehow, if you have that thing inside of you,
you have to listen to it. Yes, it is about
honoring it and trusting it and allowing yourself to listen
to it and not let other people drown it out,
especially people who are these big figures in your life,
(13:37):
like teachers, like parents, like you know, like people you
look up to and say like, oh, it's not for you,
right if that is painful to you to have somebody
say like, that's not for you. If there's pain there,
I think that that's a sign of like, oh that
must be for me, because it's that it costs me
something to hear that. Oh that's a great point. Well,
(13:59):
I've observed with you that even when like the music
is challenging, like when you get a new song, like
for example, when Kantos songs were coming, you were always like, oh, yeah,
this is can be challenging, but you never backed away
from it in any way. And I thought that was
such an admirable quality that you were like, Yeah, I'm
gonna do the best I can. I'm gonna go for this,
(14:19):
and I'm gonna make it happen. Thank you, stay right there.
Next on Backstage Pass, Stephanie and I will talk about
the biggest challenge she faced while working on Disney's and Kanto,
singing with an unexpected partner. Welcome back to Backstage Pass.
(14:48):
So Stephanie and I worked together for In the Heights
and then we started working on Disney's and Kanto. In
the movie, Stephanie plays the lead role of Mirabelle, a
fifteen year old Colombian girl, but pretty soon after she
started recording, she found out she had a new singing partner.
I didn't know that I was pregnant until we I
(15:09):
had already done dialogue and stuff before I found out,
and then I found out and was like, like what
do we do? And it didn't affect me for a while,
at least singing wise. It didn't affect me for a
while until really like this last what they called the
third trimester, so like that's sort of when it started
really being like, whoa, this is different? Dumb, dumb? Yeah, no,
(15:32):
I know. You know, it's funny because I think of
it as you carrying two people along with you. You've
got this baby inside that you're carrying, but you've been
carrying and helping Mirabelle. Yeah to you know, so it's like,
how interesting that you're doing both at the same time.
It is really wild. You know, we should talk about
Obviously there were new challenges singing, yes, as the pregnancy
(15:56):
went on. Yes, So would you like to talk about
some of them because you felt them. I was, you know,
I was trying to be empathetic. Yeah, but I'm not
feeling and I don't know what it feels like. So
I would try to think if I ate a lot
one day and I'd be really stuff to go. Maybe
this is what feels like I'm having trouble breathing. This
is what it must be like very similarity to tell me.
(16:16):
I think one of the biggest things, and that was surprising,
was breath. One of the things that we work on
was like diaforumatic breathing, right like inhaling and then exhaling
while you're saying to allow the breath to support the sound.
At a certain point, it was holding the longer notes
and like very quickly, it was like I would inhale
(16:41):
and then when I would exhale and sing the note,
I could feel where the baby was inside me, which
was such a trip. I don't think I've ever heard
anyone say that. Because you said I feel an elbow, Yes,
I could feel like, oh, that's a shoulder, Like that's
a shoulder and that's an elbow. And sometimes when we
were doing those exercises, when we were holding those long breasts,
(17:01):
the baby would let me know like I don't have
enough space, and it would shove into a side or
move a leg. That was like please give me more space,
you know. Wow. So towards the beginning of singing the songs,
for in Gonto, it was really fun to sing through
the entire song during the recording session. You know, we
would break it up obviously, like do smaller chunks and
(17:24):
work on the smaller chunks and see what's going to
be best for storytelling. But then at the end of
the session we'll go through the whole song just for fun.
There's actually no way at this point in the pregnancy,
which is like quite late, there's actually no physical way
for me to get through the entire song because I
don't have enough breath to make it through the whole
(17:45):
song in one chunk, which is like, sorry for my language,
but it's a mind fuck because like you go, oh, Noah,
does that mean that I'm not good? Am I failing people?
Because I can't do the thing that I want to
be able to do so badly, which is like sing
this song from front to end and give the performance
that I want to fully give. And the answer is
(18:07):
like somewhere in the middle, which is no, it doesn't
let me speak up about Yeah, let me give you
the answer. No, it's ridiculous, But I'm glad you said that,
because I think people think those kind of things about
various things in their life, and the truth is it's
been the opposite. Everybody has been so impressed that you
have done such a great job. Well, I don't want
(18:29):
to say despite being pregnant, because that's kind of a negative,
but it's true. Everyone's so impressed that you were able
to do what you did do so instead of anyone
going out or disappointed, she's not saying it from top
to bottom, which very rarely do people record that way. Anyway,
you were doing big chunks of the song and it
was great, and I think everybody was so thrilled and
(18:51):
happy that you never you never canceled. You never said
I can't do this. You never said I need to
get a break. Oh what was me? I need to
sit down? Oh I need a break. Someone massaged my feet.
I mean, there was never a diva moment or anything.
If people didn't know you were pregnant, nobody would be
the wiser because you saying through it so beautiful, great
(19:13):
to hear. So yeah, so let me just put an
end in that game. I was amazed because I did
get to see you getting a little larger time did yeah,
And I was like, how is she? That's why I
would ask you, like, can you bend over on this
exercise because well, the truth was like toward toward the
end there like I couldn't been but I didn't want
(19:35):
to just take anything for granted, like, oh, she'll be
fine with dad. I was like, well, can you do this?
And yeah, and then we just worked around everything. I
think the internet is helpful sometimes you learned a lot research. Yes,
I sent you a study that I found. I found
some exercises, and you know, I started going to physical
(19:55):
therapy just like on the side for the pregnancy, and
I asked the physical therapist. I was like, I'm worried
about She was like, no, you're fine. Like I've been
watching you. We've been working on stuff. Your abdominal muscles
are strong, you can handle it. Go for it. Don't
worry about like someone's gonna snap or break, you know,
like it's not. Your body's built to do this. You're strong,
(20:18):
you can do it. Yeah. Well, I kept saying I
was convinced it was helping you. I thought it might be,
but I certainly feel like way more connected to my body.
I think that's the thing about singing lessons. They connect
you to yourself, you know, they really do, Like some
people connect in yoga. Some people connect through sports, but singing,
(20:39):
I think, is like there's so many parts of your
body that are working together in unison to create sound,
and you become really aware of what your body is doing.
Why are your shoulders up by your ears? Like? What's
going on with your chest? You know? Like how come
your neck is all tight? Like right? You know, it's
(20:59):
like all of it starts to make you go like, oh,
why am I doing that? Wow? I'm carrying tension in
a lot of places. You know. Well, By the way,
if you do feel like you're going into labor, I
will drive you right now to the house quid. But
I'm going to keep recording because fantastic with I was
thinking this point, if she goes into labor, that'd be
great for the podcast. Oh my god, that's so funny.
(21:22):
That's what I was thinking. But so I don't want
you to force it, but in case, just in case.
So in end Conto, you played Mirabelle. She's fifteen years old.
Now in real life you're not fifteen. You're correct woman,
and you're pregnant and you're married. Yes. What was it
like though, channeling or going back to your inner team
(21:42):
for her? It was really fun. I mean, I think
in true Disney tradition, she is like a combination of
a lot of things that I love about Disney heroines
and Disney sidekicks. It's almost like she's both at once.
And I say that because a lot of times the
(22:02):
heroines in Disney movies have not been written funny. The
sidekicks are often the edic support, you know. I think
that's changed in the last few years with films like
Frozen and Mowana, where the actors are much more free
to make fun and funny choices. And I'm so grateful
(22:24):
to them for sort of paving that way, because I
think that's the thing that I loved about helping create
this character of Mirabelle is like, you know, in the
world of Encanto, her entire family has magical powers except
for her, and so she's in this space in which,
like everyone in town knows them, everyone depends on them.
(22:45):
Her grandmother is like this matriarch of this magical family.
Nobody's paying attention to Mirabelle a lot of the time
because people are focused on the magic and the familial
performance that has to happen, because like, in a way,
they're like the famous people in town, right, like they
are the magic family, and so like, who cares about Mirabelle?
(23:07):
You know, I'm not super strong like Louisa, but Donkey's
gone out of your money or effortlessly perfect like Sabella.
But Mama, why am I the only one that didn't
get a gift? You're just as special as anyone else
who is Mamma, you just heeled my hand with a
(23:29):
nat I think for her, some of her comedy comes
from covering that feeling, and some of it just comes
from being allowed to be whoever she is because no
one's paying attention. So what that allows me able to
do is like kind of figure out maybe who she
is or she's trying to And that to me is
(23:53):
something that like I really deeply understand because like as
a teenager and as a young person, I was really
trying to figure out who I was. I didn't feel
like I fit in. I didn't feel like I looked right,
sounded right, was right. I didn't fit what I saw
(24:16):
around me as like the standard of beauty, especially in
Texas at that time, which was you know, white, blonde,
beautiful that takes a toll on a kid. I think,
and also I felt like, well, my family's different. My
mom and dad speaks Spanish at home, and we don't
have a lot of money, and I don't feel like
(24:38):
I fit in, or I don't feel understood, or I
feel like I'm in these like smart advanced classes and
it makes me feel like a nerd and I just
feel like I stick out. My parents were well, they
were trying to get us to assimilate, and my sister
and I they were really worried about us being accepted
(24:59):
and assimilating quickly. And that was kind of the way
that things were happening back then in the eighties and nineties.
It was like, have your kid fit in, don't let
them stick out so much so that my sister doesn't
even speak Spanish. She can understand that, but she can't
speak it with your dad being Colombian, right, Like, what
does this role like mean to you? It's really I mean,
(25:23):
and it's I have no words, really, I will say.
My dad is on a WhatsApp chat with all of
his family in Colombia and the day that the news broke,
my phone was exploding, like they were all losing their minds.
One of the things I think that they've done really
beautifully is they've kind of created this world in which
(25:46):
multiple regions of Columbia are represented in this film in
the way that they can be in an hour and
a half animated film. But I think visually, visually they've
done something that I've never seen before in a Disney film.
The visual style of this film is really really rooted
in magical realism, which is a deeply Colombian literary thing,
(26:11):
you know, And I think it pays homage and pays
respect to Colombia, but also the people of Colombia and
the myriad of different ways those people came to Colombia,
what they've dealt with as Colombians, and the wave look,
(26:32):
and I think all of those things are subtly layered
into the film, but they're also really important. Yeah, and
it's not just the visuals, it's the music too. It's
so peppy and like welcome to the Family Madrigal, the
home of the family Madriga. I know it sounds a
bit fantastical, the magical, but I'm part of the family Mariga.
(26:56):
One of the things I'm so excited about is seeing
it with people, because like I've only seen little clips
of it, so like, what's gonna happen when there's like
little kids in their seats, like, are they gonna be
moving around? What are they gonna do? Dancing? Yeah? I
can't wait, I can't wait. God. So, my earliest memories
of music actually were and it's funny because it's very
(27:17):
full circle, but they were Disney. They were us with
the VHS tapes, watching them over and over and connecting
really deeply, really quickly to these Disney songs. I loved
Sleeping Beauty, I loved Cinderella. I can remember standing in
the bathroom with the door locked, acting out the solo
(27:39):
from Mulan, Who's that girl? I see You're kidding? And
then recently, when we were recording in Gunto, one of
the things that Lin Manuel Miranda, who wrote the music
for in Gunto, one of the things that he texted
me was, you know, I'm really trying to write a
song that little kids will want to sing to themselves
alone in the mirror. And as soon as he sent
that text, I started bawling because I thought, that's exactly
what I did. That's exactly what I did. Do you
(28:02):
have a piece of advice you would give to a
younger Stephanie Beatriz. Oh ah, I would say, trust yourself,
trust yourself way more than you are already. You can
allow yourself to believe even more. And I think I
(28:23):
wish I could just go back and sort of like
stand her in front of a mirror and be like,
look a she's so great, Like look at what she
has to offer, Like, don't be so hard on yourself.
You know it's like it's honestly the same conversation I'm
having with myself all the time. Still, you know, That's
what I would say. Trust, trust yourself, trust yourself, trust yourself,
(28:48):
trust your instinct, and always trust your heart. That's what
I did. I had a knowing deep down inside that
this is what I was meant to do, despite all
the negative comments my father had, I sold you it
on and I'm so glad I did because I have
a career, I truly love in treasure, and if I
hadn't trusted myself, I would have missed out on all
of it. Stay tuned, we'll be right back after the
(29:16):
break with this week's vocal tip. Here's our vocal tip
of the week. One aspect that sets apart a really
fantastic performance from kind of a mediocre one is dynamics,
(29:37):
the variations of volume from soft to loud. If someone
sings with very little variation and the whole song is
either just loud or just soft, it will usually be
a bit boring. Of course, there are always exceptions, like
a really soft, beautiful lullaby or a quiet, intimate love song.
Dynamics can completely create or even destroy the mood of
(29:58):
a song. I always have my students practice singing in
a wide range of dynamics to prepare them for when
they're performing or recording, to achieve the most compelling and
powerful performance as possible. An easy way to start practicing
dynamic exercises is to pick a musical pattern, for example,
this one. Try singing it twice, first soft and then
(30:24):
loud like this me me maybe me me me maybe
mey me. Bases, baritones and tenors start on a sea
below middle cea, transposing down by half steps and then
back up by half steps to go to your lowest
note and then to your highest note. Sopranos and altos,
(31:21):
you try starting on a B flat below middle C,
again transposing down by half steps and then back up
by half steps to go to your lowest note and
then to your highest note. For example, if that pattern
(32:02):
seems too complicated and it is a little tricky, try
a simpler one like this bases baritone antennas. You start
on a C below middle C for you sopranos and alto's,
try starting right on a middle C and there you go.
(32:28):
If you want to share how you practice your vocal dynamics,
I'd love to hear you. Use the hashtag Backstage Pass
pod on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or wherever you like to post.
I can't wait to see your videos. I'll see you
next week. Maybe maybe me maybe maybe me me, me,
(32:49):
me me. Backstage Pass with Eric Vietro is written and
hosted by me Eric Vietro and produced by Morgan Jaffee.
Katherine Gerardou is our showrunner. Emily Rosstek is our associate producer.
Kate Parkinson Morgan is our edit. The show is mixed
(33:11):
and mastered by Ben Tolliday. Additional engineering help is from
Jacob Gorski and Martin Gonzalez. Mia Lovell as our executive producer.
Our development team Litl Mulat and Justine Lange helped create
the show, thanks also to Jacob Weisberg. Heather Fame, John Schnarz,
Carl Migliori, Christina Sullivan, Eric Sandler, Maggie Taylor, Nicole Morano,
(33:33):
Daniela Lakan and Royston Basserve. The original theme music is
by Jacob and Sita Steele for Premier Music Group. We
record at Resonate Studios. Fred Talkson does our videography and
the photography is by Ken Sawyer. A very special thanks
to Michael Lewis for his inspiration and the best guidance
anyone could ask for. Backstage passed with Eric Vitro as
(33:56):
a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like the show,
please remember to share, rate and review it. I mean
that really share, rate, review it, and if you love
the show and others from Pushkin Industry, consider subscribing to
Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus as a podcast subscription that offers
bonus content and uninterrupted listening for four ninety nine a month.
(34:19):
Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcasts subscriptions. To find
more Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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