MAMT SIP

proposal 2016-17

SUSTAINED INDEPENDENT PROJECT (SIP) PROPOSAL FORM

This must be agreed by your tutor before you continue with the work of the Sustained Independent
Project (SIP).
Title/Topic:
What can we learn from the songs of musical theatre when being sung by actors of the opposite sex?
Brief description:
An investigation into the integrity of songs in the musical theatre canon when given to singers and actors of the opposite
sex: what do we learn from this? How do we sing and write for gender? This study will assess the creative potential
of songs and dramatic musical writing in the hands of both genders. Is it possible to write a song for both male and
female singers without rupturing the songs essential meaning? Or is it the case that gender has too much implication in
song to be able to write and perform objectively, free from the creative restraints that gender imposes?
Key disciplines:
Music Theory
Acting
Performance
Assessing performance
Nature of work (e.g. Dissertation; portfolio comprising artefact with complementary annotation. Be clear
to avoid potential ambiguities.):
Artefacts & Performances
- asking colleagues to sing songs written for the inverse gender
- have an event wherein colleagues sing these gender-bent songs
- see whether the (blind) audience know these songs were gender-reversed
- recording of the performance of these pieces
- evaluate the performances
- record myself singing songs written for the opposite sex from the aforementioned research
- evaluate this performance with help from colleagues
Essay
- annotations and notes from performances
- Accompanying reflection on the success of these artefacts and the way that research has informed and shaped
them, and examining what success means in the context of the song and the performance is it truthful? Does
it move the listener-viewer? Is the intention of the song betrayed by the performance? (Can you tell the song
was written for a female even though it was sung by a male, for example?)
Resource needs, where relevant (ensure these are within the allocations for your course):
Male and female vocal performer(s)
Access to piano and recording equipment for recording performances
How do you think your title/topic will demonstrate that you have met the learning outcomes for the
unit? (See Unit 7 description in Course Spec):
A1) This will give me a stronger understanding of musical theatres relevance in critical discourse with regards to
gender, both from a political and artistic viewpoint. I will assess the dramatic and artistic integrity of certain songs, as
well as their political and social malleability in casting trends and the gendered theatrical climate.

B1) The practical component will inform my research, but my research and my cultural awareness will indubitably
inform my practice. I will demonstrate my awareness of gender theories and dramatic theories, and the relationship
between the two, and the ways they impact the perception and reception of performance.
B2) I will advance my intellectual rigour regarding musical and dramatic theory which will inform the socio-political
aspect of my research. In my framework, the art comes before the politics; understanding the song and the dramatic and
musical mechanisms of the piece will inform the reasoning behind its gendering. I will be able to evaluate my
performances as well as those of my peers.
D3) Assessing any kind of performance, and indeed, examining my own performance, and being examined performing,
is a completely new endeavour for me, so the core of this course is a creative risk for me.

As I am sure the producer of the new gender-reversed Company is saying, and as I am sure Deborah Warner said
before casting Glenda Jackson as King Lear at the Old Vic, even in our current socio-political climate, gender reversing
in casting is still a creative risk. In order to move beyond these, we have to first examine what implications gender has
on a song of piece of text - I Feel Pretty from West Side Story is a good example, or any of Juliets monologues
(theres an all-male production of As You Like It available online too.) Its eventually about how we write for gender,
but also about how we perform it.

By removing the gimmick element of it, and endeavouring to assess whether or not gender should exist in the very
being of musical theatre, by testing the integrity of musics fabric by applying it to another sex, we are innately taking a
risk.
We are pushing the potentiality of song and theatre. For example, how risky is it to say that King Lear at the Old Vic
with Glenda Jackson might have been changed, even improved if they had explored Lear as a maternal figure without
rupturing the text too much - a bitter relationship with her daughters, coveting their youth, despairing Gonerils
infertility? It gives a myriad of new meaning. What happens when gender-swapping stops being a political point and
becomes a symptom of context, a device of exploring a texts latent meanings? Themes already proved salient have
been inherently gendered motherhood, femininity, sex, strength, menace. Can we really remove a song from its
context entirely?
What would happen if a male singer-actor truthfully delivered Everythings Coming Up Roses from Gypsy? What do
we even mean by risk risk to ourselves and our innate cultural framework, risk to what we previously assumed to be
true, or commercial risk? Is it risky to transpose a song to be able to disregard the question of genders singing
technique? Can we harness Sweeney Todds menace and threat if a woman is singing Epiphany in a higher key than
the bass, or is it fruitless?