Photo: Stephanie Girard
EN
1. What is your professional background? Which professional art event you consider your most successful in the last few years?
I am a professional Musical theatre singer, actor, dancer. I have performed in too many shows to count and was recently seen in the Broadway tour of the SpongeBob musical. I’ve also done work off-Broadway in New York and around in other national tours and regional companies around America.
2. Where do you get your inspiration from? Can you mention one specific example?
I get my inspiration from music, art, and working with people to create something new.
3. When you think of residency for professional artists (in general or stage artists) what are your expectations? Why do you need that experience?
Expectations for an artist residency is to bring a group of people together who share a common interest and explore that interest and build their own artistic experience as well as their own craft. This is important because working with various artists of different calibers will help build an invaluable artistic experience. My goal is also to impart as much as I can in terms of musical theatre, singing, acting, and dancing.
4. Is there anything you want to bring to Latvian professional stage artists from your experience? Is there anything you want to learn from Latvian professional artists/stage artists? Name some artists you want to meet in the residency in Kuldīga and why?
I’m hoping to bring a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Musical theatre repertoire, nuance, and Musical theatre style in singing, acting and dancing. I think there have been some great strides made in Latvia regarding musical theatre, but being an American, where Musical theatre was founded, I have a unique perspective that I believe will help with the growth of musical theatre as a genre in Latvia. I am looking forward to exploring a new musical theatre repertoire that remains widely unknown in Latvia, I want to work on the singing and dancing together component of musical theatre, and finally, I want to establish a new level of excellence for musical theatre to build toward creating live musical performances in the future.
Regarding Artists in Latvia, many of them are still new to me, so I am excited to meet any of them and hopefully find opportunities to work with them.
5. Is audience building important in your field of art? What do you do to develop the audience?
In order to build an audience, we need to have performances. Performing musical theatre for various organisations, charity events, paid performances, etc. The more exposure we have, the greater opportunities we will have to build an audience.
6. Anything you want to say about the need for such residencies for stage artists, especially after the previous year?
This past year was devastating for the arts around the world. So many artists got trapped or stuck in the world of zoom. So many performers had their productions and artistic outlets canceled due to the pandemic. Although there has been a great deal of creativity thru the use of virtual media, it is not the same as working together in person and creating something live. These residencies will allow us to work on developing skills and honing their craft. I hope this year will be a great start for years to come.
Stefan Alexander Miller
Baritone, Voice Teacher