Hey, gang! Red here.

It was decades ago that I won my first professional actor-musician job. I met a director preparing to do Antigone at a small theater in New York City (I had recently moved there.)  He wanted to hire a drummer for the show. I argued that he needed an actor-musician who could turn the choral odes into songs (as well as play a role.)

Not long after that I booked my first contract as Jim in Pump Boys and Dinettes (the first of many.) I felt great joy acting while wearing my guitar (though no one had ever taught me about the specific challenges and methods of doing so.) These gigs nudged me toward pursuing actor-muso work predominantly.

Twenty-some years (and over 150 contracts of actor-musicianship) later, it is part of me now. I learned most of what I know about this niche of theatre through practice. There was no instruction in these shows when I was coming up. There weren't (and still aren't) programs to teach such work in The States. 

As a director, I would continually see actors dragging their instruments to auditions and shrugging their way through auditions. I would often ask an actor what they play and wonder at their wincing replies.

I have said for 15 years that we need pedagogy in our field, and texts to accompany such. When Jeremy Harrison's book Actor-Musicianship was announced, I was forwarded the press release six times in one week! This led me to take his summer course on the subject, which led to the workshops we've thrown with him. 

At last there are methods, and a means to teach them.

It is Actor-Musicianship USA's mission to discover, devise, share and spread actor-muso work, methods, and instruction to all who practice it.

With gratitude, 

Red