SIERRA BOGGESS
Guest Speaker
SIERRA BOGGESS is an Olivier nominated actress who is regarded as one of Broadway’s most beloved leading ladies. Best known worldwide not only for re-inventing the coveted role of Christine Daae in Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, but for Lord Webber himself going on record to say that “she’s the best, the best Christine certainly.” Boggess portrayed the role in the Broadway, West End, and the televised 25th Anniversary concert productions of Phantom.
Sierra made her Broadway debut as Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, receiving Drama Desk and Drama League Nominations, as well as the Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Female Breakthrough Performance. Her additional Broadway credits include Master Class, It Shoulda Been You, The Phantom of The Opera, and School of Rock. Boggess’ off-Broadway credits include Love, Loss, and What I Wore and Music in the Air, alongside Kristin Chenoweth, for New York City Center’s Encores! Series. In the West End, Boggess has appeared as Fantine in Les Misérables and originated the role of Christine Daae in Love Never Dies, the critically acclaimed sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, receiving an Olivier Award Nomination for her performance.
Sierra starred as Cinderella in the highly anticipated Hollywood Bowl production of Into the Woods where the Los Angeles Times raved of her “crystalline singing and gameness for comedy… Boggess’ Cinderella was enchanting.” Prior to that she starred as Danielle DeBarbarac in the new musical, Ever After at the Alliance Theatre as well as starred in the world premiere of the new play The Age of Innocence at Hartford Stage for which she received a nomination for a Connecticut Critics Circle Award for her portrayal of Countess Ellen Olenska.
Sierra's concert appearances include multiple engagements with BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall, Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Series The Lyrics of David Zippel, The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, Broadway By the Year at Town Hall, Guys and Dolls at Carnegie Hall opposite Patrick Wilson, Megan Mullally, and Nathan Lane, and The Secret Garden at Lincoln Center. She has toured with her cellist sister, Summer Boggess and musical director, Brian Hertz all over the United States as well as Japan and Australia with her concert show which has been preserved live and released on CD, Awakening: Live at 54 Below.
Most recently, Sierra starred on Broadway in Harmony, a musical by Barry Manilow & Bruce Sussman. She released the album Together at a Distance, an album of classic and contemporary Broadway duets with her longtime friend and colleague Julian Ovenden. Additional recordings include School of Rock, It Shoulda Been You, the 25th-anniversary concert of The Phantom of the Opera (also on DVD), the symphonic recording ofLove Never Dies, The Little Mermaid, Andrew Lippa’s A Little Princess, Rodgers & Hammerstein: A Night at the Movies with the John Wilson Orchestra, Where the Sky Ends: The songs of Michael Mott, A New York City Christmas: A benefit album for ASTEP and more.
A Note from Sierra:
I met Mary Setrakian when I was 17 years old at the American Singer Seminar in Breckenridge, Colorado, and she changed my life completely. It wasn’t just how Mary talked about the voice but how she wouldn’t let me sing a note unless I was utterly connected to what and whom I was singing about! No one had ever talked about performing in that way to me before! She has been my teacher, mentor, and dearest friend for years now and is one of the most encouraging, beautiful, inspirational humans on this planet. Anyone who has come in contact with Mary as a teacher, friend, or human is transformed forever!
From Mary’s book
SING, Find Your True Voice
FOREWORD
By Sierra Boggess
Singing is the most joyous art form in the world. The freeing feeling of creating music with the sound that comes from within, the sound that is unique to each one of us, can truly heal and change the singer and the listener.
But singing can also be incredibly terrifying. When we sing we are being asked to expose something of ourselves – to tell stories using only our voice, to trust the notes as they leave our bodies and reach the ears of our audience. Because singing is so vulnerable, we often need someone alongside us that truly understands, who is trustworthy, who has our back, who is knowledgeable and knows how to guide us. For me, that person is Mary Setrakian.
I met Mary when I was just seventeen years old. She was teaching at a two week Musical Theatre Intensive in Breckenridge Colorado. I was a high school student obsessed with musical theatre, equally terrified and confident, and struggling with self-doubt and my worthiness. I had no idea just how much my world would be changed upon meeting her.
I clearly remember the first time I saw Mary work with a student in one of her master classes. I had never seen someone ooze so much passion and genuine excitement for a student’s progress. She was compassionate and real and empathetic and funny and so disinterested in anything false. She dared you to go to the depths, to delve into your vulnerability. Mary drew honest emotional performances out of people who were only accustomed to merely singing notes on a page. I quickly understood we shouldn’t be looking for perfection in our vocal performance, we should be looking for truth. This is what I had been missing. No one had ever made me think about singing like this. I started to crave the process. I was hooked.
While working with Mary, I fell in love with singing through storytelling. I now know how to tell that story by dedicating each note to someone, by always knowing to whom I am singing, and why they need to hear it. It’s a way of working that is so ‘from the soul’ that it’s almost as if Mary is guiding you to remember who you really are. With Mary, no note is ever wasted. Vocal warmups aren’t just something to get through. They all are endowed with meaning. “Do you have who you’re singing to?” “What are you aware of?” “Drop in now,” are just a few of the phrases she asks you to crystalize before even singing a scale. You always start from the place of knowing that your experiences have made you who you are as a human, so why not use them to sing as well?
The truth and the technique in Mary’s method go hand in hand. I remember one particular master class when Mary was trying to get us to stop our over-the-top false acting beats and the unnecessary hand gestures in our songs. Mary casually blurted out the phrase “you are enough, you are so enough, it’s unbelievable how enough you are.” It stopped me in my tracks. I thought that was the most brilliant and hilarious phrase I had ever heard. It was almost as if she was pleading with us to trust ourselves before adding anything else. And really, if we don’t know we are “enough,” how else are we supposed to be raw and vulnerable as singers? How can the audience see themselves through us if we are apologizing for who we are in the process? In the same class, Mary taught us that the word “intimacy” means “into me, see.” As performers, as singers, as actors, we are asking people to see us and see themselves through us. With this knowing as our foundation, we can then start building as performers and working in an authentic way.
I’ve worked with Mary for years. She has been by my side as teacher, cheerleader, and friend for each moment of my career. Her technique saved me when I was making my Broadway debut as Ariel in The Little Mermaid and later when I was portraying an opera singer in the Broadway revival of Master Class. When I was nervous having to sing both coloratura and rock belt in the Broadway production of School of Rock, Mary was there for me on every lunch break to remind me to focus on the breath and The Revolutionary Send. Mary is my first call for every Broadway audition, callback, and rehearsal process. Her methods are invaluable to anyone who has ever worked with her. Her technique is essential for every performer.
It excites me that with this book, you are now going to get to discover what Mary Setrakian has been teaching for decades. I know whether you are just starting out or have been singing for your entire life, this book is going to awaken something in you. I believe, just as Mary does, that we are all capable of singing, we just have to start somewhere.
So why not try? After all…you are enough!
