Thanks to the advice of one of Broadway’s most humble characters, Michaela Peterson is now a leaper, not a thinker.

“Instead of thinking about this challenging future of what might come ahead, I can just leap right into it because that’s what I love to do,” she said. “I can take the leap and not weigh all the outcomes.”

Sutton Foster, a Tony Award-winning actress best known for her roles in “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “Anything Goes” and “The Drowsy Chaperone,” performed Saturday as a part of the Pulse Performing Arts Series. That morning, before she sang renditions of various Broadway numbers and some original songs off her upcoming solo album, Foster held a closed master class for 25 students. The workshop consisted of a Q-and-A session, after which two students sang a song of their choice and were critiqued by Foster herself.

Peterson, a sophomore music industry major, and Alex Alpert, a sophomore vocal performance major, were the two students randomly selected to sing. Both said they were nervous beforehand, but as they interacted with Foster, they were able to relax.

“We were all surprised by how modest and down to earth she was, and how possible it is to achieve normalcy at her level,” Alpert said.

It was this familiarity that helped Alpert and Peterson shake off any nerves.

Alpert sang “The Impossible Dream” from the musical “Man of La Mancha,” while Peterson sang “Right In Front Of Your Eyes,” a loud, in-your-face number from “The Wedding Singer.” They sang through their songs several times. After each rendition, Foster offered advice and critiqued their styles.

“It’s a song I sing a lot, and it’s one I personally connect with and that is part of my life,” Alpert said. “I thought that would be a good idea to bring to Sutton, something I was familiar with. But she was still able to encourage me to try new things.”

Foster’s main advice for both performers was to “do less.” Her goal was to have them focus more on what they were saying to the audience, rather than distracting them with big theatrics, Alpert said.

To get the two singers to think about their performances in new ways, Peterson said Foster asked questions to the point where they were critiquing themselves. They were open-ended questions like “Why are you singing this song?” and “What does it mean to you?” Peterson said it helped her change the way she approached her song.

“The third time I sang my song, she had me just sit on the edge of the stage,” Peterson said. “I was singing right to them and it became a much more intimate song.”

Sitting in the small focus group’s audience while Peterson and Alpert sang their songs was Janine McElhone, who said that between performances, Foster really tried to emphasize her accessibility. McElhone, a senior information management and technology major, was able to interact with her before the class — Foster was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and fit right in with students — and said she was friendly and personable.

McElhone said Foster mentioned that she didn’t think of herself as a famous star. Everyone was thinking the opposite, she said, but Foster putting herself on the same level as the students helped the two performers improve.

“They’d sing it back the second time through and it would be 10 times better,” said McElhone, a member of the Pulse Performing Arts student board that helped bring Foster to campus. “Then she would give them even more tips and it would be like a completely different performance by the end of it.”

Published on October 21, 2013 at 12:41 am

Contact Joe: jtinfant@syr.edu | @joeinfantino