Jeanne Lehman French
This is the second part of my interview with Jeanne Lehman French. I absolutely loved interviewing Jeanne! I gain so much from listening to her life experiences and theatre stories and they encourage me as much as my voice lessons with her.
Abby: When did you start teaching voice?
Jeanne: “Because I was a triple threat; dancer, singer, actress, I would always arrive for a role two hours early. I would do a full dance warm up then a full vocal warm-up. It got to be during my shows, even summer stock, even in limited runs, that these dancers would start straying in saying “Can you warm us up a little?” And then stars would do it! I worked with several stars that would come in and say “Do you mind giving me a little warm up?” That’s when I started, so early in my career. I love teaching because I have good teachers. I love what I do and I love to pass it on! And it developed into starting to teach. I taught at NYU. When I was doing Beauty and the Beast I got a call to come in and take over classes and I thought can I do that and still do my shows? This was for NYU and it was for the particular part of NYU in Tisch that is Playwrights Horizons Theater School. So I taught there and that fed me for the role of the show! The energy of teaching all these students in full classes and some private fed me for what I was doing in Beauty and the Beast. Then I taught at School for Young Performers, private lessons. Now I give master classes all the time and that also would come out of shows! Like, for example, I did a lot of Music Man on the road, and Universities in Denver and other places, other places in New England. I would go into schools there, Universities for example, and give master classes. All of that I thoroughly enjoy and that is what has evolved. Like I just did a Masterclass at Columbia University. I’m doing one again at Liberty University, teaching not only their music students but also their drama students and then giving a concert. So, it’s been part of who I am and I remember the first time I taught at Playwright Horizons Theatre School. I walked out, I looked up at the sky and my mom is in Heaven and I said: “Mom, I’m a teacher.” Because all growing up, they all thought I would be a teacher because I would go and help Mom teach art or teach music to her elementary students when I was home from New York in Chiquo, California, but I knew I would not be a teacher because I sang, I had too much life to live as a performer! But I remember walking out that day and saying “Mom, I’m a teacher.” And I loved it that first day so that’s what I do now and I do more and more master classes now, a lot.”
Abby: Where have been some of your favorite places to teach so far?
Jeanne: “Well, I think I listed some of them. School for Young Performers, that’s kind of private but I teach for them, students coming in from all over. I think the first time you asked me about teaching I think of certain people who would come to me during runs of shows that I loved helping them find their voice, especially dancers. NYU I enjoyed, I would like to do more for NYU. I’m going to seek other employment there. Liberty University, I was totally surprised and I loved it! The vibrancy of that place of the eagerness of all of the students it’s just like we catch fire from each other. You know, very inspiring for both of us! The day I taught at Columbia it was for a theory class. And the teacher who is a friend of mine from church, he’s the partner of our musical director at church, and he asked me to come in and teach his class how to sing something so when they are writing they are better writers. I loved it! And they loved it! It was a whole new experience for them! So those are the kind of joyous moments that I love!”
Abby: What are some things you see vocally that are common mistakes people make?
Jeanne: “It’s not so much mistakes as it is bad habits. Tensions! Jaw tension, tongue tension, the two biggest. Lacking posture; Posture is everything! And people tend to sing from their necks up, leaning forward. It’s interesting because they’re copying sound, hearing sound and everybody kind of reaches out to try to sing that sound instead of finding their own instrument! When I started off we didn’t have mics when we performed, we had to use our instruments! That’s why I’m still going! Everything is so belty today but people don’t know how to find their belt in their own instrument which is up through the pallet, releasing the jaw, finding the breath, having more to say instead of just scream. Keeping a voice as an instrument, that is the one thing that people aren’t learning to do today. So those tensions, releasing tensions is the hardest thing to learn.
We are entertainers. We tell stories. And I think that if we think more about what we are saying then our bodies are more responsive to that instead of just trying to sound like a singer or sound like something or listen to ourselves and stylize. Find the instrument first, the core of the instrument, then we can do the other things.
No matter what we do in life we gotta love what we do. Even in that situation that’s bad, there’s got to be something to love in it, people, something that we are learning about ourselves, there’s always an opposite. You’ve got to find that. Loving what we do, one thing about the arts and learning to breathe and learning posture, if people don’t even go into it as a career, it is what they use in life. Out on the Disney cruise ship when I went out after Beauty and the Beast closed. I just went out to give presentations about being in show business, about being a teapot which I loved! So I would volunteer to give a voice class to the passengers. And I gave one once and stressed breath, posture, etcetera, a few weeks later I got an email from a banker who said working like we did with the breath and in posture changed his career! Changed how he approached giving speeches because whatever his title was, whatever his job was at the bank, he had to speak a lot, give presentations or whatever it was. It said it changed him, he had confidence he didn’t have, he wasn’t losing his voice, he wasn’t getting tired, it changed him in his world. That’s what we can do as artists.”
Thank you, Jeanne, for spending an afternoon with me and sharing your life lessons and inspiring all of the young performers you do! I am so grateful for every lesson you have given me and will carry them with me throughout my career!