For Forever (Evan X Connor)

Mike faist masterclass

Hey everyone. So last night *Nov 27th* I did a Masterclass with Mike Faist in Montreal so I thought I would share some of the things from it.

The main thing he was working with us on was our acting through song. What is the tactic you use behind every line of the song. How does that help you reach your objective kind of thing. It seems so straight forward and I was a wizard for other people like Mike and I were saying the same things but when it came to me i was like FUCK what am I saying lmfao.

There were only 8 of us that sang so it was pretty chill.

I sat next to Mike, who yes is all legs. *like holy cow is he ever all legs Jesus christ. Hes at least a foot taller than me and I'm 5 foot 2*. He was wearing like 4 layers. A long sleeve shirt, a cardigan, a jacket and a coat and his scarf. His nails were still painted black and all chipped and what not.

He said it was his first and last time coming to Canada it was too cold lmfao. Granted it was freakishly colder than most days it was like -15° C with the wind chill and the building was freezing.

His laugh is very at the back of his throat and it's so sweet to listen to.

Some of my favourite quotes of the night from him include "My first day at AMDA my teacher said I don't give a FUCK how you feel, and that really changed me."

Someone sang dancing through life and he was "what if I'm glinda? Make me glinda! Take me out on a date". I was like wow I would pay to see that production of wicked and he just laughed at me

I asked him about preparing for Auditions and he was talking about how important it is to know the text. "I could be saying I want to fucking kill you, but what I really mean is where is the tea."

And my fav quote that wasn't just a meme "you could just as easily fail at something you don't like to do, why not fail at what you enjoy instead."

HE SAID YA KNOW
57 TIMES
And that doesn't even include when I went up to sing 😂😂

Someone asked him about how he felt about Ben leaving and he got so emotional my dudes. He was like basically in tears saying how that was one of the hardest shows he's ever done.

The main piece of advice he has to anyone wanting to do this as a career is to be persistent. When the doors just don't open for you, go find a different door.

Back to my audition question, I asked him how he prepared for them and he quite frankly just looked at me and was like "know your words. It's basically that simple" but he went into detail how if you know your words and the meaning behind them so well, you embody them. You allow the directors to play around with you because you know it so well. He was saying how you can know your intentions and tactics so well that it shouldn't matter what is thrown st you. You may change tactics with new direction, but you will still have the same objective no matter what.

My singing went Okay. I was so.nervous that j didn't realize until after I was watching my sneaky video of me working that I made the tempo a lot faster than it should have been omg. End me it didn't even feel that fast but listening to it I was like oh wow damn girl.

The opening to watch what happens mike said was supposed to be a clock. Like she is working against the clock to write this paper and she's like FUCK I'm a shit writer what do I do. Which is why she is so stressed and sings lol.

When everyone else was singing, I was able to come up with like great action verbs for them and shit and then as soon as I went up I sounded like an idiot. Lmao kill me.

I literally remember saying Sorry, and he asked me why and I said honestly I'm just feeling so wooo that I'm not able to think right.

I also remember him asking me why I think she starts to sing and I said because she's stressed as he'll and I know that I sing when I'm stressed and he laughed and he was like okay good point.
He said that an easy scene partner is someone who is engaged, and knows their character well and what they want so it's easier to feed off of one another. You don't always have to be over dramatic to be giving your partner something to work with though.

He said that he was literally the cliché starving artist. He had 25$ to his name, and lived off of peanut butter sandwiches trying to find work.

Oooo okay so this is my fav question I asked * tbh my fav question anyone asked, he just went super in depth about it* I asked him how being in Dear Evan Hansen has changed the way he viewed mental health. He was like holy damn that's a hard question. I like it.
He was talking about how the main thing wrong with society is that everyone feels like they need labels or needs to be put into a box where he doesn't see that necessary. He was talking about how most people pity suicide attempt survivors almost as if they aren't real people and that's why he feels so strongly about the live through this organization he's always  talking about so much. He was saying how everyone has mental health whether it be good or bad and some moments can be worse than others. Ultimately though we are all human and working towards being a better you. And that's what he loves the most about dear Evan Hansen is that it is a show that everyone can relate to and that they don't need labels to feel the way that they do. And he was going on about how even if Evan and Connor have 2 different mental illnesses, they're both still experience loneliness and isolation just the way they approach things is very different. And through out the show it's dangerous how similar Evan and Connor end up being
***I didn't want to ask but there is a theory that after words fail Evan was going home to kill himself but Heidi was there***

Also he's like I don't like labels on Connor but I feel like I have a better understanding of Bipolar disorder and just plain old depression so it's interesting to see how he thinks Connor is bipolar to me tbh. I wanna look more into it.

He says he thinks that Connor and Evan are super similar though so they probably would have been friends if things were different. But maybe not. It was their senior year and they weren't friends before that and they had known each other for a really long time so who knows.

He was talking about how awful it is how the Murphy's veiw Evan as the son they wish Connor were to be his quote about dear Evan Hansen was "it's so fucked up. It's that simple. It's so fucked up but the show itself is so beautiful and human"

But essentially he wanted us to look into the subtext, and the tactics to get what we wanted. He stressed that a lot with everyone who got up to sing.

HE WORE THE I DON'T CARE I'M HIGH SOCKS

LIKE DO U KNOW THE ONES I'M TALKING ABOUT????

He said "uh huh uh huh" So much it was so cute.

When he was watching people sing, he would like fold himself in half and stare at you sideways it was so funny i couldn't help but wonder if that's how he watches theatre too.

The actors job isn't to feel, it's to.make the audience feel. Don't emote. That leads to whiny unlikable characters. Always look for the drive behind the words.
When you have a clear idea of what tactics you want to use, keep going over them so you can see if they're different or too similar and you get them really rooted into your body.

He doesn't like the song pulled from the Addams family 😢 he says it's not very actable and that every person does it the same because that how the song is wrote. It's hard to show yourself off in that song.

All songs are more about the drive behind them, rather than the actual words.

When the whole thing was over, I went to take a photo with him *which is blurry cause I was shaky and he was a foot taller than me* I was like SOS help me end the debate between my family.. what state is dear Evan Hansen set in.. And he was like oh I have no clue it could be anywhere. I was like FUCK okay thank you though.

It was basically one big wake up call for me that I need to do more. I need to work harder. I need to push myself more. I need to stop slacking off if this is what I want to do.

If you have any other questions message me or comment  ❤

Thanks everyone for all the support. I really appreciate it

UPDATE; Something I forgot to put in here was that I was the only person who was taking notes, so Mike kept asking me to remind him what he had said it was funny. Blessed I was sitting next to him he kept being like hey do you remember what I just said cause I have no clue lol