The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Mercedes Dauphinais, of Vail, rehearses a piece she was working on Tuesday for this weekend's "Art of Cabaret" at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp. Photo by Matt Stensland

Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp instructor Christopher Denny talks with Mercedes Dauphinais, of Vail, about a piece she was working on Tuesday. Photo by Matt Stensland

Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp instructor Teri Ralston talks with Mercedes Dauphinais, of Vail, about a piece she was working on Tuesday. Photo by Matt Stensland

Steamboat Springs — Finding a personal connection to “I Remember Sky” — a Steven Sondheim song most popularly used as the theme for a TV show about a woman living in a department store — is not an easy task.

But that is what “Art of Cabaret” instructor Andrea Marcovicci has asked Nancy Nolan to do.

As one of eight participants in Perry-Mansfield’s weeklong “Art of Cabaret” professional workshop, Nolan came to the woods of Routt County to hone her one-woman version of musical theater. Before setting off into the song, Nolan said she chose “I Remember Sky” because she’d give anything to get back her childhood innocence. When she was done singing, Marcovicci first pointed out some technical flaws such as fluctuating dynamics, then made suggestions for improvement.

“He is giving you absolutely magnificent things to work with,” Marcovicci said of the song’s lyrics, which tick off lovely images over nostalgic music. “Everything you’re naming is gorgeous … nothing about this is sad until, ‘I would gladly die for a day of sky.’”

For Nolan, this information is a revelation. That’s the goal of “Art of Cabaret,” which invites a limited number of students to work with a small faculty on making the connections necessary for a cabaret performer to survive.

“For me it’s that you’re bringing yourself to it, and you have to feel you yourself is enough,” workshop participant Joann Halve said. “When it’s just you on the stage, just your voice and your music, it’s scary. And I came here because I want to feel less scared.”

Each “Art of Cabaret” participant has a different reason for attending, from a desire to expand his or her repertoire to a need to deepen their connection to the music, said accompanist Shelly Markham.

“We can all help almost anybody go deeper into a song, which is really what this is all about,” Markham said about the varied skills of the workshop’s six-member faculty. Building a personal connection to the music is key to a successful cabaret performance, accompanist Christopher Denny said.

“In cabaret the whole point is that you’re up there and you’re a whole person. You’re acting, and you’re communicating something with the audience,” Denny said. “And if a song is 73 times the word ‘baby’ and one time the word ‘you,’ you might be able to connect it to something, but to the audience it’s not actable.”

The great thing about songs, said cabaret instructor Barry Kleinbort, is that it’s possible to find one for almost any emotion or occasion. The “Art of Cabaret” faculty hopes to make those songs more accessible to workshop participants.

“We have to believe that everything you’re saying rings true,” Kleinbort said. The workshop’s close faculty-to-student ratio allows that truth to come through, he said.

“People feel very safe, and so they’re willing to take chances. You really are freed, and you feel safe at the same time,” he said.

That kind of safety allows Marcovicci’s vision of a good cabaret performance — “honesty with sequins” — to come to life.