Northern Ireland’s Opera Theatre Company, in association with the Washington National Opera, presents Bug Off!!! by Belfast composer Stephen Deazley, with a libretto by Simon Glass. Based loosely on Kafka’s Metamorphosis, the performance offers children a fun first impression of opera.
Featured artists:
Opera Theatre Company, Ireland
and children attending James Lee Community Center, Department of Commnunity and Recreation Services, Fairfax County.
DAVID KNOTTS Conductor
ORLA MCKEAGNEY Stage Director
ANDREW CLANCY Set and Costume Designer
EIMER MURPHY Stage Manager
BRENDAN COLLINS Baritone
Musicians: CORY DAVIS (piano), ALEXIS KOH BENARD (violin), THERESA CIGAN (clarinet), MARK BERGMAN (double bass), NATHAN LASSELL (percussion)
CHORUS of Children: Tamika Alexander, Maggi Asal, Yamilee Bierd, Courtney Bonner, Rachel Bowanko, Zoe Chapman-Campbell, Marzanne DeLapp de Anaya, Luis Escobar, Edwin Gaitan, Hannah Gaudet, Emma Gold, Emma Haldane, Daniel Harris, Isaac Harris, Eraldo Henriquez, Jasmine Hernandez, Catlynn Houlihan, Christian Johnson, Max Johnson, Megan Kellam, Asha King, Ashton Lowe, Chelsea Luna, Megan Mack, Adelaine Madison, Mariah Marshall, Emily McGowen, Marisa Migliore, Mayron Morales, Dana Mulligan, Julio Muralles, Michala Murray, Krystal Nguyen, Shakirra Plazaola, Sarah Polzer, Quiani Price, Sophia Rivera, Amy Rock, Kiana Simpkins, Diana Voronin, Christina Vu, Marie Warren Kennedy, Paris Williams
The Project is part of the Rediscover Northern Ireland programme. www.rediscoverni.com
Unique Collaboration to Produce a Children’s Opera
As part of the Rediscover Northern Ireland program (www.rediscoverni.com) Opera Theatre Company (www.opera.ie) created a unique collaboration with the Department of Community and Recreation Services in Fairfax County, VA (www.fairfaxcounty.gov/rec/), to produce an opera to benefit children in communities across the region. The partnership was facilitated by the Washington National Opera (www.dc-opera.org) and Imagination Stage (www.imaginationstage.org).
This cross-continental multicultural partnership began January 10, 2007 with a professional development workshop for Community and Recreation Specialists at the James Lee Community Center in Falls Church, VA. Opera Theatre Company sent composer Stephen Deazley and conductor David Knotts to provide hands-on training for staff, incorporating the music and visual arts materials used in the opera. Following the training, CRS staff worked with local schools and community groups to recruit students who would normally encounter barriers to participating in a professional arts program. The project, which offers a free, accessible and exciting opera and theater education program, included a week-long intensive rehearsal period at the end of April with Opera Theatre Company professionals working with the children prior to the two public performances of Bug Off!
The partnership is part of the Rediscover Northern Ireland program taking place through to July and anchored by Northern Ireland’s participation in the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The Rediscover Northern Ireland program features 40 events taking place across the Washington, DC region that promote Northern Ireland’s arts and culture, education, food and drink, travel and tourism.
Jointly funded by the Arts Councils in Belfast and Dublin, Opera Theatre Company (OTC) is the busiest professional opera company on the island. OTC has toured to more than 100 cities, towns, and villages in Ireland and Northern Ireland since its first tour of The Turn of the Screw in 1986, and now has offices in Northern Ireland as well as in Dublin. OTC was founded to create high quality opera productions on lean budgets that can be presented anywhere, from a church to a community centre and from a 1000-seater theatre to a 100-seater arts centre.
For more information about Bug Off! please contact Rosa Solinas (rosa@opera.ie) or visit www.opera.ie
5/4/07: Northern Ireland’s Opera Theatre Company
