[ This Just In! ]
For Immediate Release
Date: September 17, 2002
Rehearsals Begin for MotherBone
AUSTIN, TX--Last night, Salvage Vanguard Theater held its first rehearsal for MotherBone, a new opera composed by Golden Arm Trio's Graham Reynolds with libretto by Karen Hartman that has already won national acclaim.
MotherBone is the much-anticipated opera commissioned and produced by Salvage Vanguard Theater. The project was conceived in early 2000 after a highly acclaimed collaboration between SVT's artistic director Jason Neulander and composer Graham Reynolds of Golden Arm Trio on a chamber opera called The Cry Pitch Carrolls.
"After The Cry Pitch Carrolls, I knew the company was headed towards developing more fully-scored music/theater productions," says Neulander. "Then, Graham composed and presented an original symphony with a 40-piece orchestra. Right after the performance I asked him if he wanted to compose a full scale opera and he immediately said yes."
MotherBone's librettist Karen Hartman was selected from a pool of writers. Hartman and Neulander had met in 2000 at a writers' retreat in Los Angeles. Hartman and Reynolds worked together both in Austin and New York to create the final piece, which is a contemporized adaptation of a Russian fairy tale.
Two-and-a-half years later, MotherBone is ready for production.
Already, the show has won the prestigious Frederick Loewe Music Theatre Award from New Dramatists in New York. American Theatre is featuring the show in its October issue. Sponsors for the project include the Austin Community Foundation, the Still Water Foundation, the Houston Endowment, the National Endowment for the Arts, and KMFA-Classical (89.5 FM), which is producing a radio documentary of the development process.
MotherBone has a cast of seven principles, a chorus of eight, and a twelve-piece orchestra.
"We've never produced a show this big before," says Neulander. "That's the real experiment here. Can we pull this thing off?"
After the first rehearsal, the entire team is optimistic.
"It was awesome, we sang through the whole piece last night, 6 weeks out," says Reynolds. "I've never been this far ahead on a project before. The more people you have collaborating, the more prepared you have to be. But that's going to lead to a more thought out and developed piece in the end. We have fantastic singers, a great orchestra, and the staging promises to be a massive spectacle."
Neulander continues: "We have an astounding cast, including Kris Olson of Austin Lyric Opera and Tina Marsh of Creative Opportunity Orchestra. And the show stars an extraordinary up-and-comer Jenny Larson. Plus, we've got eight of the most talented high school kids you could imagine in the chorus."
MotherBone, an opera about a girl and a witch, open Halloween and runs Wednesdays through Sundays through November 23 (no performance November 3). Tickets are $6 - 20. All performances are at 8:00 PM at the Off Center (2211-A Hidalgo St.). For tickets and information call 512-474-SVT-6 or visit <http://www.salvagevanguard.org>.
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