Opera

Millenium Stage Performance

By  Nicole Theberge, Falls Church News-Press

Usually the phrase 'Bug Off!' is not one  that beckons participation, but several area organizations, and one  international one, recently teamed up in hopes that an opera of that title  would tempt local schoolchildren and their parents to become more active  in the fine arts. A cross-continental partnership has been forged between  the Opera Company of Northern Ireland and Fairfax County, the James Lee  Community Center and the Washington National Opera to bring an opportunity  for area youth who might otherwise encounter barriers to participation to  experience the excitement of live performance.  The production, entitled Bug Off! and directed  by Orla McKeagney, is an adaptation loosely based on Kafka's  Metamorphosis, and tells the story of a young boy who wakes up  one morning transformed into a beetle. His new life is narrated by the  mysterious 'Dreamweaver' played by Irish baritone Brendan Collins.  Students attended workshops at the James Lee Community  Center to study the art of opera, learn theatre and acting skills and  create their own three-dimensional masks to be used during the performance. Following months of preparation and five days of intensive rehearsals, ending on May 3 with an open-to-the-public dress rehearsal, participants took their show on the road for the weekend.

The entertaining musical was put on at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage on May 4 and Imagination Stage in Bethesda on May 5. The 40 participating students were recruited by officials who participated in a professional development workshop for recreational specialists held in early January in Fairfax County. Officials chose students who may not have encountered theatre arts in  their lifetime, due to economic and social obstacles. The Opera Company of  Northern Ireland seeks to reach out to areas where the fine arts may not normally take root. "I see it as something that will be pivotal down the road for them," said Allison Mulligan, Regional Coordinator for the Fairfax County Department of Community and Recreation Services. "This was hard, and they stuck it out. When they encounter something else in their life that is difficult, they will have this to look back on." The production itself was full of song and dance. Children learned how to interact and compliment the sonorous 'Dreamweaver' with their own voices and movements. "When I first heard Brendan sing, I was like Wow, that  man's got some big lungs!" said Max Johnson, a 10 year-old participant in  the production. Most of the 41 participating students had never heard opera before, let alone performed in one, and were surprised to hear the  baritone belt out his first notes.

Many of the children have expressed interest in continuing to act and sing in other community groups since their experience at James Lee. The center has been inspired to form their own community youth drama group to capitalize on the attention. The group will have the same focus on giving children without exposure to the arts a chance to experience it, and to make it affordable and easy for working parents. The opera series is part of 'Rediscover Northern  Ireland' a collaborative effort between the United States and Ireland to introduce Irish culture and arts to a U.S. audience.

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As part of the Rediscover Northern Ireland program 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!

Northern Ireland’s Opera Theatre Company, in association with the Washington National Opera, presented 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.

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