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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Editor
UKIAH, Calif. – The Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department and Ukiah Civic Light Opera will present “The Music Man” April 12-21 in Mendocino College’s Center Theatre.
This classic American musical is Meredith Willson’s affectionate tribute to Smalltown, USA of a bygone era.
The beloved show features some of the greatest songs in American musical theatre history, including “76 Trombones,” “Goodnight my Someone” and “The Wells Fargo Wagon.”
The musical is based on a story by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey, and features a book, music and lyrics by Willson.
This joyous family friendly show will delight audiences of all ages.
“The Music Man” follows fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa, circa 1912, into buying instruments and uniforms for a boy's band he vows to organize – this despite the fact he doesn't know a trombone from a treble clef.
His plans to skip town with the cash are foiled when he falls for Marian the librarian, who transforms him into a respectable citizen by curtain's fall.
According to the show’s director, Mendocino College theater professor Reid Edelman, “Producing a major musical such as ‘The Music Man’ is always exciting. It is a joyful opportunity to collaborate with our wonderful dance and music faculty and to involve a large cast of enthusiastic performers. This is one of the greatest musicals ever written, one that celebrates life, love and the transformative power of music.”
David Strock, a talented local theater artist with dozens of musical and dramatic theatrical credits, plays the central role of Professor Harold Hill.
Veteran local performer, former Miss Mendocino, and real-life local librarian Roseanne Wetzel plays the role of Marian the librarian.
Other performers in principal roles include Ryan Eldredge as Hill’s sidekick Marcellus Washburn, Joyce Boghosian as Marian’s mother Mrs. Paroo and the adorable Marcus Phillips in the role of Marian’s 12-year-old brother Winthrop.
The town mayor and his wife will be played by Harvey Baumoel and Margo Sellick. Charlie Cowell, a traveling salesman bent on exposing Hill as a fraud is being played by Mendocino College theater student Will Moody. Another college theater major, Andrew Corpuz, plays the important role of Tommy Djilas and is also the production’s dance captain.
Sarah Martin, an experienced dancer with the Mendocino Ballet Co., plays opposite Corpuz as the female dance lead Zaneeta Shinn, the mayor’s daughter. The show also features Dave Peterman, John Ratto, Frank Braverman and Jim Howlett as a delightful barbershop quartet.
“The Music Man” company includes nine energetic local children, including 10 year old Taylor Bowser in the principal role of Amaryllis.
In all, the radiant and enthusiastic cast includes 40 talented singers, dancers and actors as well as a full orchestra (under the direction of music director and Mendocino College professor Les Pfutzenreuter).
Ukiah High School drama teacher and Mendocino College dance instructor Maria A. Monti is choreographing the extensive dance sequences and Mendocino College music instructor Marilyn Simpson is the production’s vocal director and co-musical director.
College theater technician Larry L. Lang is designing scenery and lighting, while college costuming instructor Kathy Dingman-Katz is creating the many costumes with the assistance of her costume construction classes.
This show is expected to sell out quickly, so audiences are encouraged to purchase tickets early.
“The Music Man” opens Friday, April 12, and runs through Sunday, April 21, in the Center Theatre on the Mendocino College campus.
Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. There also is a performance at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 18.
Tickets are available now at the Mendocino College Bookstore on the college campus, at the Mendocino Book Co. in downtown Ukiah and also online at www.artsmendocino.org .
Prices are $15 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and ASMC cardholders.
For additional information or group sales, please call 707-462-9155.
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- Written by: Editor
LAKEPORT, Calif. – “The Sound of Music” is the familiar tale of a young Austrian woman sent from the abbey to govern the seven children in the villa of Captain von Trapp.
Maria Rainer von Trapp not only teaches the children to sing, but how to live life joyfully. She also counsels the 16-year-old Liesl to “wait a year or two” to fall in love.
The “world’s most beloved musical,” by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, is presented by the drama club of Clear Lake High School.
“If you see only one live production this year,” says show producer C. Richard Smith, “be sure you catch this outstanding musical production by these very talented kids. They light up the stage and will have you singing, laughing and in tears.”
“The Sound of Music” is performed in the Marge Alakszay Center on the Lakeport school campus at 250 Lange St.
Performances take place at 7 p.m. Friday, March 22, and Saturday, March 23; and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 24.
Tickets cost $15 for reserved seating and $10 for general seating. Children 12 and under are $5.
Tickets are available through the CLHS office at 707-262-3010 or at the door.
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- Written by: Editor
FORT BRAGG, Calif. – Symphony of the Redwoods will present its spring concert Saturday, April 6, and Sunday, April 7.
The concert begins at 8 p.m. April 6 and 2 p.m. April 7, at Cotton Auditorium, 500 N. Harold St., Fort Bragg.
A reception, celebrating the symphony’s 30 years of music on the Mendocino Coast, follows the April 7 concert at 4 p.m. at the senior center next to the auditorium.
Allan Pollack conducts Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with guest pianist Elena Casanova in the season’s final concert.
The program includes Brahms’ Serenade No. 1, and The Dance of the Buffoons by Rimsky-Korsakov; Allan Pollack conducting.
Tchaikovsky's well-loved Concerto No.1 is a favorite of virtuoso pianists. Casanova brings her wide breadth of musical experience, including her solo performances with the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra and her enthusiasm for her native Cuban music, to this powerful piece.
Concert tickets are available at the door or online at www.symphonyoftheredwoods.org .
For more information call 707-964-0898.
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
This kite-flying poem caught me right up and sent me flying as soon as Robert Gibb described those dimestore kites furled tighter than umbrellas, a perfect image. Gibb lives in Pennsylvania.
Kites
Come March we’d find them
In the five-and-dimes,
Furled tighter than umbrellas
About their slats, the air
In an undertow above us
Like weather on the maps.
We’d play out lines
Of kite string, tugging against
The bucking sideways flights.
Readied for assembly,
I’d arc the tensed keel of balsa
Into place against the crosspiece,
Feeling the paper snap
Tautly as a sheet, then lift
The almost weightless body
Up to where it hauled me
Trolling into the winds—
Knotted bows like vertebrae
Flashing among fields
Of light. Why ruin it
By recalling the aftermaths?
Kites gone down in tatters,
Kites fraying like flotsam
From the tops of the trees.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2012 by Robert Gibb from his most recent book of poems, Sheet Music, Autumn House Press, 2012. Poem reprinted by permission of Robert Gibb and Autumn House Press. Introduction copyright 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.