Laura Wehrmeyer and David Timpane, who have been with A Roadkill Opera from the very first workshop at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, will return in the roles they created in the world premiere performances in January 2016 at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC. Laura and David also performed the roles of Holly and Stephan, respectively, in the 2013 studio recording. Also returning from the world premiere cast are Alex Miletich IV and Christopher Dews. The four returning cast members are joined by Kelly Curtin and Larry Boggs. These six dynamic entertainers will be accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA) under the direction of Jeffrey Dokken.

The studio recording of A Roadkill Opera was released on July 4, 2013, on Amazon.com and subsequently on  CD Baby, AmazonMP3, and iTunes. It is now available worldwide on nearly all platforms. This comic opera with music in the style of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is recommended for fans of PDQ Bach, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Tom Lehrer, and The Rutles–but only if you like classical music with infectious hooks.

Though not nominated, the studio recording of A Roadkill Opera got the creative team invited to the GRAMMYs, which they attended in February 2015. Which led to the January 2016 world premiere, fully staged performances (with sold-out houses) at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC.

The opera is new: the story is set in 1988 in the hour before the first professional gig for a comedy improv troupe in Jackson Hole—the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company. The music is classical–from the 1804 Leonora by Ferdinando Paer, one of Beethoven’s direct competitors.

A Roadkill Opera tells the story of the hour before the first professional gig for a bunch of amateur improv sketch comedians in 1980s Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Below is a clip showing the classic sketch “Cod Piece Dining Room” recorded live at the 1992 Roadkill!!! Greatest Hits! show on Friday the 13th at the Pink Garter Theatre in Jackson, Wyoming. This clip has mild profanity (unlike A Roadkill Opera, which is suitable for all ages).  Doug Henderson, who was starring in the title role of Harvey on the Pink Garter Theatre’s stage, proved to be an energetic announcer. Dave Rohrer provided live musical accompaniment, Ed Bachtel, Louise Gignoux, and Stephan Alexander Parker were onstage in the final public performance by the the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company, the troupe portrayed in A Roadkill Opera.

The props will be recognizable to audiences that attend A Roadkill Opera.

October 21, 2016 at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia

Jeff Dokken to Direct and Conduct

Great news for comedy and music fans who missed out seeing the sold-out world premiere performances of A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC in January 2016: several of the stars are slated to reprise their roles in two FREE performances that the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA) is producing. Shows are at 7:00 and 8:30 pm on Friday, October 21, 2016, at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia. Jeff Dokken is directing and conducting, as he did for the world premiere.

Soprano Laura Wehrmeyer and baritone David Timpane have been with A Roadkill Opera at every stage since the first workshop rehearsal at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City. You can hear them on the commercially released 2013 album. They created the roles of Holly and Stephan, respectively, in the 2016 world premiere performances, with Alex Miletich IV creating the role of Dave.

A Roadkill Opera is a mashup of a backstage screwball comedy set in 1988 Wyoming with music from Ferdinando Paer’s 1804 opera Leonora. It tells the story of the hour before the lights go up on the first professional gig for a comedy improv troupe–the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company–at the legendary Silver Dollar Bar in the Wort Hotel in Jackson Hole. During that hour, they find out their showroom will be torn down.

The Roadkill!!! comedy review played 22 shows over 8 weeks at the Silver Dollar Bar during the Yellowstone fires of 1988. The Wort Hotel is celebrating its 75th anniversary this week. One of the current Wort “regulars” built theatre flats for the 1988 troupe and is fictionalized as “Marv” in A Roadkill Opera.

Conductor and director Dokken has developed A Roadkill Opera into a hilarious 59-minute show based on the original story and English script (opera people call it a libretto) by Stephan Alexander Parker, first at the 2012 workshop at Artomatic in Crystal City, Virginia, through the Montgomery County, Maryland, recording sessions for a 2013 commercially-released album that led to an invitation to attend the GRAMMYs in February 2015, to the sold out world premiere performances at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC in January 2016.

In addition to the studio album of A Roadkill Opera, Parker commercially released the sheet music in 2013 and in August 2016 followed up by releasing the rehearsal tracks album as A Roadkill Opera, Wanted: Vocals.

For more information, visit www.sonovamusic.org or www.roadkillopera.com, or contact Parker at roadkillopera@icloud.com.