Wehrmeyer, Timpane, and Miletich to Return in SONOVA’s FREE Performances of 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.

Photo showing head shots and names of the cast of A Roadkill Opera - world premiere performances — The lobby card that greeted lucky theatre-goers at the January 2016 sold out houses announced the cast for A Roadkill Opera – world premiere cast

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.