Monthly Archives: December 2016

2016 a Banner Year for A Roadkill Opera: World Premiere, Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia Performances, Artomatic

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What a year for A Roadkill Opera!

Many thanks to the hundreds of people who attended live performances at the Mead Theater Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC in January 2016 and at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia, in October 2016. Thanks, too, to the many others who came to the Gaithersburg Book Festival and to artist talks and installations at Artomatic@Frederick 2016 in Frederick and Artomatic 2016 in Potomac, Maryland.

Our final event for the year was Hungry Men Don’t Swerve, an artist talk at Artomatic 2016 on Sunday, December 4, 2016, at 1 p.m., about A Roadkill Opera‘s journey from Artomatic to the GRAMMYs.

Photo of audience members looking at installation for the artist talk on A Roadkill Opera
First-time Artomatic attendees from Austria were drawn in December to the Artomatic 2016 artist talk on the path of Ferdinando Paer’s 1804 Leonora to the 2016 world premiere performances of Stephan AlexanderParker’s A Roadkill Opera. The setting: in front of the Artomatic 2016 office, and directly in front of the exhibit space for the artist Rambo!

The crowd was treated to a sneak peak of video from the October 2016 performances by the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA) at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia, in October 2016.

The Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia performed fully staged highlights from A Roadkill Opera on October 21, 2016, at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia.

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 at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC.

It was sold out houses for the Saturday performances of A Roadkill Opera on January 9, 2016, at the Mead Theatre Lab At Flashpoint in Washington DC. The houses were pretty good as well on the previous night of this limited run of the hilarious new opera about the hour before the first professional gig for a sketch comedy troupe in 1980s Wyoming.

Photo of Holly, Eddie, llama, and Marvin on the set of A Roadkill Opera
Holly (Laura Wehrmeyer) and Eddie (Alan Naylor) debate ways and whether it is necessary to punch up the humor of “In A Clearing” while Marvin (Christopher Dews) tends to the llama in A Roadkill Opera in its world premiere performances in January 2016 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.

This clip shows the Cod Piece Dining Room comedy sketch, recorded live at the 1992 Roadkill!!! Greatest Hits! show on Friday the 13th at the Pink Garter Theatre in Jackson, Wyoming. Doug Henderson, who was starring in the title role of Harvey in the production then running on the Pink Garter Theatre’s stage, proved to be an energetic announcer. Dave Rohrer provided live musical accompaniment, Ed Bachtel and Stephan Alexander Parker were onstage in their final public performance under their legal partnership (dissolved shortly thereafter) in the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company, and the role originated by Holly Danner in the 1988 run was played in the 1992 show by Louise Gignoux.This clip has mild profanity (unlike the family-friendly A Roadkill Opera).

Many of the props from the 1988 show will be recognizable to audiences that attended the 2016 performances of A Roadkill Opera.

Photo of Clarence Davis at the check-in table for Artomatic 2016, reading the piano/vocal score for A Roadkill Opera
Artomatic 2016 benefitted from the organizational communication skills of Clarence Davis, who was hands-on in working the door, banding those eligible for purchasing alcohol, and (incidentally) sufficiently curious about A Roadkill Opera to read the piano/vocal score
Photo of Diana King and A Roadkill Opera librettist Stephan Alexander Parker at the Turnham Hotel bar in Chicago
Diana King, retired from the education department of Chicago’s Lyric Opera, is a fan of A Roadkill Opera. She met with librettist Stephan Alexander Parker at a Chicago Bar earlier in 2016 and followed up by telephone in December 2016 to encourage a Chicago production
Photo of Parker and Choupin standing in front of hammer at A Roadkill Opera world premiere performances in January 2016 at the Mead Theater Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC
A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker and merchandising director DJ Choupin at the world premiere performances in January 2016 at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint. Parker is holding the Harrison Ford print by the artist Rambo! that was raffled off to attendees who came dressed as Harrison Ford
Photo of cast in front of the audience at a January 2016 performance of A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC
The world premiere cast takes a bow at a January 2016 performance of A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC
Photo of audience at at a January 2016 performance of A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC
The audience for a performance of A Roadkill Opera, just before the show in January 2016 at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC. A GoPro video of a performance is on the Roadkill Opera website and YouTube channel
Photo of Lerner-Lams, Ganz, and Parker at world [premiere performances of A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC in January 2016
The audiences for the world premiere run of A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theater Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC in January 2016 included Katie Lerner-Lam, Nina Parker Ganz, Eva Lerner-Lam, and librettist/executive producer Stephan Alexander Parker, seen here holding the Rambo! print that went to the lucky audience member who dressed as Harrison Ford (and won the raffle)