Are those thought bubbles over the head of Tony van Veen, CEO of AVL Digital (Disc Makers/CDBaby) labeling Indiehitmaker’s Founder/President Bram Bessoff “naughty” and A Roadkill Opera‘s Librettist/Executive Producer Stephan Alexander Parker “nice” at the after party for CD Baby’s 2017 DIY Musicians Conference?It’s a small world: A Roadkill Opera‘s Librettist/Executive Producer Stephan Alexander Parker and Social Media for Music’s President/CEO Rick Barker met at CD Baby’s DIY Musicians Conference 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee, and discovered they are both fans of and friends with Ben Ganz of Vego Pictures.A shared passion for all genres of live music–that is what Bob Boilen of NPR Music’s All Songs Considered and A Roadkill Opera‘s Librettist/Executive Producer Stephan Alexander Parker have in common. Here they are at CD Baby’s DIY Musicians Conference 2017 in Nashville, TennesseeMultiinstrumentalist/composer/educator and serial viola jokester Rob Flax checks out the score to A Roadkill Opera at CD Baby’s DIY Musicians Conference 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee. No violas were injured in the making of this photograph.Disc Makers (AVL Digital Group)’s Senior Marketing Manager Michelle Borek and her colleague Josh Larkins admired the Hatch Show Print poster that served as the cover for A Roadkill Opera‘s sheet music and CD at the CD Baby DIY Musicians Conference 2017.At CD Baby’s 2017 DIY Musicians Conference, Gas Money Merch Co-owner Karen Corzine describes how a proper merchandise mix allows a touring band to afford to get down the road to the next gig. Merch Cat‘s Vanessa Ferrer describes how to use software to track your merchandise mix on the road and maximize its performance. Yes, that is A Roadkill Opera‘s Hatch Show Print poster featured on the dais next to the poster for Anthem.A Roadkill Opera‘s merch display can be put up or taken down in about 20 minutes. It was invited to set up as a demonstration of good practice as part of the Merch Cat sessions at CD Baby’s DIY Musicians Conference 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee. Bram Bessoff of indiehitmaker liked the Roadkill Opera logo; Gas Money Merch’s Karen Corzine liked the red viola case; Merch Cat’s Vanessa Ferrer liked the large, visible pricing on the pop-up display.
A lot has happened in the year since!
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery founder Sam Calagione (right), a James Beard Award winner, met with A Roadkill Opera‘s lyricist Stephan Alexander Parker in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in August 2018. Sam offered to have Dogfish sponsor a production of A Roadkill Opera at the Milton Theatre. A spring 2019 date is being explored.With the blessing of the general manager of the Wort Hotel, in 2018 new covers of the libretto and A Roadkill Opera: Overture Conductor’s Score & Parts (pictured) feature a vintage marquee from the legendary Silver Dollar Bar’s Showroom. The overture publication includes a compact, affordable set of tear-out (well, pull out carefully) parts for the 9-minute piece. It is musically identical to Ferdinando Paer’s Overture from the 1804 Leonora.Megan Hilty is most recognized for her portrayal of seasoned triple-threat Ivy Lynn in NBC’s musical drama Smash. In spring 2017, Hilty received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Brooke Ashton in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Noises Off. She earned nominations for a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Drama League Award and won a Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Featured Actress in a Play. All of which makes Stephan Alexander Parker thrilled that Ms. Hilty is holding a piano/vocal score of his show A Roadkill Opera, which, like Noises Off and Smash, is largely set backstage. Hilty and Parker were photographed at the Wallis Theatre where Hilty performed as a special guest for An Evening with Stephen Schwartz: A Writers Circle.A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker and Broadway composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, Schikaneder) at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018 at the Wallis Theatre. Schwartz directs and hosts two workshops annually, one in Los Angeles and one in New York. Parker was invited to this one.Perhaps indicative of the first evening of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018, which featured The Bully Problem, a kids musical with book, music, and lyrics by Michael Gordon Shapiro, the third and final night was open to the public and had lots of kid-friendly songs by Cinco Paul and the duo Zina Goldrich & Marcy Heisler: An Evening With Stephen Schwartz: A Writer’s Circle. Here are a young theatre kid and her proud dad, anticipating a highly entertaining evening.The brilliant Ben Ganz is the brains behind Vego Pictures, currently set up at Lionsgate. When he isn’t shooting verite video for A Roadkill Opera, that is. You can see Ben (partially) reflected in the N of LIONSGATE in the background of this glamour shot of A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker, skating for the day until the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018 resumes in the evening.A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker (center) with director/choreographer/playwright/songwriter Jenita Nakamura (left) and her song producer/studio orchestrator Kyle Donald (right) at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018. We had dinner together before the second session, only to find our assigned seating had us in adjacent rows–the front two rows! That evening, the workshopped show was Tenn, book, music, and lyrics by Julian Hornik.Between sessions of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018, A Roadkill Opera’s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker worked on the script adaptation of his 59-minute opera to a 90-or-so-minute musical, poolside at the Mosaic Hotel. Suggestions from the workshop were enormously helpful in checking the show’s structure: characters “I want” and “I have a problem” songs; the levels of centrality of various characters; and the notion that the purpose of each scene is to propel you to the next scene, and the purpose of each song is to give you a reason to listen to the next one. Perhaps the most important connection made at the workshop was with producer Michael A. Kerker of the ASCAP Foundation. In addition to producing the workshops, Kerker was unfailingly kind and attentive to the workshop participants and performers.A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker met The Phantom of the Paradise‘s Paul Williams and his lovely wife Mariana Williams at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018 at the Wallis Theatre in Los Angeles. Williams’s popular music is the soundtrack for a generation, including such songs as “We’ve Only Just Begun”, “Rainy Days and Mondays”, “I Won’t Last a Day Without You”, “Evergreen”, “Just An Old Fashioned Love Song”, “Out in the Country”, “Family of Man”, and “Rainbow Connection.”
So here’s the thing: during this video shot at the GRAMMYs in February 2015, A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist (and, for the recording, one of the producers) Stephan Alexander Parker brandishes a pair of chopsticks imprinted in gold with the ideogram for “harmony” and lettering for A Roadkill Opera. The chopsticks were partly inspired by the knowledge that ASCAP’s President and Chairman Paul Williams likes squid. With the thousands and thousands of people at the GRAMMYs, Parker and A Roadkill Opera‘s conductor and music director (and co-producer for the studio album) Jeffrey Dokken were shocked and delighted to bump into Williams on the sidewalk after the show. Parker pulled a CD out of his pocket to hand to Williams, totally forgetting the chopsticks. That was 2015.
Well, at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018, Parker finished a delivery three years in the making.
