Music is an essential component of improv comedy–in fact, of comedy, period. My introduction to improv in Chicago in the late 70s and early 80s was integrated with music, first through the hilarious work of the Mee-Ow sketch comedy show with its incomparable musical commentary by the lightning-sharp piano wizardry of the witty Larry Schanker, and subsequently through the spinoff Practical Theater Company and its musical alter ego Riffmaster and the Rockme Foundation.

As lighting tech for 5 years of Mee-Ow shows, I had the pleasure of seeing the hilarious work of Paul Barrosse and Rush Pierson as “colonels” in a hot zone; Julia Louis-Dreyfuss channeling Mary Taylor Moore through the Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Ordinary People all in the same sketch; and the shockingly good Christmas carolers singing the Ayatollah song. And the seal and penguin romance…hilarious.

When much of the Practical Theater Company cast got scooped up for a season of writing and acting on Saturday Night Live, Riffmaster and the Rockme Foundation came back to open for castmate Eddie Murphy at the Varsity Theater in Evanston. As lighting designer, I was initially thrilled, then disappointed when told by Eddie Murphy’s manager that Eddie wanted only two follow spotlights, no additional lighting; then, thrilled again, when the limited electrical infrastructure meant that I would have to sit in front of the stage to unplug the lights from the opening act, Riffmaster and the Rockme Foundation, and since I had nowhere to go in the sold out house, sat in front of the front row for Murphy’s raucous set. [Special thanks to Paul Barrosse for the Varsity photo, borrowed from his blog at http://pab58.com/rock-roll/all-about-the-rockme-foundation/.]

When Ed Bachtel and I were constructing our first sketch comedy revue, the 1988 Roadkill Live!!! for the Wort Hotel’s Greenback Lounge (enter through the Silver Dollar Bar), we knew we needed live music. Fortunately, we found Dave Rohrer, who was willing to gig on the side. Dave had a real job as a marketing director for a sporting goods manufacturer, while Eddie and I were river rats and Holly was a radio newscaster and aspiring deejay.  The 1988 show was an independent effort; we worked with the Jackson Hole Actors Co-op for the 1992 revival, Roadkill’s Greatest Hits.

Despite my best efforts, though, I was not able to persuade Actor’s Co-op during my 1984-1992 tenure as volunteer lighting designer to mount the funniest send-up of resort town economics/politics I have ever seen, the Practical Theater Company’s production of Paul Barrosse’s Song of The Snells. It has everything: murder, intrigue, mock iambic pentameter…but I digress. Hope springs eternal. Actor’s Co-op is gone, but there are alternative theater companies now, such as Riot Act, that might really go for something as unusual and bloody as Song of The Snells.

Wouldn’t it be great if Song of The Snells was on a double bill with A Roadkill Opera?

At the opening reception for Artomatic Takes Flight, the 2014 iteration of Washington’s non-juried free arts event at The Gallery Walk at Reagan National Airport, Artomatic founder George Koch spoke eloquently about the simple goals of Artomatic: first and foremost, to build community among artists. Photographer DJ Choupin and author/librettist Stephan Alexander Parker, both long-time volunteers, were there.  After George spoke, Stephan caught up with him and told him this:

A Roadkill Opera was workshopped in Crystal City, Virginia, at Artomatic 2012. The workshop concert was so well received (“sprawling room only” as every seat was filled and people were sprawled on the carpet) that Parker and conductor/music director Jeffrey Dokken co-produced a studio recording with Blue House Productions’s Jeff Gruber in Kensington, Maryland, in 2013. In the do-it-yourself spirit of Artomatic, when Parker released the recording in 2013, he also published all the sheet music for the score and parts, so anyone can put on the 59-minute opera. The support, encouragement, and facilities provided by Artomatic were instrumental and go back to the second Art-O-Matic.

Parker exhibited at Art-O-Matic 2000 in Tenleytown, in the District of Columbia, highlighting the one-act plays that featured the character Eddie, Parker’s comedy partner in Wyoming.  “Loose Lips,” a one-act that is set in Nora’s Fish Creek Inn in Wilson, Wyoming, has Eddie spinning a yarn about his involvement in the French commando attack on Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior II.

Talk about a small world: Jay Marx, who was also at Art-O-Matic 2000, read “Loose Lips” at Parker’s exhibit. He emailed Parker:

Sat, Oct 21, 2000 4:08 pm

Dude, I wish you had put a phone number on your installation somewhere and we could've been in touch days ago, because my email access is way sporadic, but suffice to say that I spent 9 summers of my youth in Jackson Hole and I knew Nora, before she ran the Fish Creek Inn, from running the JH Rodeo's concession stand, and now I'm acting, some, here in DC and helping to book the Literary Stage at A-O-M, and I will consider this whole artomatic venture a personal failure if we fail to arrange a staged reading of your plays, either on the lit. stage or upstairs on the Rhinocerous stage, and 
Please Call Me, at your earliest convenience, if such a proposition 
interests you--
Jay Marx @
XXX-XXX-XXXX - home
XXX-XXX-XXXX - mobile
Yes, DC needs a dose of the west real, real bad.  Hoping to speak to you 
soon. . .
--Jay

Jay went on to recruit actors and an audience. Since the formal slots on the Literary Stage were all booked up for the final week, the actors gathered on the roof of the garage, outside the temporary stage where Wooly Mammoth was presenting Rhinocerous. Based on the reading, Parker refined his play. On Groundhog Day 2013, with the first recording session for A Roadkill Opera under his belt, Parker published his first book, If You See Roadkill, Think Opera. As described on the back cover:

“Parker opens with his 25-year quest to identify music he recorded off a classical radio station in Chicago. He closes with the true-ish story of whitewater rafting guides from rival firms on the Snake River teaming up during the Yellowstone fires of 1988 to create an original, improvisational comedy sketch show, in the underground opera sensation Opening Night: A Roadkill Opera. In between are one-act plays with art entrepreneurs, kitchen characters, and boat saboteurs. Stephan Alexander Parker guided whitewater raft trips, drove buses, and worked at the Jackson Hole Cinema during his years in Wyoming. He is working on his show business memoir, I Rode With Ben Johnson.”

Thanks to Artomatic for the community, support, and encouragement. Here’s hoping we get a production at International Artomatic 2015: as announced this week, “Artomatic is collaborating again with our Sister City Sunderland England, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Solas Nua and others in advance of an International Artomatic in the 3rd quarter of 2015 on the campus of Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC).”

The 2014 Grand Teton Music Festival is under way, and A Roadkill Opera is being featured in an in-store display at Gifts of The Earth.

During a recent trip to Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and Yellowstone, If You See Roadkill, Think Opera author Stephan Alexander Parker had a chance to revisit the sites of two of his best-known stories. His first stop was at Nora’s Fish Creek Inn in Wilson, Wyoming, which is the setting for “Loose Lips,” a one-act play in that story collection. Stephan met briefly with Nora Tygum, founder and namesake of the restaurant, and for a bit longer with her daughter and the Inn’s current owner, Kathryn Taylor. He had a chance to tell Kathryn this story:

In October 2000, Stephan was exhibiting his writing for the first time at Art-O-Matic 2000 in Washington DC. Stephan had moved to DC only a few months earlier. Among the items in his exhibit were clipboards holding his one-act plays set in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, including “Loose Lips.”

One of the other participants in Art-O-Matic 2000 introduced himself as Jay Marx. Jay said he had worked for his cousin Nora’s concession stand at the Jackson Hole Rodeo for six summers (before she started the restaurant).  He told Stephan that Washington “needs a good dose of the West, real bad.” Not only did Jay suggest that “Loose Lips” get a table reading, he recruited actors and organized the reading on the roof of the old Hechingers Department Store. Meanwhile, the official Art-O-Matic went on inside the building.

That table reading of “Loose Lips” was the first public performance of any of Parker’s writing since 1992’s Roadkill’s Greatest Hits!!!. It gave him the conviction that he needed to write a third play to round out a full night of one-acts (Parker’s one-act play”Two Cases” had received a closed table reading in the tented venue at Teton Village after a performance of Greater Tuna). That third one-act turned into A Roadkill Opera.

Parker’s second visit was to the Silver Dollar Bar at the Wort hotel, which is the setting for A Roadkill Opera. Those who have read the book or listened to the CD (or heard it played live) will recall that A Roadkill Opera tells the true-ish story of the hour before opening night for the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company in its first-ever production on July 4th weekend in 1988. The story largely focuses on the characters and what they are wrestling with: the running order of the show, which sketches stay in, delusions of adequacy, butterflies, and what happens if the show is (or is not) a success. The central dramatic plot point is when the cast learns that the showroom is being torn down.

Exciting news: Sources at the Wort Hotel said in July 2014 that the showroom will be restored in 2015. Wouldn’t it be great to have A Roadkill Opera performed in the same venue that it takes place in?

Ferdinando Paer, a regular in Empress Marie Therese’s band of music makers in Vienna, premiered his version of Leonora in 1804.  Ludwig van Beethoven, his esteemed contemporary, premiered his first version of Fidelio in 1805.

Having seen both Paer’s Leonora and Beethoven’s Fidelio, I have no doubt that Paer’s version of the opera is better than Beethoven’s. This, despite Beethoven having made three attempts to outdo his competitor.

Paer’s 1804 Leonora was the second version of the story set to music. Beethoven’s Fidelio was three of the six versions. Mayr also had an 1805 version. Parker kept Paer’s music and wrote a new story and libretto to it, which can be thought of as the seventh generation opera. A Roadkill Opera was publicly workshopped in 2012 and the studio recording was released in 2013.

Admittedly, I am biased, as A Roadkill Opera is built on the music from the first act of Paer’s 1804 Leonora.

Eddie and I hosted the open mic night at Spirits of the West Saloon when that started in 1988. One night, Eddie showcased a talent that he regularly exercised while on the flat-water portions of his whitewater guide trips: he played “Oh! Susannah” on his harmonica, through his nose.

When we were writing and programming the sketches for Roadkill Live!!!, we were trying to figure out a slam-bang finale for the show. Edie had written a terrifically funny signature sketch, “Frozen Roadkill On A Stick,” and we needed a big show-biz ending. I asked Eddie if he could play the Star Spangled Banner through his nose, and he said yes. With that as our finale, we were guaranteed a standing ovation for every show in our 8-week run at the Greenback Lounge in the Wort Hotel (entrance through the world famous Silver Dollar Bar) in 1988.

Some 25 years later, that trick is the subject of the finale of A Roadkill Opera, in a 5-part-harmony song about Eddie playing the national anthem, by harmonica, through his nose. The music (from 1804, by Ferdinando Paer) is glorious. The lyrics have been well-received in both the Artomatic 2012 workshop of A Roadkill Opera and the 2013 studio recording.

The final shows from the 1988 Roadkill Live!!! run and the one-night-only 1992 Roadkill’s Greatest Hits! midnight show were videotaped—Eddie did a fine job on harmonica. The question is, should he ride that axe again? Would this be a suitable act for the final week of Stupid Human Tricks on Letterman? Would it be a good idea to lead into Eddie’s performance with the opera singers? Feel free to let me know what you think.

As we approach the anniversary date of the July 4 release of A Roadkill Opera on CD, I am very moved by the emails of support and encouragement people have been sending. How nice that people celebrate this underground opera sensation’s anniversary by holding parades, setting off sparklers (as used in the sketch “Frozen Roadkill On A Stick), and, most appropriately, barbecuing. I am touched. Really.

We even got some press: after appearing at the Gaithersburg Book Festival, the Town Courier’s Pam Schipper wrote in the June 18, 2014 edition “Parker’s ‘A Roadkill Opera’ Is Pure Punk.” Check it out at http://towncourier.com/parkers-a-roadkill-opera-is-pure-punk/.

Around the release date anniversary, look for the CD and sheet music to A Roadkill Opera as well as the book If You See Roadkill, Think Opera, at Lashof Violins in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and in the Jackson Hole area at the Valley Bookstore, Gifts of the Earth, and maybe even at Dornan’s in Moose, Wyoming (if we can convince Dennis that this is a good fit for the Hootenanny…)

So I was in Nashville not too long ago, and before meeting our parents for dinner, my brother Dave suggested we stop by McKay Used Books. After rooting around the DVD section I had a prize find: an un-authorized tell-all of the real story behind American Idol. Score!  50 cents and it was mine.

But not so fast…since dad didn’t pick up the first time Dave called to confirm 6:30 pm instead of 7:00 pm, Dave suggested we take another 15 minutes to look around.

Dave: “Have you checked out the musical instruments section?”

Stephan: “There’s a musical instruments section?”

Dave: “They don’t usually have a lot of instruments, but it’s fun to look.”

So I looked–and I was shocked to find a cello-shaped viola case identical to the red one I use to carry A Roadkill Opera sheet music and gear for playing the opera at exhibits. Except this one was gray.

Since I was exhibiting at the Gaithersburg Book Festival in about a week, I thought the case would be perfect for my table.

Just one problem–the case had a viola in it. What should I do with it? Was it worth anything? I wanted to know. Fortunately, I knew a guy: Mike. Like me,  Mike has a day job, and he also has a passion for  bluegrass music. But Mike is not like me in respect to this: he’s got chops, and plays guitar, mandolin, and fiddle, among other things. And though he lives in West Virginia, Mike was in Nashville that day and agreed to take a look at my mystery viola.

Mike concluded that the viola was in pretty good shape and had a good tone. He also noticed that the back of the instrument had been marked with a permanent marker.

Once home in Maryland, I looked on the internet and found Charlie Daniels has a signature that looks similar. Since Mike said it was a decent instrument and maybe it had been signed by Charlie Daniels, I figured it would make sense to ask the pros from Dover–that is, Jen and Alicia, the master luthiers at Lashof Violins.  When they agreed to take a look at it, they said to leave it for a week, and they placed the instrument in one of their humidy-controlled cases.

That would allow me to use the gray cello-shaped fiberglass viola case for a tabletop display and the red cello-shaped fiberglass viola case for more visual impact in front of my table. The red really pops in the sun!

When I came back to Lashof Violins to see what they had found out, there were some real surprises…which I will reveal in my next post.

Coming to the 2014 Gaithersburg Book Festival (http://gaithersburgbookfestival.org) on May 17? Some of the most frequently asked questions last year were:

When will the studio album be available?

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, Tom Lehrer, and The Rutles–but only if you like classical music with infectious hooks.

How hard it is to sing or play the parts in A Roadkill Opera?

Most parts are suitable for college level. The vocal parts are described below in order of appearance in the score.

If you are a soprano in the market for opera audition pieces, you will be pleasantly surprised to hear the lovely arias composed by Ferdinando Paer. He intended them to be sung by his soprano wife in public concerts and by the Austro-Hungarian Empress Marie Therese in her private concerts.

Holly: Needs to be able to sing a high E flat. Slightly less difficult than Debby, but still requires a legit soprano.

Debby: Virtuoso soprano. Runs galore.

Stephan: Higher end of the baritone range. Needs to have glorious high Fs.

Eddie: Pretty straight-forward baritone role.

Dave: Tenor, needs a high B flat. Not too difficult a role, but needs breath control.

Violin 1: Virtuoso part.

Cello: One very difficult number, but the rest straight-forward.

Bass: All notes are within the playing range of cello.

As to Harrison Ford, you can read all about him  at http://gaithersburgbookfestival.org/exhibiting-author-stephan-alexander-parker-roadkill-opera/. 

Speaking of the Gaithersburg Book Festival, the official bookseller Politics & Prose is now showing If You See Roadkill, Think Opera for sale on their website.

Ah, a commonsense question.  A Roadkill Opera tells the true-ish story of the hour before opening night for the Roadkill-On-A-Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company in 1988’s Roadkill!!! comedy review in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at the Wort Hotel. The show ran for 8 weeks. I have since acquired a Wort Hotel belt buckle to commemorate the 8-week run. Come to the Gaithersburg Book Festival on Saturday, May 17, 2014, and I will show it to you.

Okay; was there any roadkill in the Roadkill!!! comedy review?

Yes, yes there was. Well, sort of. The title sketch was called “Frozen Roadkill On A Stick.” It featured a vendor with a pushcart selling–what else. The sketch explores a variety of menu items, including a discussion of what is really being sold from the cart. Among the items hawked by the vendor are a chiseler, a rabbit, and a house cat.

What is a chiseler?

A chiseler is local parlance for a Uinta ground squirrel. Every spring the roads are literally covered with them.  The local radio station used to run a public service announcement timed around the Kentucky Derby themed “the run for the sagebrush” that featured chiselers and squealing tires, trying to get people to slow down and not run over the chiselers. Not a pretty image, but it works on radio…

The flyer for the 1988 show says “not for the squeamish–absolutely no one under 21 admitted.” What’s that about?

Wyoming liquor laws. At the time, no one under 21 could be admitted into the bar and lounge, so we pointed it up in our publicity.

Did it work?

Well, the show ran for 8 weeks. We sold out the opening night and we sold out the closing night, and we had paying audience members every night except for the night after we opened. As far as I know no one under 21 attended.

Did you cancel the show the second night?

No. The show must go on! Besides, after weeks of rehearsal we had finally had a live audience, and we needed to work out changes to the show. Besides, maybe Harrison Ford would show up, and what would he think if the show hadn’t gone on?

Harrison Ford? A Roadkill Opera references him–how does he figure into things?

Harrison Ford had a ranch in the area. We had a table tent set on a table in the front row of the Greenback Lounge, right in front of the stage, that you could read from anywhere in the house, that said “Reserved for Harrison Ford.”

Did he ever attend the show?

No. But later, he did get involved with the local theatre programs that Ed Bachtel worked on. I don’t know if Eddie ever told Mr. Ford about his role in absentia in Roadkill!!!

Do you think Harrison Ford will see A Roadkill Opera?

Hmm, hadn’t though about it. It might happen, it could become true. I don’t know if he sings tenor or baritone–he might enjoy it.

Parker is scheduled to participate as an exhibiting author at the Gaithersburg Book Festival on Saturday, May 17, 2014, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. This year, CDs of the studio recording of A Roadkill Opera will be available for sale, along with published sheet music  (including a conductor’s score) and If you see roadkill, think opera.  Parker participated in the 2013 GBF as a literary merchant; the studio recording was played in preview, as it was released commercially on July 4, 2013.

While on a recent trip to California, Stephan Alexander Parker caught up with some early fans of A Roadkill Opera. Rod Diridon was the first to comment on the recording, writing: “A profound and enjoyable piece of art that speaks to the modern condition.  A Roadkill Opera is a 59 minute “must have” step into the future of music. This sounds almost like a spoof but it is not. Enjoy.”

Must be something about California…the first person to purchase a CD of A Roadkill Opera through Amazon.com was George Jahad.

In Cupertino, songwriter David Greenstein sang some of his original songs after receiving sheet music and a CD of A Roadkill Opera from Stephan Alexander Parker.

Stephan Alexander Parker made a pilgrimage to the storefront of Da Caruso in Vienna, Austria, in December 2013. Staff at Da Caruso were instrumental in identifying the music Parker had recorded off of a Chicago classical FM station in 1979; Ferdinando Paer’s Leonora has only been commercially recorded once, they informed him in 2003. The LP was out of print and a CD was not released until February 2013, a month after Parker held the first recording session for A Roadkill Opera.

In October 2013, Parker met with his New York business representative. Discussions on potential venues for live performances are ongoing. Among the likely locations are New York, Nashville, Tampa, San Francisco, and Washington DC.

It came as a bit of a shock when I read that 2014 marks the 50th anniversary for the Blair School of Music. Circa 1970, it was still known as Blair Academy. That is where I learned formal composition and studied piano around 1969-1972, about the same time my brother David had the Suzuki violin program experience (and vice verse) and my sister Nina studied piano there. As old and old-fashioned as studying piano and piano composition seemed at the time, the Blair Academy I knew also seemed cutting edge, as an electric piano lab was installed that allowed for group practice sessions. This when the Moog synthesizer and A Clockwork Orange were still recent phenomena. Some generous alumni are supporting The Blair School of Music 50th Anniversary Kickoff Celebration in 2014 on March 16 at 3 pm Nashville time.

Music appreciation–the understanding of composition form, balance, counterpoint, and so forth, may take a long time to manifest itself in children enrolled in classes–I speak from experience. It would be a mistake, however, to give in to the childish wishes to be free from practicing and learning music.  The opportunity to learn and embed such skills as chord progressions and arpeggios do not necessarily present themselves later in life, and these are lifelong skills that may (or may not) be valued as an adult.

Music appreciation begins with exposure, both in listening and performing.  Was it the grammar school recorder or the Cub Scouts fife-and-drum that led 40 years later to producing a classical studio album?  I don’t think so.  To be sure, playing in my high school pep band and college marching band were fun while they lasted, but it took decades of exposure to  symphonies for the understanding instilled by Mr. Higgs at Blair to bloom in a music hacker like me.

Blair has grown significantly over the years.  If you are interested in young and growing institutions, look no further than the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA).  On March 30, 2014, at the George Washington Masonic Memorial Theatre in Alexandria, Virginia, you can catch SONOVA’s 3rd ANNUAL GALA CONCERT “A Celebration of North & South” featuring George Gershwin’s classic “Rhapsody in Blue” with renowned Ecuadorian pianist Juan Carlos Escudero. This organization “aims to provide high-quality classical music to Northern Virginia and the surrounding areas, while upholding our standards of outreach, education, and entertainment.”

When visiting Nashville, I look to Blair; in the Washington DC area, I look to the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia for inspiration–and talent. SONOVA is where I have seen about half the performers on the studio recording of A Roadkill Opera. 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, Tom Lehrer, and The Rutles–but only if you like classical music with infectious hooks.

The first time anyone heard A Roadkill Opera in public was at the open rehearsals held at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia. The idea of workshopping this new comic opera in public was inspired by the do-it-yourself ethos of Artomatic, the Washington DC area’s largest free creative arts event.

The workshop concert performance for this new comic opera was SRO–sprawling room only.  Every seat was filled, and people took advantage of the carpeted floor to make themselves comfortable. It didn’t hurt that the stage was located next to the bar! That worked thematically, too, as the story of A Roadkill Opera takes place in a bar showroom.

The workshopping of A Roadkill Opera was accomplished in the space of one week. The first rehearsal was for vocalists only, with the help of a talented rehearsal accompanist.

Rehearsal was held on the first floor, as the fire marshall was busy inspecting the floor where our performance would eventually be held–the  Cherry Crush Stage. Rehearsal times that were proposed as performances by some bands had led to a general restriction on use of stages for rehearsals, so we almost had our rehearsals canceled at the last minute.

A videographer was recruited to capture this first workshop performance. Ben Ganz flew in from Los Angeles for the dress rehearsal and performance. He recruited his assistant locally, brother Jason Ganz. The low budget setting of the story in A Roadkill Opera was carried through to the opening night performance, as these volunteers worked for food.

At the dress rehearsal, the vocalists were unhappy with the bright stage lighting.  The videographer was adamant that lighting was required for high definition video.  Fortunately, the librettist had lighting rigs from Artomatic 2010 that could be installed rapidly. We only had the stage for one hour.  Since the band that had the stage reserved in the time slot ahead of us had not shown up by half past their hour, we were able to get an extra 30 minutes to set up. We used every minute of it.

Good morning, campers!

On Groundhog Day a year ago, February 2, 2013, the book If You See Roadkill, Think Opera was first released for sale on Kindle and on Amazon.com. It was the first of 7 Roadkill Opera paperbacks published in 2013; the other 6 provide sheet music and lyrics for anyone wanting to follow along, play along, practice, or perform A Roadkill Opera.

The studio recording of A Roadkill Opera was released on July 4, 2013, on Amazon.com and subsequently AmazonMP3, CD Baby, and iTunes. It is now available worldwide on nearly all platforms.

The “underground opera sensation” is garnering buzz among opera aficionados and amateur musicians alike.  A January 2014 listening party in Washington DC was repeated the next night.

The energy is building; contacts have been made and discussions are under way for potential performances in Tampa, Nashville, and Washington DC in the next year.

Many thanks to the fans who have written in this past year with compliments, encouragement, and ideas. Some of the correspondence received is excerpted below:

From: Bev
Date: Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 12:57 PM
Subject: Re: Interested!!!
To: E.J.
With that enthusiasm and your credentials, I vote for you as first chair brass.

On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 8:50 PM, E.J. wrote:

My daughter might be interested, too (her name is Ivy, but she goes by _______ online).

I want to be chair of the brass section.  Can’t play a lick.

 EJ

From: cece
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2014 5:15 PM
To: bev
Subject: Re: Interested!!!

 OMG

This is fantastic. Right up my alley. Can’t wait to get the music so I can start playing it badly.

Cece
—–Original Message—–

From: Bev
To: E.J.
Cc: Cece
Sent: Wed, Jan 29, 2014 11:07 am
Subject: Re: Interested!!!

Thanks, EJ! 

About The Tampa Really Terrible Orchestra:  I just received a fakebook and CD for an opera, “Roadkill.”  I think we can begin auditions for the opera and build from there.  The composer will provide the sheet music! 

I am introducing you by inclusion to Cece, the woodwinds first chair.  

Others who listened to the studio recording have written in; here are some of the comments:

From: Roger
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2014 2:03 PM

Just want you to know that we appreciate and enjoy your Road Kill Opera track. After listening to it, I saved a copy for Jenny and I and gave the CD to my son. He is heavy into the ‘Tenors’ and Opera Vocals and immediately began playing it for our Grandson who enjoys music at 9 months old. The rich music and outstanding vocals makes us wish we were watching it live however, it is very imaginative on its own.

And this one:

From: Richard
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2014 10:55 PM
Subject: Roadkill

Stephan, thanks so much for the CD! A very pleasant surprise. I have listened a few times and will pass it on to Dick. I have sent the web link around as well. It is funny because two summers age in Boise I met ____ and found that like me he is a trombone player AND the leader of the Reno Jazz Orchestra. He became an engineer as he was not making it as a band leader for a while. He has since retired and is now full time with the Band. I have always told people that when I retire one of the things I planned to do was be a street musician in Portland, OR. My son lives there with his wife who is an Opera Singer (and Whole Foods Deli manager) and just went back to school for some more training. We would make a great pair out on the street.

And this one:

From: Kelly
Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2014 9:51 PM

The Roadkill Opera was amazing! Thanks for sharing the CD with us. The singing was fantastic and the lyrics were a lot of fun. My Dad said to tell you that you are a classic(al) guy! Not sure that I would ever have thought that an opera would be fun. Was there a stage show? If so, are you still performing? I’ll be back in DC in late February and would love to see the live show.

And this one:

From: Linda
Sent: Monday, January 20, 2014 2:05 PM
Subject: an opera?

Really? Can you send me a link? Eva pinged me on that. How cool. You may have forgotten I have two degrees in piano performance 🙂

And one more:

I listened to your opera yesterday while driving from Florida to Birmingham, Alabama.  I didn’t realize it would be so funny.  The performers are superb and it is a very good recording.  It would really lend itself to an over-the-top period costuming and décor.  Or at least an original style production like the retro Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre Company.

Thanks again to the fans and keep the emails coming.  You can also check out the comments below from Jeff and Rod (links are below) and the comments on the Kindle version of If you see roadkill, think opera (4 and 5 stars!).

The most recent brick and mortar location to carry the line is Groth Music:

The paperback titles, authors, and original release dates on Amazon (products first created on CreateSpace, an Amazon company) are:

And the CD:

A Roadkill Opera by Stephan Alexander Parker (2013)

Whether you’ve read the book If You See Roadkill, Think Opera, or just heard the story of chasing down the 200 year old music of A Roadkill Opera, you might reasonably wonder what is meant when I say the story it tells of the hour before opening night of the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company is “true-ish.” It is a fair question.

There are songs in the 2013 studio recording of A Roadkill Opera that have titles pulled directly from sketches in the 1988 show “Roadkill Live!!!

In the 1988 comedy sketch, In A Clearing is a conversation held by a bear (played by Holly), a moose (played by Eddie), and a bison (played by Stephan) that answers the eternal question “If animals were people, would they still bother us?” The 2013 song In A Clearing is a duet between Holly and Eddie about how or whether to change the sketch.

The 2013 song Cod Piece Dining is a trio where Stephan joins the conversation with Holly and Eddie to decide the running order.  It is a wise show business strategy to put your strongest comedy sketch (or, in musicals, your strongest musical number) just before intermission. That sends people into the break planning to come back afterwards. As it was described in the 1988 program: “Intermission: 15 minutes. Please buy lots of drinks. Now.” That was the Wyoming experience in 1988.

The 2013 Cod Piece Dining song references several contending sketches, which were described in the 1988 program thusly:

• Adrenaline Adventures: Just when you thought it was safe to leave the bivy sack…
• Beaverzilla: If Gary Larson wrote TV sitcoms…
• My Breakfast With Booboo: Delves into the dark side of river runners. Not for the squeamish.
• Cod Piece Dining Room: Has absolutely no connection with any eatery in Jackson, much less this building, ’cause if it did we’d get kicked out of here real fast.

We’re going to leave out any further description of the 1988 comedy sketch My Breakfast With Booboo just to be on the safe side…however, there is something true-ish in the lyrics in the 2013 recording of the Cod Piece Dining song, which documents the discussion as to whether to keep My Breakfast With Booboo in the show because “it really is so crude.”  We really did have that conversation, and it did stay in the show, but contrary to the song’s construction, Stephan is the one who kept it in the 1988 show over the objections of everyone else.  Booboo was cut from the 1992 Roadkill’s Greatest Hits show, but that is another story.

Other true-ish aspects of the 2013 studio recording of A Roadkill Opera drawn from the real experiences of the 1988 improvisational sketch comedy revue:

• Holly really wanted to move up from news to disc jockey at the radio station (which she did–check out KMTN–The Mountain), as related in the 2013 song Impress Them.
• Stephan and Debby bought their first new car together in 1988, a Geo Metro, and discussed the relative merits of the different Geo models, a discussion reflected in the 2013 song Geo.
• Holly really got nauseous from stage fright in 1988, as related in the 2013 song Butterflies.
• The Greenback Lounge of the Wort Hotel, where the 1988 Roadkill Live!!! revue was staged, really was torn down after our show, more or less as related in the 2013 song Torn Down. The acts discussed in the song had all played or would have likely played the Greenback Lounge in the near future.
• Every 1988 show ended with a standing ovation (except the night after opening night, when we played to an empty house) due to the shrewd decision to end every show with the national anthem, as reflected in the 2013 song Glory.  Even the night the house was empty, the show went on, and we really did save a table for Harrison Ford at every show, as is also related in Glory.

Hard to believe that a year ago, in January 2013, the studio recording of A Roadkill Opera was only a plan. The initial plan was to jump into the studio for an afternoon and knock out a demo.  That changed completely once we got in the studio with recording engineer Jeff Gruber.

At Jeff’s suggestion, we laid down the instrumental tracks in the main studio, and the vocals on a guide or “scratch” track in the control room.  This would allow the vocals to be isolated and allow for each singer to record their best performance.

Everyone who would participate in the released recording was there the first day, with the lone exception of the cello soloist.

It would take multiple sessions from January to June 2013 to get all the tracks mixed and vocals laid in.  Ultimately, Jeffrey Dokken (music director and conductor), Jeff Gruber (recording engineer) and Stephan Alexander Parker (librettist) received producing credit for the studio album of A Roadkill Opera.

It was a proud day on July 4, 2013, when the CD was released–Independence Day!  Lashof Violins in Gaithersburg, Maryland, was the first brick and mortar store to carry the CD. Lashof also carries the sheet music for string instruments, as well as Parker’s book released on Groundhog Day, February 2, 2013, If You See Roadkill, Think Opera.

Pop-up sales venues for A Roadkill Opera were seen in Chicago; New Jersey; Frederick, Maryland; and Alexandria, Virginia.

Just in time for last minute holiday presents, there are now more places than ever to purchase A Roadkill Opera for your performance, whether in your home, your school, or to really knock their socks off at your next opera audition.

This week the largest sheet music distributor in Minnesota added the Performance Pack for A Roadkill Opera to their online catalog. As you may know, Minnesota is home to what many consider the best state fair in the country.  When I visited it in August 2013, I was thrilled to see so many items “on-a-stick,” even music-on-a-stick!

While at the 2013 Minnesota State Fair, I met with Dan Friberg, Lessons Coordinator and Printed Music Department Co-Manager for Groth Music.

Groth Music Company – 8056 Nicollet Ave S, Bloomington, MN  55420  •952-884-4772  •(800)969-4772  •Fax:(952)884-1134

This week, Groth has everything you’d want in stock at http://www.grothmusic.com/cSearch.aspx?Search=road+kill&CategoryID=0&ManufacturerID=0&SectionID=0&PriceRange=0&SortBy=0&PageSize=9&AndOr=AND&DisplayMode=Grid:

Of course, if you are not in the Minnesota area, you can still find A Roadkill Opera for downloads, order CDs, or order the books through the channels you are most comfortable with, including iTunes, CD Baby, and Amazon.