On the road again….it has been a long time since I have been on the road with Portland Opera To Go, either as a performer or a stage manager, and this year, I find myself acting as both!  What a wonderful ride it has been though!  I am enjoying every minute of being in schools around students and teachers, singing and teaching.  And with Opera Improv the shows don’t have a chance of getting stale.  Every show, every day is different, and with this group of talented artists, I am having so much fun, I cannot believe I am paid!

Each day brings a fantastic new kid story:  Consider this:

On March 8, we played our first show to the entire 5th grade class of Davis Elementary, way out NE.  The 5th grade teachers had each pooled their personal funds to get us there for our $100 minimum.  There were about 80 kids in attendance.  They were a lively, engaged, well-prepared delightful group, who kept us after, peppering us with questions.  One asked me about auditions, and I suggested that if they were interested in auditioning for the children's chorus, that they call me for more information or to talk to me about what they would need to do.  After that question, I must have given out 20 business cards.  This morning I had a message on my phone from a 5th grade boy (very, very nervous!) requesting more information about auditioning for the children's chorus.  I called back his teacher, because the boy rushed the number out so fast that I couldn't catch it.  Allen Koshewa, the teacher, was very excited to talk to me today, told me wonderful stories of how thrilled the kids were and gave me the scoop on the boy who called.  I am hopeful that he will come and audition for us, as Allen says his face just lit up when we started singing.

This is why we do what we do...and incidentally, Allen told me that we had inspired him to become a subscriber again, after a lapse. 

Or this:

A blond haired 10 yr old boy who was at our dress rehearsal, has reported to his mother that he now wants to be an Improv artist. He doesn't think he has the voice to be an Opera Improv Artist but he's pretty sure he could do the normal kind of improv, if his mother would please investigate the kids improv group for him this summer, right after he finishes his blackbelt in taikwondo –

Or how about this:

I managed to make a kindergartner cry—and not in the normal, scary opera singer way!  It is rare, but sometimes the simple volume and power of our voices can overwhelm a 5-year-old, but this little boy’s teacher told me that he burst into tears because my aria was “just so sad.”  He was upset because my character was so sad…he perked up later and returned to the assembly, after curling up in his teacher’s lap.  Incidently…I was singing “O mio Fernando” from La Favorita.  And…it is pretty sad. 

Opera is like that.  It can open the doors to rooms in our hearts we didn’t know were there—and in little people the routes are more direct, and most of the doors are unlocked.  This is why we do what we do, and this is why I am so proud of this crop of Portland Opera To Go artists.  Thank you, Ainsley, Dan, Stacey and Michael.  You have shown me a remarkably good time, and I am grateful to each and every one of you for the amazing work that you do every single day.

From somewhere on the road in Portland, Oregon,

Alexis Hamilton
Manager of Education and Outreach.

Music affects each person in a different way. It has the ability to comfort, to enliven, to console, and to energize. There is new music being created every day, and we are constantly given the opportunity to hear another piece of music that affects us in a new way and that can change our perspective about something.

As a new member of the Portland Opera To Go (POGO) program, I can safely say that my perspective has been changed. It’s been an exciting first week of rehearsals as our new cast gathers and begins the process of creating opera for children.

Our mission for this month with Opera Improv is to create a completely improvised opera that allows the children to choose what they see onstage. This is a totally new experience for me. Normally in opera, the music, dialogue, and staging is fairly concrete. As a performer, my job is to re-create a masterwork, perhaps with a bit of my own personal spin on things. So you might wonder: how do you rehearse something that you make up? What do you rehearse if the performance is going to be different every time?

Well, the performance we do for children is created and improvised on the spot…sort of. There are many things the children get to choose for the opera they see, but there are also many factors that we plan in advance. These factors are what we have been rehearsing this week. Some of these factors include the general story that we are trying to tell, and a couple primary pieces of music that provide direction for the story. Other than these things, everything else is a variable.

This is my first time being on tour and I mean really on tour, out of town for a week at a time on tour.  I wasn’t sure I knew how to be on tour.  After spending some time with many different Kindergarten classes before the performances I began to realize that all I needed to know about being on tour I had learned in Kindergarten.

Rule number one, share everything.  This rule was easy!  After week one we had all passed around a cold of some form.  Once we hit the road Sarah and Wendy learned how to share their costumes.  I shared all my tissue, gum, tic-tacs, and ibuprophen. Oh, and we all had to share hotel rooms.

#2 Don’t hit people.  I must have missed this day in Kindergarten.  During the fight over the hat I almost hit Wendy in the eye.  I scratched Wendy’s arm during one show.  Sarah hit me in the face once when I was trying to get past her to the prince.  Stacey loves to hit whoever is playing Tisbe with a pillow.  Maybe we all missed this lesson.

#3 Clean up your own mess.  I use to try to pick up all the feathers my boa would leave on gym floors, but after a while I just gave up and picked up everyone’s empty water bottles.

#4 Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.  I can’t count the number of times “I’m sorry” gets whispered back stage during the show because someone has ignored the “don’t hit people” rule.

#5 Wash your hands before you eat.  We have all learned to wash our hands or use hand sanitizer after giving high fives and shaking kids’ hands.  I think we have finally gotten rid of the sickness that we have been sharing!

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009    

Part 1
We started the day dark and early in Baker City.  Most of us woke up somewhere around 5:30am or so in order to meet at 6:15 to depart for Pine Eagle Elementary/Junior High/High School in Halfway, Oregon.  The hills and mountains were covered in snow, but the roads were clear.  Opera singers really don't like getting up anywhere near this early, and I would say most of us weren't exactly bright-eyed or bushy-tailed as the saying goes.  But we were treated to a spectacular sunrise in the mountains as we drove along the Hell's Canyon Scenic By-way. The sun cast a reddish orange glow over the peaks while the mountains and valleys were a colored in the deep purple filter of early dawn's shadow.

We couldn't afford to spend too much time admiring the view though as most of us were putting the finishing touches on learning some new music for 3 upcoming concert performances or catching a few more moments of sleep or making sure that the van didn't drive over the edge of the twisting roads.

We arrived at the school without incident and were met with enthusiasm, if not necessarily the most sure directions on where to unload the set from the truck.  Having been told that it would work best for us if we drove the Penske truck around the building, our fearless and intrepid tour manager proceeded to drive around the back of the building. 

However, we were then told that we would be better off if we had stayed in the front of the building.  In the course of moving the truck back to the front of the building, the moving truck got stuck in the snowy "trail" that was behind the school.  At this point we were getting closer and closer to show time, and we hadn't unloaded one piece of the set. 

“You look like my 19 year old brother.”
“Can you tell me what a moaning moose sounds like?”
“My favorite was the pink and the green princesses.”

We are heading out on our first road trip from Boring, OR to Seaside on the Cinderella tour and the group is already jiving really well. The set is pretty easy to assemble especially with 9 sets of hands to move things in and out of schools. The costumes are gorgeous and the kids love that they are color specific to each character. Cinderella and Ramiro are blue, Tisbe and the Father are Green and Clorinda is Pink. I am amazed at how quickly the kids recognize the different colors and identify them with the individual characters.
 
I have discovered an interesting phenomenon while on tour so far. I like to call it- “the princess factor.” I can see it in the little girls’ eyes as soon as Cinderella asks them a question or when Cinderella comes out on stage in her blue dress or after the show when the kids just want to touch “the princess.” It is amazing to think that they actually believe you are a princess and live at Disneyland. Princesses truly have become heroines for little girls.
 
I am excited to arrive in Seaside and have the evening to spend with my new colleagues getting to know each other. We have people from as far as Kentucky and New York and as close as Multnomah Village. But we all share a common love for this art form and feel so blessed to have this opportunity to bring opera to schools throughout the state.
 
Written by Sarah Norton

As an actor, it is rare to make the audience "feel" enough to cry.  I forget that occasionally the audience can get so wrapped up in the moment that they believe in the reality of the world onstage. As a young actor it is also rare to get so caught up in the moment that you find yourself weeping onstage for the girl who has just expired because her lungs have filled with a combination of blood and mucus causing pleural failure. In the event of these few and far between occurrences, the more sentimental members of the mature audience may be seen wiping their eyes, sniffing the moisture back into their noses that is the involuntary result of catharsis.
 
However, our four-year old was not watching La Boheme. The young lady was viewing an Opera Improv show on Wednesday evening. The story was our Fracture Fairy Tale option, where the Big Bad Wolf is placed at the bar for attempted murder and general disquiet in the realm of make-believe. The action began during the overture (Liszt's Totentanz), with the reveal of the Little Pig #3 being pursued by the Big Bad Wolf (yours truly). The porcine would-be victim escapes however (only to return later as the bailiff, "Officer Porker"), leaving the B.B.W. to begin the opera with a bit of improvised recitative.
 
It went somewhat thus:

"I'm the Big Bad Wolf! Though I've already had two little piggies for breakfast today, that third one will fit nicely in the fridge for a snack later. Too bad he got away! Oh well, that's okay, I like eating little children just as well!"
 
At this point, I licked my chops, hunkered down, and gazed with gastronomic yearning at the four-year old in question. She quivered, with fear, screamed, and had to be rescued by a young lady I assume to be her mother. The consolation proved effective, as her sobbing subsided, and eventually she returned to her place in the front row.
 
The remainder of the show went without issue, and our morbid audience voted for a tragic ending, where the B.B.W. is cleared of his charges due to a mistrial (Red Riding Hood was the judge in disguise, seeking revenge for her grandmothers demise).

I made an attempt at reconciliation with my four-year old after the show, but I think she had her doubts about my intent... after all, the villain won, and if a child can believe that a charming young singer could really be a wolf in human clothing, how is it any less satisfying than leaving an audience with damp cheeks for a dead Mimi?

--Sammuel "Wolfman" Hawkins

The truly gratifying part of the tour is when we perform for an engaged and receptive school audience, and they pay attention to specific details. This is true especially after we've had a long run with silent and "zombie-like" audiences who have no response whatsoever. Then when we suddenly hear the laughter and applause where we're normally not used to it, it makes it worthwhile. That signifies their sign of appreciation and that applause also counts for the time it took for us to set and strike the set (especially those 8am mornings). I'd also have to say it is rewarding when we perform for an older audience and you see and hear them tearing up. It makes the 50th performance that much more organic and engaging, and it allows us to forget how sleep-deprived we all really are.

The most amusing part of the tour has been: signing autographs for kids, getting hugs from them, and having the kids tell me their honest observations. They seem to like letting me know that I look like someone they know or they can get very personal. Here are a few examples:
 
"You're pretty. You look like Mulan."

"You look like and act like London from Disney's "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody."

"How old are you? You look like you're 18."

"My mom's as old as you."

"Are you married?"

"We know someone who'd be good for you. Our teacher."

"Do you really like Marcello? Are you guys going to stay together?"

(Ha...Ha...Ha...Hilarious!)
 
Written by Sarah Kim

10 Greatest Things About the Portland Opera To Go Tour

Best Clam Chowder
Ship Inn Restaurant & Family Pub – Astoria, OR

Best Hotel
La Quinta - Ashland, OR

Best Destructive Moment
TIE:  Backing the Opera van into a parked car & knocking over a flat screen computer monitor during a scene change.  We won’t mention the locations.  (Both courtesy of Sarah Kim)

Best Audience
Canyonville Christian Academy - Canyonville, OR

Best Beach
Newport Beach, OR

Best Question from a 4th grader
“Can I have your number?”  (to Sarah Kim)

Best Free Gift
T-Shirts from Riley Creek Elementary School – Gold Beach, OR

Best Marionberry Scone
Gold Beach Books – Gold Beach, OR
www.oregoncoastbooks.com

Best Opera Improv Story
“Fractured Fairy Tale”  
The Big Bad Wolf is captured and put on trial by one of the three little pigs, cross-examined by prosecuting attorney Cinderella, and discovers the judge is none other than Little Red Riding Hood in disguise.

Best Coffee Shop
Great Pacific, Pendleton, OR
www.greatpacific.biz

During our travels we get to sample some of the local restaurants and coffee shops and what have you. This last Friday I think we found the best smoothie and Java shake cafe in the state. It's called Oregon Sunshine Espresso and they specialize in blended drinks using Umpqua Valley milk products. They also have a nice selection of wines and very helpful staff.

So, if you're ever in Canyonville, Oregon, maybe visiting 7 Feathers casino or just driving through to Grants Pass and need to make a stop, Oregon Sunshine is located on Main Street, North of downtown and South of the casino. The address is 340 N Main street. Check it out!

Cafe review by Sara Busch

 Life on the road is exciting, rewarding, and challenging!
We though we would share some of those moments with you in photos.  Enjoy!