So long, farewell

...just till May 16th! I'll be on vacation for the next couple of weeks - see you when I get back.

Snoqualmie Falls Forest Theater auditions

Want to perform Oklahoma in the open air? Here's your chance...

From the SFFT website:

SNOQUALMIE FALLS FOREST THEATER announces auditions for Rodgers & Hammerstein's Classic Musical OKLAHOMA! April 25th & 26th! The show opens on July 25th and runs weekends through August 30th at our beautiful out-of-doors setting - performing Saturday at 3:00pm & 8:00pm / Sundays at 3:00pm. Rehearsals will be in the Seattle area. Paid. Please prepare a ONE MINUTE MONOLOGUE & a selection of a Broadway song. Photo and resume are always a plus!

Please call for an audition appointment: Roger Westberg, (206)365-8475 or email rainbowmaker@earthlink.net

The Voice Box recommends

A selective listing of performances for the weekend of 4/17 - 4/19:

Seattle Children's Theater presents Goodnight, Moon

From the SCT website:

“Enchanting…Feat of inspired genius.” – Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Little Bunny’s imagination is a wondrous place when he must say his goodnights. A place where toys come to life and pictures are filled with real, talking, breathing people. After all the pandemonium of getting ready for bed, Little Bunny finally closes his eyes and drifts off to sleep.

Eve Alvord Theatre
Friday, April 17 - 7:00 pm
(runs through June 7)

*****

ArtsWest presents Gutenberg! The Musical!

From the ArtsWest Playhouse website:

“Uproarious and hysterically funny!” - Associated Press

GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL! is a loving spoof in which two aspiring playwrights perform a backers’ audition for their new project: A big, splashy musical about printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg (not Steve Guttenberg from the cinema classic Short Circuit).

"I don't recall the last time I left a theater with a face that ached from laughing way too much." - Paul Constant, The Stranger

With an unending supply of enthusiasm, Bud and Doug sing all the songs and play all the parts in their crass historical epic, with the hope that one of the producers in attendance will give them a Broadway contract – fulfilling their sky-high, if simple-minded, dreams.

ArtsWest Playhouse
Friday, April 17th - 7:30 pm
Saturday, April 18th - 7:30 pm
Sunday, April 19th - 3:00 pm

*****

Northwest Puppet Center presents Don Quixote
Baroque Marionette Opera

From the NWPC website:

Each year, Northwest Puppet Center presents an elaborate baroque marionette opera. Hand-carved figures take the stage with chamber orchestra and singers on either side of the proscenium.

The Carter Family Marionettes are joined by an ensemble of outstanding musicians and singers for this unique production of Don Quixote.

George Philipp Telemann's Don Quixote Suite is a well known instrumental delight. Rarely seen, however, is his one act operetta, in which the chivalrous Don and the earthy Sancho Panza attend and disrupt a shepherd's wedding. These two works are combined by Carter Family Marionettes and Maestra di Musica, Margriet Tindemanns. Sancho Panza's aria to his donkey and the attack on the windmills are among the treats to be dished up by hand-carved marionettes and our beloved musical collaborators. This is our 10th live opera, with nearly a decade of these unique and challenging presentations at the Northwest Puppet Center. Please join us for a night at the opera with this quixotic delectation!

Northwest Puppet Center
Friday, April 17th - 8:00 pm
Saturday, April 18th - 2:00 pm, 8:00 pm
Sunday, April 19th - 2:00 pm

Pregnancy and singing - one performer's perspective

The New York Times has an interesting article today about Kelli O'Hara's experience with performing while pregnant. I particularly like the accompanying slideshow, which combines excerpts from Ms. O'Hara's cabaret with her own comments on how being pregnant has changed her singing voice.

Come on along and listen to...

The Lullaby of Broadway! I've had that song stuck in my head ever since I first saw the poster for the Seattle Women's Chorus concert series. Good thing I love that song, although now I have a total urge to rent Gold Diggers of 1935 just so I can watch the amazing, slightly creepy Busby Berkely number that goes along with it. Thank goodness for YouTube - I've posted the sequence below.

Seattle Times has a nice article today about the upcoming SWC concerts at Meany Hall - student Arlene Havlark is a member of the chorus and is featured in a quartet. The Broadway theme promises lots of great music as well as fodder for some classic SWC comedy. With selections from 45 different musicals, you're bound to hear one of your musical theatre favorites. I highly recommend you check it out; we'll be going Friday and I'm really looking forward to the show!

The Voice Box recommends

A selective listing of performances for the weekend of 4/10 - 4/12:

Seattle Women's Chorus presents Lullaby of Broadway

From the SWC website:

"This harmonious musical staging celebrates the women of Broadway: Mama Rose, Auntie Mame, Annie Oakley, Mrs. Lovett, Evita, Elphaba, and Tracy Turnblad to name a few. Seattle Women's Chorus will pay tribute to these great characters, as well as shining the spotlight on some of the many great musical numbers for women, about women, and written by women."

Meany Theater (UW Campus)
Friday, April 10 - 8 pm
Saturday, April 11 - 2 pm

*****
Hapa

from the Hapa website:

"Like the Hawaiian Islands themselves, HAPA's Pan-Polynesian music is an amalgam of infuences ranging from ancient genealogical chants to the strummed ballads of Portuguese fisherman, Spanish cowboys, and the inspired melodies and harmonies of the traditional church choirs of the early missionaries. Add to this a dose of American acoustic folk/rock, and you have what has been described as the 'most exciting and beautiful contemporary Hawaiian music the world knows!'… (Maui Times)."

The Triple Door
Saturday, April 11 - 5:30 pm, 8:30 pm

*****
The Thermals record release party

from their recent SXSW review in the NYT:

"...everything jumped up a notch with the Thermals, a Portland trio that demonstrated that elemental three-piece rock, accompanied by proper conviction, can approach majesty, or at least bliss under a metal roof. An incantatory “Now We Can See” included chanting from the bassist Kathy Foster, whose vigorous playing and a bouncing rock-fro were performance art in the best sense of the term. There will be a lot of lead singers in Austin this week who will do their best to plunge fully into the matters at hand, but few will match Hutch Harris, whose joyous possession let Austin know that some of the bands here play music because they almost have to. The exalt bounced off the roof and into the ears of an increasingly into-it crowd."

Neumos
Sunday, April 11 - doors at 8 pm

Vocal performances this weekend

A selective listing of performances for the weekend of 4/3 - 4/5:

Gallery Concerts presents
Mr. Haydn Comes to London

From the Gallery Concerts website:

Join The Classical Consort as they journey to Haydn’s London to commemorate the Haydn-Year (200th anniversary of his death). Explore the impact of England’s musical haunts on the songs, sonatas, and chamber music of Europe’s most genial composer. A colorful 1820 Broadwood pianoforte—the same model owned by Jane Austen—will be the featured guest at this celebration.

The Classical Consort: Karen Elizabeth Urlie, soprano, Tekla Cunningham, violin, Meg Brennand, cello, and Tamara Friedman, English fortepiano

Queen Anne Christian Church
Saturday, April 4 - 8 pm
Sunday, April 5 - 2 pm

*****

Cornish College of the Arts presents
Suor Angelica

From the Cornish events website:

Giacomo Puccini's one-act lyric opera for women, Suor Angelica, is a masterpiece of dramatic storytelling. Set in an Italian convent on a beautiful spring evening, the action centers on Sister Angelica who receives a visit from her wealthy aunt after seven years of isolation. The visit unleashes an unstoppable chain of events both fatal and miraculous.

PONCHO Concert Hall at Kerry Hall
Friday, April 3 - 8 pm
Saturday, April 4 - 8 pm

*****
Seattle Opera Young Artist Program presents
A Midsummer Night's Dream
LAST WEEKEND

from the Seattle Opera website:

What happens at night when the lights go out? Delicious and dark, entertaining and erotic, A Midsummer Night's Dream is an intoxicating blend of mortals, mechanicals and faeries, all thrown together in one place at one time. Benjamin Britten’s setting of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedy has everything from gorgeous shimmering string melodies to a hilarious parody of bel-canto opera. Set in an English boarding school, the Seattle Opera Young Artists production explores the notion that you don’t need a phoenix-feather wand in order to make magic. We will perform the opera in English in the intimate Meydenbauer Theater. This is a chance to get up close to the magic of A Midsummer Night's Dream in a way that is not possible in more conventional opera houses. Come and enjoy our young and energetic cast as they realize that the course of true love never does run smooth!

Meydenbauer Center
Friday, April 3 -7:30 pm
Saturday, April 4 - 7:30 pm
Sunday, April 5 - 2 pm

*****
Moisture Festival
LAST WEEKEND
Friday, April 3 - 7:30, 10:30 pm
Saturday, April 4 - 3:00, 7:30, and 10:30 pm
Sunday, April 5 - 3:00 and 7:30 pm
Hale's Ales Brewpub and Palladium