SEASON 2010 PHOTO GALLERY QNEK STAFF/CONTACT
QNEK PRODUCTIONS - 2010 MUSICAL EXTRAVAGANZA
CURTAINS - The Musical Who Dunnit
FLASH: Have you read WIKAPEDIA?
FLASH: Have you heard who's playing in the orchestra? Three renowned professional musicians will be the highlight of the summer musical extravaganza. Greg Hopkins (trumpet), soloist and arranger for Buddy Rich and Woody Herman, played with Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Sinatra, and records with Sunset Records.
Richard Given (trumpet) has played principal trumpet for the Boston Pops, the Atlantic Symphony, the Boston Classical Orchestra, and the Vermont Symphony. He has extensive pit orchestra experience for Boston "break-ins" of Broadway-bound shows, including Follies and Grand Hotel, and travelled with the national tours of The Pirates of Penzance, Sweeny Todd, 42nd Street, and Les Miserables. The trumpet part for the Broadway musical hit Honk was written especially for him.
Chris Baird (trombone) has performed with the Mexico City Philharmonic, the Boston Brass, the Boston Lyric Opera, and has accompanied Marvin Hamlisch, Dave Brubeck, Shirley Jones, and Chet Aktins.
FLASH: Come TO THE HASKELL OPERA HOUSE
Come to Derby Line, VT/Stanstead, QC to see Award Winning QNEK Productions, International Theatre Company in Residence at the Haskell Opera House, present the summer musical extravaganza CURTAINS, the musical whodunit by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Rupert Holmes. Performance dates: August 13, 14, 20, 21 at 7:30 p.m., and August 15 matinee at 2:00 p.m.
Lynn Leimer (QNEK Founder and Artistic Director) directs, stages and choreographs with Associate Director Susan-Lynn Johns. They are ably abetted by Music Directors Anita Morin, Brian Kilday and Mark Violette, Specialty Choreographer Laura Carpenter, and Costumiere Carol Woodard.
The show stars Brain Kilday as Lt Frank Cioffi; Anita Morin as Georgia, and Ryan Howland as Aaron, the husband and wife lyricists and composers; Jane Foster as Niki Harris, the young starlet; Carol Woodard as Christine Belling the director; and Lynn Leimer as Carmen Bernstein, the show's producer.
The cast also features Mark Rumery as theatre critic Daryl Grady, Michael Desjardins as stage manager Johnny Harmon, Alan Franklin as nervous investor Oscar Shapiro, Chase Gosselin as lead dancer/choreographer Bobby Pepper, and Emily May as aspiring dancer Bambi Bernstein. Rounding out the cast are Sally Rivard as Jessica Crenshaw/Arlene Barruca; Max Maikshilo as Detective O'Farrell/Roy Stetson; Thomas Gunn as Randy Exter; Angus Gluck as Harv Fremont; Kendra Perkins as Mona Page; Emma Morhmann as Roberta Wooster; Sarah Gregoire as Marjorie Cook; Paul Croizet as Brick Hawvermale; Avery Dull as Russ Cochran; Lissy Barnes-Flint as Connie Subbotin; Molly Prangley-Desormeaux as Peg Prentice; Julia Rumery as Belling's Assistant; Sue Kuzma as Oscar's Assistant; Mark Violette as Sasha Iljinsky, the conductor; and Douglas Flint as Sidney Bernstein.
Production Staff includes Catherine Woodard, Stage Manager and Denis Ziegler, Lighting Director. Sound and Special Effects are by Act Three Theatre Company.
Based on the original book and concept by Peter Stone this musical is a send-up of backstage murder mystery plots, set in 1959 Boston, and follows the fallout when the supremely untalented star of Robbin' Hood of the Old West is murdered during her opening night curtain call. It is up to a police detective, who moonlights as a musical theater fan, to save the show, solve the case, and maybe even find love before the show reopens—without getting killed himself.
The entire company of Robbin' Hood (a Western musical version of the Sherwood Forest heroic tale) including the producer, the songwriters, the director, the actors (including Jessica's understudy), and the stage manager are possible suspects, and each has a motive to be sorted out by a local detective—who becomes stage-struck and finds himself just as drawn toward making the show a hit, as he is in solving the murder.
Tony Award winner Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) provides the book to Curtains featuring music by John Kander and lyrics by the late Fred Ebb. Additional lyrics are by John Kander and Rupert Holmes. Curtains marks one of the last collaborations by Kander and Ebb, one of the longest-running songwriting teams in Broadway history (Cabaret, Chicago, Zorba, The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Woman of the Year). Their musical adaptation of The Visit was produced by The Goodman Theatre in Chicago but did not move to a New York run. Ebb died in 2004.
Titanic, Woman of the Year and 1776. Curtains is underwritten by Herons Path, Fred's Plumbing and Heating, Paul Decelles Investment Planning, Community National Bank, Passumpsic Savings Bank, North Country Hospital, Saint J Subaru, and Kingdom Wedding Photography; with additional support from Woodknot Bookshop, Millie's Diner, and the Front Desk.
Tickets for Curtains are available at Woodknot Bookshop, Newport; Millie's Diner, Stanstead, QC; online at haskellopera.org; or by calling 802-334-2216 or 802-873-3022.
