Editor’s Note 12/20/2021: This production earned multiple awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival: Certificates of Merit for co-creators Justin Poole and Jerry Holsopple and fight choreographer Wolf Sherrill, as well as nominations for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship competition for Greta Schrag, Elizabeth Eby, Anna Hoover, and Andrew Stoltzfus. Eby was nominated for the MTI Musical Theater Intensive Audition as well.

Audiences at 91����Ƶ’s “U2 Romeo & Juliet” are in for a treat. A theater production that combines the artistry of William Shakespeare and the iconic Irish band U2 is exciting, intense and bold. The band’s poetic songs easefully carry classic themes of hatred and violence, love and reconciliation. 

Live music performed by a skilled ensemble of actors and local band Prince Bellerose, with original videos, choreography and intense fight scenes, will also make this theater experience memorable. The rock musical, created by faculty members Justin Poole and Jerry Holsopple, not only tells the story of the constant human struggle between light and darkness, but challenges audiences to make a difference in today’s chaotic world.

This is a play about the horrible things we do to each other and the need for us to advocate for peace and justice despite seemingly insurmountable odds.

—Justin Poole, theater program director and professor of theater

“The music of U2 works so well in this show because most of their songs mean more than one thing,” said Holsopple, professor of visual and communication arts. “It may be about love, but it is also about this other situation. It goes from lament to prophetic anger, from intense personal feelings to grand ideas all while balancing multiple narratives on the flow of text and music.”

“U2 Romeo & Juliet: An Original Rock Musical” runs Oct. 16-30, in the Mainstage Theater, University Commons. Performances are 7 p.m. Oct. 16, 28, 29, and 30, and 2 p.m. Oct 17 and 30.

A ‘disordered, uncertain world’

Poole conceived the idea for the rock musical shortly after the tragedy of 9/11. His vision was sparked by his college professor’s creation that paired Shakespeare and The Beatles for a musical of “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.”

“I started envisioning a performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ set to the music and lyrics of my personal favorite band U2,” Poole wrote in the program’s creator notes. “It would be a much darker, morally complicated play that mirrored the new state of the world as I saw it: disordered, uncertain, violent, desperate.”

It took 20 years for anyone to be enthusiastic about his vision. Prepared for a discouraging comment, Poole told his idea to fellow-U2 enthusiast Holsopple, who unexpectedly replied, “That works. You want me to be your music director?”

“It took collaboration with Jerry to have it happen,” Poole said, noting they use the title of creators to describe their production roles. “We aren’t using any other titles. This is in keeping with the spirit of U2 who shares all their creative rights and credits.”

 Contacting U2

In January 2020, Holsopple and Poole chose 22 songs they wanted to include and then form the text around the music. They sent their proposal — including a script draft with music selections identified, as well as information about 91����Ƶ’s mission—to U2’s publishing company, Universal Music Publishing. Eventually, they were put in contact with a band representative who said, “The band is going to have to review your proposal extensively.” With an upcoming tour scheduled, that meant a long turn-around time. However, in less than two weeks, on March 16, a rep emailed  to grant permission to use all 22 songs requested.

Royalties could have been exorbitant, but U2 asked a bare minimum, Poole said, far less than most staged productions. 

Adapting the script and casting

Poole and Holsopple developed the adaptation in summer 2020. They cut archaic scenes, while keeping favorite Shakespearean quotes and the story intact. U2’s songs chosen include “Love and Peace or Else,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “Grace,” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”

The creators brought in local band Prince Bellerose to perform live:  Valentin Prince, Daniel Bellerose and Joseph Harder ’20. In addition to 91����Ƶ students, they cast community member Stan Swartz ’87 and 91����Ƶ faculty members James Richardson, assistant professor of music, and Shannon Dove, theater tech director.

The play revolves around Friar Laurence, portrayed by Dove, Holsopple said. “The Friar is like Bono, the storyteller. In a way, it’s the friar’s confession in his attempt to change the world and his failure.”

 Dove was a U2 fan as a teen, and as “one of the older members of the cast,” owned a cassette copy of their first album. Aspiring to also sing rock and roll, he said, as a baritone, “the holy grail to me at the time was someday being able to hit that note…you know that one note in ‘With or Without You.’”

The songs function as soliloquies. Sophomore Greta Schrag said they provide her character, Juliet, an inner monologue for the motivation of her actions. “She gets to have a say in what happens to her and gets to share how she feels about it with the audience,” said Schrag, a political science and sociology major.

With women taking on the roles of the Capulet and Montague boys, Poole said, “there’re lots of gender bending, which works well in Shakespeare and with our vision for this show.”

Video projections created by Holsopple and VACA students, Poole said, “add a broader perspective to the piece, connecting it to contemporary events.”

Making a change

With Christian world views of hope, joy, love and peace embedded in both the script and U2’s lyrics, the creators and cast made an intention for the audience.

“We communicate to the audience, and they go out and make positive changes,” Poole said. “They go out and make things better.”

Senior Andrew Stoltzfus, a nursing major with a minor in theater, who will portray Romeo, wants the audience to feel the full tragedy of the play, he said, “the horror of what humans do to each other and to feel resolved to join in the “rebellion” against violence.”

“I hope they’ll realize the depth and impact love can have on any circumstance,” said Schrag.  “Love is power, and it is stronger and more effective than hate.”

Ticket prices for adults are $15; Senior (65+), non-91����Ƶ students, $12; 91����Ƶ faculty/staff, $12; 91����Ƶ and Bridgewater students, $6. Discounts are available for groups of ten or more. Tickets are available online through 91����Ƶ’s Box Office online at or by calling 540-432-4582 between 10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. weekdays. Because of the intensity of the production, it is not suitable for children under age 14. Face masks are required.

Thanks to our sponsors

CAST

Romeo: Andrew Stoltzfus

Juliet: Greta Schrag

Friar Laurence: Shannon Dove

Nurse: Clara Bush

Mercutio: Elizabeth Eby

Benvolio: Anna Hoover

Tybalt: Isaac Longacre

Paris:  Matt Hevener

Lord Montague:  James Richardson

Lady Montague: Ani Beitzel

Montague Boy/Balathasar: Molly Piwonka

Montague Boy/Police: Emma Nord

Montague Boy: Andrew Burks

Lord Capulet: Stan Swartz

Lady Capulet: Evelyn Shenk

Capulet Boy/Servant: MacRae Richardson

Capulet Boy: Sophia Gott

Capulet Boy:  Alexis Lewis

Capulet Boy/Friar John: Adam Hoover

Prince: Joe Sietz

CREW

Creator: Justin Poole

Creator: Jerry Holsopple

Set Designer: Shannon Dove

Vocal Coach: James Richardson

Choreographer:  Ellie de Waal

Fight Choreographer: Wolf Sherrill

Costume Designer: Rachel Herrick

Lighting Designer: Robert Weaver

Assistant Director: Isaac Longacre

Stage Manager: Jareya Harder

Assistant Stage Manager: Alana Lovick

Theater Promotions: Anna Hoover

House Manager: Mikalya Pettus

Production Assistant: Ezrionna Prioleau

Production Assistant: Hailey Holcomb

Band: Prince Bellerose

Professor James Richardson, who teaches voice at 91����Ƶ, will present his lecture recital, featuring as-of-yet unpublished songs of the late British composer Armstrong Gibbs, on Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. He will collaborate with pianist David Berry, director of the music department. 

The event will be livestreamed on , and is free and open to the public.

The recital, titled “A Few Songs by Armstrong Gibbs: From Nostalgia to Christian Hope and the Assurance of Heaven,” combines Richardson’s baritone performance of five songs with lectures based on his doctoral dissertation research. But Richardson had to go beyond mere performer and researcher to bring this music to the public – he had to become a sleuth, as a portion of Gibbs’ compositions are considered lost to history.

“His music is equally sophisticated and approachable. It has one foot in the Romantic, 19th-century past and another in his 20th-century present,” Richardson said.

Gibbs is best known for his earlier works, composed between 1917 and the 1930s. But Richardson was “equally smitten by his middle and late career,” including selections that the composer wrote in the 1940s, following his son’s death on the front lines of World War II. Richardson re-discovered two of those pieces, which he will perform. 

“I tracked down ‘Before Sleeping’ and ‘Quiet Conscience’ by following the career of the late baritone Keith Falkner, Gibbs’ close family friend, for whom they were written. In 1950, Falkner left his career in England to begin and develop the voice department at Cornell University, where these now-archived manuscripts remain,” Richardson said. “You could hear my shouts of jubilation from my 91����Ƶ studio when I finally got a look at these manuscripts – a kind librarian sent me a photograph.”

Those two pieces, permeated with both grief and Christian hope, diverge from many of Gibbs’ other compositions, which center more around themes of beauty, approachability, and down-to-earth sensibilities. 

“I think both songs help tell a lesser known part of Gibb’s story and music. Here he is at his most vulnerable, and yet he finds hope in a Savior who similarly suffered,” Richardson explained. “Gibbs’ music is more than magical, nostalgic fairylands and bucolic landscapes. Even those songs, in a way, confront ugly realities. But that tension is most obvious with these songs; yet they still aspire to beauty.”

This discovery was all the more meaningful because Richardson has been in correspondence with Gibbs’ adult grandchildren who live in the U.K. His research has also connected archives of compositions, letters, and memoirs that were previously siloed at the Britten-Pears archive in Aldeburgh, England; the Dorothy Sayers archive at Wheaton College, and Cornell University.

“It’s exciting to connect with notable authors, librarians, and the composer’s family who are spread far and wide!” Richardson said.

This article was first published 2/8/2021.

Even with 14 years of experience and several masterclass sessions in her past, senior music performance major Eve Yavny was a little nervous as she put bow to strings and began to play the Adagio movement from Bach’s Sonata No. 1.

With good reason. 

The virtual Masterclass in mid-November at 91����Ƶ was with David Kim, “one of the world’s great violinists” and concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, “known for decades upon decades as having the finest strings section among many world-class orchestras, said Professor James Richardson. 

When she finished, Kim praised her courage. “Playing unaccompanied Bach in public is one of the scariest things a violinist can do,” he said, going on to urge more elongation of “the baritones and basses.” He also praised her sensitive use of vibrato, which, along with the bow hold, is an “individual fingerprint” of each violinist. 

Later, Yavny called the experience “incredibly nerve-wracking to play in front of such an accomplished violinist,” but that Kim was “approachable and down-to-earth.” The biggest takeaway, she said, “was to focus on the lower notes in chords. They’re often brushed aside in favor of the higher melodies but they bring a core to the sound that really makes a difference in the big picture.”

Kim’s virtual visit also included an interview and a question and answer session, hosted by Richardson. The audience included music majors, music faculty, and other students involved in 91����Ƶ’s , as well as Preparatory Music Program faculty and more general music fans through a Facebook Live livestream.

In addition to his role as concertmaster, Kim is a well-known solo performer, educator, and adjudicator. Highlights of his 2020-21 season include appearing as soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra; teaching/performance residencies and master classes at the Manhattan School of Music, Bob Jones University, the Prague Summer Nights Festival, the Taipei (Taiwan) Academy and Festival, and continued appearances as concertmaster of the All-Star Orchestra on PBS stations across the United States and online at the Kahn Academy, as well as recitals, speaking engagements, and appearances with orchestras across the United States. 

Richardson knew Kim from living in Philadelphia; besides their shared profession, they both worshipped at the same church. 

Kim is just one of many professional musicians that 91����Ƶ faculty have sought to connect their students with during this time when in-person performances and programming is restricted (see 91����Ƶ’s ).

The Masterclass “plus” format was one proposed by Kim when Richardson reached out to him. “We really thought this worked well, and will be inviting more guest artists to share their wisdom and experience with our students and community in the spring semester,” Richardson said. 

Kim fielded all sorts of questions with good humor, at one point urging “no softballs.” 

“I was inspired by his honesty and vulnerability addressing everything from performance anxiety to the most inspiring moments of his career to the bizarrest, funniest events on stage,” Richardson said afterwards.

Performing for the public is not as difficult or scary as performing in front of your colleagues, Kim said, adding that he gets nervous more than a year before his scheduled solo performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra. To prepare, he does “practice runs in advance” with any audience he can fit into his schedule. If that means “20 different retirement homes” in the Philadelphia area, then so be it.

“I would go and tell them what I was doing, what I was practicing for, and then I would tell them to pray for me,” he said with a smile.

The payoff for all of this preparation was that by the time he arrives at the venue for the performance, in the situation he was describing, Seoul, Korea, where he had the added pressure of being the first Korean-American concertmaster of a major symphony, Kim said that he knew the piece “inside and out … I had made mistakes and recovered.”

Kim also spoke of how his faith has played a role in his profession and artistry [read more .

“There are times when I might be in the wings of Carnegie Hall when I have a big solo coming up,” he said. “I will feel completely overwhelmed. It’s overwhelming the nerves that come in and at those moments, I throw my  hands up and say ‘God. I know you didn’t put me into this position to fail.’ I swallow hard and walk on the stage.”

While the pandemic has limited travel and performances, Kim said he learned just how “overscheduled” he was. 

“When you are a concertmaster of a big orchestra and when you have a personality like mine, I love to help with fundraising, cultivating patros and board members. My responsibilities are more than being on stage and leading the orchestra as a concertmaster,” he said. “I have a wonderful solo career where I travel around the world. And I have a third career, teaching … I have so much more free time and it’s been amazing. I love all that stuff but what I’m hoping when covid is done and we’re back to normal life, I don’t try to jump back in and catch up.”

Here’s a few more tips from his Q & A.

• Say yes to everything…now is the time is the go out and experiment and succeed and fail. … Every single thing I do is preparing for the next thing. Everything you say yes to helps you be prepared for the next thing that rolls around. Don’t feel like it’s a sprint.

• Surround yourself with people who know you well and will help you. (Kim says he is a procrastinator, so it helps that all of his family members know this and can tell him when he is doing it.)

• Get creative when you are unmotivated or discouraged. Call a friend and challenge them to a “scales contest” or create your own performance.

• Figure out what you need to practice well (for example, do you need a neat and tidy place? Is morning better? Before or after a meal?) Experiment and try different things and you will eventually come up with a routine that works for you.

• Practice getting nervous. Find and create opportunities to test yourself.

• Every day is a new opportunity to look for that beautiful sound. It might take ten seconds or ten minutes. (For musicians of stringed instruments especially, Kim says: Feel the resonance of the violin. It will give it to you thru the instrument you can feel it through your chin…you can feel that maximum vibration. There’s a tactile element because you can feel it and visual element because you can see the string move, and an aural element, because you can feel that incredible sound.)

Did you miss it?

This article by Kathleen Shaw appeared in the Nov. 22, 2020, Daily News-Record.

Dressed in a traditional black gown with hair neatly curled to her shoulders, senior soprano Kiara Kiah opened the annual 91����Ƶ orchestral gala with a delicate duet of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” with professor and baritone James Richardson. But Richardson was nowhere near Kiah for her performance — in fact, he was miles away in Virginia while Kiah stood on the stage of First Presbyterian Church of Athens in Georgia alone.

On Saturday, the 91����Ƶ music department hosted a made-for-broadcast special premiere of the annual gala concert on Facebook Live with the theme “A Concert of Hope.” The evening performance featured musicians recorded inside and outside, near and far, spanning various genres and brought together with a message of fortified perseverance amid a pandemic.

Kiah, who moved to Georgia in September, is completing her studies online and said finishing her career at 91����Ƶ by performing in the gala was a rewarding experience that pushed her comfort zone and flexed the boundaries of possibilities.

“It definitely felt weird because instead of having a person next to you, as you’d sing a classic duet, you had to listen to the person in your ear. But, they’re not actually next to you, so you have to be creative,” she said. “It was a bare slate and was up to me to create the scene.”

Kimberlea Daggy, of musical radio programs “All Things Considered” on WMRA and “Air Play” on WEMC, hosted the virtual gala.

Department chair and pianist David Berry said 2020 has been marked by countless loss and changes, so hope can feel easily diminished, but music is a universal balm for drained spirits.

“Music speaks so well to situations like these in times when it’s hard to find anything to latch onto. Music can lead the way and often be the thing that can speak to such a time,” he said.

As in years past, the gala featured the talents of 91����Ƶ’s Jazz Band, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Singers and the 91����Ƶ Orchestra along with faculty soloists and special guest artists.

Embracing the experimental nature of 2020, this year’s special guests were notably not orchestral acts but offered a fuller scope of music’s capability to intersect genres. The first, AppalAsia, is a Pittsburgh-based, world-folk group that blends instruments of Western and Eastern origins and performed an original song “Four Hills.”

Harrisonburg-based contemporary roots music group The Steel Wheels also joined to play alongside university students and bring an unfamiliar arrangement to a popular melody.

Eric Brubaker is an 91����Ƶ class of 2001 graduate, but he’s better known for playing the fiddle and co-founding The Steel Wheels. Brubaker practiced both classical and folk styles of music growing up and was a concertmaster during his 91����Ƶ days. He said returning to 91����Ƶ and arranging “Sing Me Like a Folk Song” along with the directors of Red Wing Academy, Megan Tiller and Kelly Wiedemann, to perform alongside the university’s orchestra felt like coming full circle.

“To bring my experiences in being a touring musician and also playing more informal styles, bluegrass-influenced styles,” Brubaker said. “To be able to mesh that with the classical music setting is something that interests me in a way where you can find some common ground between the different styles, and that’s exciting to me.”

Brubaker said “Sing Me Like A Folk Song” is a metaphorical tune comparing folk music to the connection between people, but the orchestral arrangement reimagined the meaning to encompass the bridges between classical and Americana, bluegrass styles.

“To be able to reach into those different worlds and create something that combines those two in a different way hopefully sort of gives a way we can continue to reach across all different kinds of divides,” he said.

Donations from the evening benefited the 91����Ƶ music student scholarship fund.

“There’s something for everyone in this program but in a way I feel like it always comes back to those themes of hope,” Berry said. “It’s the best of technology coming together with that timeless sound of a choir, to still be able to do that in this season.”

Thanks to our sponsor:

David Berry, chair of 91����Ƶ’s music department, makes no secret of the vision behind the university’s upcoming made-for-broadcast special premiere of the annual Gala Concert.

Always the highlight of 91����Ƶ’s thriving musical culture, this year’s gala will be a “magnificent evening of music,” Berry said, adding that its inspiration comes from arts broadcasts such as the Kennedy Center Honors. And for musicians who have been unable to perform in front of live audiences, the event offers a rare opportunity for artistic collaboration. That joy alone, notes Berry, is worth tuning in for.

“We want this evening to offer a much-needed message of hope and inspiration for uncertain times through a wide array of beautiful, exciting, and eclectic musical performances,” he said in a recent interview.

Register to watch via Zoom at and participate in a special talkback after the show.

The gala (but NOT the talkback) will be streamed on on Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. [Note that you do not need a Facebook account to access the page.]

The concert is free, with 100% of donations benefiting the 91����Ƶ music student scholarship fund. Please consider giving at least the price of a ticket to the .

Just as in last year’s sensational performance with Phantom of the Opera star Janinah Burnett, the concert will feature the 91����Ƶ Jazz Band, the Wind Ensemble, Chamber Singers and the 91����Ƶ Orchestra along with faculty soloists and special guest artists.

“This year, we welcome The Steel Wheels and AppalAsia, two acclaimed groups which will bring a new flavor of roots music and world music to our gala stage,” Berry said.

Classical music radio host Kimberlea Daggy, of the NPR affiliates WMRA/WEMC, will emcee the event for the second consecutive year. Daggy and the Steel Wheels’ Trent Wagler ’02 will join Berry for a 30-minute talkback after the concert.

The, the nationally recognized Shenandoah Valley-based roots music band and a longtime favorite of 91����Ƶ audiences, is comprised of alumni Wagler, Eric Brubaker ’01, and Brian Dickel ’98, as well as bandmates Jay Lapp and Kevin Garcia. They’ll join the 91����Ƶ orchestra to give the premiere performance of a new arrangement of “Sing Me Like a Folk Song,” a track off their 2017 studio album “Wild As We Came Here.” []

is a Pittsburgh-based trio that one music critic has hailed as “” he’d ever heard. The band blends instruments of Western and Eastern origin, combining the traditional Chinese two-stringed fiddle (the erhu), played by Mimi Jong, with the dulcimer and banjo, played by Jeff Berman and Sue Powers, respectively.

Music faculty Berry and Kim Souther will play an original version of Libertango by the celebrated Argentinian composer Astor Piazzola. 

Berry is an active concert pianist whose performances have been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and the Kimmel Center.

Souther, a multi-style cellist who has toured with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, is the newest member of the 91����Ƶ music faculty and serves as director of the Shenandoah Valley Preparatory Music program.

Award-winning baritone and voice professor James Richardson will pair with soprano Kiara Kiah ‘20 in a duet from Mozart’s The Magic Flute accompanied by the 91����Ƶ Orchestra. Kiah was a winner in the Mid-Atlantic Region National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition and is a 2020 Cords of Distinction recipient, an honor that recognizes graduating seniors who have made outstanding contributions to the university, community or society.  

Led by faculty conductors Benjamin Bergey and Robert Curry, the student ensembles will present a variety of choral and instrumental musical selections ranging from the music of Beethoven through classic jazz standards.

Thanks to our sponsor!

First published 10/26/2020.

91����Ƶ soprano Kiara Kiah recently placed third in her division at the 2020 Mid-Atlantic Region National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) audition – she now advances on to national preliminaries.

Kiah competed virtually by sending in audition videos, as the in-person competition in South Carolina was cancelled due to COVID-19. You can listen to audio from one of her audition tapes below – “Somehow I Never Could Believe” – a synthesis of traditional opera and American musical theater.

“I couldn’t be more excited for Kiara, who is a remarkable human being with a terrific soprano voice; however, you’d never know it – except to hear her sing – given her unassuming, down-to-earth demeanor,” said Professor James Richardson.

“It feels amazing to know I’ve made it this far, being out of the ‘competition game’ for a while,” Kiah said. “I’ve proved to myself that you don’t need to attend the most expensive music conservatory to be successful … as an African American female in opera-classic singing, it feels amazing to represent my people and put us on the map.”

“This win, which advances Kiara to the national student auditions, puts her in the upper echelon of collegiately trained vocalists between here and the west coast – many of them from the most elite schools and conservatories,” said Richardson. “Furthermore, this feat speaks to her and her peers’ (with whom she competed) fortitude, given the challenges posed by the current, COVID-19 landscape. The singing must go on!”

Hear another of Kiah’s audition tracks below: “St. Ita’s Vision.”

Berlin has been one of Europe’s musical centers for hundreds of years. Members of the Bach family composed there, Shoenberg lived and taught there, and the city boasts an orchestra that began in the royal court in the 1500s. More recently, it hosted 91����Ƶ vocalist Leah Wenger.

In December, Wenger applied to a in Berlin – and three weeks later, she was on a plane across the Atlantic.

“I gained a lot of confidence, not only in my voice and the way that I carry myself onstage, but also navigating international travel by myself, and navigating public transportation in Berlin,” Wenger said. She spent ten days there: five with an exchange student friend from high school, and five as a student of the Opera Programs Berlin.

In the program, she put in intense, 12-hour days with nine other vocalists. The other students hailed from the U.S., England, China, the Czech Republic, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Lebanon. Wenger loved being able to interact with globetrotting peers. 

“Getting to know the people that were there as human beings, rather than lists of accomplishments … the stories of how people got to where they are, everyone is just so different,” she said.

Wenger primarily studied under Deborah York, an internationally acclaimed musicologist and vocalist; and Byron Knutson, professor of operatic studies at the Hanns Eisler Conservatory in Berlin. 

“Though the program seems young, the faculty are truly world-class,” said voice professor James Richardson. “I told Leah she had to go to Berlin just for the experience of getting to work with these folks.”

The “historical performance” repertoire focused on operas from 1580 to 1750, plus some of Mozart’s early works. 

Wenger prefers to get off the beaten path with music: her senior recital, on April 17, will feature a selection of music from before the 1800s and after the 1900s. This assortment gets away from the typical pieces you hear on classical music stations. But being a bit of an iconoclast doesn’t mean she took the master class any less seriously.

“We would spend hours talking about different interpretations of ornamentation, how the composer would have wanted this ornamentation to be during this time period,” Wenger said. For example, arguing over whether to trill in the popular style of 1742 or 1749. “It was so fun to be around people who got so excited about the same things I was excited about!”

Opera is a newly found interest of Wenger’s, who grew up with a passion for choral music – starting in the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir at the age of six, and going on to perform in touring and chamber choirs at Eastern Mennonite High School and 91����Ƶ. It wasn’t until last year, as she prepared for her junior recital and played the Wardrobe in 91����Ƶ’s production of Beauty and the Beast that she seriously considered a career as a solo vocalist.

“I had to embody the character of being an opera diva,” Wenger said. “I really kind of fell in love with solo performance.”

“Leah’s tremendous, ‘go-for-it’ work ethic – her intrinsic drive – is among her greatest strengths as a musician,” Richardson said. “Of course, those who know Leah are well-aware, this quality is among her strengths in general; it’s simply an attribute of Leah as a person and it carries over into her many spheres.”

Wenger is a double major in music performance and psychology, has a minor in the honors program, is co-president of the Student Government Association, and plays varsity soccer. 

Richardson said this interdisciplinary approach to education “embodies the very spirit of our music department. That is, we don’t have a cookie cutter mold for our music majors. Our students are unique.”

With all the demands on her time, Wenger will walk in Commencement this spring, and finish her degrees next semester. And what’s next, after that? Wenger’s keeping an open mind – looking for professional singing opportunities with the hope of any young artist: to “get paid for doing things I’m passionate about!”

On a sunny day in September, 64 students from 91����Ƶ stood in a graveyard, listening to the names of people who may be buried there. Cream violets blanketed the ground, likely planted on the graves by mourners from another age. Graveyard director Sarah Kohrs rang a bell, its somber tone signifying a time for silent reflection. 

No one knows for sure who is buried in this clearing by a wooded stream, half an hour from 91����Ƶ’s campus, because they were enslaved Virginians – African Americans who died on a plantation outside of present-day Quicksburg, Va. Many of the graves have no marker at all, and the ones that do are simply bare stones. 

“I don’t know where I’m from. I don’t know where my ancestors were from. I just know that my immediate family is from Virginia … so these could potentially be my relatives, is how I walked into it,” Jones said. “That’s probably why I got so emotional. I attached myself to them because, if I was born in another time, I could have been them.”

The graveyard is called Corhaven and is part of the . The name Corhaven is a combination of the Latin word for heart and “haven,” in the sense of a “resting place for weary travelers.”

Connecting classroom readings to the real world

91����Ƶ half of the 64 students on the field trip are taking a senior seminar with professors Marti Eads and James Richardson, titled “Stairway to Heaven: Music, Literature, and Meaning.” The rest are in Eads’ class on global literature, which includes works by Phillis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano, and Thomas Jefferson.

Keith Bell visited the graveyard with the global literature class, and said that the trip allowed him to understand Equiano’s memoir on a deeper level. The book is “the first recorded slave narrative,” Bell explained. “It was a lot easier to immerse yourself in the text, and to truly see what standpoint he was coming from.”

And to confront this horrific history only 20 miles away from campus – “how close to home it feels … was very eye-opening,” Bell said.

Senior seminars are team-taught courses that encourage students to reflect on their own identities, voices, and life journeys. The courses are interdisciplinary by nature: Eads teaches in the language and literature department; Richardson, in music.

Eads said that she and Richardson wanted to teach this seminar “because we share a commitment to helping orient students toward the Kingdom of God as well as profound admiration for Ron Rash’s exploration of that orientation process in his novel The World Made Straight.”

[Eads spent her 2015-16 sabbatical exploring Rash’s novel and more broadly, the theme of trauma in literature: she participated in a Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience training at 91����Ƶ and attended a Council of Independent Colleges American history seminar summer seminar on slave narratives at Yale University before embarking on her study. Read more about her studies.]

Their students read The World Made Straight before the Corhaven visit. Eads explained that the book grapples with community-wide trauma. In that context, “we wanted to take our class to a site that would be rich in meaning,” she said.

Acknowledging the history in ‘our backyard‘

Kohrs hopes that visitors leave Corhaven recognizing that slavery happened here, “in our backyard.” At one time, she said, 12 percent of the population of Shenandoah County was enslaved.

“I hope that in coming there, they recognize it’s not about shame or blame, but it’s about understanding the past, so that we have a better understanding of the present,” Kohrs said.

Bell said the field trip was that eye-opening experience for him. He grew up in Staunton, and attended a rural high school that did not teach about slavery in any depth.

“Being Caucasian from a primarily Caucasian area, you don’t really learn much about slavery … [Corhaven] helped me to acknowledge it more,” Bell said, “realizing where we are, the history that we have with slavery, and also incorporating that into understanding our text in class.”

Kohrs has continued efforts begun by the history club at nearby Stonewall Jackson High School to identify those buried, by combing through plantation documents, circuit court records, and whatever other 19th-century paperwork wasn’t burned during the Civil War. She started out as a volunteer at the site in 2015, restoring the cemetery to “create a sacred space that could be dedicated to the public,” Kohrs said. The restoration was finished in 2016.

Nobody is certain exactly how many people are buried at Corhaven, or where. Because of this, Jones said she was careful where she walked, to show respect. 

Kohrs said it’s “essentially a life-long project, trying to know the families and the names that are connected there.” Her background is in archaeology, and while she doesn’t conduct any “invasive” research that would disrupt the graves, Kohrs does use those skills as they apply to research.

Corhaven as an emotional experience

Elena Bernardi, a peacebuilding and development major, also went on the field trip. As an Ethiopian-Italian woman who recently moved to the U.S., she approached the experience with a more analytical bent, making connections between Corhaven’s history and The World Made Straight.

“However, when we went inside the actual cemetery and saw the ‘scattered’ placements of the graves, it quickly turned into a deeply human and emotional moment, academics aside,” Bernardi said. “The unmarked graves and missing identities and names created a haunting feeling, more tangible than the one in the book.”

The fact many of those buried at Corhaven were not given so much as a stone marker affected Jones, as well.

“The disrespect in that … that was hard,” Jones said. “When I go visit my grandma or someone, I visit a tombstone.”

“Although this legacy is incredibly painful,” Eads said, “Sarah [Kohrs] invites others into the space to reflect, mourn, and honor the individuals buried there.”

Kohrs splits her time between physically caring for the cemetery and leading tour groups of local students, scout troops, book clubs, and other community groups. She’s hosted everyone from the Sons of Confederate Veterans to Coming to the Table, a national organization with roots at 91����Ƶ that brings together descendants of the enslaved with the descendants of slave owners. Master gardeners volunteer regularly to do most of the physical upkeep, and include community volunteers in their work.

It’s an “opportunity to do a lot of reconciliation work,” around slavery, Kohrs said. “A tangible way to really come into contact with that aspect of healing.”

The students ended their trip with time to write poetic reflections. Bernardi shared an excerpt: “The depressions on the ground, the unevenness of the landscape, created a somewhat eerie feeling; if it weren’t for those details, the place could have been overlooked or mistaken for something with no past or human history.”

To learn more about visiting the Corhaven Graveyard or volunteering community work days, contact Sarah Kohrs at 434-922-2029 or email corhavengraveyard@inthecoracle.org.

“Simply magical,” says Professor David Berry in recollection of last weekend’s Gala concert at 91����Ƶ. “It is rarer than rare to have a consummate artist who has graced the finest concert stages in the world not only come to a university to teach and inspire students, but then also to perform with them. The gala was a beautiful vision of what it means for us at 91����Ƶ to lead together in the arts in our new era.”

Approximately 550 eager listeners packed Lehman Auditorium for the annual event, which brought in $2,800 in support of music department scholarships.

Janinah Burnett, currently starring on Broadway in Phantom of the Opera, dazzled, as did 91����Ƶ’s orchestra, wind ensemble and choirs.

Host Kimberlea Daggy, public radio classical music program announcer and producer, brought both enthusiasm and joy to the evening, sharing her own delight in the performances as she introduced each selection.

Enjoy this photoessay of the evening.

A Night at the Gala: Photos by Macson McGuigan

Professor James Richardson, wearing appropriate attire, begins the celebratory evening with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Fin ch’han dal vino” from Don Giovanni.

Professor Benjamin Bergey directs the 91����Ƶ University Choir and Chamber Orchestra in performing Requiem by John Rutter. The Chamber Singers also joined in this selection.

Soprano Leah Wenger, a music performance and psychology double major, sings a solo in Requiem. Cellist Patrick Bellah, an adjunct faculty member and professional musician, was the second soloist.

Isaac Andreas, principal second violin.

Benjamin Bergey conducts the 91����Ƶ Chamber Orchestra. “Both the orchestra and the choirs rose to the challenge of this hauntingly beautiful masterwork,” he said.

Ben Bontrager-Singer, cello.

Janinah Burnett performed two arias, “Chi il bel sogno di Doretta” from La Rondine and “Ah! fors’e lui” / Sempre libera” from La Traviata. conductor Benjamin Bergey recalled, “It was an amazing, professional-level experience for our orchestra to only briefly rehearse the evening before with a professional singer on something as difficult as an opera aria and have it go well.”

91����Ƶ’s Lehman Auditorium was filled with an eager audience, ready after intermission for more of what Benjamin Bergey described as “a wonderful evening of diverse music-making.”

Burnett performed a Joseph Joubert arrangement of the Ella Fitzgerald jazz classic”How High the Moon,” lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis, and “Almighty God,” one of Duke Ellington’s three Sacred Concerts, with the 91����Ƶ Jazz Ensemble, directed by Robert Curry. Sarah Ressler was the clarinet soloist. 

“The selection ‘Almighty God’ is rarely performed music, so studying and performing was challenging and rewarding,” said Robert Curry, rehearsing the selection here with the jazz ensemble and Chamber Singers. “It was a thrill to perform with a talented professional like Janinah Burnett.”

Burnett shares the applause with the jazz ensemble and Chamber Singers after her last selection, “Almighty God.” Pianist and 91����Ƶ music professor David Berry, who shares a friendship with Burnett going back to their days at Eastman School of Music, is at right.

Senior Robert Chaplin performs the famous solo from the beginning of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

David Berry, with Robert Curry and the 91����Ƶ Jazz Ensemble, performs “Rhapsody in Blue.” Curry noted that “recreating the early 1920s sound of the original jazzy version” was a challenge. “David and I talked several times about interpretation and style, all in an effort to make the performance as much like the original as possible.”

Musicians share their mutual appreciation at the end of “Rhapsody in Blue.”

The audience gives final thanks to 91����Ƶ faculty members (from left) James Richardson, David Berry, Robert Curry, Benjamin Bergey and gala host Kimberlea Daggy.

With special thanks to our sponsor:

Metropolitan Opera star , currently appearing in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, will be the featured artist. The acclaimed soprano will perform classic arias of Puccini and Verdi, as well as jazz showstoppers by Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington, accompanied by the university orchestra and jazz band. 

Burnett says she’s “thrilled to be joining 91����Ƶ for the gala,” and is bringing some of her favorites to the occasion, including “Sempre Libera” from Verdi’s La Traviata, the jazz selection “Almighty God” from Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts followed by “a hot rendition” of “How High the Moon.”

“Ms. Burnett’s presence makes this a concert event unlike any we have ever had at 91����Ƶ,” said Professor David Berry, who chairs the music department and will perform as well. “We’re fortunate to have a musician of her caliber sharing her immense talents on the same stage with our student musicians.”

Beginning her professional performance career as Mimì in Baz Luhrmann’s presentation of Puccini’s La Bohème on Broadway, Burnett received tremendous acclaim winning the Los Angeles Stage Alliance’s “Ovation Award” with a record 82 consecutive sold-out shows. She joined the Metropolitan Opera in 2008 for their productions of Carmen and La Bohème, and has since returned for Parsifal, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Rondine, The Enchanted Island, Iphigénie en Tauride, Elektra and Manon. She recently sang in a revival presentation of the opera Voodoo by the prolific Harlem Renaissance composer, Harry Lawrence Freeman.

Berry was an undergraduate student at the Eastman School of Music when Burnett was in graduate school. The friends also performed together in New York City with the Harlem Chamber Players.

WMRA public radio’s will host the evening, which includes a full slate of talented professional musicians on faculty, as well as many student musicians and others from the local community.

Professor James Richardson, baritone, will perform music from Mozart’s Don Giovanni and the University Choir will present John Rutter’s hauntingly beautiful “Requiem.” Berry, on the piano, and the 91����Ƶ Wind Ensemble will conclude the evening with a rousing presentation of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. 

The concert is sponsored by BB&T.

More on Janinah Burnett

Currently making appearances as “Carlotta Giudicelli” in the iconic musical theater masterpiece Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, Burnett made her MET debut as Bianca in La Rondine. In addition to Voodoo, recent performances include singing in Victory Hall Opera’s inaugural presentation of Der Rosenkavalier as Sophie, for which she was featured on the cover of the Arts and Style section of the Washington post. 

Performances on operatic stages internationally and domestically in various starring roles include: theThéâtre du Châtelet in Paris; the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; Spoleto Festival U.S.A.; the Michigan Opera Theatre; with operas in Arizona, Baltimore, Manitoba, Cleveland, Nashville and Columbus and in concert with The Israel Symphony Orchestra in Tel Aviv and Rishon LeZion with Mo. Asher Fisch.

She has performed in solo musical performances with the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in their opening gala; Leonard Bernstein’s Mass with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; debuting the role of Harriet Tubman in the World Premier presentation of Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Road to Freedom with American Opera Projects and singing Marguerite in Faust with Opera Toledo.

Burnett was named Artist of the Year at Syracuse Opera for her revered role debut as Leïla in Les Pêcheurs de Perles which she later reprised at Opera Carolina. A former member of the sister group to Three Mo’ Tenors entitled Three Mo’ Divas, Burnett gave two performances of her own jazz arrangements with her band entitled The Janinah Burnet Quartet at the Cell Theater in NYC and gave a self titled, sold out solo jazz show at the Metropolitan Room. She is a featured singer in the Spike Lee film Red Hook Summer, has performed on the Tony Awards, and is featured on the La Bohéme on Broadway cast recording. 

Burnett is currently producing performances of her own writings with art songs, freedom songs and spirituals entitled I, Too Sing America: A Lament for the Fallen which seeks to provide quality performances rooted in education, activism, committed artistic expression, and healing. 

With thanks to major sponsor

Though she has retired from administrative work this spring, Miller’s legacy will continue through the many children whose talents for and love of music has been nurtured by a variety of vocal and instrumental programs. And for this musician, retirement doesn’t mean giving up teaching and performing — it simply allows her to spend more time doing two of her favorite things with people she enjoys.

“I love to see students progress and grow at whatever level they are at, and being with my fellow teachers and the families here at 91����Ƶ,” she said in a recent interview. “And I look forward to performing with colleagues as well. ‘Retirement’ will allow me more time to do both.”

‘Rich legacy’

Miller’s impact was celebrated during a May reception on campus, attended by former students, parents of students, and those in the music community at 91����Ƶ and from the broader Shenandoah Valley.

“She leaves a rich legacy to 91����Ƶ, our greater community and so many families, generations, in fact,” said Professor James Richardson, music department chair. “So many lives have been touched by Sharon’s spirit of play, music instruction and music-making.”

Miller joined the fledgling Preparatory Music Program at 91����Ƶ in 1989 as a Suzuki viola and violin instructor. It was started in 1988 by Wanda Teague Alger, a 1981 graduate of 91����Ƶ and “a wonderful Suzuki violin teacher” who moved out of the area the same year Miller arrived, she remembers.

Miller helped to start the youth symphony in its first season in 1990, and then because program director from 1992 to the present. Under her leadership, programming expanded to include the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choirs in 1991 (now a separate program); Musikgarten in 1992; expanded instrumental lessons in 1994; and the Harrisonburg City Schools After-School Strings Program in 2002.

The result has touched many young people, including the college students she taught as a member of 91����Ƶ’s music faculty from 1998-2013. The prep music program enrolled 75 students her first year and now has more than 300. The city schools program began with 40 students and now has 210.

Strings in the schools

One clue to Miller’s success has been “quiet persistence,” said her niece Christa Hoover, who has instructed in both programs.

In 2002, Miller wrote a successful grant application, and convinced donors as well, to fund after-school violin clubs. After these clubs expanded to both elementary and middle schools, “she started pushing for curricular string offerings,” Hoover said. “It took years and incremental progress but she never gave up.”

In 2007, HCPS took over funding the program, with 91����Ƶ’s prep music program contracted for administration and staffing. The 2018-19 academic year was the first time middle school string electives were offered.

Like many other music teachers, Hoover has benefited from Miller’s interest and mentorship.

“When I was a directionless college grad, Sharon got me to move here, started me in Suzuki teacher training, gave me work, and has mentored and encouraged me through my early career,” she said. “I love what I do, and she made that happen! And she has tirelessly done this for dozens of other young teachers.”

A search is currently underway for a new program director. Miller is looking forward to “new ideas in programming and marketing,” she said. “I’d like to see the program reach an even broader audience in the future, thinking especially of senior citizens.”

In the meantime, she’ll happily continue her life’s work: teaching, mentoring and performing.

“While actors in dark clothes manipulate the props and set pieces under black light, the audience sees the effects created right before their eyes,” said Poole, assistant professor of theater. “This production focuses on the joy of storytelling. It relies on our preexisting knowledge of Disney’s magical formulas, taking the musical in unexpected directions while remaining faithful to the script.”

.

Performances are scheduled in the Main Stage Theater March 22, 28, 29 and 30 at 7 p.m.; March 23 and 24 at 3 p.m.; and March 26 at 10 a.m. The performance is approximately 2.5 hours, with intermission.

Innovative staging

Disney’s film “Beauty and the Beast” is a favorite of Poole’s and his three children, he said. Attempting a production of the Broadway musical based on the 1991 film wasn’t in his plans until Braydon Hoover, associate director of development who has been known to “trod the boards” one or two times, made the suggestion.

However, mounting an original Broadway Disney musical at a small liberal arts college takes some innovative solutions.

“We are using found objects and recycled materials to create the props, costumes and set pieces,” Poole said. Cast and crew would also need to let go “of our expectations of what a Disney show should look like.”  

Interdisciplinary recruitments

Poole recruited faculty and students from other departments. Anna Westfall, assistant professor of art, designed the production’s shadow puppets. Westfall has worked on costumes and props for other theater productions, she said. “However, I have never made shadow puppets. My past designs were sculptural, so this process was new to me.”

Her shadow puppet creations include three humans, a beast, a tree, an interior of a castle, and several wolves. “I attempted to keep my designs simple so that people would recognize the story,” Westfall said.

Esther Tian, associate professor and director of 91����Ƶ’s engineering program, and the first-year engineering class worked with theater tech director Shannon Dove on set design and construction.

“This production requires a flexible, fast-moving set,” Poole said. “Our engineering students have delivered something fitting and unique.”

Poole also sought out sophomore Freddie Monahan, member of the student art club, to build what he praised as “visually interesting and user-friendly” props.

Cast includes community members

In addition to 91����Ƶ’s actors, Poole cast students from Eastern Mennonite High School, Waterman Elementary and the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir. “It truly takes a village, or a community, to create a theater production,” he said.

Junior Gwen Mallow, a secondary English education major, is Poole’s assistant director. One of her duties is working with stage manager Amber Hooper “trying to make sure that everyone is safe and happy,” Mallow said. “It is really fun having students from both EMHS and other elementary schools in the area. The kids are kind, enthusiastic and natural actors.”

Mallow also leads sectional rehearsals when needed and takes down Poole’s notes to keep rehearsals running smoothly without stopping. “But mostly I’m providing a second opinion when Justin is unsure about an aesthetic choice,” she said.

First year peace and development major Elizabeth Eby was cast as the lead character, Belle. Eby said that as a child, she looked up to the character of Belle for her kindness and strength. “It’s also great how strong and independent she is.”

Eby shares Belle’s love for books, but believes to develop the character fully, their differences need to be included. “Physicality has been really helpful in doing that as I try to walk like a Disney princess,” Eby said. “I also just say my lines in different voices until I think something works for the character, rather than how I normally speak.”

With all these contributions and collaborations from the 91����Ƶ community and beyond, Poole is looking forward to opening night. Bringing together veteran actors and children in their first productions with engineering students and artists working in new media, the collaborative effort  is symbolic of his vision of theater’s creative potential.

“I like the idea of 91����Ƶ theater being a place where people of all ages can gather and enjoy a great production as a community,” he said. “This show fits that bill. I hope to do more productions that have this family appeal. It also resonates with the students, who grew up on the original film.”

There is already a great response to the show, he added – and tickets are going fast!

Reserved tickets are $15 for adults ($17 at the door), $12 for faculty/staff, seniors and non-91����Ƶ students ($14 at the door), and $6 for 91����Ƶ and Bridgewater College students. Tickets are available at 91����Ƶ’s Box Office, located in the University Commons. Box office hours are Monday-Friday, 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. or call 540-432-4582.

CHARACTERS

BELLE: Elizabeth Eby, first-year, Goshen, Indiana

BEAST: Andrew Stoltzfus, first-year, Harrisonburg, Virginia

GASTON: Isaac Longacre, first-year, Quakertown, Pennsylvania

LEFOU: Richard Vo, junior, Front Royal, Virginia

COGSWORTH/CHORUS: Avery Trinh, first-year, Columbia, Maryland

LUMIERE/CHORUS: Joseph Seitz, first-year, Harrisonburg, Virginia

MRS. POTTS/CHORUS: Sarah Ressler, sophomore, Kidron, Ohio

CHIP/CHORUS: Anna Ressler, junior, Kidron, Ohio

BABETTE: Mary Fairfield, community student, Staunton, Virginia

MADAME DE LA GRAND BOUCHE/CHORUS: Leah Wenger, junior, Harrisonburg, Virginia

MAURICE/CHORUS: Lucas Wenger, sophomore, Harrisonburg, Virginia

MONSIEUR D’ARQUE/CHORUS: Tyler Goss, graduate student, Mechanicsville, Virginia

CHORUS: Ariel Barbosa, junior, Baltimore, Maryland; Emily Bennett, first-year, Landsdale, Pennsylvania; Dan Hackman, junior, Lansdale, Pennsylvania; Jackie Hieber, graduate student, Bridgewater, Virginia; Ross Kirkdorffer, first-year, Harrisonburg, Virginia; Stephanie Kniss, first-year, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; Alexa Lahr, first-year, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Anali Martin, junior, Cary, North Carolina; Johnny G Prioleau III, junior, Chesterfield, Virginia; MacRae Richardson, community student, Dayton, Virginia; Partha Roy, first-year, Takoma Park, Maryland; Jay Sheppard, first-year, Beaverdam, Virginia

CHILDREN’S CHORUS: Zevvi Misterka, Virginia Natale, Vienna Poole, George Richardson, Jack Richardson, Katherine Richardson, Kezia Wettig, Lewis Yoder.

CREW

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Gwen Mallow, junior, Quicksburg, Virginia

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER: Jareya Harder, first-year, Mountain Lake, Minnesota

STAGE MANAGER: Amber Hooper, junior, Mechanicsville, Virginia

PROPS MANAGER: Freddie Monahan, sophomore, Richmond, Virginia

SOUND BOARD OPERATOR, PROPS MANAGER & HAIR/MAKE-UP ASST: Ezrionna Prioleau, graduate student, Chesterfield, Virginia

COSTUME LOFT MANAGER & HAIR/MAKE UP DESIGNER: Hailey Holcomb, graduate student, Woodbridge, Va.

DIRECTOR and PRODUCER: Justin Poole

MUSICAL DIRECTOR: James Richardson

PIANIST: Jim Clemens

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR & SET DESIGNER: Shannon Dove

FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENT DESIGNERS: Wade Banks, Jonas Beachy, Catherine Hammond, Jacob Horsley, Malachi Malone, Maarten McDonald, Andrew Schunn, Joshua Sheppard, Laura Troyer, Tessa Waidelich, Jason Wong

COSTUME DESIGNER: Rachel E. Herrick

DANCE CHOREOGRAPHER: Jerusha “Ellie” de Waal

LIGHTING DESIGNER: Robert Weaver

SHADOW PUPPET DESIGNER: Anna Westfall

“While actors in dark clothes manipulate the props and set pieces under black light, the audience sees the effects created right before their eyes,” said Poole, assistant professor of theater. “This production focuses on the joy of storytelling. It relies on our preexisting knowledge of Disney’s magical formulas, taking the musical in unexpected directions while remaining faithful to the script.”

.

Performances are scheduled in the Main Stage Theater March 22, 28, 29 and 30 at 7 p.m.; March 23 and 24 at 3 p.m.; and March 26 at 10 a.m. The performance is approximately 2.5 hours, with intermission.

Innovative staging

Disney’s film “Beauty and the Beast” is a favorite of Poole’s and his three children, he said. Attempting a production of the Broadway musical based on the 1991 film wasn’t in his plans until Braydon Hoover, associate director of development who has been known to “trod the boards” one or two times, made the suggestion.

However, mounting an original Broadway Disney musical at a small liberal arts college takes some innovative solutions.

“We are using found objects and recycled materials to create the props, costumes and set pieces,” Poole said. Cast and crew would also need to let go “of our expectations of what a Disney show should look like.”  

Interdisciplinary recruitments

Poole recruited faculty and students from other departments. Anna Westfall, assistant professor of art, designed the production’s shadow puppets. Westfall has worked on costumes and props for other theater productions, she said. “However, I have never made shadow puppets. My past designs were sculptural, so this process was new to me.”

Her shadow puppet creations include three humans, a beast, a tree, an interior of a castle, and several wolves. “I attempted to keep my designs simple so that people would recognize the story,” Westfall said.

Esther Tian, associate professor and director of 91����Ƶ’s engineering program, and the first-year engineering class worked with theater tech director Shannon Dove on set design and construction.

“This production requires a flexible, fast-moving set,” Poole said. “Our engineering students have delivered something fitting and unique.”

Poole also sought out sophomore Freddie Monahan, member of the student art club, to build what he praised as “visually interesting and user-friendly” props.

Cast includes community members

In addition to 91����Ƶ’s actors, Poole cast students from Eastern Mennonite High School, Waterman Elementary and the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir, Poole said. “It truly takes a village, or a community, to create a theater production.”

Junior Gwen Mallow, an secondary English education major, is Poole’s assistant director. One of her duties is working with stage manager Amber Hooper “trying to make sure that everyone is safe and happy,” Mallow said. “It is really fun having students from both EMHS and other elementary schools in the area. The kids are kind, enthusiastic and natural actors.”

Mallow also leads sectional rehearsals when needed and takes down Poole’s notes to keep rehearsals running smoothly without stopping. “I also take over sectional rehearsals when needed,” she said, “but mostly I’m providing a second opinion when Justin is unsure about an aesthetic choice.”

First year peace and development major Elizabeth Eby was cast as the lead character, Belle. Eby said that as a child, she looked up to the character of Belle for her kindness and strength. “It’s also great how strong and independent she is.”

Eby shares Belle’s love for books, but believes to develop the character fully, their differences need to be included. “Physicality has been really helpful in doing that as I try to walk like a Disney princess,” Eby said. “I also just say my lines in different voices until I think something works for the character, rather than how I normally speak.”

With all these contributions and collaborations from the 91����Ƶ community and beyond, Poole is looking forward to opening night. Bringing together veteran actors and children in their first productions with engineering students and artists working in new media, the collaborative effort  is symbolic of his vision of theater’s creative potential.

“I like the idea of 91����Ƶ theater being a place where people of all ages can gather and enjoy a great production as a community,” he said. “This show fits that bill. I hope to do more productions that have this family appeal. It also resonates with the students, who grew up on the original film.”

There is already a great response to the show, he added – and tickets are going fast!

Reserved tickets are $15 for adults ($17 at the door), $12 for faculty/staff, seniors and non-91����Ƶ students ($14 at the door), and $6 for 91����Ƶ and Bridgewater College students. Tickets are available at 91����Ƶ’s Box Office, located in the University Commons. Box office hours are Monday-Friday, 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. or call 540-432-4582.

CHARACTERS

BELLE: Elizabeth Eby, first-year, Goshen, Indiana

BEAST: Andrew Stoltzfus, first-year, Harrisonburg, Virginia

GASTON: Isaac Longacre, first-year, Quakertown, Pennsylvania

LEFOU: Richard Vo, junior, Front Royal, Virginia

COGSWORTH/CHORUS: Avery Trinh, first-year, Columbia, Maryland

LUMIERE/CHORUS: Joseph Seitz, first-year, Harrisonburg, Virginia

MRS. POTTS/CHORUS: Sarah Ressler, sophomore, Kidron, Ohio

CHIP/CHORUS: Anna Ressler, junior, Kidron, Ohio

BABETTE: Mary Fairfield, community student, Staunton, Virginia

MADAME DE LA GRAND BOUCHE/CHORUS: Leah Wenger, junior, Harrisonburg, Virginia

MAURICE/CHORUS: Lucas Wenger, sophomore, Harrisonburg, Virginia

MONSIEUR D’ARQUE/CHORUS: Tyler Goss, graduate student, Mechanicsville, Virginia

CHORUS: Ariel Barbosa, junior, Baltimore, Maryland; Emily Bennett, first-year, Landsdale, Pennsylvania; Dan Hackman, junior, Lansdale, Pennsylvania; Jackie Hieber, graduate student, Bridgewater, Virginia; Ross Kirkdorffer, first-year, Harrisonburg, Virginia; Stephanie Kniss, first-year, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; Alexa Lahr, first-year, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Anali Martin, junior, Cary, North Carolina; Johnny G Prioleau III, junior, Chesterfield, Virginia; MacRae Richardson, community student, Dayton, Virginia; Partha Roy, first-year, Takoma Park, Maryland; Jay Sheppard, first-year, Beaverdam, Virginia

CHILDREN’S CHORUS: Zevvi Misterka, Virginia Natale, Vienna Poole, George Richardson, Jack Richardson, Katherine Richardson, Kezia Wettig, Lewis Yoder.

CREW

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Gwen Mallow, junior, Quicksburg, Virginia

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER: Jareya Harder, first-year, Mountain Lake, Minnesota

STAGE MANAGER: Amber Hooper, junior, Mechanicsville, Virginia

PROPS MANAGER: Freddie Monahan, sophomore, Richmond, Virginia

SOUND BOARD OPERATOR, PROPS MANAGER & HAIR/MAKE-UP ASST: Ezrionna Prioleau, graduate student, Chesterfield, Virginia

COSTUME LOFT MANAGER & HAIR/MAKE UP DESIGNER: Hailey Holcomb, graduate student, Woodbridge, Va.

DIRECTOR and PRODUCER: Justin Poole

MUSICAL DIRECTOR: James Richardson

PIANIST: Jim Clemens

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR & SET DESIGNER: Shannon Dove

FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENT DESIGNERS: Wade Banks, Jonas Beachy, Catherine Hammond, Jacob Horsley, Malachi Malone, Maarten McDonald, Andrew Schunn, Joshua Sheppard, Laura Troyer, Tessa Waidelich, Jason Wong

COSTUME DESIGNER: Rachel E. Herrick

DANCE CHOREOGRAPHER: Jerusha “Ellie” de Waal

LIGHTING DESIGNER: Robert Weaver

SHADOW PUPPET DESIGNER: Anna Westfall

The annual event is 7-9 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17, in Lehman Auditorium, with a freewill offering to benefit the music scholarship fund.

The first half of the concert will feature the 91����Ƶ jazz and wind ensembles conducted by Bob Curry and the orchestra conducted by Benjamin Bergey. In the second half, Professor Ryan Keebaugh will conduct the combined choirs and orchestra in a performance of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem Mass.

The evening ranks among concerts at 91����Ƶ as “one of the biggies,” said Professor James Richardson, music department chair.

“It’s a uniquely combined effort,” he said. “You’ll see faculty performing along with students – part of the ethos of our department’s sense of community.” That community includes music majors but also other students, as “many of the people that make up our ensembles are doing it for their own edification – and we like that,” he said. “We have open doors.”

The mass text has been set by many composers including Mozart and Verdi, but Fauré’s version is unique, said Richardson, who will be a baritone soloist alongside junior performance major and soprano Kiara Norman.

“It’s a lullaby for death,” he said. “That might sound morose, but that term is very much meant to imply just the opposite.”

Fauré, an organist and therefore constantly around funeral music, excluded from the mass parts that “really had to do with the anxiety or fear or unpleasantness associated with death,” Richardson said. “It’s a very serene, tranquil approach to one’s end.”  

Instead of the movement about the wrath of God, Fauré included a Pie Jesu section. He also used different text for the final movement.

As Fauré noted, “It is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience.”

“In my estimation,” Keebaugh said, “It’s all about love, and what’s accomplished here during one’s lifetime. It’s more of a Requiem for the living who are coping with death.”

In August, she’ll begin as Tim and Gail Buchanan Endowed Chair of the Fine Arts Division at Friends University — “an incredible opportunity,” she says, to do similar collaborative work in the far larger and more varied arts community of Wichita, Kansas.

At a reception this week in her honor, Professor James Richardson praised Griffing’s mentorship, her abilities as an “exceptional musician,” and “her compassion for the whole person, whether that be a colleague or a student.”

“She brings to everything she does a concern for the soul and the whole student,” he said. “When I think of Joan, I will always think of what I have heard her say many times, and I’m sure many of you have heard her say it as well: ‘At the end of the day, it’s all about the student.”

Professor Emeritus Kenneth J. Nafziger, longtime colleague in the 91����Ƶ music department, commented that he had “seen many musicians come to 91����Ƶ with significant gaps in their learning and grow as accomplished performers under her careful guidance, experience both solo and ensemble work and play in a variety of settings, all of which are exactly what music is supposed to do.”

Nafziger and Griffing have also spent many years working together with the . The conductor thanked the concertmaster for expanding his own understanding of strings instruments and string players to the benefit of all. “She has been able to translate my musical wishes into sounds I had hoped for and I am most thankful.”

Also in attendance were Bach Festival President Michael Allain and board member Ming Ivory, both of whom shared anecdotes and wished Griffing well on her new endeavors.

The reception was attended by several former students, four of whom now work for 91����Ƶ (two as violin instructors), but also representatives of community arts organization that Griffing has supported and promoted, including the .

Making music more accessible to area youth

When asked to identify her own accomplishments, Griffing lists two more programs for youth.

“B�dzٳ� Sharon Miller and I started to play violin in public schools programs,” she said. “That was something that was missing here that she and I wanted to start, and I’d have to say that’s something I am proud of.”

The Harrisonburg City Schools Strings program, a program of 91����Ƶ’s Preparatory Music program directed by Miller, began 11 years ago and is now offered at all six elementary schools and both middle schools.

Griffing also helped start the , a partnership of Harrisonburg City Schools with the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. to provide equal access to arts for students in K-8th grade.

“That’s been fun to work with dancers and visual artists, to get to know artists of different stripes and think about ways we can bring them together,” she said.

An advocate for music at 91����Ƶ

At 91����Ƶ, Griffing championed the interdisciplinary major, an inventive redesign of the music curriculum to broaden accessibility and encourage students to combine a music major with a second major in a different field.

Hearkening back to her own roots, the outreach string quartet class remains a favorite offering, as “a way for students to learn to take their music out to marginalized communities,” she said, such as the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind and Gemeinschaft Home for ex-offenders.

Reluctant to single out one or two of her many students over the years for individual accolades, Griffing says she’s most proud of her performance majors. “To a one, they have each accomplished more than they thought they could achieve in their four years,” she said. “All of them won our semi-annual concerto/aria competition. To eventually play a concerto with the orchestra takes guts and preparation and hard work, and to get to the performance level they do is really quite an achievement.”

Of her administrative work, which included fundraising, planning, mentoring, scheduling and more, Griffing says that choice of involvement enabled her “to help more than just my violin students.”

“I enjoy helping my colleagues do their jobs,” she said. “To me, that’s servant leadership: supporting my colleagues so they enjoy coming to work every day. Ultimately that helps the students, too.”

(To this, she adds that she is also doesn’t mind getting into “the nitty-gritty, which arts people sometimes don’t much care for, understandably so, because they’d rather do their arts.”)

A widely-traveled professional

All this while, Griffing has led an active professional career, performing as first violinist with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Eastern Music Festival, and concertmaster with the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Austria and Italy, as well as with the Coronado, Grand Teton, Norfolk and Spoleto festivals. She’s performed in Taiwan, Brazil and Australia, and spent a sabbatical at the University of Otago, New Zealand, studying the role of music in peace and conflict issues.

As founding member of the chamber music group Musica Harmonia, she regularly tours to promote peace and cultural understanding through musical collaboration. The group has recorded two CDs.

Griffing says she intends to keep many connections alive from her new home in Kansas. She and her husband, clarinetist Leslie Nicholas, will return to Harrisonburg every June to play with the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival.

And she’s looking forward to making new connections, too.

“I have always had a strong interest in the bigger picture of all the arts, how they connect and the possibilities of collaboration. The arts can and do change people’s lives for the better,” she said. “By overseeing all the arts at Friends and embedding them across campus, I’ll be able to have a broader impact than I am able to have here. That’s very exciting to me. Without the many years of experience at 91����Ƶ, this new opportunity would not be possible.”