Last Saturday was Mer’s day, and the day itself was puttery and made up of errands. But, in the evening, Mer took me to Solon (northeast of where we live), to the Solon Center for the Arts. The Center has been around for years, but has focused on children. This year, after two years of fundraising and grant-writing, they added adult plays and music. The are doing one musical, one opera, and a Christmas play. The opening act of the season was one of my favorite musicals, Kiss Me, Kate.
We met up with one of Mer’s friends from high school, Marie. She was the one who had let Mer know about the production. We got there early for a pre-show talk. Mer and I like pre-show talks because we like to hear what the director was thinking for the production. We found out about the two-year process, and he let us know that there were multiple professional opera singers in the company (at least three). I’m not sure how they scored three or more opera singers for a three-night-only run in a small local theater, but they did.
The theater is on the second floor of the Center. The stage is at the front, and the entire space is fairly small. The theater could probably seat not more than 150, and the stage was probably only about thirty feet wide. There was a twelve-piece orchestra at the back of the stage, and the director had indicated that the space made for some issues. He hates scene changes, so most scene changes involved closing shutters in front of the orchestra and rotating two small towers on either side of the stage. The changes let you know that you were either on stage for the staging of The Taming of the Shrew, or you were backstage with the actors. It worked well.
The music was fun, as always. The singers were very talented, especially the leads. They were a tad too quiet from time to time for unmiked singers, but that was rare. On the whole, you could hear quite well. When Kate sang her well-known solo “I hate men,” she came off the stage and found various men to sing to. I was one of them; she gave me a jaunty little wave, which I returned, and then sang about how she hated me. It was fun, and a little intimidating to look a powerful singer in the eyes when she is about a foot away.
The entire play went off very well. It is such a great musical, and the actors poured a lot of energy into it. There were still (what felt to be) big dance numbers, even with a small stage and only seventeen actors – they made clever use of the space.
After the play, we went downstairs for a reception. We had thought there might be a few cookies, but there was quite a spread – breads, fruits, cookies, bars, sodas, wine, and more, and all of it was free. I talked briefly with the director again to tell him how well he had done, and Mer, Marie, and I all munched on some good food. It was “Wunderbar.”