Guerilla Opera To Play Greatest Hits In Honor Of 10th Anniversary, 4/18

Guerilla Opera plays its greatest hits on Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at its 10th Anniversary Celebration in the OBERON at 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138! Join your host Allegra Libonati, Stage Director of upcoming "Play: the Game-or-Game: the Play" and Boston Lyric Opera's recent "The Rakes Progress," at 6:00pm for mingling, appetizers and a cash bar, and mezmerizing performances from Guerilla Opera's "relentlesly inventive" ensemble. General admission for this event is $20.00 and can be purchased online at cluboberon.com, by phone at 617-547-8300 and at-the-door 1 hour before curtain at the OBERON.

Performances from their world premiere operas include: "Heart of a Dog" with music and libretto by Rudolf Rojahn, "Gallo" with music and libretto by Ken Ueno, "Say It Ain't So, Joe!" with music and libretto by Curtis K. Hughes and last season's premiere "Beowulf" with music and libretto by Hannah Lash.

The performing ensemble for this celebration includes Guerilla Opera regulars: soprano Aliana de la Guardia, tenor Patrick Massey, countertenor Douglas Dodson, clarinetist Amy Advocat, saxophonist Philipp Stäudlin, violinist/violist Gabriela Diaz as well as percussionist and artistic director Mike Williams, and new-commers baritone Dana Whitesid and cellist Stephen Marotto.

EXPERIMENTAL OPERA BY THEATER ARTIST RICK BURKHARDT
In conclusion of their 10th anniversary season, Guerilla Opera presents the world-premiere of composer and theater artist Rick Burkhardt's "Game: the Play-or-Play: the Game." This new opera plays for four performances in Ipswich Hall at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, 132 Ipswich St, Boston, MA: Thursday through Sunday, May 25 to 28, 2017 and all performances are at 8:00 p.m. An audience talk-back will directly follow the performances on Thursday, May 25 and Friday, May 26, with members of the cast and creative team.

Tickets for "Game: the Play-or-Play: the Game" are $15 for general admission and $10 for senior citizens. Tickets are free for students, as available the day of with a valid ID. Free student tickets must be claimed at the door via student rush. Student tickets are $10 if purchased in advance. For ticket purchases, visit bostonconservatory.berklee.edu/events/ticketing or call the Boston Conservatory at Berklee Box Office at (617) 912-9222 (Wednesday-Friday, 12:00-5:00 p.m.). Tickets sold online and by phone are subject to a fee. In-person sales are not subject to a fee.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
In present day four friends meet to play "BLACKOUT," a board game which takes place in 1940 during the blitz on London. As the American gamers play, time and space begin to skew. They inhabit their British characters more and more as they desperately attempt to evacuate the city and put out fires from aerial bombs falling on London. But it's just a game. Right?

"Game: the Play-or-Play: the Game" is approximately 70 minutes in duration and sung in English. There is no intermission. Four singer/actors (sopranos Aliana de la Guardia, Jennifer Ashe and Nina Guo, and baritone Brian Church) pair with four instrumentalist/actors (percussionist Mike Williams, saxophonist Phillip Stäudlin, clarinetst Rane Moore and violinist Lilit Hartunian) to depict playing a board game that literally folds out onto the stage with the audience in-the-round. The sound world develops from the actual sounds of gaming-rolling dice, shuffling cards, moving small game pieces, etc.-and extends into those of the musical instruments.

Guerilla Opera's creative team for "Game: the Play-or-Play: the Game" features: stage director Allegra Libonati, resident production designer Julia Noulin-Mérat (Director of Design and Production), lighting designer Daniel B. Chapman, and resident costume designer Neil Fortin.

This production is made possible through the generosity of Timothy and Jane Gillette, Elizabeth S. Boveroux, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The Amphion Foundation, and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee Ensemble-in-Residence program.

ABOUT GUERILLA OPERA
Guerilla Opera, now in its 10th season, is an experimental opera company whose mission is to commission new chamber operas written specifically for their ensemble of artists, and to perform in intimate theatrical settings without the use of a conductor or formal music director.

For more information visit Guerilla Opera online at guerillaopera.com, like them on Facebook at facebook.com/guerillaopera, and follow @guerillaopera on Twitter and Instagram using #PlaytheGameorGamethePlay and #GOSEASON10.

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PRESS OPENING: FINAL DRESS REHEARSAL (Wednesday, May 24, 2017, 8 p.m.)
Guerilla Opera invites reviewers and all members of the press to attend their final dress rehearsal of "Game: the Play-or-Play: the Game" on Wednesday, May 24, 2014 at 8:00 p.m. in Ipswich Hall at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee in Boston, MA. Contact Aliana de la Guardia, directly at alidelaguardia@guerillaopera.com or call (201) 952-6735 (mobile) to secure your admission to this private event.

ABOUT COMPOSER RICK BURKHARDT
Rick Burkhardt studied music composition at Harvard University, the University of Illinois, and the University of California, San Diego, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2006. He has received commissions, grants, and performances from organizations and performers such as the U.S.-Mexico Fund for Culture, the La Jolla Symphony, Ensemble Surplus, the Boswil Foundation, János Négyesy and Päivikki Nykter, Ensemble Ascolta, Red Fish Blue Fish, the NOISE quartet, the past(modern) duo, sfSound, Toca Loca, Mark Menzies, the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, the American Composers Forum, and Ensemble Chronophonie. During the early 1990s, he toured the U.S., Germany, and Swtizerland performing new music and theater with the Performers' Workshop Ensemble. In 1997, he began studying music with Chaya Czernowin and took classes in poetry from Rae Armantrout. He spent the following years inventing idiosyncratic methods for producing critical interactions of oddly integrated music and text.

He is a founding member of the Nonsense Company, an experimental music / theater trio dedicated to new works and new venues. The Nonsense Company has performed in more than 30 U.S. cities, presenting new music and theater in unexpected combinations for a wide range of audiences. Their concert in Darmstadt in 2004 was hailed as "one of the most solid, free, and critical aesthetic propositions... of the festival." Their 2008 performance in NYC's Frigid Theater Festival was reviewed as "the must see show of the festival" and won Best Show and Audience Choice awards. Along with Alec Duffy, Dave Malloy, and Rachel Chavkin, he received an Obie Award for creating the play "Three Pianos" at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in 2010. rickburkhardt.com

ABOUT DIRECTOR ALLEGRA LIBONATI
Allegra Libonati returns to Guerrilla Opera, having directed "Troubled Waters" by Mischa Salkind-Pearl, named Best World Premiere by the Boston Classical Review. Most recently she directed "The Rakes Progress" at Boston Lyric Opera where she also was Assistant Stage Director for "Don Giovanni." An international theater and opera director, her other credits include Assistant Director for "Death and the Powers: The Robot's Opera" (Dallas Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, American Repertory Theater, Monaco Opera House) and most recently, director for "Peter Pan's Neverland," a new and immersive adventure currently running in Beijing, China. Libonati is the Resident Director at the American Repertory Theater (ART) in Cambridge, where she has directed "The Snow Queen," "Hansel and Gretel," "The Pirate Princess" and "The Light Princess," which also ran at the New Victory Theater. She has directed numerous musicals and Shakespeare productions at the Summer Theatre of New Canaan and looks forward to working at Opera Omaha next season on their production of "Falstsff." allegralibonati.com

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