Reston Players to Ring in New Year with MASTER CLASS

Reston Community Players rings in 2016 with Terrence McNally's mesmerizing Master Class. Maria Callas, one of the most famous opera divas of all time, is teaching a master class in front of a live audience at Reston CenterStage January 15-30.

Glamorous, commanding, larger than life, caustic, and surprisingly drop-dead funny, Maria is alternately dismayed and impressed by the three students who bravely enter the music studio at Juilliard, hoping for a gram of inspiration from the famed soprano. Maria frequently retreats into recollections of her own life and triumphs at La Scala with searing monologues about the unforgiving press, her affair with Aristotle Onassis, and her sacrifice taken in the name of art.

RCP co-producer Kate Keifer said, "I am very excited that RCP has chosen to produce Master Class. We have been producing high quality musicals and plays for almost 50 years, but it is not often that we get to reach out to shake hands with our fellow artists in complementary genres for one of our productions. With the focus of this play being on the opera genre, we get to do just that. We have some fantastic operatic voices in this production that will knock the socks off of our audience members. However, the heart of this play is about Maria Callas, whose story is captivating and whose larger than life persona is perfectly captured."

Veteran actress Lisa Anne Bailey takes on the complex and demanding role of opera legend Maria Callas. "The daunting part of this production for me is the sheer number of lines - overwhelming!!!" Bailey said. "In addition I have had to learn a bit of Italian, which has been challenging. Playing a real person who made such a mark on the opera world and doing it justice and with the right amount of humor, grace and class has been an amazing theatrical experience."

Director Rosemary Hartman, who received a WATCH award for directing Three Tall Women at Elden Street, said she was drawn to Master Class by its Tony and Drama Desk award-winning script. "Terrence McNally dispels some of the myths about Maria Callas and we get some real insight into who she really was," said Hartman. "McNally has given us insight into this musical genius who was satisfied with nothing less than perfection in herself and others in the work. We get to hear some of the most beautiful operatic music of Maria Callas."

Opera singer Molly Pinson Simoneau takes on the role of aspiring soprano Sharon in Master Class. "When I heard that RCP was doing Master Class, I knew that one of the characters sings an aria from Verdi's Macbeth," she said. "It's a piece that I was dying to perform, but I knew I wouldn't have many opportunities to sing it in the context of the opera, especially at my age. The music is extraordinarily difficult, but it was a challenge I couldn't resist!"

David Rohde, a busy metropolitan DC theatrical musical director, plays Manny Weinstock, the pianist who accompanies the opera students who sing for Maria Callas in her master classes at Juilliard in the early 1970s. "I'm a multi-genre guy who can be happy playing a Bach partita on the piano one day and the synthesizer in a rock musical the next day," Rohde said. "But there's nothing I love better than accompanying singers. Lisa Anne Bailey, who's playing Maria Callas, is one of my closest collaborators in local theater. We've done several musicals together as director and musical director, and I know the special quality and philosophy that Lisa brings to the stage. To be there with her and literally playing off of her character in real time is a special privilege."

Richard Durkin plays the Stagehand. "I'm hoping audiences will gain an appreciation for seeing "behind the scenes" in the lives of characters who can appear bigger than life on stage, but who have their own human trials and tribulations offstage," Durkin said. "As Maria puts it so well, 'Try isn't good enough. Do. The theatre isn't about trying. People don't leave their homes to watch us try. They come to see us do.' So come see us, do!"

Master Class stars Lisa Anne Bailey as Maria Callas and features Rosemarie S. Greger as the 1st Soprano (Sophie), Molly Pinson Simoneau as the 2nd Soprano (Sharon), Christopher Cosgrove as the Tenor (Tony), David Rohde as the Accompanist (Manny), and Richard Durkin as the Stagehand.

"I'm an evangelist for opera," said Simoneau, "so I hope that people who aren't necessarily familiar with opera, or with Maria Callas, will see Master Class and be inspired to go home and look up Callas' recordings or buy a ticket to the opera. Opera is such an exciting art form, and Callas was arguably the best singer of the 20th century. So I'm just happy to share my obsession with everyone."

Master Class is directed by Rosemary Hartman and produced for RCP by Kate Keifer and Carol Watson. Performances are January 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, and 30 at 8:00 PM, with a 2:00 PM matinee on January 24. For tickets call the box office at (703) 476-4500 x3, or purchase them online at www.restonplayers.org

All Reston Players mainstage productions are performed at CenterStage at the Reston Community Center, 2310 Colts Neck Road, Reston, Va. CenterStage is handicap accessible and offers listening devices for the hearing impaired.

Photo by Traci J. Brooks Photography

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