Bedlam Theatre

Mixed Precipitation and the Dead Composers’ Society team up to bring you an evening of opera and competitive figure skating in time for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver!  We present a production of the 2006 chamber opera, Tonya and Nancy by Abigail Al-Doory Cross and Elizabeth Searle, followed by a public showing of the Ladies’ Figure events complete with trivia, figure skating demonstrations and gaudy figure skating outfits!

Mixed Precipitation is a performance initiative helmed by Scotty Reynolds dedicated to exploring text, space and dramatic form.  Previous projects have included MPLS Pinter Studies: An evening of Herald Pinter in Promenade Style and Orpheus and Eurydice: A Picnic Operetta, which toured to community garden sites throughout the summer of 2009.  The Dead Composers’ Society is a company of young classical singers.  This project follows their 2009 sold-out fringe festival hit Mr. Berman’s Bath Size Bar and There’s a Mastodon in My Backyard.

Our cast includes Meredith Cain-Nielsen as Tonya Harding and Leah Reddy as Nancy Kerrigan.  Music Director Michael Meyer leads the vocal pop ensemble Deviated Septet and has worked extensively with the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus and the Dale Wareland Singers.  Director Scotty Reynolds’ 2008 production of Broken Brain Summit received an Ivey Award for Innovative Concept and Idea.

Our opera is based on the events of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer and the knee clubbing scandal.  The libretto is based on the text of interviews, courtroom reports and public statements by the two skaters. It also recreates the action of the 1994 competition that became of the most watched women’s sporting events in history.

This chamber opera was named one of the top three chamber operas of 2006 by Opera Vista.  National critics responded positively to the premiere production at American Repertory Theatre.  The Boston Herald declared, “Loved the opera… it’s a real knee slapper.”  And the Associated Press stated, “the verismo production portrays the skaters not as rivals, but more as a pair, singing for the audiences’ sympathy.”

PHOTO CREDITS

(left to right) Leah Redding and Meredith Cain-Nielsen, photo by Ty Sassaman