September 12, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BANK OF AMERICA POPS OPENS WITH "THE MUSIC MAN"
IN HONOR OF MEREDITH WILLSON'S 100TH ANNIVERSARY;
DAVID DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL MARCHING BAND FEATURED
Portland, Ore. … Continuing a successful run of semi-staged Broadway musicals, the Oregon Symphony and Associate Conductor Norman Leyden open the Bank of America Pops season with Meredith Willson's "The Music Man," marking the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth, on Oct. 12 through 14 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Kregg Arnston and Amy Jo Arrington won local auditions for the lead roles of con man Professor Harold Hill and librarian Marian Paroo; the cast also will feature the David Douglas High School Marching Band under the direction of Jennifer Muller. "The Music Man" is sponsored by Bank of America. Media support is provided by News Radio 750 KXL, FOX 12 Oregon and Media America.
Vivienne Elborne, who returns to direct her third Symphony musical in as many years, drew entirely from a local talent pool for the cast. In addition to Arnston and Arrington, who will deliver the trademark songs of "76 Trombones" and "Goodnight My Someone," the cast features: Dario Oman (1st/3rd performances) and Alex Lankford (2nd/4th performances) as Winthrop; Molly Blodgett (1st/3rd ) and Ellora Vilkin (2nd/4th) as Amaryllis; Chrisse Roccaro as Mrs. Paroo; Lorie Paschall as Eulalie Shinn; Russ Cowan as Mayor Shinn; Shawn Rogers as Marcellus Washburn and the Leyden Singers.
Unlike a traditional musical theatre production, Leyden and the orchestra will be in full view of the audience as the cast performs the classic tale of a credulous small town in Iowa taken in by the slick huckster Harold Hill, who cons the whole town into buying instruments for a boys' marching band while being snared by the love of a sharp-tongued librarian.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday and Monday, Oct.12 and 14, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 13 at 3 and 7 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Ticket prices range from $23 to $65 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at 503-228-1353 or (800) 228-7343. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony's Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.
THE CAST OF "THE MUSIC MAN"
Vivienne Elborne is the Artistic Director of the San Pedro Playhouse, having moved to San Antonio, Texas, 18 years ago from London, England. There she enjoyed a long performing career, appearing at the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Westminster Abbey as well as many other venues throughout the UK. She worked frequently on BBC Radio in the series "Friday Night is Music Night" and "These You Have Loved," the award winning "Beau Brummel" and "All Our Christmases" and she performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Thames Chamber Orchestra, the Charles Young Chorale and the London Symphony Orchestra. Other work included the British tour of "The Rolf Harris Show" and session work with Marvin Hamlisch on the James Bond movie "The Spy Who Loved Me."
Mrs. Elborne's huge number of directing credits include the musicals "Titanic," "Evita," "Phantom," "Sweeney Todd," "Guys and Dolls," "Forever Plaid," "Fiddler on the Roof," "A Chorus Line," "The Secret Garden," "Kismet," "West Side Story," "Nunsense," and "The King and I." Play credits include "The Odd Couple," "The Lion in Winter," "The Merchant of Venice" and "The School for Scandal." She has taken her production of "An Evening With Noel Coward" on tour to Russia and the Ukraine and a production of "Oliver!" to Mexico.
Ms. Elborne has worked with the San Antonio Symphony as stage director for their Broadway musicals, revues and holiday shows, and as guest narrator. She has written director's guides for the New York publishers Music Theatre International and has directed productions for the Colorado Springs Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the Alabama Symphony, the Lyric Opera of San Antonio and the University of Texas. She is a Board member of the San Antonio Women's Hall of Fame, into which she was inducted in 1993, the following year receiving the JC Penney "Spirit of the American Woman" award for her achievements in performing arts.
Kregg Arntson is a native Oregonian who regularly performs with local theater and music companies throughout the Portland area. In addition to singing and dancing with the Oregon Symphony Pops as a Leyden Singer for five seasons, Kregg has appeared as a soloist in several other Symphony productions. When he appeared as "Freddy Einsford-Hill" in "My Fair Lady," The Oregonian said his, " . . . magnificent voice brings light to the foppish role of Freddy on his ballad, 'On the Street Where You Live.'" His other symphony performances include Leonard Bernstein's "Mass," a youth concert featuring selections from "West Side Story" and a children's holiday concert.
Kregg's other musical theater performances include "Count Philippe De Chandon" in "Phantom" at the Broadway Rose Theater; "John" in "When Pigs Fly," "Dr. Mendel" in "Falsettos" and a variety of roles in the Broadway spoof "Forbidden Broadway" at triangle productions!; "Henrik" in "A Little Night Music," Rapunzel's "Prince" in "Into the Woods," and "Geoffrey" in "Something's Afoot" at Lakewood Theater Company; and "Mr. Jenks" in Aaron Copland's "The Tender Land" with the Third Angle New Music Ensemble. He has also played the roles of "Bill" in "Three Postcards" at the New Rose Theater; "Whizzer" in "March of the Falsettos," and "The Beadle" in "Sweeney Todd." His concert performances include the Cascade Music Festival and a holiday series with the Sun River Music Festival in Bend. During the holiday season, Kregg is part of three-member group called The HollyTones, which performs Christmas cabaret shows around the Portland area.
Amy Jo Arrington is from Mesa, Arizona and received her Bachelor's degree from Arizona State University where she received the "Outstanding Undergraduate" award. Amy Jo has played "Christine Daae" in the National Tour of "The Phantom of the Opera," "Josephine" in Arizona Theatre Company's production of "H.M.S. Pinafore" (for which she won an AriZoni award), and "Clorinda" in "La Cenerentola" for the Arizona Opera Outreach program. Amy Jo has been a guest soloist with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Phoenix Symphony. She has been heard on national television as the singing voice for a Mountain Dew commercial. Currently, Amy Jo and her husband Michael are living in Salem, Oregon where he is attending Law School and she is working on her Masters Degree. Amy Jo's voice teacher is Christine Meadows.
Molly Blodgett is very excited to be appearing for the first time with the Oregon Symphony. She has previously appeared as part of the ensemble cast of "Stuart Little" at Oregon Children's Theatre, as "Dixie Cup" in "The Grass Harp" at Lakewood Theatre, as "Little Fan" in "A Christmas Carol" at Portland Center Stage, as a chorus member in "The Orphan Queen" and "Children of Eden" at the Whole Megillah Theatre, as "Shprintze" in "Fiddler on the Roof "at Stage One, and in various roles in "Meet Me in St. Louis," "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Wind in the Willows" at Northwest Children's Theater. Molly is a sixth grader at Da Vinci Arts Middle School in Portland. In addition to acting and singing, she enjoys dancing and playing the piano, the violin and the flute. This past summer she attended the New York City Tap Festival and danced at the Duke Theatre on Broadway with Terry Brock's performing group, Sparkle. She would like to take this opportunity to thank all of her teachers and mentors for their support.
Russ Cowan most recently appeared onstage in the Lakewood Theatre Company's 50th anniversary concert production of "Follies." He has appeared throughout the Portland/Vancouver area in such productions as "Carousel" (Jigger Craigin), "The Fantasticks" (The Girl's Father), "The Mikado" (Pooh-Bah), "Into The Woods" (The Baker), "The Music Man" (Marcellus Washburn), "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" (Charlie Brown), "Peter Pan" (Smee), "The Cherry Orchard" (Trofimov), "Guys & Dolls" (Nicely-Nicely Johnson) and "The Pirates of Penzance" (The Sergeant of Police.) Russ has also appeared in productions of "The Grass Harp," "Miss Lulu," "J.B.," "The Apple Tree," "Angry Housewives," "110 In The Shade," "The Sunshine Boys," "Footlight Frenzy," "Two By Two," "Once Upon A Mattress," "Oliver!," "Our Town," "Carnival!," "Candide," "Amadeus," "Barefoot In The Park," "Cabaret," "Gypsy," "Hello Dolly!," "Man Of la Mancha," "The Man Who Came To Dinner," "Trial By Jury," "Grease," "Annie," "Brigadoon," and "South Pacific." He was the director of the Oregon premieres of "The Grand Tour" and "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: A Stephen Sondheim Evening," and the world premiere of "Going To Pot: The Reefer Madness Musical," an original musical for which he also wrote the book and lyrics.
Alex Lankford is an eighth grader with a 4.0 GPA at Rowe Middle School in Milwaukie where he sings in the concert choir. He is a veteran of several productions of the Krayon Kids Musical Theater Company in Oregon City. A master of the musical spoons, he is also a rudimental drummer with the 4th Texas Civil War Re-enactors and is learning to be a jazz drummer. Tap and hip-hop are his favorite dance classes. Alex also paints military miniatures and has been known to memorize classic Monty Python skits.
Dario Oman is a 5th grader in Atkinson Elementary School's Spanish Immersion program, where his most recent role was as "Joe" in "Brundibar, A Children's Opera." He is a member of the Krayon Kids Musical Theater Company. He has enjoyed his work with the American Heritage Theater Company's Musical Theater workshops, and especially enjoyed his role as "The Baker" in "Into the Woods." He's very excited to be appearing as Winthrop in this production.
Lori Paschall is thrilled to be in this production of "The Music Man." She has been seen locally in such productions as the Drammy award-winning production of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" at Musical Theatre Co, "Working" with American Heritage Theater Co and "Irene" with Lakewood Theatre Co. Lori Moved to Oregon 6 years ago from Virginia where she performed in such productions as "Nunsense," "The Mikado" and "Company," to name a few. She is also an accomplished director, having directed such shows as "Dial 'M' For Murder," "Bell, Book and Candle" and "Agnes of God." Lori would like to thank her friends and family (especially Brenda) for their love and support.
The performing career of Shane Provost has mostly centered on vocal music. His most treasured acting part was playing his dream role as "Tony" in "West Side Story". Shane is currently a member of the Leyden Singers with the Oregon Symphony's Bank of America Pops Series. As an elementary teacher and a father of four daughters, he tries to instill a love for our musical heritage into all he meets.
Chrisse Roccaro's career as a character actress, singer and radio, television and film actor has spanned more than 25 years in Portland and New York. Chrisse was last seen as "Nettie Fowler" in Lakewood Theatre Co.'s production of "Carousel," and will portray "Madame Arcati" in "Blithe Spirit" at Lakewood, opening November 1. Other appearances have included "Marta" in "What Isn't There," a new chamber opera by Peter Armetta, "Mrs. Pearce" in "My Fair Lady" and "General Cartwright" in "Guys and Dolls" for the Oregon Symphony Pops, "Tonya the Spider" in "Sticky Trouble" for The Haven Project and "Mrs. Santa" for the Oregon Symphony Kids Concerts for three seasons.
Ms. Roccaro, a lyric soprano, is a noted interpreter of modern theater and popular composers such as Gershwin, Sondheim, Coward, Porter ("We're Throwing A Ball Tonight!" at New York's Don't Tell Mama Cabaret Club); and Weill ("I'm a Stranger Here Myself" at Oregon Stage Company). She creates and performs Custom Cabaret for private parties, banquets, and other occasions, and has performed two of her original cabaret shows at Portland's Old Church. In addition to performing, Chrisse adds private vocal instruction, directing, musical directing, conducting, arranging, and 10 years of teaching and performing improvisation to her list of credits.
Shawn Rogers was last seen with the Oregon Symphony Pop's as "Nicely Nicely" in their production of "Guys and Dolls." Most recently he played "Count Carl Magnus" in Lakewood theatre's production of "A Little Night Music." He has been seen extensively throughout the greater Portland area. He's received critical acclaim for his roles as "Riff" in the Portland Civic Theatre's award winning production of "Westside Story," "Dr. Frankenfurter" in Storefront Theatre's production of "The Rocky Horror Show," as the Narrator in Triangle Theatre's production of "Blood Brothers" and as "Nicely Nicely" in the Musical Theatre Company's award winning production of "Guys & Dolls." Shawn was seen in the inaugural production of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts Newmark Theatre (formerly the Intermediate Theatre) as the "Soldier" in "Sunday in the Park with George." Other roles of note are "Pete" in the Portland Opera's Production of "Show Boat" and the "Man" in Portland Repertory Theatre's production of Stephen Sondheim's "Putting It Together." Mr. Rogers has performed throughout the northwest both as an actor and jazz singer. Shawn was an original member of the 1980's four-part harmony jazz group "Broadway Ritz." Specializing in the music of the '30s through the '50s, they were featured vocalists with the then KYTE radio.
Ellora Grace Vilkin is a 10-year-old fifth grader at Hockinson Intermediate School. She has been acting, singing and playing the piano for several years. Her commercial credits include Fred Meyer, KGW, Hewlett Packard and Meier and Frank. She has worked with the Oregon Children' Theatre Acting Academy for three summers, and performed for the National Federation of Music Clubs where she received Superior ratings in both piano and voice. She loves soccer and reading, along with her two sisters and baby brother. Ellora is thrilled to be performing with the Symphony in her first professional production!