This was no ordinary night at the opera.
All the trappings were there – the outsized props, the soprano,
the emotional music – but this “opera” was instead a multi-media
satiric spin on Bradford.
Using unfamiliar ways to get people to think of the familiar,
the members of Squonk Opera, a troupe of Pittsburgh-based
performance artists/musicians, presented “Bradford: The Opera,” in
which Bradford was celebrated as the center of the universe.
The Saturday show in the Bromeley Family Theater in Blaisdell
Hall at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford closed out the
Bradford Creative and Performing Arts Center’s 25th anniversary
season. The Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour was a benefactor
for the event.
By means of surreal visual effects and staging, atmospheric
music, interpretive dance and videotapes of familiar faces and
places, the troupe presented a mostly tongue-in-cheek “hometown
hurrah” that left more than a few audience members scratching their
heads.
The usual subjects of a hometown’s bragging rights – history and
location, among them – were in for some good-natured ribbing, right
at the start. After showing a videotape of a Google map zooming in
on Bradford, Steve O’Hearn, one of the troupe’s artistic directors
and musicians, read from a book about Bradford’s history (“the
well-spring of American democracy”) while singer Autumn Ayers
illustrated the narration by means of cardboard puppets.
Jackie Dempsey, the group’s other artistic director and music
composer, compared one-time Bradford resident and baseball great
Rube Waddell to an unlikely member of the “American Idol” crew.
“He’s one of those easy-on-the-eyes Bradford guys,” the tape
intoned, “who looks just like Ryan Seacrest.”
And that was just the opening.
As would be the pattern throughout the show, the local material
was interspersed with musical numbers. Besides Dempsey’s keyboard
and accordion work, and O’Hearn’s trumpet, flute and saxophone
contributions, the Squonk team also included musicians on the
drums, guitar and bass, producing music that ranged from the
ethereal to techno-rock.
A video montage of old photographs projected on a large screen
(made up of Venetian blinds) effectively highlighted the show’s
underlying theme – only by re-examining the people and places and
parts of a community in an imaginative way can you actually define
it. Seeing old yellowed daguerreotypes scrolling by with faded
Polaroid photos visually showed how connected a community’s past
and present is.
The videotaped interviews of Bradfordians who reflected about
Bradford were crowd pleasers. Opera great and Bradford native
Marilyn Horne reminisced about her childhood in Bradford, wishing
her “beloved Main Street” could come back to life.
Others, like the Rev. Leo Gallina and Sam Sylvester, spoke about
leaving Bradford and returning “home” (“It was like I’d never
left,” Sylvester said.) Dr. Livingston Alexander, president of the
University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, talked about the close
relationship the campus shares with the community. Bradford City
Mayor Tom Riel was unabashedly optimistic (“Brighter days are ahead
of us.”).
The participating local children and young people showed just
how promising that future is. In his interview, one little boy, Max
Paterniti, brought the house down when he said, “Kids don’t need
cell phones until they’re at least 12-years-old.” Bradford Area
High School student Austin LaRoche charmed the crowd. And the dance
teams – The Bradford Flames, The Bradford Area High School
Colorguard, and three dancers from the Peggy Johnson Dance Studio –
along with members of the Pitt Improvers, impressed the audience
with their original dances.
Rebecca Bennett’s 5th graders at School Street Elementary School
had drawn colorful imagination maps of Bradford that were then
digitally animated to make the flowers and oil derricks come to
life.
The crowd also loved seeing the videotape of Woody Woodruff
telling a few tales from his days as a car salesman. “It’s the wife
who controls the money when a car is being sold,” he said.
The car talk segued into a sequence in which Dempsey and Ayers
sat in a prop convertible outfitted with a keyboard instead of a
dashboard. As Dempsey and O’Hearn played a jazzy tune, a speeded-up
videotape of footage shot of a drive through Bradford played behind
them. The film was shot by the Squonk crew in April. Even then,
there was snow.
Zippo Manufacturing Co. was also featured, with Linda Meabon
talking about founder George Blaisdell’s loyalty to the people of
Bradford and his customers. Jerry Johnson Jr. made the audience
chuckle when he told how dedicated the swap meet collectors are:
“One collector had shaved the word ‘Zippo’ on her dog’s back.”
The age-old rivalry with Olean, N.Y., was another topic of the
videotaped recollections. Rick Benton said if a Bradford Area High
School coach had a season with nine losses and one win, and that
one win had been against Olean, he’d call it a successful
season.
Other videotaped interviews showed Bradfordians talking about
why they lived here. “It’s my home,” Bradford High senior Kailey
Fesenmyer said. “It’s a come-on-over-to-my-house, let’s-have-a-beer
kind of town,” Pat Woodruff said. Dick Marcott said it’s a place
where you’ll always get your mail.
In the finale, Planet Bradford (a huge plastic globe) came from
the heavens (actually, the ceiling) and was bounced to the stage by
the audience members. Once on stage, the globe, featuring only
Bradford, was celebrated with over-the-top fanfare, including songs
from angels and large silver arrows letting everyone know “You are
here.”
“We’ll always remember Bradford,” Dempsey said. “It’s where
people never pack away their winter clothes – even in August.”
All in all, Squonk Opera succeeded in proving that Bradford has
indeed earned a place on the map – and not just for being the
coldest spot in the nation.
