A NOTE OF HOLIDAY GREETINGS AND GRATITUDE!

To: All who have participated in YES COMPANY and All Its’ Strands,
Participants, Volunteers, Parent/Guardians, Donors

From:  YES COMPANY Founding Artistic Director/Choreographer,
Melanee A. Wyatt

I wish you PEACE, HAPPINESS, and CONTENTMENT!

Through participation in the YES COMPANY Program, we all have been blessed with the chance to touch lives and spread joy through the Performing Arts.

 I am so very grateful to have had the opportunity to create and share this program with beautiful children and the community at large! 

Cheers to a HAPPY, FULFILLING and SUCCESSFUL 2009!

OXOXOXOX
Melanee

Calling All Alumni! Do you not receive our mailers? Did you recently move?

  Lavonne Horne continues performing after Anything Goes! (12-30-08)
  Emily Kay Shrader Climbed to Top 3 (11-15-2008)
  Emily Kay Shrader is a Finalist in Young Idol (9-18-2008)
  Amanda Melhuish hears The Sound of Music (9-14-2008)
  Mathew Pena plays Broadway (June 21, 2008)
  Samantha Cuellar in A Piece of My Heart (10-28-2007)
  Emily Shrader is a Finalist in Modesto Bee's Young Idol (10-24-2007)
  2007 Y.E.S. (Youth Evading Sleep) Fundraiser
  2006 Alumni Holiday Reunion (12-06)
  2005 Alumni Holiday Reunion (12-05)
  2002 Alumni Holiday Reunion (12-02)
  1999 Alumni Holiday Reunion (12-99)

Lavonne Horne continues performing after Anything Goes! (12-30-08)

Emily Kay Shrader is a Finalist in Young Idol (9-18-2008)

Mathew Pena plays Broadway (June 21, 2008)

The Zany Spirit of Shaw, Adapted Into Operas

Published: June 21, 2008

Hai-Ting Chinn and Matthew Pena In “The Dark Lady.”

George Bernard Shaw wrote his short, fanciful play “The Dark Lady of the Sonnets” for a performance in 1910 in support of establishing a national theater to honor Shakespeare. Here Shaw puts a royal twist into the mystery surrounding these love poems: To whom were they directed? In another short work, “Passion, Poison and Petrifaction, or the Fatal Gazogene,” Shaw gleefully skewers the murderous mayhem and convoluted plot turns of Shakespearean drama. 

The composer Philip Hagemann saw operatic potential in these two inventive comedies. He adapted librettos from Shaw’s texts and combined them into an evening of one-act operas, “Shaw Sings!” The adventurous Encompass New Opera Theater presented the New York premiere of “Shaw Sings!” on Thursday night at Symphony Space. The simple, colorful production, directed by Nancy Rhodes and conducted by Mara Waldman, played to a nearly full house.

Mr. Hagemann’s work as an opera composer grew from his long experience conducting choruses and writing choral pieces during many years as a public school teacher in suburban New York. His music may lack a strong contemporary profile: his language is essentially tonal and lushly chromatic. Whole-tone melodic patterns recall Ravel.

Still, his chords often leap to unexpected harmonies, and he injects grittiness into his music through the piling up of clusters and dissonance. He also writes effectively for the voice.

The quality of understated suspense in his 30-minute “Dark Lady” lends poignancy to what might have been a mere romp. It’s nearly midnight, around 1600, on the terrace of the Palace of Whitehall. A beefeater is standing guard outside Queen Elizabeth’s quarters. Shakespeare slinks onto the terrace for a rendezvous with his Dark Lady. Instead he encounters the pensive queen, who hides her identity.

Shakespeare feels romantic sparks when the mysterious woman shows a flair for poetic speech. A word thief, he is quick to jot down usable phrases. Intrigue and worse break out when the Dark Lady arrives. But at the end the queen suggests a secret collaboration with Shakespeare on a play for which she has a working title, “Twelfth Night.”

Matthew Pena brings a pliant tenor voice and winning eagerness to the role of Shakespeare. The mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn is a rich-voiced, bright-eyed and complicit Elizabeth. Andrew Cummings as the Beefeater and Deborah Lifton as the Dark Lady are also appealing. 

Mr. Hagemann is true to the zany spirit of Shaw’s “Passion, Poison and Petrifaction,” a sitting-room mystery set in Edwardian London involving Lady Magnesia (portrayed by Ms. Lifton); her avenging husband, George (Ross Benoliel); Adolphus, a baby-faced dandy with whom she is enjoying a dalliance (Luke Grooms); and a roster of supporting comic characters.

But Mr. Hagemann’s orchestration for an ensemble of 14 is often cumbersome and thick. The absurdities of the plot might have come across with more Shavian wit had he not composed such an overwrought score, however admirably swift-paced.

“Shaw Sings!” continues through Sunday at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street; (212) 864-5400, symphonyspace.org. 

Samantha Cuellar in A Piece of My Heart (10-28-2007)

Its me Samantha Cuellar, I was wondering if you would like to see the performance I am currently in? Its called A Piece of My Heart, its directed by Greg Volk, I am one of the main characters in it and would love it if you came to see it. The performances are taking place at Turlock High School Performing Arts building November 1,2,3,8,9, and 10th at 7:30 each day.

Emily Shrader is a Finalist in Modesto Bee's Young Idol (10-24-2007)

Hey everyone it's Emily Kay! Well another week has passed and you have all still kept me in the young idol competition! Thanks so much! However, I wasn't in the top three this week . But this can be changed! All you have to do is go to this site: www.modbee.com/youngidol and hopefully vote for me!

 

Another thing you can do to help keep me in the running; SPREAD THE WORD! Tell all your friends, forward this to everyone in your address book, tell your mailman to vote!

 

There's only two weeks left until the final three will be announced! Every vote counts! I know you all can get me to the top. Thank you soooo much for voting these past weeks and for all your support! I can't thank you enough.

 

XOXO

Emily Kay
 

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2007 Y.E.S. (Youth Evading Sleep) Fundraiser

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2006 Alumni Holiday Reunion (12-06)

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2005 Alumni Holiday Reunion (12-05)

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2002 Alumni Holiday Reunion (12-02)

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1999 Alumni Holiday Reunion (12-99)

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You helped me to believe in myself when no one else could. ~Lisa, age 16

© SCOE/YES CO.