(Spencer)– Some area high school students will have a unique opportunity in coming weeks to learn about music and Broadway. Jessica Schable of Okoboji Performing Arts says they’re bringing in several Broadway performers who will be putting on workshops for area students…
“Kind of headed up by Jeremy Stohl, I believe is how you say his name. He played the role of the phantom in The Phantom of The Opera on Broadway for awhile. So it’s a really great program. It’s him and a woman named Satomi Hoffmann. She also was in Phantom of The Opera on Broadway. Of course they all have many other roles they’ve played and credentials and bands they’ve been in. They compose and they perform and they do all kinds of things in New York City. The third person, Ari, is their accompanist but he also teaches at a performing arts academy in New York City, so most of the students from this school go on to Broadway. He runs a private studio in New York City as well.”
Schable says the performers will be here a couple of days…
“So they’ll be here April 3rd and 4th and what they’re going to do is some school outreach programs and workshops on that Thursday and then Friday morning. So we’re going into Okoboji, Spirit Lake and Spencer schools with these artists and they’re going to do some master class type sessions. They’ll do an improv workshop, they’ll sing for the kids just a little bit. I think at a couple of the high schools we’ll have actually some students from the area sing for them and get some feedback. We’ll also do some question and answer kind of stuff like how did they get to where they are; where did the come from? What was the path they took to get to actually singing on Broadway, which feels so kind of out there, but it’s going to be so fun to meet these people who are actually doing it.”
Schable adds the Broadway performers will put on a concert Friday evening, April 4th, at the Pearson Lakes Arts Center…
“Their show is titled “No More Talk of Darkness”. That’s a quote from Phantom. There will be some phantom music but they also have Carousel and Oklahoma and a Disney medley and all kinds of really great musical theatre stuff, so it should be a pretty fun couple of days.”
Ticket information for the concert can be found at the Okoboji Performing Arts Facebook page or their website, Okoboji Performing Arts-dot-com.
