Movie Trailer and Poster for A Roadkill Opera, the Music Documentary

 The poster for A Roadkill Opera - There is comedy in truth. The film is slated for public screenings in 2024
The poster for A Roadkill Opera, a documentary feature film which is slated for public screenings in 2024. The poster has four major components: a medallion logo, a tagline, a photo, and the film credits. The medallion logo has a scalloped golden ring around the outside, with a black ring and golden text in the ring that reads “Music from 1804. Action set in 1988. Paer. Parker. Dokken.” Also set in the black ring are five skulls, rendered in red with gold outlines. The center of the medallion logo has red background, with pinkish tire tread marks running diagonally across it, and large letterpress letters in black with gold outlines that read “A Roadkill Opera.” Below the medallion logo is the second component of the poster, the movie tagline, which reads “There is comedy in truth.” The third component of the poster is a photo of three cast members on the set of the show, interacting with a large plush llama. The fourth component of the poster is the text showing credits at the bottom. It reads “Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia & Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Publishing present A Roadkill Opera. Music by Ferdinando Paer. Written & edited by Stephan Alexander Parker. Original stage productions directed by music director & conductor Maestro Jeffrey Dokken. Starring Christopher Dews. Laura Wehrmeyer. David Timpane. Larry Boggs. Alan Naylor. Kelly Curtin. Alex Miletich IV. Shaina Martinez. Ed Bachtel. Louise Gignoux. Dave Rohrer. Holly Danner. A Stephan Alexander Parker film.”

A Roadkill Opera is a mashup of a backstage screwball comedy set in 1988 Wyoming with music from Ferdinando Paer’s 1804 opera Leonora. It tells the story of the hour before the lights go up on the first professional gig for an amateur comedy improv troupe–the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company–at the legendary Silver Dollar Bar in the Wort Hotel in Jackson Hole. During that hour, they find out their showroom will be torn down after their run. Hilarity ensues.

This music documentary combines footage from A Roadkill Opera‘s 2016 live shows at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia, and the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC; a brief segment from an Artomatic 2012 workshop in Crystal City, Virginia; and excerpts from the 1988 and 1992 Jackson Hole comedy revues by the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company. It features the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia’s fully staged performances.

With action set in the 1980s, the over-the-top production as chronicled employs presentational and naturalistic theatrics; borrows tropes from Sherlock Holmes, the Marx Brothers, vaudeville, silent movies, and Monty Python’s Flying Circus; and nods to King Kong, Marie Antoinette, and the Dead End Kids/Bowery Boys. Works by Weird Al Yankovic and PDQ Bach belong on the same playlist as the soundtrack to A Roadkill Opera.

English, with English supertitles. 83 minutes.

Movie Slated for 2024 Public Screenings: A Roadkill Opera!!! Recorded Live

The poster for A Roadkill Opera!!! Recorded Live. A logo at the top says A Roadkill Opera: Music from 1804, Action set in 1988, Paer, Parker, Dokken. The title has tire tread marks through it and five skulls at the bottom of the logo. Below the logo is photo showing three characters at a bistro table with a large plush llama on it. Below the photo in small print are the credits: Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia & Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Publishing present Live!!! A Roadkill Opera. Music by Ferdinando Paer. Libretto by Stephan Alexander Parker. Original stage productions directed by music director and conductor Maestro Jeffrey Dokken. Starring Christopher Dews, Laura Wehrmeyer, David Timpane, Larry Boggs, Alan Naylor, Kelly Curtin, Alex Miletich IV, Shaina Martinez
The poster for A Roadkill Opera!!! Recorded Live. The film is slated for public screenings in 2024

A Roadkill Opera!!! Recorded Live is a mashup of a backstage screwball comedy set in 1988 Wyoming with music from Ferdinando Paer’s 1804 opera Leonora. It tells the story of the hour before the lights go up on the first professional gig for an amateur comedy improv troupe–the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company–at the legendary Silver Dollar Bar in the Wort Hotel in Jackson Hole. During that hour, they find out their showroom will be torn down after their run. Hilarity ensues.

The film combines footage from A Roadkill Opera’s 2016 live shows at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia; the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC; a brief segment from an Artomatic 2012 workshop in Crystal City, Virginia; excerpts from the 1988 and 1992 Jackson Hole comedy revues by the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company; a segment filmed at the 2015 GRAMMY Awards; and behind the scenes at rehearsals for A Roadkill Opera.

With action set in the 1980s, this over-the-top production employs presentational and naturalistic theatrics; borrows tropes from Sherlock Holmes, the Marx Brothers, vaudeville, silent movies, and Monty Python’s Flying Circus; and nods to King Kong, Marie Antoinette, and the Dead End Kids/Bowery Boys. Works by Weird Al Yankovic and PDQ Bach belong on the same playlist as the soundtrack to A Roadkill Opera!!! Recorded Live.

————— The Score’s Backstory ————-

There was a 1798 two-act comic opera, Leonora, ou L’Amour conjugal. It had a French libretto by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, with the action set in sixteenth-century Spain—what is referred to in the opera world as an escape drama. The Bouilly libretto was set to music by Pierre Gaveaux.

Marie Therese, grand-daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, grew up in musical Milan and, when she wed her Austrian cousin and herself became Empress of Austria, brought her passion for music with her. She loved music; made copies, swapped copies, played, sang, and produced public concerts two or three times a year; and, three to ten times a month she would stage private concerts for her own amusement, amassing an ensemble of 12 to 16 musicians and singers to play for two or three hours. In her private concerts, Marie Therese would sing. And she would tell anyone who would listen that her favorite libretto of all time was Bouilly’s Leonora, and she wished someone would set it to new music for her. Within two years, there were not one, not two, but three new settings for her.

Paer and Mayr and Beethoven all worked in Vienna, and were all well-aware of the Empress’s generosity towards those who supplied her with new music. Ferdinando Paer, the Parma-born music director at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna and a regular performer in Marie Therese’s private concerts, moved to another court in Dresden while Austria was at war with Napoleon. It was in Dresden that Paer finished his Leonora for the Empress in 1804. The overture and first act of Paer’s Leonora are the musical basis for A Roadkill Opera. After Napoleon defeated the Austrians, Paer moved to Paris where he eventually headed up the Opéra-Italien, to be succeeded by Rossini. When Paer died in 1839, his Leonora was forgotten.

Forgotten, that is, until another musical denizen, intrigued by Beethoven’s high praise for Paer’s music, recovered Paer’s Leonora. Peter Maag found Paer’s Leonora while artistic director of the Teatro Regio di Parma in Paer’s home town. Maag was so taken with it that he mounted a radio production in 1976 and followed up with a 3-disc boxed set on London Records in 1978. After 140 years of neglect, Paer’s Leonora was back.

Praise

“Good luck at the GRAMMYs. How could you not win with a name like that?”
Ann Patchett, author of award winning
New York Times bestselling Bel Canto

“… a very, very, cool thing… exceptionally well done…”
Paul Barrosse, writer/performer, Mee-Ow Show,
Practical Theatre Company, and Saturday Night Live

“Songs like ‘Impress Them,’ ‘Cod Piece Dining,’ ‘Jello,’ and [Gonna buy my old granddad a] ‘Geo’ pair offbeat humor with beautiful vocals and music.”
Pam Schipper, Gaithersburg News Courier

“An inspired, imaginative work, technically worthy of the highest praise… the orchestration is faultless and complements the vocal parts beautifully.”
Peter Maag writes about Paer’s Leonora

“Roadkill… advances a medley of witty ideas and local jabs. The results are a stitch.”
David Swift, Jackson Hole News, writes about Roadkill!!! Comedy Revue

Live!!! A Roadkill Opera Under Consideration for 2023 Film Festivals

Live!!! A Roadkill Opera, with the greatest performances culled from the six fully staged live performances of A Roadkill Opera, is a 75-minute performance film submitted for screening at 2023 film festivals.

A Roadkill Opera  had its first workshop performance on June 9 at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Virginia. The intertwined history of Artomatic and A Roadkill Opera was told in a 60-minute livestream as part of Artomatic‘s 20th anniversary in 2020.

See the trailers for the Artomatic 2020 livestream and the new feature film under consideration for film festivals in 2023!!

Incorporating photos and footage from live performances 1988 – 2016, with new footage contributed in August 2020 by Jeffrey Dokken, Stephan Alexander Parker, Jaylen S. Johnson, Val Rauch, Michael Thompson, Tanya Whisnant, and Christina Giles,Jeffrey Dokken, Stephan Alexander Parker, & A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2020 streamed live on Aug 15, 2020.

A Roadkill Opera was first prototyped as a script and mockup at Artomatic 2004 and workshopped at Artomatic 2012. From Artomatic 2012 we went into the studio—the commercially released recording got the creative team invited to the GRAMMYs in 2015, where we received a surprise announcement that the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA) would perform it the following year.

Jeffrey Dokken conducted the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA) on October 21, 2016, at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia; and conducted other groups in January 2016 at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC; in studio recordings at Blue House Productions in Kensington, Maryland, between January and June 2013; and at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Virginia, in June 2012.

Music composed by Ferdinando Paer for Leonora (1804) was repurposed by Stephan Alexander Parker for this fast, funny mashup of classical music and a backstage screwball comedy about the hour before the first professional gig for the rude mechanicals of an amateur improv comedy troupe, the Roadkill on A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company, in 1988 Jackson Hole, Wyoming. New interviews conducted in August 2020 are mixed with archival photos, a bit of narration over the live, October 2016 Overture, and live performance footage from all the above with footage from the March 13, 1992, Roadkill!!! Greatest Hits! performance at the Pink Garter Theatre in Jackson, Wyoming.

So excited! None of this would have happened without Artomatic, SONOVA, Ed Bachtel, and Maestro Jeffrey Dokken! 

Obituary — Frank Parker

 

Frank Parker, pictured here at the trailhead for Lone Star Geyser in Yellowstone National Park, on metal-edged back country skis as he prepared to embark on his first cross country ski outing shortly before his 81st birthday.

Nashville, TN –Frank Leon Parker, age 96, passed away on August 10, 2022.

Internationally renowned nuclear waste disposal expert and elected member of the U.S. National  Academy of Engineering  Frank Parker was destined for a life of accomplishment, one could surmise, had they encountered him at his high school graduation in Somerville, Massachusetts. There, in 1943, stood a 6 foot 2 inch varsity football lineman and varsity basketball forward who, out of a class of 1,000 graduating high school students, took four of the seven academic honors presented to his class. Frank had already volunteered—enlisted in the Army—and had started classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while waiting to be called up. Not bad for the 17 year old son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants.

Once called into World War II service, he paused his education to build bridges and airfields in Nagasaki and test for radiation levels shortly after the United States and Allied forces vanquished Japan.

After the war, Frank earned his undergraduate degree from MIT and his masters and PhD from Harvard. He worked on water projects for the Bureau of Reclamation in Wyoming and electric transmission line projects in upstate New York state prior to completing his PhD. Frank then worked on projects for the Atomic Energy Commission at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop best practices in the disposal of spent nuclear fuel materials. 

A true scientist, Frank was insatiably curious about everything. He went on to generate seminal works in what are now seven distinct disciplines, ranging from hydraulics to law to the scientific foundations of the environmental sustainability movement. Innovation and institutionalization of scientifically sound policies were his hallmarks and are his legacy, carried forward not only through his books and hundreds of peer-reviewed publications, not only through the innumerable committees and commissions he served on or led, but also through the generations of leaders in countries across the globe who earned their advanced degrees under him or received his guidance and philosophy. Among the Vanderbilt University community members who found Parker unforgettable are developer, engineer, and president of Bluebird Consulting and Mason Realty Investors Steve Mason; Engineering Endowed Director of Construction Management Professor Sanjiv Gokhale; Bob Waters of Sandia National Laboratories; Peter Jaffe of Princeton University; and Steve Hays of Gobble Hays Partners Inc.

Ranging from his home institution of Vanderbilt University, where he retired as Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Environmental Water Resources Engineering and Civil Engineering, and his home away from home in Vienna, Austria, where he spent time off and on from 1960 (at the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency) to 2013 (at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis), Frank lent his time and talent to the biggest nuclear and radioactive waste concerns on the planet, taking time out from his consulting to the U.S., Swedish, Japanese, French, Italian, German, Swiss, Indian, Pakistani, and Russian governments to guest lecture and teach short courses from Oxford, England, to the University of Tennessee. He visited Moscow 30 times, beginning in 1964 at the height of the cold war.

In the case of Lee Company v. North Carolina Board of Transportation, 308 N.C. 603, 611-13 (N.C. 1983), Frank’s expert testimony and the monograph he provided to the court set the precedent that a land owner is responsible for the downstream (and upstream) effects of changes they make to the speed and volume of water discharged from their property. The case has been cited in more than 40 legal opinions.

Parker’s two reports while a senior research fellow of the Beijer Institute of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences were the only citations in the radioactive waste section of Madame Gro Harlem Brundtland’s pioneering 1987 United Nations report, Our Common Future. Brundtland established and was chair of the UN’s World Commission on Environment and Development, best known for developing the broad political concept of sustainable development. The recommendations led to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Parker was a member of the Scientific Advisory Council for the International Radioecology Laboratory, Slavutych (Chernobyl). He served as a lecturer at Christ College, Oxford, in a United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority course and as a lecturer in the Italian Physics Society course on nuclear problems at Lake Como. He also was a senior research fellow of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria.

Parker was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988 for “world leadership in the development of the basic information required for safe disposal of high-level radioactive wastes”, the first from Vanderbilt and the only Vanderbilt member for 25 years. He presented invited papers at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the World Federation of Sciences annual meetings on Global Planetary Emergencies and the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the first engineer elected by eminence to the American Academy of Environmental Engineers.

Parker served as the first head of Radioactive Waste Disposal Research for the International Atomic Energy Agency where he reached ambassadorial level. He served as head of the Radioactive Waste Disposal Research Section of Oak Ridge National Laboratory during his 10 years there, where his research was the first ecological study of riverine contamination conditions and the first pilot plant development of disposal of high-level radioactive wastes in geological strata, Project Salt Vault. When the Kansas salt mine repository for nuclear waste was authorized for investigation, Frank proposed that a set of experiments should be performed in situ. The results informed repository and container designs for nuclear waste disposal, institutionalized through standards and national regulations. Frank went on to teach and research at Vanderbilt University, continuing to lead policy study teams through the National Academy of Sciences / National Research Council as Chair of the Board of Radioactive Waste Management, member of BEST and Report Review Committee, among others, and to provide technical reviews of, among other nuclear facilities, the Savannah River Plant, Clinch River Breeder Reactor, and Hanford Reservation.

Frank was the third person to receive the 2003 Wendell D. Weart Lifetime Achievement in Nuclear Waste Management Award sponsored by Sandia National Laboratory. He was selected for the honor by the Waste Management Symposium Board, which cited his “long and productive service in pursuit of safe and technically sound solutions to the disposal of nuclear waste.”

From 1997 to 2005 Frank supervised an international collection of post-doctoral students in the summer institute and co-authored about two dozen publications of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis at the Laxenburg Palace in Vienna, Austria.

The Erice International Seminars are multidisciplinary seminars attended by over 100 eminent participants from all fields of science. Each year, a few scientific issues are selected and experts are invited to present contrasting views during the plenary multidisciplinary sessions of the seminar, followed by general debates. These sessions offer a unique opportunity for specialists to enlarge their fields of vision by being confronted to the ideas and suggestions from high level scientists in complementary domains of science. Associated workshops allow the experts to further refine and process the ideas evoked during the seminar. In 2010, working from first principles, Frank presented a nuclear fuel cycle without refined nuclear materials that, if adopted, would all but eliminate diversion to nuclear proliferation and would significantly reduce the problems associated with nuclear waste disposal.

Frank was unanimously chosen to receive the 2018 W. Bennett Lewis Award for Sustainable Energy and Development from the American Nuclear Society. The award recognizes those who have made major lifetime contributions in nuclear science and engineering toward minimizing environmental footprints and attaining long-term global sustainable energy and development. Parker was recognized for his contributions to global sustainable energy and “the safe and efficient management of nuclear waste through his leadership and untiring efforts during a lifelong career in research and teaching.”

While traveling with Russian military officials in their vehicle, on a secret base in western Russia, working to help them solve problems with nuclear submarine waste, Frank was detained for hours by the KGB; ordered to pay a fine; and released without incident. Upon release after hours of detention, Frank asked if there was someplace nearby where his party could get something to eat. The KGB commander lit up and smiled, and told him “there’s a great restaurant I just ate at,” then frowned, continuing sternly—“you can’t go there. You are going to be escorted out of the forbidden area.”

Jack Daniel’s drinkers can rejoice in the knowledge that the water supply for this Tennessee sipping whiskey is assured, thanks in part to work by Frank Parker. The Jack Daniel Distillery purchased the 250 acres that feed its single source of water after scientific studies in the 1980s. Frank answered the question that others could not—what was the source of the water that emerged in the Cave Spring Hollow?

Married for 67 years to the love of his life, the beautiful and accomplished Elaine Parker, Frank traveled with her to some 60 countries, from the fjords of Nordkapp to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, Australia to Argentina. While working in Siberia, he took colleagues on the weekend to Lake Baikal. It helped that his wife Elaine was a gourmet cook who, like his colleagues, was also interested in touring and eating adventurously. Frank and Elaine hiked and camped with their children all over the southern United States and in the intermountain west and northwest. Elaine passed in October 2021.

Frank played on the Somerville, Massachusetts, high school varsity basketball team where all five players in the starting lineup were over 6 feet tall—in 1943. He also started as a lineman for the Somerville High School football team. His high school football team scrimmaged with the MIT football team—and beat MIT. The only game MIT usually had was freshman versus sophomores. They would scrimmage with local high schools in preparation for that big game.

While squash was his preferred game, it was hard to find enough challenging players locally, so Frank switched to racquetball. He was in his 70s, playing racquetball with one of his graduate students, when one of his undergraduates playing in a nearby court challenged him to a game of doubles. Frank consulted his graduate student—did they want to take on the captain of the football team and one of his teammates? They did and won. The footballers couldn’t believe it and asked for a rematch—which Frank and his grad student also won.

Frank went cross-country skiing for the first time when he was 80, encountering a herd of wild bison on the Lone Star Geyser trail in Yellowstone National Park. You should see the video!

When wrapping up the Swedish project, he went with Elaine and one of his sons by train to the northern tip of Norway and took the classic Hurtigruten coastal boat servicing the isolated fjord towns during midsummer. There were few tourists. Elaine, having had her fill of seeing fjords, sought and was welcomed into the galley. Frank said the food served on the boat improved!

Frank was blessed with four children, Nina (Parker) Ganz, Aaron, Stephan, and David, together with five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren and many loving nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. He is survived by his brother Gerald and preceded in death by his brother Arnold.

Services to be held at Congregation Micah on Sunday, August 14, at 1 pm. Memorials may be made in honor of Frank Parker to the Jewish Family Service of Nashville.

Frank Parker with Elaine Parker, sitting on a bench in front of the Taj Mahal. They were introduced in 1954 by one of Frank’s cousins who was a classmate of Elaine’s, as Frank, then a PhD candidate at Harvard University, had led the World University Service of Canada’s 1953 International Seminar to India. Elaine, then working on her master’s degree in education as part of the first class that included women at the Harvard University School of Education, had planned to move to India to teach crafts to the blind.

[A version of this obituary is available at https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/nashville-tn/frank-parker-10883585]

Happy anniversary! See the 2022 trailers for A Roadkill Opera!!

New for 2022 is Live!!! A Roadkill Opera, with the greatest performances from the six fully staged live performances of A Roadkill Opera. Watch for announcements once we find out (fingers crossed) if the full 75-minute film is accepted for screening at 2022 or 2023 film festivals.

Live!!! A Roadkill Opera has been submitted to film festivals under feature, music, comedy, and opera categories.

A Roadkill Opera  had its first workshop performance on June 9 at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Virginia. The intertwined history of Artomatic and A Roadkill Opera was told in a 60-minute livestream as part of Artomatic‘s 20th anniversary in 2020. Jeffrey Dokken, Stephan Alexander Parker, & A Roadkill Opera has been repackaged for consideration for showing in film festivals in 2022 and 2023. The repackaged documentary will be released in 2023.

See the trailers for the Artomatic 2020 livestream and the new feature film under consideration for film festivals in 2023!!

Incorporating photos and footage from live performances 1988 – 2016, with new footage contributed in August 2020 by Jeffrey Dokken, Stephan Alexander Parker, Jaylen S. Johnson, Val Rauch, Michael Thompson, Tanya Whisnant, and Christina Giles,Jeffrey Dokken, Stephan Alexander Parker, & A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2020 streamed live on Aug 15, 2020.

A Roadkill Opera was first prototyped as a script and mockup at Artomatic 2004 and workshopped at Artomatic 2012. From Artomatic 2012 we went into the studio—the commercially released recording got the creative team invited to the GRAMMYs in 2015, where we received a surprise announcement that the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA) would perform it the following year.

Jeffrey Dokken conducted the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA) on October 21, 2016, at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia; and conducted other groups in January 2016 at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC; in studio recordings at Blue House Productions in Kensington, Maryland, between January and June 2013; and at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Virginia, in June 2012.

Music composed by Ferdinando Paer for Leonora (1804) was repurposed by Stephan Alexander Parker for this fast, funny mashup of classical music and a backstage screwball comedy about the hour before the first professional gig for the rude mechanicals of an amateur improv comedy troupe, the Roadkill on A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company, in 1988 Jackson Hole, Wyoming. New interviews conducted in August 2020 are mixed with archival photos, a bit of narration over the live, October 2016 Overture, and live performance footage from all the above with footage from the March 13, 1992, Roadkill!!! Greatest Hits! performance at the Pink Garter Theatre in Jackson, Wyoming.

So excited! None of this would have happened without Artomatic, SONOVA, Ed Bachtel, and Maestro Jeffrey Dokken! 

Sometimes You Have to Lead a Union

In observance of National Women’s month here in March 2022, I’ld like to share this story.

Elaine Parker’s grandmother, Lottie Stepansky, served as a rehearsal pianist for Isabella Stewart Gardner, the philanthropist behind the nominal Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Gardner liked to sing opera, apparently, and Lottie Stepansky did well enough in her employ to purchase a baby grand piano from the Steinert showroom in Boston in the mid-1920s.
Gardner is described in a quote posted on the Museum’s website:

 Mrs. Jack Gardner is one of the seven wonders of Boston. There is nobody like her in any city in this country. She is a millionaire Bohemienne. She is the leader of the smart set, but she often leads where none dare follow… She imitates nobody; everything she does is novel and original.

— A BOSTON REPORTER

In 1915, though, Lottie Stepansky was a labor activist in the tobacco stripper union. She likely had to seek other work when the major cigar manufacturers left Boston—and hand-rolled cigar production—for machine-rolled cigars in non-union locales.

Local Labor Notes: Lottie Stepansky as Cigar Stripper Union candidateLocal Labor Notes: Lottie Stepansky as Cigar Stripper Union candidate 11 Jun 1915, Fri The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com

As reported in Local Labor Notes in the Friday, 11 June 2015, edition of The Boston Globe (emphasis added):
“The nomination of candidates for the semiannual election of officers of the Cigar Factory Strippers Union took place In Paine Memorial Hall last night. There will be only one contest, that for the seven places on the executive board, to which 13 aspire. The nominees are Mary Blewett for president: Annie Rosen and Gertrude Levy, vice presidents; Anna Bowen, financial secretary; Agnes Gallagher, recording secretary; Mary Blewett, Esther Jacobs and Gertrude Levy, trustees; Martha Forrest, Elizabeth Hyslop and Esther Jacobs, auditors; Dora Kenneler, Annie Titus, Marf Jones, Mary Batchelder, Eva Doyle, Esther Jacobs, Evelyn Forrest, Annie Monks, Mary Hurley, Annie Kline, Sadie Dourant, Goldie Brittan and Lottie Stepansky, executive board; Elizabeth Hyslop, Agnes Gallagher, Anna T. Bowen, Mary Jones, Esther Jacobs, Gertrude Levy, Sadie Courant, Mary Blewett and Rita Williams, delegates to the C. L. U.”
————–
excerpted from Wikipedia
On July 7, 1919, roughly 2,100 of Boston’s 2,400 cigar makers walked off the job in protest of their employer’s failure to meet their demand of a 13 7/11% raise. Three of Boston’s largest cigar manufacturers chose to leave the city rather than meet the union’s demands and a number of union members formed a cigar-making co-operative. By August 30, 1919, all of the remaining manufacturers had reached agreements with the union.
During the early years of World War I, Boston’s cigar factories hired many refugees from Belgium. In addition to being expert cigar makers, many of them were socialists. After this, the manufacturers clashed with the local union, who threatened to strike if the manufacturers hired more employees, implemented the use of machinery, weighed tobacco, ended the practice of cigar makers using their mouths to shape cigars, or dismissed an employee without the consent of a union committee.
On August 13, 1919, Waitt & Bond announced that they would move from Boston to Newark, New Jersey as a result of the walkout. Prior to the strike, Waitt & Bond had employed 1,200 cigar makers and had a weekly payroll of $30,000. Upon moving to Newark, Waitt & Bond operated on a non-union machine production basis. Other cigars makers followed suit. C. C. A. also moved to Newark while Breslin & Campbell moved to New York City. Both switched to machine production.
—————
What does it mean to be a tobacco stripper? How pervasive and long-lasting in pay inequality?

In a January 1907 article titled “Employment of Women in Industries: Cigar-Making: Its History and Present Tendencies” by Edith Abbott, writing from Washington, DC, on pages 1-37 of the Journal of Political Economy, some interesting observations–supported by evidence–are laid out.

The increased employment of women in cigar-making seems to indicate its tendency to develop into a “women’s industry” and furnishes an interesting example of the industrial displacement of men by women. The history of the industry makes it of peculiar interest, because originally the women were displaced by the men, and in these later years they have only come into their own again.

The manufacture of cigars in this country is an industry of nearly a century’s growth, but it has not continuously through-out its history employed a large proportion of women. This is, at first, not easy to understand, for it has always been a trade for which women are seemingly better qualified than men. No part of the making of cigars is heavy work, and skill depends upon manual dexterity–upon delicacy and sensitiveness of touch. A brief description of the three important processes in a cigar factory-“stripping,” “making,” and “packing”–will serve to make this quite clear.

The preliminary process, of “stripping,” which includes “booking,” is the preparation of the leaf for the hands of the cigar-maker. The large mid-rib is stripped out, and, if the tobacco is of the quality for making wrappers, the leaves are also “booked”–smoothed tightly across the knee and rolled into a compact pad ready for the cigar-maker’s table. Even in the stripping-room there are different grades of work, all unskilled and all practically monopolized by women and girls.

The stripping of the “filler” leaf for the inner “bunch” of the cigar is usually piece-work, but the stripping of the wrapper and binder is likely to be time-work, to avoid such haste as might tear the more expensive leaf. If a woman “books” her own wrappers, she gets higher pay than one who merely “strips ;” and one who only “books” gets more than either, for this is much harder work and keeps the whole body in motion. The scale of wages in a large union factory in Boston furnishes a measure of the supposed differences in these occupations: binder-stripper, $6 a week; wrapper-stripper who “books,” $7 a week; filler-stripper, $6 to $Io a week. The lack of skill in any of this work is indicated by the fact that in places where the union requires a three years’ apprenticeship for cigar-making two weeks is the rule for stripping, and competent forewomen say that “a bright girl can learn in a day.” In England the situation in this occupation is rather different. “The work is well adapted for female hands, and in provincial factories they are largely employed in this department. In London, on the contrary, there seem to be not more than thirty women engaged as strippers.” (Booth, Life and Labor of the People, Vol. IV, p. 224.)

Division of labor has been slow in making its way into cigar factories. The best cigar is, still made by a single workman, and the whole process demands a high degree of skill. Slightly inferior cigars, however, can be made with “molds” by less skilled workmen.

Wage disparity between women and men is a long-standing issue, as shown in these pages from Abbott’s article.

It is not fair, ordinarily, to compare women’s wages with men’s, because
men and women in factories so seldom do the same work. In cigar-making and cigar-packing, however, there have been exceptions to this general rule

 

Sometimes You Have to Sue Your Boss for a Hostile Workplace, a Campaign of Harassment, and Operating in an Arbitrary and Capricious Manner

In observance of Women’s History Month here in March 2022, I’d like to share this story.

Previous readers of this blog have seen how Elaine Parker devoted herself to serving others, with a particular focus on services for the blind. That, and her other vocations along the way–training wedding directors on special needs weddings, for example, and helping establish the Middle Tennessee Professional Chefs Association–were accomplished in Tennessee in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, right on up until her 2021 passing. I will write more about her international, culturally informed wedding directing and culinary adventures–she visited 60 countries–in future installments. Miss Elaine, as many called her, wanted her obituary to focus on her positive accomplishments.

There is another aspect to her story, however, worth noting. She would not back down to the powerful in the face of injustice. As a woman heading a state program in the 1970s, she and another woman filed suit in 1974 charging that Tennessee State Welfare Department Commissioner Fred Friend’s plan to demote them was consistent with how Friend had “exhibited considerable hostility” toward them and their programs and had undertaken a “campaign of harassment” against them.

The Middle Tennessee Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) announced the formation of a legal defense fund for the women and the NASW itself contributed funds to their defense.

Mrs. Greta Hinds, director of the Food Stamp Program, and Mrs. Elaine Parker, director of Services for the Blind, charged Friend operated his department “in an arbitrary and capricious manner” and violated state and federal laws which control programs administered by his department, including violating the state affirmative action program and Executive Order No. 17 of Tennessee’s governor by replacing the two women with men.

Just prior to taking their case to Tennessee’s State Supreme Court in January 1975, Elaine Parker was notified by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare that Tennessee ranked first in the nation in rehabilitating the blind.

The state had a 57% increase in rehabilitation of the blind in the latest HEW figures for July 11 through August 31, 1974. Nationwide, there was a decline in rehabilitation of the disabled, due to current economic conditions which made it difficult for an able person to get work.

Tennessee surpassed its goal for putting blind persons back to work more than any other state in the South. Elaine Parker’s office helped 433 blind persons go back to work. The goal for 1974 was 400.

Mrs. Parker, who had been in her position for three years, had also increased the income of blind persons running food stands in government and private office buildings. In 1971, the average income for stand operators was $4,992 and as of June, 1974 the average was $6,372.

Lawsuit over planned demotion of Elaine ParkerLawsuit over planned demotion of Elaine Parker 02 Jan 1975, Thu The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee) Newspapers.com

19 Sep 1974, Thu The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee) Newspapers.com

Friend’s plans were front page news on Friday, August 30, 1974.

Sources say four to be demotedSources say four to be demoted 30 Aug 1974, Fri The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee) Newspapers.com

Sources say Friend plans to demote four workersSources say Friend plans to demote four workers 30 Aug 1974, Fri The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee) Newspapers.com

As reported by DOUG HALL in a front page story in the 22 January 1975 edition of The Tennesseean:

State Welfare Commissioner Horace Bass yesterday rescinded the controversial plans of his predecessor, Fred Friend, to reorganize the department and demote four key department personnel. “We just didn’t agree with the decision of Mr. Friend to begin with,” Bass said. “We think the demotions just weren’t justified.”

BASS MET YESTERDAY afternoon with Gov. Ray Blanton and discussed the matter, and Bass said Blanton “concurred completely” with the decision. Bass said the decision will take effect immediately. The decision to nullify Friend’s reorganization plans makes moot a lawsuit which had prevented the demotions of two of the employees, Mrs. Greta Hinds, director of the state food stamp program, and Mrs. Elaine Parker, director of services for the blind.

“I am pleased that the governor appointed a commissioner who has the compassion to rescind an order which disrupted the entire department,” said George Barrett, the attorney who represented Mrs. Hinds and Mrs. Parker.

22 Jan 1975, Wed The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee) Newspapers.com

It was a page 11 story the day before, 21 January 1975, where Hall wrote:

The State Supreme Court has indicated it will not rule on a motion to dismiss a suit brought by two department employees until the new administration makes a decision in the matter. Mrs. Elaine Parker, director of services for the blind, and Mrs. Greta Hinds, director of the state food stamp program, filed suit in Chancery Court here last September asking that Friend be enjoined from demoting them. Chancellor C. Allen High issued a temporary restraining order which has prohibited the demotions thus far.
Tennessee Supreme Court Declines to Intervene on Stay for Parker, HindsTennessee Supreme Court Declines to Intervene on Restraining Order Protecting Parker, Hinds 21 Jan 1975, Tue The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee) Newspapers.com
Parker and Hinds appear to have had some notion of the decision before it became public, as they issued invitations titled “Come Celebrate with Us” for Saturday, Jan. 18, 1975.

Elaine Parker’s papers contained unsent invitations on red, white, and blue stationery (including lined envelopes) that read “Come Celebrate with Us, Saturday – Jan. 18, 1975, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., address. Given by Greta Hinds and Elaine Parker. Regrets – phone number.

This blog draws considerably on reporting in The Tennessean, physical newspaper clips preserved in Elaine Parker’s files, and electronic clips from Newspapers.com.

 

Obituary – Elaine Parker

Photo of Elaine Parker, pictured here on the beach in a black and white windbreaker suit and sporting a red umbrella like a tightrope walker dancing atop the wire.
Elaine Parker, pictured here on the beach in a black and white windbreaker suit and sporting a red umbrella like a tightrope walker dancing atop the wire, passed away peacefully at home on October 8, 2021, surrounded by her loving family.

Nashville, TN – Elaine Parker, age 91 of Nashville, passed away at home surrounded by her loving family on October 8, 2021.

Elaine would tell you that she had two great influences: Frank Laubach, who developed the “Each One Teach One” literacy program, and Helen Keller. “Do not let this go to waste” were the words that Helen Keller said to Elaine at her graduation ceremony, when Keller was presented as the first woman to receive an honorary degree and Elaine was the first woman to receive an advanced degree in teaching the blind from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This is an abbreviated version of a very full life. Newspaper clippings have been added to the text published in October 2021 in The Tennessean.

Helen Keller at Harvard Commencement - Page 1, The Boston Globe, 16 June 1955Helen Keller at Harvard Commencement – Page 1, 16 Jun 1955, Thu The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com

Elaine Marilyn (Goldman) Parker, was born August 6, 1930, in Boston, Massachusetts, daughter of Maurice Goldman (a state Senator in Massachusetts) and Helen Stepansky Goldman Perlman. Elaine was brought up in Boston, where she attended the Boston Latin School. She graduated from Drew Seminary for Young Women in Carmel, New York, where she studied piano and was active in theater.

One of Elaine’s earliest memories was volunteering with her Hungarian-born grandmother in cooking for—and writing to—World War Two servicemen through the Red Cross. Elaine later volunteered with the Boston Veterans Hospital and the New York Lighthouse for the Blind—experiences that contributed to her interest in working with people with vision disabilities.

Elaine first earned a Boston University School of Education degree in Special Education and Counseling, before going on to Harvard. A woman of many interests and passions, she began the first of her many careers teaching in public schools in Waltham and Brookline, Massachusetts. Later, she moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where she taught special education at the Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation School. At the same time, she developed and implemented an adult education program for the blind, founded a Recording for the Blind Program in Oak Ridge, and organized volunteers to bring Talking Books to blind families in the mountains of East Tennessee. Elaine was appointed Chairperson for the East Tennessee Employment of the Handicapped Program created under Governor Frank Clement. In this position, she visited numerous factories and businesses to encourage them to employ people who were blind and people with disabilities.

Instrumental in founding the Talking Book Program for the Blind for the Library for Congress, she took those skills and, when moving from Oak Ridge to Nashville in 1967, opened five adult education programs for the handicapped in Metro Schools.

She extended her work to help inmates at the Tennessee State Penitentiary.

She taught life skills such as shopping and cooking to those with vision disabilities and other disabilities at the Knowles Center for Senior Citizens.

She was then appointed Commissioner for the State of Tennessee Services for the Blind, where she instituted multiple innovative programs and opportunities for those in need of services including setting up a Braille transcribing program at a Nashville synagogue for parents of blind children and for Peabody College students.

In 1971, while still with the State of Tennessee, she founded a summer camp for blind children funded by the B’nai B’rith Maimonides Lodge, which ran for 37 years.

 

29 Jun 2005, Wed The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee) Newspapers.com

Later projects included the creation of the Low Vision Closet for Jewish Seniors in cooperation with the Jewish Family Service and B’nai B’rith Maimonides Chapter.

Mrs. Elaine Parker, public relations for the Professional Chef Association of Middle TennesseeMrs. Elaine Parker, public relations for the Professional Chef Association of Middle Tennessee 09 Jun 1977, Thu The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee) Newspapers.com

Elaine worked full time as a career counselor and taught culinary arts at the Nashville College of Applied Technology (then Nashville Tech), while creating an event planning and wedding business on the side. She opened Weddings by Elan after noticing the need for someone who specialized in wedding planning for couples with disabilities as well as for couples marrying from diverse backgrounds and countries. Not only did she assist in the planning and execution, she also traveled to many exotic places to coordinate wedding ceremonies. She shared her insights in four books:

•Wedding Directing: How to Be a Professional Wedding Director

Directing Weddings at Hotels: A Training Manual for Staff

Wedding Directing and Coordinating: A Training Manual with Challenging Stories and Scenarios

Special Needs Weddings: A Guide for Persons with Visual, Hearing, or Mobility Challenges

Married for 67 years to the love of her life, Frank L. Parker, Distinguished Professor of Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University, she accompanied him to over 60 countries where they enjoyed the sights, food, and culture. In their travels, she amassed a collection of wedding figurines from each country, together with menus and cookbooks representative of the local customs, which she used to illustrate her nationally-recognized books.

Elaine wrote or contributed to numerous cookbooks, most recently as project leader for Safe Cooking Made Simple: Easy Recipes for Your Toaster Oven, Slow Cooker, and Microwave, privately published by Jewish Family Service of Nashville. Elaine was working on a book on multi-cultural weddings.

Elaine was a lifelong lover of music and the arts, with season tickets to the symphony, theater, opera and ballet, and attended Broadway shows, events, and lectures whenever the opportunity arose. She learned Braille when she was 13 from an 11 year old blind student at a music conservatory when she was teaching him to play her favorite classical piano piece.

She gave wonderful parties at Cape Cod, being a New Englander at heart. She never lost her Boston accent, even though she moved to Tennessee in 1954. Elaine was an active volunteer, giving her time and expertise to many organizations, and was an inspiration to young women whom she befriended, counseled, and provided emotional support. Her volunteer work was recognized with the Chesed Award from the Jewish Family Service, whose community she touched deeply. Chesed is Hebrew for “loving kindness.” The Chesed Award is bestowed at the Chesed Dinner, JFS’s premier fundraising event where they honor their most dedicated volunteers and supporters while celebrating the work of the agency.

Blessed with four children, Nina (Parker) Ganz, Aaron, Stephan, and David, together with five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren and many loving nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, Elaine spent considerable time with family and friends including those she called her “adopted” daughters. She put family and friends first at every occasion.

Services to be held at Congregation Micah on Tuesday, October 12, at 11 am. Memorials may be made in honor of Elaine Parker to the Jewish Family Service of Nashville.

Posted online (minus the newspaper clippings) on October 10, 2021

Published (minus the newspaper clippings) in The Tennessean

Celebrate 2021! Help the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia! See the new logos for A Roadkill Opera and the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company!

Help the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia

Want to join us in making a difference?

A Roadkill Opera is raising money to benefit the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA—legally incorporated as a 501(C)3 nonprofit under the name Symphony Orchestra of Arlington).

A Roadkill Opera was workshopped at Artomatic 2012 by the conductor & music director from SONOVA, and its roster of artists have been deeply involved as we went into the studio—attended the GRAMMYs—had sold out performances at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint—and, eventually, had two FREE fully staged community shows by SONOVA at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia.

Logo with large, green, capital letters SONOVA and small, grey Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia
The Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia hopes to be able to return to a more traditional season in the winter of 2021, but will only do so if it is the safe and responsible thing to do.

SONOVA and its music director took my original script for A Roadkill Opera  (set to music from Ferdinando Paer’s 1804 opera Leonora) from page to stage.  And, in August 2020, they partnered with A Roadkill Opera for a virtual performance at Artomatic.

Artomatic 2020 20th anniversary logo
The Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA) joined A Roadkill Opera in congratulating Artomatic on its 20th anniversary. A virtual performance mixed highlights of live performances going back as far as 1988 with new interviews in 2020.

SONOVA had to cancel recent concerts due to COVID-19. To keep this wonderful orchestra playing, any donation will help make an impact. Funds raised will be withdrawn by SONOVA staff and used to support operating costs for SONOVA.

Thanks in advance for your contribution to this organization  that means so much to me.

DECEMBER 31, 2020 by Stephan Parker, Organizer

Thanks to all who contributed! We have met our goal! Please accept our thanks and appreciation. Best wishes for a better 2021!

Symphony Orchestra of Arlington
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.

 

Donate now

New year, new logos

For 2021, in honor of the fifth anniversary of the January 2016 world premiere performances of A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC, Stephan Alexander Parker designed new logos that incorporate elements of the artwork originally used to promote the 1988 and 2012 live shows.

Round logo. The center has A Roadkill Opera in large, black letters outlined in gold, over a red background with pink tire tracks. There is a black band around the center, with five gold skulls and gold lettering: Music from 1804. Action set in 1988. Paer. Parker. Dokken.
A Roadkill Opera: Music from 1804 by Ferdinando Paer. Action set in 1988 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. A new libretto written by Stephan Alexander Parker, workshopped at Artomatic 2012 by Maestro Jeffrey Dokken. A Roadkill Opera‘s studio recording was released on July 4, 2013–and led to the artistic team attending the GRAMMYs in February 2015. This new logo was inspired by the Hatch Show Print posters for the Artomatic 2012 show.
Round logo. A golden roadkill on a golden stick, with black tire tracks on its body, is splattered in the center. In the background are red and white stripes and white stars on a blue field. Hand-scrawled gold lettering reads: Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company. Logo design by Eric Scholl.
A Roadkill Opera tells the story of the hour before the first professional gig for an improvisation sketch comedy troupe in 1988 Jackson Hole, Wyoming: the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company. “Weird” Ed Bachtel, Stephan “Killer” Parker, Dave Rohrer, and Holly Danner performed three nights a week for 8 weeks at the Wort Hotel’s Silver Dollar Bar showroom. Louise Gignoux replaced Holly Danner for a 1992 “Roadkill!!! Greatest Hits!” show at the Pink Garter Theatre. Every show concluded with Ed Bachtel performing the national anthem, by harmonica, through his nose. This new logo was inspired by the original black-and-white roadkill-on-a-stick logo (including the hand-scrawled text) designed by Eric Scholl for the 1988 show.

Jeffrey Dokken, Stephan Alexander Parker, & A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2020

Jeffrey Dokken, Stephan Alexander Parker, & A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2020

Streamed live on Aug 15, 2020

A Roadkill Opera’s Road from Artomatic to the GRAMMYs to the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia: From Page to Fully Staged

Check out the whole Artomatic 2020 event:
Including DJ Choupin’s photos at
Screenshot of smart phone showing PArker holding a squash racquet, Bachtel holding a tennis racquet and a rubber rat, and text on the screen showing 68 current viewers.
Typical millennial viewers for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2020 tuned in via under-charged smartphones, calling this segment 19 minutes into the show “iconic” and “classic”
Photo of 3 and 5 year olds watching the livestream on a television, while they sit on the floor of a beach house (based on the surfboard next to the television)
Demographics for those tuned in for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2020 included 3 and 5 year old children. Here they are watching the segment from the Frozen Roadkills On A Stick sketch excerpted from the 1992 Roadkill!!! Greatest Hits! show at the Pink Garter Theatre in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Stephan Alexander Parker portrays the purveyor, while Ed Bachtel (who wrote the sketch) portrays an Elmer Fudd-inspired character particularly interested in rabbits.
Photo of woman watching the livestream on a television set above a fireplace.
Demographics for those tuned in for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2020 included women. Here, a woman is watching Maestro Jeffrey Dokken of the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia and Stephan Alexander Parker of Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Publishing as they co-host the livestream.
Photo of grey-haired man sitting in a reclining chair, watching the livestream of A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2020 on a television
Demographics for those tuned in for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2020 included men reclining in their Barcaloungers. It is unclear whether the Labrador retriever is paying attention.
Logo of Artomartic 2.0 Virtual Performance: photo of La]ura Wehrmeyer, Alan Naylor, Louie the Llama,and Christopher Dews on the set of A Roadkill Opera's world premiere performance at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Wahtington DC.
A Roadkill Opera’s Road from Artomatic to the GRAMMYs to the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia: From Page to Fully Staged
Marketing materials for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2020 (shown here) were provided by Artomatic for its 20th anniversary event. Stephan Alexander Parker’s connection with Artomatic began as an exhibitor and volunteer at Artomatic 2000. Maestro Jeffrey Dokken began his involvement when Artomatic 2012 hosted his Roadkill Opera workshop. Parker and Dokken provided artist talks at almost every Artomatic event (including Artomatic@Frederick) from 2012 on.
Many thanks to the hundred-plus people who either tuned in live for the livestream on August 15, 2020, or viewed the archived livestream (still available) in the month since it was broadcast. Extra thanks to those who shared it with their friends and those who participated in the live chat during the broadcast!
Incorporating photos and footage from live performances 1988 – 2016, with new footage contributed in August 2020 by Jeffrey Dokken, Stephan Alexander Parker, Jaylen S. Johnson, Val Rauch, Michael Thompson, Tanya Whisnant, and Christina Giles, this piece was edited by Stephan Alexander Parker. Technical direction by Ben Ganz.
A Roadkill Opera was first prototyped as a script and mockup at Artomatic 2004 and workshopped at Artomatic 2012. From Artomatic 2012 we went into the studio—the commercially released recording got the creative team invited to the GRAMMYs in 2015, where we received a surprise announcement that the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA) would perform it the following year.
Jeffrey Dokken conducted the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA) on October 21, 2016, at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia; and other groups in January 2016 at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC; in studio recordings at Blue House Productions in Kensington, Maryland, between January and June 2013; and at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Virginia, in June 2012.
Music composed by Ferdinando Paer for Leonora (1804) was repurposed by Stephan Alexander Parker for this fast, funny, 59-minute mashup of classical music and a backstage screwball comedy about the hour before the first professional gig for the rude mechanicals of an amateur improv comedy troupe, the Roadkill on A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company, in 1988 Jackson Hole, Wyoming. New interviews conducted in August 2020 are mixed with archival photos, a bit of narration over the live, October 2016 Overture, and live performance footage from all the above with footage from the March 13, 1992, Roadkill!!! Greatest Hits! performance at the Pink Garter Theatre in Jackson, Wyoming.
So excited! None of this would have happened without Artomatic, SONOVA, Ed Bachtel, and Maestro Jeffrey Dokken!

A Roadkill Opera’s Road from Artomatic to the GRAMMYs to the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia: From Page to Fully Staged


Let’s start where we left off: A Roadkill Opera as performed by the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia. Christopher Dews as Marvin, the stage manager for the Roadkill on a Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company, hilariously improvises the prologue at the October 2016 performance by the full Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia of A Roadkill Opera. On the eve of the 2016 elections, Dews is both hilarious and topical as he breaks the fourth wall. Other excerpts from the show are at the bottom of this post.

Photo of Larry Boggs, baritone, as he sings the role of Eddie in the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia's two free, fully staged performances of A Roadkill Opera at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia on October 21, 2016. Subtitles read "Frozen roadkill! Frozen roadkill!"
Larry Boggs, baritone, sings the role of Eddie in the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia’s (SONOVA’s) two free, fully staged performances of A Roadkill Opera at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia on October 21, 2016.
Photo of the cast (left to right): Larry Boggs, baritone, as Eddie; Laura Wehrmeyer, soprano, as Holly; Kelly Curtin, soprano, as Debbie; Christopher Dews as Marv; and conductor/music director/stage director Jeffrey Dokken onstage in the finale of the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia's (SONOVA's) two free, fully staged performances of A Roadkill Opera at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia on October 21, 2016. Subtitle: "Roadkill on a Stick!"
The cast (left to right): Larry Boggs, baritone, as Eddie; Laura Wehrmeyer, soprano, as Holly; Kelly Curtin, soprano, as Debbie; Christopher Dews as Marv; and conductor/music director/stage director Jeffrey Dokken onstage in the finale of the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia’s (SONOVA’s) two free, fully staged performances of A Roadkill Opera at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia on October 21, 2016.
Photo of the orchestra under the baton of conductor/music director/stage director Jeffrey Dokken onstage in the finale of the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia's (SONOVA's) two free, fully staged performances of A Roadkill Opera at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia on October 21, 2016.
The orchestra under the baton of conductor/music director/stage director Jeffrey Dokken onstage in the finale of the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia’s (SONOVA’s) two free, fully staged performances of A Roadkill Opera at the James Lee Community Theater in Falls Church, Virginia on October 21, 2016.
Photo of the First rehearsal for the vocalists at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia
First rehearsal for the vocalists in A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia.
Photo of a backstage view of first vocals rehearsal for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia
Backstage view of first vocals rehearsal for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia. Allan Decipula is at the keyboard.
Photo of gallery crowd, including a 4 year old boy looking at the Roadkill Opera mockup
A Roadkill Opera appeals to fans of all ages, as seen in this gallery crowd at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Virginia. A 4 year old boy is looking at the Roadkill Opera mockup first shown at Artomatic 2004.
Photo of a woman and a man in the Roadkill Opera exhibit.
Two fans inside the exhibit for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Virginia. Check out the red, white, and blue Chucks suspended from the ceiling.
Photo of the chamber orchestra workshopping A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia, on June 7
The chamber orchestra workshopping A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia, on June 7.
Photo of a man on a ladder hanging lights
Stephan Alexander Parker hangs lights for the Artomatic 2012 workshop concert of A Roadkill Opera. The lighting strip had been repurposed, having been used for exhibit lighting at Artomatic 2009. The singers found the stage lights at the dress rehearsal too intense, so in the hour before the performance Parker added in these low-power lights. Videographer Ben Ganz (who has since gone on to greater success with Vego Pictures) is in the foreground with his  back to the camera. The stages were sponsored by Heineken, hence the sign in the background. The performance was on the Cherry Smash Stage.
Photo of stage area with Scholl in foreground
The multitalented Eric Scholl has his back to the camera. From designing the original 1988 logo for the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company to hanging the black background scrim at the June 9, 2012, workshop concert performance of A Roadkill Opera, Scholl’s drollery has been a continuing influence. Stephan Alexander Parker is on the ladder hanging lights. This is one of his first times lighting a public concert since…
Photo of the Varsity Theater marquee reading "A&O Concerts Presents Eddie Murphy and The Rockme Foundation in Concert Tonight"
…the biggest one-night lighting gig of Parker’s audio-visual career: Eddie Murphy, with Riffmaster and the Rockme Foundation as his opening act, at the Varsity Theatre in Evanston, Illinois. The show was produced by Matt Carter, who went on to serve on the board of Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.
Photo of scrim crew at work at Artomatic 2012
The scrim crew allowed the video of the 2012 Artomatic workshop concert of A Roadkill Opera to have a consistent black-and-white background for the singers and musicians to comfortably stand out.
Photo of Cyndi Moran, Roz Scholl, and Nat Scholl
Three of the scrim crew examine the conductor’s score after the 2012 Artomatic workshop concert of A Roadkill Opera. From left, Cyndi Moran, Roz Scholl, and Nat Scholl. Moran and the Scholls are documentary filmmakers. They were in town to screen two films at the National History Fair 2012. Emma Goldman: The Most Dangerous Woman in the World, by Ellie Kruto, Ella Mardan, and Rosalyn Scholl; and Freer Than a Bird: The AACM and Free Jazz, by Nathaniel Scholl. Peter Kuttner, Cyndi Moran, and Eric Scholl produced directed (with executive producer Denise Zaccardi) The End of the Nightstick, a documentary that aired on PBS’s POV series on July 5, 1994.

Peter Kuttner, Cyndi Moran, and Eric Scholl produced directed (with executive producer Denise Zaccardi) The End of the Nightstick, a documentary that aired on PBS’s POV series on July 5, 1994. PBS described it: “This startling expose unravels a history of abuse of suspects by the Chicago police. For more than a decade, the press and authorities turned a blind eye to allegations of torture — including the use of electric shocks — until persistent grass roots organizations exerted enough pressure to prompt an official investigation, and eventually the dismissal of a ranking police commander.”

Photo of musicians warming up
The chamber orchestra for A Roadkill Opera‘s Artomatic 2012 workshop concert in the green room on June 9 in Crystal City, Virginia.
Photo of a backstage view of the workshop concert performance of A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia
A backstage view of the workshop concert performance of A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia.
Photo of crowd sitting in front of audio booth
Angelo Avellano (at the audio board, far right) provided support to record the audio at the Artomatic 2012 workshop concert of A Roadkill Opera.
Screenshot of the Finale of A Roadkill Opera Concert at Artomatic 2012. Shown (from left to right): Violin III - Kendall Isadore; Violin II - Holly Petty; Cello - Kathy Augustine; Violin I - Frank Peracchia; DEBBY, Soprano - Krista Monique McClellan; HOLLY, Soprano - Laura Wehrmeyer; STEPHAN, Baritone - David Timpane; EDDIE, Baritone - Andrew Webster; DAVE, Tenor - John Dellaporta; Conductor and Music Director - Jeffrey Dokken (hand only). Off-camera: Flute - Martine Micozzi; Clarinet - Jeannine Altavilla; Bassoon - Sarah Robinson; Trumpet & Flugelhorn - Michael Thompson.
Screenshot of the Finale of A Roadkill Opera concert performance at Artomatic 2012. Shown (from left to right): Violin III – Kendall Isadore; Violin II – Holly Petty; Cello – Kathy Augustine; Violin I – Frank Peracchia; DEBBY, Soprano – Krista Monique McClellan; HOLLY, Soprano – Laura Wehrmeyer; STEPHAN, Baritone – David Timpane; EDDIE, Baritone – Andrew Webster; DAVE, Tenor – John Dellaporta; Conductor and Music Director – Jeffrey Dokken (hand only). Off-camera: Flute – Martine Micozzi; Clarinet – Jeannine Altavilla; Bassoon – Sarah Robinson; Trumpet & Flugelhorn – Michael Thompson. The full video is at the bottom of this post.
Photo of Kendall Isadore (Violin) Martine Micozzi (Flute) A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012
This screenshot shows the newest and the longest associated members of the chamber orchestra for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012. Kendall Isadore, violin, played the viola parts that had been transcribed for violin. Parker had noticed her cello-shaped violin case in the green room–that inspired him to get the signature red, cello-shaped viola case featured in subsequent marketing activities. Martine Micozzi, flute, was the first to see the score and libretto for A Roadkill Opera. She asked if it would be okay to show it her conductor–that is how Jeffrey Dokken got involved in the show. The full video is at the bottom of this post.
Photo of Parker's display on A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2015
The stellar cast for the January 2016 world premiere of A Roadkill Opera is at the center of Parker’s display at Artomatic 2015. The display also showcases the photography of DJ Choupin, whose work has been incorporated into the published sheet music for A Roadkill Opera‘s score and parts.
Photo of Parker & Dokken on Stage 2 at Artomatic 2015 with audience in foreground
Artists and performers in Artomatic 2015 listened attentively as Parker & Dokken discussed the bizarre route of A Roadkill Opera from 1804 Vienna, through Dresden, Paris, and Crystal City to the Washington DC premiere in January 2016
Photo showing head shots and names of the cast of A Roadkill Opera - world premiere performances
The lobby card that greeted lucky theatre-goers at the January 2016 sold out houses announced the cast for A Roadkill Opera – world premiere cast.
Photo of A viola case is used for transporting and displaying the CD and books associated with A Roadkill Opera and If You See Roadkill, Think Opera
The use of a viola case for transporting and displaying the CDs and books associated with A Roadkill Opera and If You See Roadkill, Think Opera, was inspired by Kendall Isadore’s cello-shaped violin case.
Photo of the display for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic@Frederick 2013
Thousands of art lovers saw the display for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic@Frederick 2013 in Frederick, Maryland.
Photo of Brian Jerome Murphy models his vintage chop shop shirt.
Brian Jerome Murphy’s Solo (Flight) sculpture was one of the highlights of the 2014 show at Washington National Airport, Artomatic Takes Flight.
Photo of Artomatic Chair Emeritus and founder George Koch speaking at the opening of Artomatic Takes Flight on July 25, 2014.
Artomatic Chair Emeritus and founder George Koch speaking at the opening of Artomatic Takes Flight on July 25, 2014.
Photo of Library of Congress intake of piano/vocal score and all parts for A Roadkill Opera (left) as well as If You See Roadkill, Think Opera
Before the first rehearsal of A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012, the score and parts had been submitted for copyright protection. Here is a photo in 2013 of the Library of Congress intake of two copies each (as legally required) of the piano/vocal score and all parts for A Roadkill Opera (left) as well as If You See Roadkill, Think Opera.
Photo of Clarence Davis at the check-in table for Artomatic 2016, reading the piano/vocal score for A Roadkill Opera
Artomatic 2016 benefitted from the organizational communication skills of Clarence Davis, who was hands-on in working the door, banding those eligible for purchasing alcohol, and (incidentally) sufficiently curious about A Roadkill Opera to read the piano/vocal score.
Photo of Stephan Alexander Parker and Jeffrey Dokken showing their Grammy tickets
A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker and music director/conductor Jeffrey Dokken show their GRAMMY tickets before the Premiere. The Roadkill entourage also included video director Ben Ganz and merchandizing director DJ Choupin.
Photo of Stephan Alexander Parker and Jeffrey Dokken with photographer/merchandising director DJ Choupin
A Roadkill Opera‘s Stephan Alexander Parker and Jeffrey Dokken with photographer/merchandising director DJ Choupin at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.

Photo of Ben Ganz and Stephan Alexander Parker on the escalator
A Roadkill Opera‘s video director Ben Ganz checks on the after-party for the 57th Annual Grammy Awards while librettist Stephan Alexander Parker is pleased he remembers where he parked the car. Ganz, who had been the youngest field producer in American Idol history and had run their social media for 7 years, went on to found Vego Pictures. But first, he single-camera shot the workshop concert in a single take for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012 as well as the iPhone-shot interview of A Roadkill Opera at the 57th GRAMMYs in February 2015.
Photo of Jason Ganz, Ben Ganz, and Stephan Alexander Parker wearing 3D glasses
A training mission at a 4-D theatre at Washington DC’s Newseum for the future video crew for the 2012 Artomatic’s A Roadkill Opera. From front to back, Jason Ganz (now Chief Technology Officer at Data For Progress), Ben Ganz (founder of  Vego Pictures), and Stephan Alexander Parker. Jason pulled cable while Ben shot A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012.

The workshop for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City Virginia, taught us several things–including that we needed 10 musicians (not 8) and that we needed a skilled comic in the role of Marvin.

The lyric videos provide the studio recording with supertitles. The whole shebang runs 59 minutes. The overture has credits and still photos.

The first joke for the audience arriving for A Roadkill Opera‘s world premiere performances in January 2016 at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint was seeing a 10-piece chamber orchestra–with timpani–in a 42-seat black box theatre. Christopher Dews (as Marvin) proved so funny in rehearsals that the cast and orchestra were distracted. He opens and closes the January 2016 show.

Photo of Holly, Eddie, llama, and Marvin on the set of A Roadkill Opera
Holly (Laura Wehrmeyer) and Eddie (Alan Naylor) debate ways and whether it is necessary to punch up the humor of In A Clearing while Marvin (Christopher Dews) tends to the llama in A Roadkill Opera in its world premiere performances in January 2016 at the Mead Theatre lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC.
Lobby card with head shots of the cast for A Roadkill Opera
The stellar cast for the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia’s production of A Roadkill Opera returned three players from the world premiere.


Ferdinando Paer’s 1804 Leonora’s Long, Strange Trip to A Roadkill Opera

The anniversary of the first time that a substantial portion of the music from Ferdinando Paer’s 1804 opera Leonora was publicly performed in the United States seems a good day to look at the long, strange trip that led to that being in the form of the June 9, 2012 stand-and-sing at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Virginia, of Stephan Alexander Parker’s A Roadkill Opera under the baton of music director and conductor Jeffrey Dokken.

Photo of the front page and another full page from the Jackson Hole News showing a person bundled up next to a banking sign reading -34 degrees in a parking lot. The photos carry a header A cold snap in Jackson Hole: -54 degrees.
It is not unusual to get a cold snap in Jackson Hole where the lows are in the minus-50s for a week and the highs only reach into the minus-30s.

It started with a cold snap in Jackson, Wyoming in the winter of 1984-1985. For a week, the temperatures dropped to the minus 50s at night and only got to the minus 30s during the day. It was too cold outside for aerobic activity. I couldn’t afford to join a gym, and since I had just moved there to be a ski bum, I couldn’t afford to lose my aerobic capacity, either. Jackson sits at 6,237 feet above sea level. What to do? As I recall, there was a blurb in the newspaper about how Arthur Fiedler, longtime conductor for the Boston Pops, had been in great aerobic condition due to conducting.  There was room for me to wave my arms around in my rented room; it would be more fun if I did it to music, so I hunted through my cassettes for the longest piece of music I had.

Photo of a snow-covered traditional college quad, viewed from the fourth floor of Willard Hall at Northwestern University in the winter of 1979-1980, with an inset photo of a SuperScope by Marantz cassette tape recorder.
The mystery opera was recorded off Chicago’s WFMT in the winter of 1979-1980.

My favorite classical cassette had been recorded off a broadcast by Chicago’s WFMT during the winter of 1979-1980. I hauled that out and waved my arms to it for a couple of days. It was fine, but wouldn’t it be even more fun if I was also following along to a printed score? I could barely read sheet music, perhaps that way I could learn to read music better. So I grabbed my cassette and took it to Mountunes, a music store in Jackson, to order a score. I asked them to listen to the cassette, which sounded like Mozart to me, to figure out which score to order. The staff didn’t know what opera I had recorded, but they were pretty sure it wasn’t Mozart. Over the next several years, whenever I traveled, I would stop into music stores (and even the Steinway piano showroom in Manhattan) and play my cassette for the staff. Nobody could identify the opera or the composer. However, they all agreed on the place to go to ask the most knowledgeable music staff on the planet.

Photo of Vienna State Opera House
The most knowledgeable music staff on the planet are reputed to work at the Vienna State Opera House.

That was the Weiner Staatsoper, the Vienna State Opera House, in Vienna, Austria. Like I was going to go there. Then, in 2003, an opportunity to travel to Vienna came up. As I was packing, I remembered to toss in my cassette. Once in Vienna, I stopped at other music shops as I made my way across the city. None of them recognized the opera on my cassette. I played it for the staff at the Wiener Staatsoper: they didn’t recognize it either. Then they said that some of their former staff had opened a CD store across the street. I then played the cassette f the staff at da Caruso; they didn’t recognize it, either.  But one of them said “My boyfriend knows everything about opera. Give me your cassette and I will take it home and play it for him.” It was my only copy—but I figured it was now or never, so handed it over to him. Sure enough, the next day there was a message at my pension: come on in, we have identified your opera. When I got to da Caruso, the boyfriend had written down not only the name of the opera and the composer, but also who sang each of the major roles and the Decca catalog number. I asked the staff at da Caruso if they had a copy in stock. They laughed. “That was the only studio recording ever made of Ferdinando Paer’s Leonora. It has never been released on CD.” Okay, so can you order me the vinyl? They laughed again. “It has been out of print for 20 years.” The mystery was solved, but the obscurity of the recording had further piqued my curiosity.

Photo of the boxed set with a caption Minneapolis 2003
The 1978 world premiere studio recording of Leonora, a boxed set, was found in Minneapolis in 2003.

So a month after the da Caruso staffer’s boyfriend had identified the recording as Leonora by Ferdinando Paer, conducted by Peter Maag and released on London Records, a Decca company, in 1978, I was relating the story about the chase for the recording’s identity to my friend Bob as we sat having sidewalk beers in Minneapolis. Bob said “You know, there’s a really good used book store across the street. They also have records. You should try there.” I said, yeah, right, like they’re going to have it. But they did! This was 2003, when radio stations were converting from vinyl to CDs. The local public radio station had dumped its entire set of vinyl, which was sitting (nicely organized, I should say) in the basement of the used book store.  It was a boxed set with 3 LPs and what I learned is called a libretto, which is the Italian word for book, which is to say the lyrics. The libretto included with it both the Italian lyrics and their translation into English.  I had been chasing this thing for a long time. It did not have a price marked on it. Nervously, while trying to appear nonchalant, I spoke to the clerk: gee, I was thinking about buying this old thing, how much is it? He opened the box and slowly looked through it, calmly closed it, and pronounced “nine bucks.” I paid cash, in case it was a mistake or in case he might decide to up the price while running a credit card. Once I had paid, I asked why nine dollars. “Three discs, three dollars a disc. Nine dollars.” Whew!

Photo showing the Italian lyrics from Leonora on the left and the English lyrics that replaced them in A Roadkill Opera on the right. Also shown is a photo of a 1912 Underwood Standard manual typewriter.
Fitting lyrics by ear from Ferdinando Paer’s 1804 Leonora’s “Oh cielo!” transliterated to A Roadkill Opera’s “No Jello?” That made it a comedy.

Now, after a 25-year mystery being solved, I had a copy in my hot little hands. What should I do with it, just listen to it? I’d been listening to it on cassette for 25 years, so that would be anticlimactic. I should dosomething with it, but what? The first step, I figured, should be to really listen to it, and to do that I needed to rip it from vinyl to a CD. I bought a turntable by mail order to do so, and found when I had transferred the three discs that I had only been listening to the overture and the first act: there was a second act that I had never heard. I hated it! The first act was all pretty much in major keys and highly melodic. To my untrained ear, the second act sounded all minor key and depressing. So I attempted to rip just the first act and overture to CD, but it wouldn’t fit. Circa 2003-2004, a CD’s capacity was only about one hour and eight minutes. So I cut out the speak-singing portions from the first act, what I learned much later are called recitatives, and got it under 1:08. Now when I listened to the shortened version, it sounded like an overture and twelve songs. To me, that sounded like a show. If I was going to write it up as a show, what should it be? If I made it just a shortened version of Leonora, what would be the point? The shortened version had three men and two women in it. What should their characters be, what plot? I printed out the Italian lyrics from the libretto and tried to phonetically fit English lyrics to them while listening to the CD. “Oh cielo!”, which refers to the skies or the heavens, sounded to me like “No Jello?” That meant comedy. Another lyric in Italian sounded to me like “I’m gonna buy my old granddad a Geo!” My first new car had been a Geo. That was in the 1980s. 1980s, comedy, three men and two women. Hmm, I had a possible story to fit.

Photo collage showing scenes from Roadkill Live!!! surrounding a photo of an Underwood Standard 1912 manual typewriter. The collage includes scenes of two old men on a bench, three players with animal masks, two players at a cart that says Frozen Roadkills on a Stick, and a woman posed like a cheerleader under the marquis at the Wort Hotel where the sign includes the text Roadkill Livev Comedy 8 pm.
Roadkill!!! Live! ran for 8 weeks at the Wort Hotel’s Silver Dollar Bar Showroom in 1988.

From 1988 to 1992 my comedy partner “Weird Ed” Bachtel and I worked together in a legal partnership, first starting and hosting the long-running open mic night at the Spirits of the West Saloon and starting July 4 weekend in 1988 our first stage show: Roadkill!!! Live! It was a sketch comedy revue that ran for eight weeks that summer at the Wort Hotel’s Silver Dollar Bar’s Showroom (technically the Greenback Lounge, but everyone just called it the Showroom). The libretto circa 2003/2004 had three men and two women, and our show 1988-1992 had three men and one woman, plus a woman who ran the box office. Could the twelve songs be fit to those five characters?  I used the search and replace function to replace the names of the Italian characters with the names from the troupe and box office of the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company and started writing. To provide some drama, I needed to focus on the most dramatic time in the run—opening night, when nerves were highest. For a dramatic climax, I needed a plot twist. Well, we learned during the 1988 show that after our run the showroom would be torn down. That was pretty dramatic. It paralleled a standard improv premise I’d often seen and sometimes participated in: you are stuck on a burning el platform (the el being the elevated train). Using dramatic license, the information about the theatre being torn down would come during the opening night. Another script parameter: I would add no dialogue. The show would be sung-through, with only Paer’s music and lyrics where his librettist had lyrics. That would also keep the script short. And finally, I decided to set the show in real-time during the final hour before the first show. That would also simplify staging, costumes, etc.

Photo of Debby and Stephan squatting in a field of wildflowers. They are wearing sunglasses and smiling.
Debby (the woman from the box office for Roadkill!!! Live!) and Stephan (from the comedy troupe Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company, whose t-shirt he is wearing) squatting in a field in 1988, the year the show ran for 8 weeks at the Wort Hotel’s Silver Dollar Bar Showroom.

When I finished the script (by ear to the CD), I wanted to get a feel for how it might play as a show. I put my new lyrics as supertitles in a video mockup over the Italian recording. If you didn’t speak Italian, you could watch the video and think you were seeing it simply translated into English. At least, that was my intent. It seemed to work pretty well when I first showed the mockup of Opening Night: A Roadkill Opera in One Act at Artomatic 2004 at the old National Children’s Museum in Washington, DC.The Warehouse Theatre said to let them know when we were ready to stage the show, they had space. With that motivation, I reached out to my high school friend Brad, then a music rights attorney in Nashville, to ask Decca for permissions to use the backing tracks from the 1978 recording for a community theatre stage production. Remember how the FM station in Minneapolis had dumped its vinyl for CDs? Well, about this time Napster was busy cannibalizing the record companies. Decca didn’t return Brad’s calls or letters. Like the rest of the recording industry, they were too busy losing their shirts to illegal file sharing. Without access to the rights to the only recording, I was stuck, I put my script aside and focused on promoting the photographs of the woman from the Roadkill!!! Live!box office, Debby “DJ” Choupin. Three years later, while preparing for her exhibit at Artomatic 2008, a miracle: the Bamford Opera announced that Paer’s Leonorawould have its U.K. premiere in the fall. Paer premiered Leonorain Dresden it 1804. It only took 204 years to make it across the English Channel. I began to correspond with the fellow preparing the conductor’s score and parts for the London premiere.

Photo of the yellowed parchment manuscript with the first four bars of music notation for the orchestra for the overture to Ferdinando Paer's 1804 opera Leonora, which is the basis for A Roadkill Opera.
Ferdinando Paer’s 1804 manuscript conductor’s score for Leonora.

Like Peter Maag, Brian Clark had accessed Paer’s manuscript for Leonoraat the library. He was kind enough to send me a PDF of the conductor’s score, but my music reading skills weren’t good enough to tell whether the score he working from was the same as the one that Maag had recorded. I asked Deb if she wanted to go to London so I could hear this thing. She said yes! (p.s., we are still married!)

Photo of the computer-generated first 8 bars of the overture from Leonara now renamed at the overture for Opening Night: A Roadkill Opera in One Act along with a caption that says London Score 2008 (arrow pointing to the right) ARO (A Roadkill Opera) 2009
Brian Clark of Prima la musica! prepared the Bampton Opera’s score and parts for Leonora in 2008, portions of which were subsequently repurposed as the score for A Roadkill Opera in 2009.

Our last night of a week in London was at St. John’s Smith Square, where the London Chamber Orchestra (the world’s first chamber orchestra, founded in 1948) was accompanying the Bamford Opera singers. As I followed the score and my script, I was also visualizing what the show might look like on stage. This thing might work! The 2008 arrangement didn’t sound quite the same as the 1978 recording (it turned out that Brian Clark and Peter Maag had accessed different versions of Ferdinando Paer’s Leonora, from different libraries), but it was mighty close and awfully available. Now I just needed to get the rights to use the score and parts prepared for the Bamford Opera by Prima la musica! for the London, UK premiere of Leonora in 2008. I had hoped to speak with the arranger at the London performance, but alas, he had not journeyed down from his home in Scotland. I wasn’t really sure how to broach the subject. The subject matter of my show might not be to the taste of this person who made his living converting library manuscripts of classical music into modern, performance-read scores and parts. Leonora had been by far the largest undertaking in the history of Prima la musica!  I dragged my feet, until I learned that there would be an Artomatic 2009—now I had a deadline. I spoke with Brian Clark by phone and let him know I was interested in acquiring the score and parts for the overture and the first act only, for a derivative work. How much might he charge for me to have a copy like that, with all associated rights? I asked “how much will it cost?” He asked “how much are you willing to pay?” I thought about it, and about how much work it would take to do an independent transcription from the library manuscript, and made what I considered to be a fair offer. Fortunately, he agreed. I later learned that his deal with Bamford had been on a per-performance use of the score, with a projected 10 performances, but Bamford had cut back and only actually had two performances. I came out of the blue with this deep interest in this obscure work. There was another twist, however: Brian didn’t want me send him the payment in Scotland, but instead wanted me to wire the money to a guy in New York. This wasn’t that long after 9/11, so I asked him to explain why. The answer was satisfactory—he had collaborators who transcribed music out of libraries all over the world for Prima la musica! to sell to clients all over the world. In order to avoid currency conversion costs, he wanted me to pay his guy in New York in American dollars. I was okay with that. So now, a mere 6 years after the staff at da Caruso had identified the music I had been chasing, and 30 years after I had recorded Leonora off the air from Chicago’s WFMT, I had the music files.  Brian Clark of Prima la musica! suggested I acquire a software program called Sibelius for preparing printable copies of the parts (“that’s what professionals use,” he said); it would also allow me to edit in the lyrics. Brian also suggested acquiring better simulation software for listening to the score—I chose Garritan Personal Orchestra. I now had way more powerful software than I would have needed if I could read music better, but I was very happy to be able to continue to work by ear—now, working with the actual score, which I could use royalty-free, to take the place of the mockup over the 1978 recording.  There were other capabilities of Sibelius that come in handy later.

On the left is a copy of the flyer with the logo from the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theater Company, a synopsis of the show, and a box that says in bold print Seeking Producing Organization for World Premiere of Opening Night: A Roadkill Opera in One Act. On the right is the Artomatic logo, a photo of a road sign that says Smoot, Population 100, Elevation 6619, and a photo of beef cattle on the road and on the shoulder of a country road
Seeking producing organizations for A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2009 was the primary reason for exhibiting there.

At Artomatic 2009 at Navy Yard, DJ exhibited her photographs and I advertised for a producing organization. I began working with the Sibelius software to fit the lyrics note-for-note to the score. To track my progress, I counted the number of bars of music in the score and the number of bars that had lyrics. That would be 1,208 bars. Times two; one of the bonuses from the arranger was a piano/vocal score that could be used for rehearsing singers. So, 2,416 bars of lyrics. I guess its just as well that no producing organizations stepped forward at Artomatic 2009, as it took me another two years to fit my written lyrics to the orchestral and piano/vocal scores. The lyrics from 2003/2004 were fine story-wise, but there were too many words. In transcribing by ear to the 1978 studio recording, I had created about a third too many syllables relative to the note by note score. Opera singers (and their conductors) need it note by note. That took time. Once I had the score and parts completed in the summer of 2011, I needed to register them with the U.S. Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. That, too, was a process. It also seemed like a good idea to join ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.

Photo showing A Roadkill Opera as exhibited at the licensed Artomatic@Frederick in the fall of 2011. DJ Choupin (Debby) is seen in the exhibit, which featured pop-up displays of the history of the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theater Company, as well as large prints of the manuscript score, the computer-generated score, a printed score on a music stand, and a blown-up version of a postcard advertising the availability of karaoke tracks for Opening Night: A Roadkill Opera in One Act.
A Roadkill Opera was exhibited at the licensed Artomatic@Frederick in the fall of 2011. DJ Choupin (Debby) is seen in the exhibit, which featured pop-up displays of the history of the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theater Company, as well as large prints of the manuscript score, the computer-generated score, a printed score on a music stand, and a blown-up version of a postcard advertising the availability of karaoke tracks for Opening Night: A Roadkill Opera in One Act.

Remember that 2004 mockup? I brought that on my laptop and brought popup banners and large prints of the score to my exhibit at Artomatic @ Frederick in the fall of 2011. Also, there was freeware at the time that allowed me to create the first karaoke versions of the songs from what I was calling Opening Night: A Roadkill Opera.  When I loaded these things online, I found that using a search engine to look for “Roadkill Opera” returned 5 million search results—and mine was number one! That seemed worth promoting, so I made up postcards and blew them up big for my Artomatic exhibit. Now that I had a score and parts ready to roll, surely I could find a producing organization?

Photo with title Why 10 year olds like A Roadkill Opera, with the lyrics below including those that read A fart is a fine thing, it makes people smile.
Why 10 year olds like A Roadkill Opera: “Look, daddy, it’s an opera about farts!” said a little girl viewing the mockup at Artomatic@Frederick 2011.

During a “meet the artists” night at Artomatic@Frederick in the fall of 2011, I was standing in my display while the mockup played on my computer and a powered speaker. A 10 year old girl was standing there, listening and following the lyrics. One of the newspaper reviews of the Bampton Opera’s Leonora had noted that 10 year olds had left the theatre humming the melodies from the show. This seemed like validation of that finding. Then the little girl’s father walked over to the Roadkill Opera mockup and the little girl said “Look, daddy, it’s an opera about farts!” A Roadkill Opera is not entirely about farts—there is one song—“In A Clearing,” the second song, the third musical number if you count the overture—that consists of a discussion/debate/back-and-forth about how to make the show funnier. Oh well. Another reason for 10 year olds to like A Roadkill Opera.

Caption says Workshop Concert at Artomatic June 2012. Photos, clockwise from far right: it was sprawling room only for the performance; backstage view of the chamber orchestra and singers with a 2x4 in the foreground; scrim crew members Eric Scholl and Cyndi Moran putting up black photography studio background paper so the video would not have distracting artwork in the background; videographer Ben Ganz. Center photo: rehearsal under the stage lights, which were too bright and were replaced for the actual workshop concert performance by ceiling mounted lights.
Workshop Concert of A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic in Crystal City, Virginia, in June 2012. Clockwise from far right: it was sprawling room only for the performance; backstage view of the chamber orchestra and singers with a 2×4 in the foreground; scrim crew members Eric Scholl and Cyndi Moran putting up black photography studio background paper so the video would not have distracting artwork in the background; videographer Ben Ganz. Center photo: rehearsal under the stage lights, which were too bright and were replaced for the actual workshop concert performance by ceiling mounted lights.

Then a funny thing happened in early 2012. I was in the office of a colleague, Martine Micozzi, at my day job, and I noticed what looked like a music case on the floor of her office. “What’s that?” “Oh, that’s my flute.” “Why do you have a flute at work?” “I moonlight at the Symphony Orchestra of Arlington. We have rehearsal tonight.” “Hmm. I just wrote a new libretto to music from an obscure opera. Would you mind taking a look at it?” “Sure.” Once she saw it, Martine said “Gee, do you mind if I show this to my conductor?” “That would be great!” It was great—Jeffery Dokken was so taken with the score that he began lining up singers for a possible workshop even before we met. He was willing to serve as music director if I could secure rehearsal and performance space. Fortunately, after three years hiatus, there was an Artomatic scheduled for Crystal City, and Jeff was able to rehearse the singers and orchestra on various stages, and hold a stand-and-sing workshop concert on the Cherry Smash Stage on June 9, 2012. There’s a single-camera video shot by Ben Ganz (now the co-founder and CEO of Vego Pictures in Hollywood). It was sprawling room only. The people at Artomatic were extremely supportive and helped with the publicity. I ordered a bunch of swag and even got Hatch Show Print, the oldest letterpress print shop in the country, to produce a commemorative poster. The designer recommended dropping the Opening Night from the title, which is how the show got renamed A Roadkill Opera. Tee shirts, aprons, bumper stickers, bottle openers, and posters were available for sale. I even got to play hammer on 2×4. We workshopped the show with an 8 piece orchestra and 5 singers. That’s how we learned that it needed a 10 piece orchestra, 5 singers, and a non-singing comedian. There were very few recommended change to the score and lyrics, which is what we were after. “What do we need to do next?,” I asked Jeff? “We need to go into a studio and cut a demo. Then we can pitch the show to orchestras around the country.” “How long will that take?” “We can knock it out in an afternoon—three or four hours.” “Great! Let’s do it!” So we booked a studio—but that’s another story.

Photo titled Seventh Generation Opera shows a family tree and photos of composure Ferdinando Paer, librettist Stephan Alexander Parker, and covers of two books: Parker's If you see roadkill, think opera, and Empress Marie Therese and Music at the Viennese Court 1792-1807 by John A. Rice
A Roadkill Opera is the Seventh Generation Opera descended from Jean-Nicolas Bouilly and Pierre Gaveaux’s 1798 Leonore.

Anyhow, many thanks to everyone connected with Ferdinando Paer’s Leonora along its long, strange trip to A Roadkill Opera. It’s been a lot of fun, and we aren’t done yet!

Photo of bird's eye view of the studio, with the conductor in the middle surrounded by the orchestra players.
A Roadkill Opera’s first recording session at Blue House Studios in Kensington, Maryland in January 2013
Photo of CD cover and of Parker standing in front of da Caruso, the CD store in Vienna that in 2003 had identified the mystery opera as Ferdinando Paer's 1804 Leonora.
A Roadkill Opera’s studio recording was released on July 4, 2013, on the 25th anniversary of the opening night of Roadkill!!! Live! In December 2013, Stephan Alexander Parker brought the commercially released CDs to da Caruso, the CD store in Vienna that in 2003 had identified the mystery opera as Ferdinando Paer’s 1804 Leonora.
Photos clockwise from top: librettist/co-producer Stephan Alexander Parker and conductor/tenor/timpanist/co-producer Jeffrey Dokken with their GRAMMY tickets; Dokken (and the rest of the Roadkill Opera entourage, out of frame) sitting across the aisle from "Weird Al" Yankovic at the GRAMMY Premiere (which had festival seating--Yankovic sat near us!) moments before Yankovic won Best Comedy Album for Mandatory Fun; Parker, Dokken, and publisher/photographer/merchandising director DJ Choupin at our assigned seats for the broadcast of the 57th GRAMMYs in February 2015.
Because it had been commercially released and the commercial and artistic staff of Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Publishing had joined ASCAP and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, A Roadkill Opera got invited to the GRAMMYs, which we attended in February 2015. Photos clockwise from top: librettist/co-producer Stephan Alexander Parker and conductor/tenor/timpanist/co-producer Jeffrey Dokken with their GRAMMY tickets; Dokken (and the rest of the Roadkill Opera entourage, out of frame) sitting across the aisle from “Weird Al” Yankovic at the GRAMMY Premiere (which had festival seating–Yankovic sat near us!) moments before Yankovic won Best Comedy Album for Mandatory Fun; Parker, Dokken, and publisher/photographer/merchandising director DJ Choupin at our assigned seats for the broadcast of the 57th GRAMMYs in February 2015.
Photos showing the cast and key props such as a llama and a roadkill on a stick during the world premiere run at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC.
At the GRAMMYs, Jeffrey Dokken had a surprise announcement, that the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA) would put on fully staged performances in 2016. That announcement led to sold out shows for A Roadkill Opera during its world premiere run at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC.
Photos at the February 2018 ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, from left: Hilty (holding the score) with Stephan Alexander Parker; Parker meeting Paul and Mariana Williams (ASCAP Chairman and President of the Board Paul Williams, lyricist for "The Rainbow Connection", "Rainy Days and Mondays, "Evergreen""and other classics, when given a set of promotional chopsticks as seen in the video promo Parker and Dokken made at the GRAMMYs in February 2015, asked "What is A Roadkill Opera?"); Parker with workshop leader Stephen Schwartz, famous for Godspell, Pippin, and Wicked); photo of the covert of the conductor's score and parts for A Roadkill Opera: Overture.
Megan Hilty picked up a piano/vocal score for A Roadkill Opera at the February 2018 ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop. Photos at the workshop, from left: Hilty (star of Broadway’s Wicked, 9 to 5, Noises Off, and TV’s Smash, holding the score) with Stephan Alexander Parker; Parker meeting Paul and Mariana Williams (ASCAP Chairman and President of the Board Paul Williams, lyricist for “The Rainbow Connection”, “Rainy Days and Mondays, “Evergreen””and other classics, when given a set of promotional chopsticks as seen in the video promo Parker and Dokken made at the GRAMMYs in February 2015, asked “What is A Roadkill Opera?”); Parker with workshop leader Stephen Schwartz, famous for Godspell, Pippin, and Wicked); photo of the cover of the conductor’s score and parts for A Roadkill Opera: Overture.
Photo of YouTube video of the Overture from A Roadkill Opera showing Jeffery Dokken, Music Director & Conductor.
FREE! lyric and karaoke videos for A Roadkill Opera are available on YouTube and at www.roadkillopera.com

Bad Company? Discussions on Bringing A Roadkill Opera to the Milton Theatre in 2019

What a great way to close out 2018! Former Bad Company bassist Paul Cullen headlined at Delaware’s Milton Theatre on Friday, December 28. Pouring his eponymous wine during the VIP meet and greet before the show, Cullen even found time to chat with the lighting strike crew from the 2016 world premiere production of A Roadkill Opera, speaking with Rich Gaudiosi and hopping on a call with RJ Gaudiosi.

Photo of Paul Cullen (on phone) at the Milton Theatre 28Dec2018 with (left to right) DJ Choupin Rich Gaudiosi Marjorie Gaudiosi
Paul Cullen (on phone) at Delaware’s Milton Theatre on 28 December 2018 with (left to right) A Roadkill Opera‘s merchandising director DJ Choupin; lighting strike crew from the January 2016 world premiere of A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC, Rich Gaudiosi; Marjory Gaudiosi; and (at the other end of the phone, off-camera) the other member of the 2016 lighting strike crew, RJ Gaudiosi.

Cullen, whose terrific show with Lower Case Blues sold out the Milton Theatre, had introduced A Roadkill Opera‘s executive producer/librettist Stephan Alexander Parker to the venue. The two had first met at one of Cullen’s events at Bay Bridge Cove in Stevensville, Maryland.

Photo of Paul Cullen and A Roadkill Opera librettist Stephan Alexander Parker in a kitchen at Bay Bridge Cove
Paul Cullen, former bassist for Bad Company, and A Roadkill Opera librettist Stephan Alexander Parker in a kitchen at Bay Bridge Cove in Stevensville, Maryland.
Photo of A Roadkill Opera librettist Stephan Alexander Parker at the MIlton Theatre with a bottle of Rosso di Toscana in the Paul Tagliaferro Cullen artist series
A Roadkill Opera librettist/executive producer Stephan Alexander Parker at Delaware’s Milton Theatre with a bottle of Rosso di Toscana in the Paul Tagliaferro Cullen artist series, December 2018.

Among the items Cullen and Parker discussed at the Milton Theatre were tentative plans to bring a production of A Roadkill Opera there. In August 2018, Sam Calagione offered for Dogfish Head Craft Brewery to sponsor a show at the Milton Theatre, which is about a half-mile from the brewery.

Photo of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery founder Sam Calagione with A Roadkill Opera's lyricist Stephan Alexander Parker
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery founder Sam Calagione (right) met with A Roadkill Opera‘s lyricist Stephan Alexander Parker in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in August 2018. Sam offered  to have Dogfish Head Craft Brewery sponsor a production of A Roadkill Opera at the Milton Theatre. A  2019 date is being explored.

It is a good match: the workshop stand-and-sing of A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Virginia, had been on the Cherry Smash Stage, sponsored by Heineken.

Photo of a man on a ladder hanging lights
George Spelvin hangs lights for the Artomatic 2012 workshop concert of A Roadkill Opera. Videographer Ben Ganz (who has since gone on to greater success with Vego Films) is in the foreground with his  back to the camera. The stages were sponsored by Heineken, hence the sign in the background.

When the world premiere production of A Roadkill Opera was staged in January 2016 at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC, a liquor license and associated insurance were procured in order to allow for on-stage quaffing of quality beers by the cast. This makes thematic sense, as the action takes place in the showroom at the Silver Dollar Bar of the Wort Hotel, as a couple of rival whitewater rafting guides prepare their amateur improv comedy troupe for opening night of their first professional gig.

Photo of Holly, Eddie, llama, and Marvin on the set of A Roadkill Opera
Holly (Laura Wehrmeyer) and Eddie (Alan Naylor) debate ways and whether it is necessary to punch up the humor of In A Clearing while Marvin (Christopher Dews) tends to the llama in A Roadkill Opera in its world premiere performances in January 2016 at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC
Photo of Ed Bachtel as he plays the U.S. Nasal Academy arrangement of the national anthem, by harmonica,through his nose
Ed Bachtel plays the U.S. Nasal Academy arrangement of the national anthem, by harmonica, through his nose, in this screen-grab from the 1988 Roadkill Live!!! on its closing night in the Silver Dollar Bar‘s Showroom at the Wort Hotel. A standing ovation was the norm.
Photo of the cast and audience with flags
The audience is encouraged to get involved in the grand finale, as Eddie (Alan Naylor) prepares to play the national anthem, by harmonica, by nose, with the support of the stage manager Marvin (Christopher Dews), Debby (Shaina Martinez), Holly (Laura Wehrmeyer), Stephan (David Timpane) and Dave (Alex Miletich IV) in A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC in January 2016

 

A Roadkill Opera On The Road to CD Baby’s DIY Musicians Conference 2018

Getting more and more excited to reconnect with colleagues from last year and to make new connections at CD Baby’s DIY Musicians Conference 2018!

The 2017 edition was amazing, as recounted in “A Roadkill Opera’s Key Takeaways from CD Baby’s DIY Musicians Conference 2017.”

Photo of A Roadkill Opera's Librettist/Executive Producer Stephan Alexander Parker, AVL Digital CEO Tony van Veen, and Bram Bessoff, Founder/President of Indiehitmakers
Are those thought bubbles over the head of Tony van Veen, CEO of AVL Digital (Disc Makers/CDBaby) labeling Indiehitmaker’s Founder/President Bram Bessoff “naughty” and A Roadkill Opera‘s Librettist/Executive Producer Stephan Alexander Parker “nice” at the after party for CD Baby’s 2017 DIY Musicians Conference?
Photo of A Roadkill Opera's Librettist/Executive Producer Stephan Alexander Parker and Social media for Music's President/CEO Rick Barker at CD Baby's DIY Musicians Conference 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee
It’s a small world: A Roadkill Opera‘s Librettist/Executive Producer Stephan Alexander Parker and Social Media for Music’s President/CEO Rick Barker met at CD Baby’s DIY Musicians Conference 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee, and discovered they are both fans of and friends with Ben Ganz of Vego Pictures.
Photo of Bob Boilen of NPR Music's All Songs Considered and A Roadkill Opera's Librettist/Executive Producer Stephan Alexander Parker at CD Baby's DIY Musicians Conference 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee
A shared passion for all genres of live music–that is what Bob Boilen of NPR Music’s All Songs Considered and A Roadkill Opera‘s Librettist/Executive Producer Stephan Alexander Parker have in common. Here they are at CD Baby’s DIY Musicians Conference 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee
Photo of Rob Flax as he checks out the score to A Roadkill Opera at CD Baby's DIY Musicians Conference 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee
Multiinstrumentalist/composer/educator and serial viola jokester Rob Flax checks out the score to A Roadkill Opera at CD Baby’s DIY Musicians Conference 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee. No violas were injured in the making of this photograph.
Photo of Michelle Borek and Josh Larkins of Disc Makers (AVL Digital Group) with A Roadkill Opera poster at the CD Baby DIY Musicians Conference 2017
Disc Makers (AVL Digital Group)’s Senior Marketing Manager Michelle Borek and her colleague Josh Larkins admired the Hatch Show Print poster that served as the cover for A Roadkill Opera‘s sheet music and CD at the CD Baby DIY Musicians Conference 2017.
Photo of Gas Money Merch Co-owner Karen Corzine and Merch Cat's Vanessa Ferrer at CD Baby's DIY Musicians Conference 2017
At CD Baby’s 2017 DIY Musicians Conference, Gas Money Merch Co-owner Karen Corzine describes how a proper merchandise mix allows a touring band to afford to get down the road to the next gig. Merch Cat‘s Vanessa Ferrer describes how to use software to track your merchandise mix on the road and maximize its performance. Yes, that is A Roadkill Opera‘s Hatch Show Print poster featured on the dais next to the poster for Anthem.
Photo of A Roadkill Opera's merch display in the Merch Cat sessions at CD Baby's DIY Musicians Conference 2017
A Roadkill Opera‘s merch display can be put up or taken down in about 20 minutes. It was invited to set up as a demonstration of good practice as part of the Merch Cat sessions at CD Baby’s DIY Musicians Conference 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee. Bram Bessoff of indiehitmaker liked the Roadkill Opera logo; Gas Money Merch’s Karen Corzine liked the red viola case; Merch Cat’s Vanessa Ferrer liked the large, visible pricing on the pop-up display.

A lot has happened in the year since!

Photo of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery founder Sam Calagione with A Roadkill Opera's lyricist Stephan Alexander Parker
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery founder Sam Calagione (right), a James Beard Award winner, met with A Roadkill Opera‘s lyricist Stephan Alexander Parker in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in August 2018. Sam offered to have Dogfish sponsor a production of A Roadkill Opera at the Milton Theatre. A spring 2019 date is being explored.
Photo of the cover from A Roadkill Opera: Overture Conductor's Score & Parts, which has the logo from A Roadkill Opera, a cheerleader standing under the 1988 marquee of the Silver Dollar Bar & Lounge, and a photo of the cast in the January 2016 world premiere performance sitting at a bistro table with a stuffed llama.
With the blessing of the general manager of the Wort Hotel, in 2018 new covers of the libretto and A Roadkill Opera: Overture Conductor’s Score & Parts (pictured) feature a vintage marquee from the legendary Silver Dollar Bar’s Showroom. The overture publication includes a compact, affordable set of tear-out (well, pull out carefully) parts for the 9-minute piece. It is musically identical to Ferdinando Paer’s Overture from the 1804 Leonora.
Photo of A Roadkill Opera's librettist Stephan Alexander Parker and Broadway star Megan Hilty
Megan Hilty is most recognized for her portrayal of seasoned triple-threat Ivy Lynn in NBC’s musical drama Smash. In spring 2017, Hilty received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Brooke Ashton in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Noises Off. She earned nominations for a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Drama League Award and won a Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Featured Actress in a Play. All of which makes Stephan Alexander Parker thrilled that Ms. Hilty is holding a piano/vocal score of his show A Roadkill Opera, which, like Noises Off and Smash, is largely set backstage. Hilty and Parker were photographed at the Wallis Theatre where Hilty performed as a special guest for An Evening with Stephen Schwartz: A Writers Circle.
Photo of A Roadkill Opera's librettist Stephan Alexander Parker and Broadway composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, Schikaneder) at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018 at the Wallis Theatre.
A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker and Broadway composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, Schikaneder) at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018 at the Wallis Theatre. Schwartz directs and hosts two workshops annually, one in Los Angeles and one in New York. Parker was invited to this one.
Photo of an excited redheaded 6 year old girl and her proud father, viewing the stage from the balcony, at An Evening With Stephen Schwartz: A Writer's Circle at the Wallis Theatre
Perhaps indicative of the first evening of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018, which featured The Bully Problem, a kids musical with book, music, and lyrics by Michael Gordon Shapiro, the third and final night was open to the public and had lots of kid-friendly songs by Cinco Paul and the duo Zina Goldrich & Marcy Heisler: An Evening With Stephen Schwartz: A Writer’s Circle. Here are a young theatre kid and her proud dad, anticipating a highly entertaining evening.
Photo of Ben Ganz (partially) reflected in the N of LIONSGATE in the background of this glamour shot of A Roadkill Opera's librettist Stephan Alexander Parker,
The brilliant Ben Ganz is the brains behind Vego Pictures, currently set up at Lionsgate. When he isn’t shooting verite video for A Roadkill Opera, that is. You can see Ben (partially) reflected in the N of LIONSGATE in the background of this glamour shot of A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker, skating for the day until the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018 resumes in the evening.
A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker (center) with director/choreographer/playwright/songwriter Jenita Nakamura (left) and her song producer/studio orchestrator Kyle Donald (right) at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018. We had dinner together before the second session, only to find our assigned seating had us in adjacent rows–the front two rows! That evening, the workshopped show was Tenn, book, music, and lyrics by Julian Hornik.
Photo of coffee table with script and libretto of A Roadkill Opera, a cup of coffee, and a glass of iced coffee
Between sessions of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018, A Roadkill Opera’s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker worked on the script adaptation of his 59-minute opera to a 90-or-so-minute musical, poolside at the Mosaic Hotel. Suggestions from the workshop were enormously helpful in checking the show’s structure: characters “I want” and “I have a problem” songs; the levels of centrality of various characters; and the notion that the purpose of each scene is to propel you to the next scene, and the purpose of each song is to give you a reason to listen to the next one. Perhaps the most important connection made at the workshop was with producer Michael A. Kerker of the ASCAP Foundation. In addition to producing the workshops, Kerker was unfailingly kind and attentive to the workshop participants and performers.
Photo of A Roadkill Opera's librettist Stephan Alexander Parker met The Phantom of the Paradise's Paul Williams and his lovely wife Mariana Williams at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018 at the W
A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker met The Phantom of the Paradise‘s Paul Williams and his lovely wife Mariana Williams at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018 at the Wallis Theatre in Los Angeles. Williams’s popular music is the soundtrack for a generation, including such songs as “We’ve Only Just Begun”, “Rainy Days and Mondays”, “I Won’t Last a Day Without You”, “Evergreen”, “Just An Old Fashioned Love Song”, “Out in the Country”, “Family of Man”, and “Rainbow Connection.”

So here’s the thing: during this video shot at the GRAMMYs in February 2015, A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist (and, for the recording, one of the producers) Stephan Alexander Parker brandishes a pair of chopsticks imprinted in gold with the ideogram for “harmony” and lettering for A Roadkill Opera. The chopsticks were partly inspired by the knowledge that ASCAP’s President and Chairman Paul Williams likes squid. With the thousands and thousands of people at the GRAMMYs, Parker and A Roadkill Opera‘s conductor and music director (and co-producer for the studio album) Jeffrey Dokken were shocked and delighted to bump into Williams on the sidewalk after the show. Parker pulled a CD out of his pocket to hand to Williams, totally forgetting the chopsticks. That was 2015.

Well, at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018, Parker finished a delivery three years in the making.

Parker: I hear you like squid.

Williams: I love squid!

Parker: Please accept these chopsticks.

Williams: Thank you. What is A Roadkill Opera?

You can’t make this stuff up.

30 Years On, I Love You, DJ Choupin

Photo of Debby (DJ Choupin) cheered on the cast prior to the 1988 opening night of Roadkill Live!!! at the Wort Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming
Debby (DJ Choupin) cheered on the cast prior to the July 5, 1988, opening night of Roadkill Live!!! at the Wort Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming
Photo of DJ Choupin in a red cape by a high mountain lake in 1980s Jackson Hole
DJ Choupin in 1980s Jackson Hole
Photo of DJ Choupin at work at Hatch Show Print
Photographer and merchandising director DJ Choupin got hands on at Hatch Show Print in Nashville, Tennessee, in June 2015. Hatch’s legendary letterpress artists designed and printed the posters for the Artomatic 2012 workshop concert of A Roadkill Opera. That poster was the basis of the covers for the sheet music and CD released in 2013.
Photo of Artomatic 2012 exhibitor, photographer DJ CHoupin, at the reception for Artomatic Takes Flight. George Koch is in the background at far right.
Four-time Artomatic exhibitor, photographer DJ Choupin, at the reception for Artomatic Takes Flight. George Koch is in the background at far right.
Photo of DJ Choupin hawking If You See Roadkill, Think Opera, at the 2014 Gaithersburg Book Festival.
DJ Choupin hawking If You See Roadkill, Think Opera, at the 2014 Gaithersburg Book Festival. 22,000 people were estimated to attend the May 17 event. Note the viola cases book-ending the table display.
DJ Choupin, merchandising director, just prior to opening night for the world premiere of A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington, DC, in January 2016
Photo of DJ Choupin and RIch Gaudiosi on a motorcycle
DJ Choupin is a motorcycle fan. Here she is catching a ride with Rich Gaudiosi.
Photo of DJ Choupin and Emilia Barrosse outside, with a motorcycle.
DJ Choupin with stand-up Emilia Barrosse after a killer comedy set at the Belly Room at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles.
Photo of DJ Choupin's at the installation of her exhibit at Artomatic 2017 in Crystal City, Virginia.
DJ Choupin at the installation of her exhibit at Artomatic 2017 in Crystal City, Virginia. Of the 600 visual artists exhibiting, Choupin was selected by the curators for a solo show in the Arlington County libraries.
DJ Choupin at Buffalo Bill Cody’s TE Ranch outside Cody, Wyoming. This is her element.