The Wonder of "Wonderland" in Wilmington

Wonderland at Delaware Children's Theatre.
Photo by Mike Malaney.

By Guest Bloggers Traci Murphy and Mallory Murphy. Traci Murphy is editor & co-founder of Brandywine Buzz, a free weekly email and blog for parents in the Brandywine Valley. Her daughter Mallory, age 12, is a theatre enthusiast, actor and 6th Grader at Brandywine Springs School.

Fighting siblings. A dog that only listens sometimes. Questionable food and drink. Insane acquaintances. Picking your battles. A leader that has no patience left. If there was ever a theatre metaphor for parenthood, this mom thinks it’s Wonderland: Alice’s Rock & Roll Adventure, running at Delaware Children's Theatre February 24 through March 18.

Wonderland reminds us that "children and unicorns are fabulous monsters” — and together they have fabulous fun together onstage. Perfect for the "curiouser and curiouser” kids and tweens you’re corralling, Wonderland has fun music, plenty of dancing and audience participation to engage even the youngest theatre-goers (some parts are a smidge dark), and clever lines will amuse the adults that are tagging along. After all, we are all the Queen of Hearts sometimes — particularly when she tells Alice to “...best do what I say just because I said” — who can't relate to that? And while Alice and the Queen command your attention, your heart will be stolen by the little Dormouse who naps the scenes away.

Wonderland: Alice’s Rock & Roll Adventure raps and rhythms its way into stealing your heart while it rocks your socks off. 

The 'flowers' in the cast of Wonderland at Delaware Children's Theatre.
Photo by Sheena Brooker.

-Traci

I really enjoyed going to see Wonderland at the Delaware Children’s Theater! I was an actor in Madagascar at this theater this season, so it was very fun to get to see people that I work with performing in a new show. 

The show was really fun, and the actors were very talented. I think my favorite part of the show was the music — it made the play a lot different than the animated movie. The costumes were beautiful, especially the flowers. Good job, cast and crew! 

- Mallory

DSO's Third Chamber Concert Celebrates Black History Month

By Christine Facciolo

The Delaware Symphony Orchestra used the occasion of its third chamber series concert of the season to commemorate both Black History Month and the 50th anniversary of the passing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The February 20 program, titled “Triumph over Adversity," featured an eclectic mix of solo piano pieces, chamber music, German Lieder and African-American spirituals performed by symphony members David Southorn (concertmaster), Philo Lee (principal cello), Lura Johnson (principal piano) and guest artist bass-baritone Kevin Deas.

Johnson opened the concert with a performance of Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso in E major. This is a work that contains the meaty technical challenges that showcase Johnson’s virtuosity, something DSO audiences rarely get to hear. She delivered the Andante section with suitable solemnity then launched into the Presto without hesitation.

Johnson was then joined by Southorn and Lee in a performance of the composer’s Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor. One could not help but be impressed by the unflagging passion and athleticism of the musicians. They gave it their considerable all. From the darkly etched and fiery opening movement, to the emotional slower passages and the skittering scherzo, they generated a palpable energy that culminated in a rousing and brilliant finale.

After intermission, bass-baritone Kevin Deas processed into the Gold Ballroom singing Wayfairing Stranger, an entrée to the segment of the program devoted to the spiritual. If Paul Robeson is considered to be the gold standard of this vocal fach, then Deas is not far behind. Deas’ voice was nothing short of breathtaking, as he applied it to some of the repertoire’s best-loved spirituals, including Wade in the Water and City Called Heaven.

Deas proved to be a most gracious artist as well, taking to the microphone to inform the audience about the function of the Negro spiritual as well as the unlikely collaboration between Czech composer Antonin Dvorak and the African-American classical composer Henry Burleigh, who made the arrangements of the spirituals heard this concert.

Deas also offered some personal insights into his selections, as in how his mother hated to hear him sing Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, until he explained that the song wasn’t a personal commentary on their relationship but rather an expression of despair and hopelessness.

Deas then offered several selections of Schubert Lieder that were in keeping with the concerts overall theme of life’s long journey, including Der Wegweiser (from “Die Winterreise”), Wohin (from “Die Schone Mullerin”), Im Abendrot and Dem Unendlichen. Johnson prefaced this section with an expressive yet unsentimental rendering of the composer’s lyrical Impromptu in G-flat major.

Deas also performed I Heard the Cry of Wild Geese, an expression of longing for home and loved ones, from Four Songs on Chinese Poetry by Pavel Haas, the Czech composer who perished in the Holocaust.

Johnson also performed Liszt’s transcription of Widmung (“Dedication”), a song that Robert Schumann had originally in 1856 for Clara Wieck, whom he married that year. Although her technical mastery would allow her to grandstand the more virtuosic passages, Johnson downplayed this aspect of the piece in favor of the fervor of Schumann’s music. She prefaced her performance with a reading of the German text and its accompanying English translation.

Deas concluded the concert with Deep River, a selection he called probably the best-known and best-loved spiritual.

See www.delawaresymphony.org.

Call for Applications: Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency

Content of this post comes courtesy of a press release from the City of Wilmington...

Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki is pleased to share the following news release from the Light Up The Queen Foundation, which is looking for young composers and performers to become part of a local jazz residency program named after jazz great Boysie Lowery. Wilmington’s Acting Cultural Affairs Director, Tina Betz, is heading up the search for talented young people who would like to participate in this year’s residency program based in Wilmington.

The Light Up The Queen Foundation today announced the official open call for applications from composers/performers, ages 17 to 25, who would like to be participants in the 2018 Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency Program. This year’s program will be held in Wilmington, Delaware, June 10-24, 2018. The Residency is fully subsidized, including meals and housing. Johnathan Whitney serves as the Program Director.

Applications will be accepted until 5:00pm on March 31, 2018. Applicants may submit their information or learn more about the program by visiting www.boysieloweryjazzresidency.com.

Between 12 and 15 young people will be selected for a two-week residency in performing, composing, arranging and improvisation. The Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency is designed to give participants an intense learning experience that will help them begin to find their sound, mature as a player, mature as a musician, and make lasting connections with like-minded peers. Participants will be introduced to a variety of harmonic, melodic, sonic, and textural possibilities, and then be asked to apply them to new compositions.

The residency program will include numerous semi-public performance opportunities, culminating with a final concert to be performed on June 24 at the historic Queen Theater in downtown Wilmington. The 2018 residency is being presented in collaboration with the City of Wilmington’s 30th Anniversary DuPont Clifford Brown Jazz Festival.

About Robert “Boysie” LoweryThe Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency is named after and inspired by the late Robert “Boysie” Lowery. After moving to Wilmington, Delaware in the 1940’s, Lowery began his extraordinary career as a jazz educator. For over 50 years, he taught hundreds of aspiring musicians. His most noted pupil was the late Clifford Brown, considered by many to be the finest trumpeter of the time. Clifford began his study with Lowery at the age of 12 while a student in Wilmington’s public schools. Lowery’s list of pupils also includes some of the finest jazz musicians to come out of the Delaware Valley, including Lem Winchester, Ernie Watts, Abdu-Rashid Yahya, Marcus Belgrave, and Gerald Chavis. In addition, Lowery had been sought out by musicians as far away as Russia (Valery Ponomarev) and Africa (Hugh Masekela). Prior to his death in 1996, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation awarded Lowery with its 1995 Living Legacy Award.

About the Light Up The Queen FoundationThe Light Up The Queen Foundation, a Delaware 501c3 non-profit corporation, is dedicated to the revival of the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware, and to assuring that The Queen becomes a catalyst for building community through music, the arts and community engagement programs.