In The News

Cinderhood on Peoria Tour

Linden Christ, as Red Riding Hood’s mother, tells Bryna Berezowska of the trip she’s getting ready to take to get to her grandmother’s house.

Audience enjoys ‘CinderHood’
Adam Larck/Woodford Times
Both young and old audience members were entertained Thursday by “CinderHood,” performed at Snyder Village by the Chicago Opera Playhouse. The company, on tour in Peoria by being sponsored by the Peoria Symphony Orchestra and Snag Creek Golf Course, consisted of four members, Metamora native Linden Christ, Adam Busch, Philip Sokolov and Bryna Berezowska. The play, composed by Busch, features four cast members ready to put on a fairy tale. However, the group is divided when it comes to choosing which fairy tell to put on, “Cinderella” or “Little Red Riding Hood.” Busch helps the group decide by doing a mix of the two called “CinderHood.” Throughout the performance, the play mixes the two fairy tales up with both the scenery and characters. Instead of Red Riding Hood meeting with the Wolf, Cinderella does, and the Wolf eventually meets, and dances with, the Wicked Stepmom. All parts in the performance are played by the four cast members, including Busch becoming the Wicked Stepdaughter. The audience is also encouraged to participate, including gasping and murmuring at Cinderella’s dress during the ball.
The audience also enjoyed laughs throughout the performance by seeing fairy tales they know become twisted. The performance at Snyder Village was their third of the day, performing “CinderHood” previously at Roanoke Schools and the GAR building in Peoria. The group then performed at St. Mary’s of Metamora, Washington Grade School, Lincoln Grade School and Metamora Christian Union Church on Friday.

http://www.woodfordtimes.com/videos/x564869897/-CinderHood

November 17th, 2011, Chicago Opera Playhouse just got a featured blog on the website for Chicago Classical Music. Check it out! Chicago Classical Music

Chicago Opera Playhouse’s performance of Hansel and Gretel was featured in Chicago’s Time-Out Magazine!

January 2011, I was featured at the artist in residency at Ames Elementary School in Riverside, Illinois. I taught every class from kindergarten through fifth grade opera and by the end of the week all the students were ready to perform in our professional opera of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. All 350 students stood up on January 14th and sang their hearts out “I have a home, that I carry in my heart!” Please check out the article from Suburban Life!

Ames Elementary Opera Residency

The Landmark Newspaper from Riverside and Brookfield also featured Chicago Opera Play House in this wonderful article with a slide show of pictures from the performance! Thanks Bob for this great article, it was wonderful meeting with you!

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

 January 6, 2012

Chicago Opera Play House presents “Cinderhood” To Whom It May Concern:

I highly recommend Chicago Opera Playhouse and their production of “Cinderhood”. They came to our school today (third year in a row!) and it was the best children’s production I have ever seen and my favorite so far from their company: smart dialogue, not playing down to the kids, beautifully written, catchy music, and full characters that don’t fall into the stereotypical fairy tale traps. Our school has an all school assembly every week for preschool through grade 8 – and let me tell you – scheduling can be challenging when trying to inform or entertain three year olds while keeping our middle school students from rolling their eyes .

This production was the perfect combination – adults were giggling, four actors played multiple characters that kept elementary students guessing, characters onstage going through teenage angst, and cheerful singing and acting (but not too scary!) was a delight for the littlest ones. This was certainly a production that could be staged in the finest theater houses in Chicago.

From the administrative side, Linden Christ is a dream to work with and the ultimate professional in all communication and in front of the students. Sensitive of our time constraints, her company was on time, ready to go, and handled a fun and swift-moving question and answer period at the end of the show. We were lucky enough to even have the composer as the accompanist for our performance and this was a real treat!

If you have any doubts about wasting school funds, put the thought out of your mind. You won’t be disappointed in hiring this amazing theater group trained in opera and who I consider to be experts at the craft of really great children’s theater.

Sincerely, Blaire Strom

Director of Co-Curricular Programs at Catherine Cook Elementary School

Here’s a lovely letter of Thanks from Jeffery Honore, the Music Director from St. Benedict’s in Fontana, Wisconsin:

Dear Linden and the Chicago Opera Playhouse,

What a pleasure to host your performance of Goldilocks and the Three Bears here at St Benedict this past January 17th. Your professionalism, energy, talent and accessibility for our children was appreciated, enjoyed and will be remembered until the next time we have the opportunity for your return.

All four singers and accompanist worked so well together to create a musical atmosphere where our children were at attention for most of the production to see what would happen next. Credit should be given to the music and book composed for children in a one act opera, a true gift to those seeking a basic, introductory experience of opera. The staging and interaction with the audience also keep everyone on track – even though had over 400 and 4th and 5th graders were in the ‘back’, they sat straight to see and hear where the story was going.

Your dedication to this opportunity for young people to experience first hand, in their own setting is a gift. Thank you for spending the time and energy creating, commissioning, designing, rehearsing and organizing small artistic ensembles to this endeavor.

Our heartfelt thanks to you, and your cast, and best wishes for future success. We will certainly spread the word.

Peace -

Jeffrey Honoré
Pastoral Musician
St Benedict

And of course pictures from our Goldilocks and the Three Bears performance at St. Benedict’s Church! All 400 students from 6 different schools!

Our 2012 Central Illinois Tour is February 22nd-24th.   We’ll perform 9 performances in three days at schools, churches, retirment center, and for the Peoria Symphony Center’s Bankers Hour.

Our 2010 Central Illinois Tour was Jan. 30-Feb. 4th. We traveled to the Peoria area and presented the new opera, Goldilocks and the Three Bears to eight venues including: churches, schools, and a retirement center.