usical number Officer Krupke from the award-winning musical West Side Story has led to national recognition for the TAMUK Opera Musical Theatre.
The TAMUK Opera Theatre has been named one of the four finalists in the country for the National Opera Theatre Scenes competition. The competition will be held Jan. 9 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
“This is a program in which you submit a short scene from a production you’ve done, so I submitted the scene from our Bernstein at 100 production which we performed last fall,” Associate Professor of Voice and Opera Dr. Melinda Brou said.
“Only four scenes from the entire country were invited and we’ll be one of them, so we’ll place somewhere between one and four in the country for musical theatre scenes this year,” she said.
The scene submitted for the National Opera Theatre Scenes competition was performed during Johnny Lozano’s Memorial concert. During the concert, students gave emotional performances to commemorate the memory on one of TAMUK’s accompanists. Officer Krupke was an audience favorite receiving a standing ovation.
“I felt awesome, it felt great knowing that the scene that we did was chosen at a national level,” Ramon Garcia said.
Garcia played “Action” one of the lead roles¬ in the submitted scene.
Many of the students were shocked with the big news. Being recognized at a national level offers new opportunities for the TAMUK Opera Musical Theatre. During the competition students will attend different sessions that offer insights as to how to improve a production, stage managing and costumes.
“We were put in a really good direction,” Erik Zamorano said of the performance being selected. “I felt like with that group of people and the amount of hard work we put into it, it wasn’t too surprising to me but it still came as a shock because I had no idea.”
The scene was directed by Alisha Beirne, a first-time student director who directed alongside Dr. Brou.
The students are currently raising money through a GoFundMe to be able to attend their competition in Cleveland, Ohio. The link to their GoFundME can be found online on their Facebook page @TexasA&MUniversity-KingsvilleOperaandMusicalTheatreWorkshop.
Nine students will be traveling for the competition in January: Garcia, Kenneth Beal, Martel Gonzalez, Zachary Hamilton, Cody Macha, Shane Vasquez, Gilbert Peña and Zamorano, along with student pianist Bora Cho.
Students who participated in the selected film but will not be performing are Juan Carlos Gonzales, Oscar Lara, Gage Roberts, Daniel Salinas, Ryan Duncan-Ayala and Joshua Martinez.
The Opera Musical Theatre students are currently working on their next musical production and look forward to performing in Ohio.
