Show Press Release:
First Coast
Opera Unleashing Mack The Knife
In The Threepenny Opera
Audiences will be singing along to
“Mack The Knife” and other Kurt Weill favorites when First Coast
Opera brings the classic
The Threepenny Opera
to St. Johns County on January
22, 23, 29 and 30, 2010 at 7:30 pm and again on
January 31, 2010, at 2:30 pm. All performances will be at the
Ponte Vedra High School Auditorium at 460 Davis Park Road, Ponte
Vedra, FL. Tickets are $25 at the door, $22 in advance and $20 a
person for groups of 10 or more. Advance tickets can be ordered
by calling the FCO Ticket line at 904-417-5555.
Juan Carlos Unzueta, Daisy Miller, Laura Adkison,
& Adam Mayo
The Threepenny
Opera, by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, is still
considered cutting-edge musical theater even though it was
written in the 1920s. Despite its name, it is not an opera.
Threepenny is the precursor to modern musical theater
(or Broadway) and is an obvious inspiration for such popular
shows as Sweeney Todd. It is full of German jazz
influences from the period and is famous for the song “The
Ballad Of Mack The Knife” and other popular songs such as “Pirate
Jenny”, “What Keeps A Man Alive”, “Barbara Song”,
“Solomon Song” and more. The Threepenny Opera
is a dark but humorous piece of theater that will bring
something new and fresh to the area’s stages. It is a show most
people have heard of but few have actually seen.
Threepenny tells the story of anti-hero Macheath, his
marriage to Polly Peachum, his arrests, betrayals, prison
escapes, blackmails and further run-ins with the law.
The Threepenny Opera
is under the stage direction of Randall Delone Adkison, best
known to First Coast Opera audiences as the Pirate King in
The Pirates Of Penzance in 2008. Mr. Adkison is also a
respected director, having directed musicals such as The
Producers and Brigadoon at Orange Park Community
Theatre. He is currently in charge of the drama department at
the new Ponte Vedra High School, a position he also held at
Nease High School. Music direction for The Threepenny
Opera is being handled by Curtis Powell, another new
director for First Coast Opera. Mr. Powell is a highly-regarded
pianist in St. Augustine, is music director at Ancient City
Baptist Church, and has worked on musicals throughout the area,
including those at Flagler College and St. Augustine High
School.
Adam Mayo, Daisy Miller, &
Laura Adkison
Heading the talented cast of
The Threepenny Opera are two First Coast Opera
Favorites. Juan Unzueta will take the famous role of Macheath,
otherwise known as Mack The Knife. This will be Mr. Unzueta’s
third show with FCO, having been seen in Cabaret Español
and Romanza: Songs Of Love last season. He has become one
of the top leading men in Jacksonville music theatre this past
year, performing lead roles in The Fantasticks, Into
The Woods and Pippin. Macheath’s nemesis, JJ Peachum,
will be played by FCO regular Adam Mayo. Mr. Mayo has graced the
First Coast Opera stage with roles in The Pirates Of
Penzance,
Babes In Toyland, and Master Class among others.
He also wrote and directed Cabaret Español and Romanza:
Songs Of Love. Adam entertained audiences in last season’s
Man Of La Mancha at Limelight Theatre and has done music
videos for Jacksonville.com.
The other main roles in The
Threepenny Opera are being played by new performers to
First Coast Opera. Laura Adkison will take the role of Celia
Peachum, JJ’s wife. She is the founder of Theatre Alliance Of Greater Jacksonville and has been in over fifty local productions
including Singin’ in the Rain and Oklahoma!
at the Alhambra Dinner Theatre.
Daisy Miller will play the role of Polly Peachum, the Peachums’
daughter and Macheath’s new bride. Ms. Miller is a recent
graduate of UNF and has been seen in The Fantasticks and
They’re Playing Our Song. Macheath’s other love interests
include Jenny Diver, played by Miranda Lawson, and Lucy Brown,
played by Elizabeth Bricknell. Ms. Lawson is a popular actress
in Jacksonville, performing in recent shows such as Pippin,
Hair, Urinetown and Sweeney Todd at Players
By The Sea. Ms. Bricknell is a native of Windsor, Ontario, where
she was in shows such as The Mystery Of Edwin Drood. Bo
Strange will be playing Commissioner of Police Tiger Brown,
father of Lucy and best friend to Macheath. Mr. Strange has been
seen in shows such as Man Of La Mancha, Shenandoah,
The Music Man, and Little Shop Of Horrors. The
honor of singing “Mack The Knife” falls on the Street Singer,
played by Joseph Walz, a long-time actor at Orange Park
Community Theatre, Limelight Theatre and Theatre Jax. He was
seen recently as one of the leads in The Producers.
Jeffrey Wells, recently seen as Beadle in Sweeney Todd at
Players By The Sea, will play the role of Filch.
The cast also includes Colleen Flint,
Kate Flint, Lance Henry, Nash Hightower, Katie LaDuca, Jessica Palombo,
Steven Peano, Beka Price, Kathryn Timoney and Daniel
Vargas. Extras and technical staff will be made up of drama
students at Ponte Vedra High School. First Coast Opera is
pleased to be able to work with an area school and provide
educational opportunities for their students to work on a
professional theatre project like The Threepenny Opera.
The First Coast Opera
is in its tenth season of providing Northeast Florida with
professional performances of opera, operetta, cabarets and more.
This season features Master Class, Bertolt Brecht and
Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera and Opera Noir: A
Night Of Mischievous Music. The company was founded by
Barbara Norris and Anthony Fast and is located in the historic
city of St. Augustine, Florida. Past productions have included
La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, The Magic Flute,
The Pirates Of Penzance, Amahl and the Night Visitors,
HMS Pinafore, Babes in Toyland, The Mikado and many
concerts and cabarets. First Coast Opera is a 501(c)(3)
non-profit corporation and is partially funded by the St. Johns
County Tourist Development Council.
First
Coast Opera will present The Threepenny Opera on
January 22, 23, 29, and 30, 2010 at 7:30 pm and on January 31 at
2:30 pm at the Ponte Vedra High
School Auditorium at
460 Davis Park Road, Ponte Vedra, FL. The new high school is
near Nocatee right off of State Road 210. Tickets are $25 at the
door, $22 in advance and $20 a person for groups of 10 or more.
Call 904-417-5555 to order advance tickets or get more
information, or visit First Coast Opera’s new website at
http://www.firstcoastopera.com .
