The Epiphanies of Celebrating Four Saints in Three Acts

Having given herself nearly one month to reflect on the outcomes of celebrating the 75th anniversary of Gertrude Stein’s and Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts, the Steiny Road Poet is still basking in the energy of the over-capacity crowd that showed up at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Elebash Recital Hall to experience Encompass New Opera Theatre’s concert version of the experimental opera that still puzzles and delights. Who would have thought that in only a year’s time, a celebration of such magnitude could successfully come together? The celebration included:
• A film screening—Steven Watson’s Prepare for Saints based on his book Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism.
• Five talks done by a cubistic set of esteemed speakers—a cultural historian (Watson), a poet-librettist (Karren Alenier), a composer-orchestral arranger (Charles Fussell), an American art historian (Wanda Corn), and a theater director who was mentored by Virgil Thomson (Nancy Rhodes).
• A culminating panel that included all of the speakers and composer Scott Wheeler who was a student of Virgil Thomson.
• An exhibition of Stein memorabilia from the collection of Hans Gallas.
• A video film interview by Steven Watson of Virgil Thomson.
• Book selling of selected titles by Bluestockings Bookstore.
• Production of Four Saints that included a cast of 24 performers and an orchestra of 16 musicians.
• A post-production talk back that included the stage and music directors, two singers from the cast, the cultural historian who documented Four Saints, and two composer who had worked closely with Virgil Thomson.
• Special guest David Vaughan, the biographer of Frederick Ashton, the choreographer of the original Four Saints production.
• A modest wine reception.
• Financial support from two major organizations—City University New York (thanks to the sponsorship of Dr. Frank Hentschker, Director of Programs at the Martin E. Segal Center of The CUNY Graduate Center) and the Virgil Thomson Foundation (thanks to the sponshorship by the Foundation’s Board member Charles Fussell)—and many private individuals.
• Advance publicity from The New York Times by a senior music critic.

THE WORK OF THE ACCIDENTAL CATALYST

What was the role of the Steiny Road Poet? Besides serving as the accidental catalyst that started the celebration ball rolling, she was responsible for suggesting and enlisting the cooperation of most of the principal participants, including Nancy Rhodes who became a significant partner in developing the daylong festival. The Poet also coordinated:
the details of the afternoon program, such as
• The order of the speakers.
• How long they would speak.
• Who would introduce them.
• How the Q&A period would proceed.
• When the speakers needed to show up.
• What information they needed to be successful.

Additionally, she
• Kept in contact with the speakers.
• Collected their bios.
• Prepared their introductions.
• Made sure Hans Gallas stayed connected to the CUNY staff who would provide the locked display cabinets.
• Interfaced with the CUNY staff such as Jan Stenzel and Siobhan Glennon who prepared the publicity and the program brochure.
• Lobbied for a small reception after the event.
• Reassured the director when her job load seemed unappreciated and too heavy to bear.

Thank you, Frank Hentschker! The Poet considered the libations and the NY Times publicity divine intervention.

OF SLIPPERY SLIDES AND BOOKMARKS

If there could have been one element that could have turned out better, it was getting a little more support for the audio-visual presentation of two slide shows (the bottom lines of the Poet’s slides were not seen because of last minute change of software needed for the art slide show by Wanda Corn and Professor Corn’s slides were somewhat distorted.) Nonetheless, the auditorium was 60 to 70 percent filled for most of the speaking sessions and only one person (who was unable to get back into the auditorium for the opera performance) complained about some of the talks not meeting his expectations.

Someone—was that you, Roger Cunningham of Encompass New Opera Theatre?—decided on the fly to give departing audience members The Steiny Road to Operadom bookmark as an entrance ticket to the evening performance. While not many books were sold, surely among those audience members carrying the Poet’s bookmark were potential future buyers. This was another little glitch in the management of the event. Not everyone who attended the afternoon session was able to identify him- or herself and therefore didn’t get into the auditorium for the evening program. The Poet rescued a woman with a cane whom she encountered in the restroom. The woman lacked a bookmark, but had been in the afternoon sessions and so the Poet walked her around the crowd into the auditorium and felt darn good for doing that.

MISSING THE EYES

One regret was that the Poet was unable to get to New York for the dress rehearsal, which would have been the right time for photo ops. Oh, to capture the eyes of Eve Gigliotti as as the Commère, Laura Choi Stuart as Saint Teresa, and Roland Burks as Saint Ignatius. However, there were videographers enlisted by Steven Watson to shoot archival footage. The Poet hasn’t heard anything yet about this, but expects to see it at some point in the near future. The Poet said all along this celebration would go down in the history of American opera as a significant event and the archival footage should ensure that. And yes, the Poet asked for a closed circuit monitor for the exhibition hall in case there was an overwhelming crowd with a battering ram. As it was, dear beleaguered Dr. Hentshker had to schlep an old monitor from his home so that the singers could see the conducting directions from maestro Mara Waldman.

WHAT ARMIES AND PERFORMERS DO TO STAY ALIVE

What kept the Poet calm during this exciting day? She was lucky enough to have shelter from a friend in the neighborhood of the CUNY Graduate Center, a seven-minute walk so she could check on the last minute details in the morning. Ellen Rappaport, a new friend had organized a lunch at Ali Babba’s, the Poet’s favorite Turkish Restaurant, which kept her nourished until the short break between the afternoon and evening events. Then some more of her friends—composer Janet Peachey, poet-librettist Nathalie Anderson, dramaturg Maxine Kern—joined her at the CUNY Graduate Center’s café while she ate a little vegetarian fare (okra stew and rice, yum!). And after, this time for sure thanks to Roger Cunningham, the triumphant Nancy Rhodes, Mara Waldman (Encompass music director), singer Roland Burks (St. Ignatius), Frank Hentschker, Hans Gallas, Steven Watson, his videographers, several people associated with the new music orchestra Ionisation, Norman Carey (director of the CUNY Graduate Center Doctor of Musical Arts performance program and Nadine Carey (she was in the Four Saints chorus and both she and her husband Norman have worked with Nancy Rhodes in the past on Encompass productions) and the Poet all leaned in to toast the production and the events that led up to it at Brendan’s Bar and Grill. More good food eaten there. Armies and performers definitely travel by what goes into the stomach. Good food helps produce good results.

Then with the spirits of Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson lighting the way, the Poet, thinking about how a February 2008 production of In Circles, a musical by the late Reverend Al Carmines based on Stein’s A Circular Play: A Play in Circles was the genesis of the Four Saints celebration, walked the few blocks home to her friend’s condo and fell deliriously into bed like a heavy log.

NYC Drama Book Shop now selling The Steiny Road to Operadom

As of May 9, 2008, New York City’s Drama Book Shop is selling The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas.

Contact information:

The Drama Book Shop, Inc.

250 W. 40th St.

New York, NY 10018

Tel: (212) 944-0595

Fax: (212) 730-8739
info@dramabookshop.com

The sale of the book is in conjunction with a performance by singers of Encompass New Opera Theatre and a reading/book signing of The Steiny Road. Arias from Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On will be performed. This event will happen Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 3 pm in the Arthur Seelen Theatre located on the lower level of The Drama Book Shop.

Mark your calendars now. Also you might want to check out the Drama Book Shop's blog to see what else they do.

What was especially exciting about this meeting between

Nancy Rhodes, Allen Hubby, and me on one very rainy day in New York City is that Nancy and Allen discovered they both share a deep interest in quantum mechanics. Allen has been study the subject since he was in high school. Nancy is developing an opera with composer John David Earnest called The Theory of Everything. OK, whatever leverage it takes for this event to move into place, be it quantum physics or string theory. I started working on this event in late January!



To celebrate, I met poet Susan Brennan at Bryant Park Grill for dinner and afterward she showed me the Jo Davidson sculpture of Gertrude Stein which I never realized was in this square! I took this unexpected visitation as a sign from Gertrude herself!

Getting Collaborative Help Even in New York

The job of promoting your book can be a lonely uphill struggle unless you reach out enthusiastically and offer to help others with their projects. Of course, following your own passions make this exchange genuine.

CRITIC OR POET: WHICH IS IT?

On February 11 and 12, 2008, I went to New York City to see and review In Circles, the revival of the 1967 musical by the late Reverend Al Carmines. The Judson Memorial Church minister set Gertrude Stein’s A Circular Play: A Play in Circles to a wide range of popular musical forms that included blues, ballads, waltz, you name it. The exuberance of Stein’s words and Carmines’ music is a restorative and joyful experience. I have written two essays about the production, which was lovingly and intelligently directed by John Sowle of Kaliyuga Arts. One of these two essays is currently posted on my arts blog The Dressing and the other will appear in my Steiny Road to Operadom column in the March edition of Scene4 Magazine. The play deserves as much promotion as it can get before it closes February 22, 2008.

Noelle McGrath (Mildred/Gertrude Stein)


The In Circle stools spelled out "Ma Jolie," the title of a cubist painting by Pablo Picasso


Robin Manning (Mabel/Alice B. Toklas)




Although I didn’t go to New York with a clear intention for promoting The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas, I knew that just showing up at a play that was based on Gertrude Stein’s work would be beneficial to me. On the morning of February 12, it suddenly occurred to me that if I had a small card of some sort with the title of my book, the name of my Stein opera, a book jacket quote, and the URL of my blog, I would be able to talk to people about my book and leave them with a way to get more information. Of course this isn’t rocket science, but I have a way of promoting everyone else and missing good opportunities for my own projects.

What I was able to do was make a bookmark and get it copied and cut at FedEx Kinko’s. it probably took a total of one hour’s time though I did have to leave the printed page and come back later to retrieve the bookmarks. Here’s what the bookmark said:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas
by Karren LaLonde Alenier

includes the libretto Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On
to order, visit Alenier.blogspot.com

“Karren Alenier’s peripatetic The Steiny Road To Operadom is a must read for any librettist, composer, or opera aficionado in search of an inside look at the creation and performance of a contemporary opera.”

Gordon Ostrowski, 
Director of Opera Studies, 
Manhattan School of Music
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I used a brightly colored cardstock so people would notice the bookmark. When I got to the Judson Church, I spoke to someone at the front door to see if there would be a place where I could leave a stack of these bookmarks and he sent me right to the director John Sowle. Sowle kindly said go ahead and leave some on the table where they were selling tickets. He could have said no. After all, I was there to review his production, but I believe he knew from email interactions that I love Stein and my calling, first and always, is poet. After the show, I had an opportunity to talk to cast members and others in the audience.

27, ANOTHER STEIN MUSICAL, ANOTHER COLLABORATION

Among those people in the audience was my San Francisco-based friend Hans Gallas. Hans collects memorabilia related to Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas. He told me that Ted Sod, book writer of 27 rue de Fleurus, Paris, might be attending the show if he could break away from other theater business and that Ted had invited him to mount an exhibition of his Stein-Toklas collection in the lobby of Urban Stages’s theater during the production of 27. While I didn’t know that Ted might appear in the audience, I did know about Ted’s invitation to Hans about exhibiting at his show. I had seen it on the Urban Stages website and, in fact, had asked Ted to help me get my book linked there. I have been following the progress of Ted's collaboration with composer Lisa Koch since March 2007 when we shared a speaking engagement about our musical works at the Mercantile Library Center. A few weeks ago, Ted put me in touch with his theater director and made that happen. So the world of Steinian theater this month has been really generous to me and I recommend that you, Dear Reader, go out and see these shows if you are in or can get to New York City.

Left to right: Hans Gallas, Ted Sod, Paul Boesing (William)


MORE GUSTO

While I was in New York, I visited two other theater friends in my quest to get support for a special event book reading and signing. First I met with Frank Hentschker, Director of Programs at
 The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of 
The CUNY Graduate Center and later with Nancy Rhodes, director of Encompass New Opera Theatre.
While I was waiting for Nancy at a USDA-certified green restaurant called Gusto Grilled Organics, a young man named Ayael gave me a tutorial on what it means to be a green restaurant and how this business, only one month old, was looking to franchise itself.


What I can pass along is that vegan lentil soup was superb and that each night, they make their menu based on what is in the marketplace that day. What brought a smile to my lips was Ayael telling me that he was brought up on all things green in many countries around the world, that he didn’t drive a car so he wouldn’t pollute our planet, and that he had come to Babylon to make a difference. So, of course, I am thinking to myself now how I can channel that idealism into my own quest to make a difference for poetry and contemporary opera. Well, stay tuned, my discussion with Frank and Nancy might have some wider context than just promoting The Steiny Road to Operadom. Like I said, helping others in a larger landscape can mean helping yourself. Maybe this is part of Stein’s offering on circles. What goes around…

Book Promotion at a Glamorous Party

Sometimes promoting a new book can take the author to a glamorous setting. Being invited to show and talk about your book at a party can be one of those occasions. On January 20, Encompass New Opera Theatre under the leadership of Nancy Rhodes orchestrated a fundraising party in New York City. Rhodes and Encompass developed, directed, and premiered Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On, my opera with composer William Banfield. Since one facet of The Steiny Road to Operadom is about the development of my Stein opera and Encompass was showcasing the innovative work they do in the field of new opera and music theater, it made sense for me to attend with a few books in hand.










Prior to performances by several singers, I had a chance to let them see the book. Tenor Justin Vickers’ name appears in The Steiny Road book because he played Leo Stein (Gertrude’s brother) in the world premiere of the Stein opera. In the showcase program, Vickers sang “O might those sighes and teares,” a poem by John Donne that was set to music by Benjamin Britten. When I complimented Vickers on his performance, he told me he had done extensive study of Britten’s work. I’m a fan of this tenor not only because his singing and acting skills are outstanding but also because he is such an intelligent interpreter of the roles he sings. Participating in workshops prior to the world premiere of my opera, Vickers helped me strengthen the character of Leo Stein, the art critic brother who found his sister’s writing embarrassing.












Because an opera company must always be proactive in raising money to continue its work (even a full house for an entire set of performances will not cover the cost of a production), my interaction with the invited potential patrons needed to be low key. Expecting about fifty to sixty people at this event, I brought three copies of The Steiny Road and put two out on a big coffee table. The third copy I handed to Nancy Rhodes so she could hold it up when she made remarks about her theater and the show she had organized.















I also brought about thirty half sheets of paper that provided information about The Steiny Road book, including a comment from a New York City arts educator and the book’s blog where a potential buyer could order the book. This information also highlighted that Nancy Rhodes wrote the foreword of The Steiny Road. Connecting the dots for people to whom you hope to sell a book is critical. I sold two copies of the book and asked Nancy to take the third copy to her office where she could show it to people visiting her there. Raising awareness and showing who you are aligned with are both important in the party circuit. The event was not about how many books could be sold.

While I was in New York, I also visited two bookstores to see about creating an event focused on selling The Steiny Road book. What I determined is that I need to bring together several organizations to help present a special program with a short performance selected from Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On. One of the two bookstores I visited has a small theater and a great midtown location. One thing I know about bookstore readings is that you need a large invitation list to get just a handful of people and that’s why I need a bunch of organizations behind any event I plan outside of my hometown. Before I say what I have in mind, I need to approach my contacts and see what is possible.

Photos: #1 includes composer John David Earnest (on far left) and Nancy Rhodes. #3 Karren Alenier and composer Philip Hagemann. #4&5 Tenor Justin Vickers. #6 Nancy Rhodes. #7 Mezzo Soprano Yong Kyung Park. #9 Soprano Lorraine Hinds. #10 Baritone Dominic Inferrera.

Opera Links
Encompass New Opera Theatre website
John Yaffe, Music Director of Encompass
John David Earnest
Opera Index
Tenor Justin Vickers
Baritone Dominic Inferrera