To many students, College Park is the place for Chipotle, horrible midday traffic on Route 1 and hours spent in Wawa. While studying for finals and partying at Cornerstone, many students may miss what makes their town unique – but an opera group is combining music and art to show the character of a city students may not know.
Part of the university’s Arts and Humanities Semester on Comedy and Humor, College Park: The Opera combines a variety of theatrical elements including interviews, interpretive dance performances and local history to give the production a well-rounded, far-reaching quality. With imagery by O’Hearn, music by Dempsey and stage direction by Rick Kemp, the play is the first part of a national tour by the group Squonk Opera that features and analyzes a different hometown every production. The tour is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, and will also feature Albany: The Opera, South Orange: The Opera and Chester County: The Opera during the 2006-2007 season.
Created in 1994 by visual artist Steve O’Hearn and musician Jackie Dempsey, the Squonk got off its feet in Pittsburgh, Pa. But despite labeling themselves as an opera group, the duo’s performances are nothing like the classic genre.
“We combine visual and musical art, so that is rather like opera,” O’Hearn says. “But neither of us like classical opera, so we decided to use the funky, funny word ‘squonk.'”
The company spent two intensive weeks in College Park, gathering material for their performances this week. University archivist Anne Turkos helped provide historical pictures and information about the university, from the school’s beginnings as a farming institution through the Civil War, the civil rights movements and the Vietnam War.
“The University of Maryland is a classic school that is part of American history. It has its own story behind it,” O’Hearn says.
To get a better grasp of the city, O’Hearn and Dempsey also interviewed many people with links to College Park. Some of the interviews featured in the play are with the first black mayor of College Park, the director of College Park Airport – the world’s oldest running airport – and a professor of plant sciences at the university.
The interviews show the multifaceted population of College Park, the duo says. Last week, O’Hearn and his crew traveled to nearby Lake Artemesia and met an urban planner who visits the watershed “not to think in words” but rather to enjoy watching the area’s swamps. Unique much?
“Some of the people we interviewed were really wacky and fun,” O’Hearn agrees. “They just like to talk about small things in their lives.”
Before the play was even done with its planning stages, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center commissioned the work. Although the city recently came under fire from the City Paper’s Sept. 29 front-page article “Shell of a Town” for its people, businesses and atmosphere, Ruth Waalkes, director of cultural participation at CSPAC, said she felt comfortable and confident that the company would do an accurate job depicting College Park in its performances.
“They came here a few years ago, so we were familiar with their aesthetic. There is always a risk involved when you commission a work, but the center is invested in developing new works and new ideas,” Waalkes says. “We also were inspired by the university’s 150th anniversary,” she adds.
But Squonk didn’t just come to College Park to depict the town through O’Hearn and Dempsey’s eyes – the company came with the intention of including the town itself in the play. For example, one segment of the production includes drawings of College Park maps by local children, and university dance students are also featured in a series of interpretive dances.
“Usually when we visit schools and have students involved, if they aren’t getting credit, they tend to be lazy,” O’Hearn says. “But the students here are lovely … they are diligent.”
Sarah Levitt, a senior dance major participating in one of the pieces directed by Ed Taylor, a CSPAC visiting artist, says she was excited and eager to perform in College Park: The Opera.
“They saw us doing a piece for the dance department and decided we would work in their show,” Levitt explains of O’Hearn’s and Dempsey’s selection process. “It’s great to work with them because they are creative and happy, but at the same time they give us so much freedom to express ourselves,” she adds.
By weaving interviews with residents, scenic footage and aerial photography, with local history and statistics about the city, College Park: The Opera is sure to attract and hold plenty of attention. But the best part of the production will be the end, so O’Hearn urges the university and city community alike to attend this week’s performances.
“My favorite part is our finale; it should be the funniest five minutes of the show,” he says. “We do a bunch of big flamboyant prop things called ‘Planet College Park.'”
College Park: The Opera will be at CSPAC’s Kay Theatre Thursday, Nov. 9 and Friday, Nov. 10 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 or $7 for full-time students with I.D. Following the Nov. 10 performance, “College Park: The Party” will be held in the Center’s Grand Pavilion.
Contact reporter Megan Hartley at diversions@dbk.umd.edu.
