OCU celebrates 65 years of opera, musicals
Oklahoma City University’s music school has been producing musicals and operas continuously (at least one of each a year) for the past 65 years.
Although the university has put on shows for longer than that, it took a bit of research to determine that those 65 consecutive years mark the world’s largest run of collegiate opera and music theater seasons, said Mark Edward Parker, dean of the Bass School of Music at OCU.
“We’re glad to have this 65-year milestone to shine a spotlight that Oklahoma City continues to be a center for the performing arts and really draws a lot of people to the city,” Parker said.
The students “just keep coming,” he said. “They’re more and more talented, and it’s really a bright light for Oklahoma and Oklahoma City to have this training ground here to supply artists to the world.”
The current season opens Friday with OCU’s first production of “Hairspray,” a 2002 musical. It also will include “The Darker Sisters,” an opera by an up-and-coming opera composer, who will be with the cast for the week leading up to the premiere.
Karen Coe Miller, who will direct “Hairspray” and other performances, said she loves the season’s variety — from the uplifting and humorous to the more serious and the unique.
“We have a little something for everyone,” she said.
Miller said the season highlights what OCU does well: making sure the students learn theater, music and dance and that they are exposed to a mix of genres. “They’re really prepared for the field when they get out there professionally,” she said.
Over the years, the school has graduated noted Broadway stars, including Tony Award winners Kristen Chenoweth and Kelli O’Hara and Tony Award-nominated Lara Teeter; opera divas such as Leona Mitchell, Marquita Lister and Sarah Coburn; and actor Ron Raines, a Tony Award nominee who has had key roles on television, in operas, musicals and more. Raines is known in musical circles as “New York’s Baritone,” Parker said.
Stages of growth
Despite all of the past accolades, Parker believes the music school’s current students, numbering 386 this semester, are among the most talented he’s seen in his 20 years as dean.
“It’s amazing the folks that are coming from all over the country,” he said. “These incoming classes get better and better.”
In addition to the music school students, 200 theater majors and 200 dance majors also audition for the shows’ spots.
“We have a very deep bench,” Parker said, borrowing a sports analogy a friend has used to refer to OCU’s performing art students. “We could cast these shows multiple times with the students we have.”
Over the years, OCU has added more performances and expanded to include different experience levels for its productions, including Main Stage and Spotlight Musicals.
“As we’ve grown, we want to get them on stage, because that’s where they learn,” Parker said. “That’s our laboratory.”