Producers, patrons balance health and safety versus money and passion
By Eric Valentine
This was supposed to be an article about a comeback. Specifically, a small theater company out of Ketchum called The Spot that spent the last two years locked down due, more or less, to the lockdown.
And then, headlines like this: COVID-19 Spreading Faster Than Ever
Or this: Omicron Seeks Vengeance On Your First Born
Finally, the email from The Spot’s creative director Natalie Battistone: “Due to COVID-19 concerns among our cast and creative team, The Spot has made the difficult decision to postpone our production of PASS OVER. New dates have not yet been announced.”
It may just be one business, but The Spot represents numerous ones in Ketchum and all over the Valley. It’s not corporate, it’s grass-roots entrepreneurial, and it’s cool and quirky and creative. It’s the kind of establishment that literally establishes a community’s individual culture and separates it from the culture at large.
But it’s having a hard time re-opening its doors due to pandemic panic. Whether that panic be overblown, understated or spot on, the data is real. The positivity rate is double what it was last year at this time. Partly because tests are improved, but mostly because the Omicron variant—while often less severe—is more contagious.
Nonetheless, there are organizations finding ways to keep open and/or re-open doors. One of them is Sun Valley Community School’s Upper School, which will bring one of William Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, “Much Ado About Nothing,” to Sun Valley Community School’s stage Feb. 10–12. Tickets are available online and will be $10/students and $15/adults. All performances start are at 7 p.m. and masks are required for attendees.
The plot of the Shakespeare comedy revolves around something—specifically two romantic pairings between main characters Benedick and Beatrice and Claudio and Hero. Themes of misunderstandings, love and deception, intrigue, and action are sure to entertain audiences.
“We’ve updated this story to exist in Southern California in the mid-1980s, and audiences will have a blast remembering, rediscovering or hearing for the first time (in the case of some of our younger patrons) many classic songs from the era,” said director Kevin Wade. “Our ‘way in’ for this piece has been through the idea of the rumor mill. We all know how slander, falsehoods and misinformation can have grave consequences, and that idea is particularly accessible to Upper School students. We’ve been exploring that theme as our main access point to this hilarious and touching play. Love conquers all, and can strike us at unexpected moments—this play is about staying open to newness, and being true to ourselves.”
The cast includes more than 25 Upper School students on the stage and in the technical booth. Cast members include Charlie Coulter (as Don John), Noah Davis-Jeffers (as Claudio), Emma Desserault (as Hero), Hailey Jackson (as Beatrice), Ava Kowalski (as Benedick), and Cassius Klingenfuss (as Don Pedro).
Around the same neck of the woods and on the same day is Sun Valley Opera, which is presenting A Signature Salon and Concert starring tenor Jonah Hoskins and his sister, soprano Mary Hoskins, at 5:30 p.m.
Guests can enjoy wine and light hors d’oeuvres catered by Judith McQueen Entertaining at 5:30 p.m. then settle into a cabaret setting for the concert starring the 2021 runnerup winner of the International Operalia Competition, tenor Jonah Hoskins. Jonah will be joined on stage by his sister, soprano Mary Hoskins, for an all-in-the-family concert.
Jonah Hoskins is a tenor from Saratoga Springs, Utah. Since winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2020, he has been a member of the prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. He is thrilled to make his Met debut this winter in Cendrillon as the Dean of Faculty. This past fall Jonah placed second at the International Operalia Competition. We are fortunate to be catching this rising star, while we can.
Jonah’s sister, Mary, a soprano, recently had an opportunity to participate at Wolf Trap Opera as a Studio Artist. She was also selected as a semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Mary learned to love singing with her family on long road trips. However, she fell into opera by accident when Jonah signed her up for an audition without her foreknowledge or consent. It was at that program that she fell in love with the art form.
Together they will perform beautiful arias and songs they call “car ride favorites.”
Tickets can be purchased through Sun Valley Opera by calling (208) 726-0991 or visiting sunvalleyopera.com