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Sex, Drugs, and Chamber Music Take the Stage
Opus opens June 19th at The Fountain Theatre
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What happens when a violist goes missing? The answer is no viola-joke to playwright Michael Hollinger, whose play “Opus,” will make its Los Angeles debut June 19th with The Fountain Theatre. The play, which, as Hollinger describes “is about how people work together to create something greater than the sum of their parts,” paints a humorous and insightful portrait of a “high strung” string quartet frenetically navigating the creative, yet often disharmonious path to creating a musical masterpiece.
When their brilliant, but unstable violist disappears, the members of the fictional Lazara String Quartet must frantically search for a replacement, while only days remain before a high profile performance. When the three men select a talented young woman to join their musical fraternity, clashing personalities must labor to orchestrate harmony or disband in the process. Opus received a 2007 Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Citation from the American Theatre Critics Association. It was also nominated for seven Barrymore Awards for the Arden Theatre production and won for Outstanding New Play.
Both director and playwright know first hand what it is to work in a musical ensemble. Director Simon Levy, who used to play both trumpet and saxophone, was a music major in college before he made the switch to theatre in graduate school. Hollinger is a classically trained violist and graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music who later became captivated by the theatre, and has since spent fifteen years playwriting. “I recently started playing chamber music again” Hollinger explains. “I’ve always thought about musical instruments as characters . . . and getting back into it reawakened that idea.”
“Opus is just a terrific play,” says Levy, “It’s true to the world of classical music, but also very human.”
Opus opens on Saturday, June 19 with performances Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through July 25. Previews run on the same schedule, June 12-18. Tickets are $25.00 on Thursdays and Fridays and $30.00 on Saturdays and Sundays, except opening night (June 19), which is $35.00 and previews which are $15.00.
On Thursdays and Fridays only, Students with ID are $18.00 and seniors over 62 are $23.00. The Fountain Theatre is located at 5060 Fountain Avenue (at Normandie) in Los Angeles. Secure, on-site parking is available for $5.00. The Fountain Theatre is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible.
The Fountain Theatre: Opus- Sex, drugs and chamber music!
June 19th-July 25th
The Fountain Theatre
5060 Fountain Ave.
Los Angeles CA 90029
(Fountain at Normandie)