Opus Awesome

On Saturday, 9/8/2012 LA Theatre Works (LATW) broadcast its latest radio play; Opus by Michael Hollinger staring Jonathan Adams, Jere Burns, Kevin Chamberlin, Steven Culp, Jon Matthews, and Liza Weil. Simply put, it’s an incredible production and so worth your time that you should go well out of your way to listen to the online version available for streaming (you’ll have a 5 sec ad bumper before you can access the page, sorry). Several months ago, I was honored that the folks from LATW asked me to participate in a conversation to be included at the end of the broadcast, which is also available for streaming.

Opus by Michael HollingerSynopsis and Credits

The Lazara Quartet has just fired one of its members, and his replacement is wary of the group’s reputation for personal, violent quarrels. And as they prepare for a command performance at the White House, they’re haunted by their former colleague’s sudden disappearance.

Opus by Michael Hollinger stars Jonathan Adams, Jere Burns, Kevin Chamberlin, Steven Culp, Jon Matthews, and Liza Weil. Associate Producer: Christina Montano. Stage Manager: Stephanie J. Brown. Sound Effects Artist: Tony Palermo. Casting Director: Cathy Reinking. Edited by Wes Dewberry. Recording and mixing engineer: Mark Holden for the Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Our director is Brendon Fox.

In addition to being a profoundly wonderful play, Opus contains a number of exchanges between characters that serves as inspiration for helping those in the field find words for a number of difficult items to verbalize.

Other than the online streaming, I understand LATW will be making CDs available at some point next week. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the play so make a note to come back here and leave a comment once you’ve had a chance to listen to Michael Hollinger’s wonderful work.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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