"Marya Gavrilovna had been brought up on French novels, and consequently was in love." In Alexander Pushkin's "The Snowstorm," Marya makes plans to elope and braves a brutal blizzard to arrive at the church. The ceremony ends, and she discovers that she has married a stranger taking refuge from the storm. Mr. Pushkin’s wit and wicked sense of destiny take things from there.

Barbara Harbach’s music takes them to a tour de force in this opera. The composer of ten symphonies, Dr. Harbach won an award from the Tisch School of the Arts for her musical Booth!, which ran off Broadway. Her theatrical credits (http:/www.barbaraharbach.com/) also include O Pioneers!--An American Opera. She is a Curators’ Distinguished Professor Emerita of Music at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Mr. Pushkin is, of course, the grandfather of Russian literature. Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades, Amadeus, and many other works have been adapted from his creations.

The language of the libretto is contemporary American English.

Puritans burst in on a rehearsal of Twelfth Night and close down the theater. Staying in character, the cast escapes to a ship bound for Jamestown. Malvolio tries to take revenge on his former servants for humiliating him on shipboard en route. What could go wrong? Skunks, for one thing. Also, the Powhatans have learned the concept of “rent.”

“O Mistress Mine” morphs into “Oh, Shenandoah.”

Two acts. Shakespearean staging conditions (universal lighting, simple sets, no off-stage accompaniment). There are 16 characters; with double-casting, the play can be performed by a cast of 11.

Good plays may make audiences laugh or cry. WHAT ARE YOU? aims to make them squirm.
A one-act drama for a cast of two women, WHAT ARE YOU? pits Deirdre against her well-intentioned neighbor, who demands to know Deirdre's ethnicity so she can determine how to treat her—with generosity or condescension, or by making allowances for her, or . . ..
The script would be easy to adapt for audio theater (radio). 10- and 34-minute versions exist.

"People in Wisconsin--they just don't live like we do!"

Back in 1961 when the only job Rita Nunez could land in journalism in Tierra Nueva was society reporting, a graduate student from the U.S. unwittingly received—and unwittingly accepted—a tacit proposal of marriage from a bachelor from one of that nation’s leading families and then jilted him. A generation later, when a dead ringer for that student is named U.S. ambassador to Tierra Nueva, the resulting chaos even comes to the attention of the masked revolutionary La Máscara in his mountain hideaway. He arrives at the embassy and encounters the sister of el Presidente, who is enamored of him. Mistaken identities have to be sorted out before two couples are happily paired.

The music is by Barbara Harbach (http://www.barbaraharbach.com/), whose theatrical credits include O PIONEERS!--AN AMERICAN OPERA and the musical BOOTH! which won an award from the Tisch School of the Arts and ran off Broadway. The composer of ten symphonies, Dr. Harbach has, for this show, created a veritable sampler of Latin dance rhythms as well as earnest love songs and a noble arrangement of "Finlandia."


One novelty song, which has been commercially recorded in London by Apollo Voices, is along the lines of "Tchaikovsky," the Ira Gershwin-Kurt Weill song that launched Danny Kaye's career. That was a patter song listing 52 Russian composers, all of them male (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuZvLArXU5s). A song in THE NEWS FROM TIERRA NUEVA, using the same rhyme and metrical schemes as "Tchaikovsky," lists WOMEN composers (https://open.spotify.com/album/0UAQuJFHjgpU0hPP8Rzsbv).

"I shouldn't have to be cooped up in a stuffy old schoolroom," says Liza. "It doesn't seem right for a young lady--not just anybody, mind you, but somebody like me, somebody who has spent enough time studying the mirror to know that her most appealing attribute is her unawareness of her own charm."

The plot may suggest a comedic version of ROMEO AND JULIET, but, unlike THE FANTASTICKS, this is not farce. Three-dimensional characters struggle with each other and fall in love in this adaptation of Alexander Pushkin's story, "Mistress Into Maid."

Pushkin (1799-1837) was the first major literary talent to write in Russian. Besides giving the world THE QUEEN OF SPADES and AMADEUS, he gave Nikolai Gogol the premises for both DEAD SOULS and THE INSPECTOR GENERAL. In "Mistress Into Maid," Pushkin was, in part, parodying a popular tearjerker by Nikolai Karamzin. The song "Poor Liza" is a synopsis of Karamzin's story.

The compelling score by Seth Evans evokes love, pranks, and Russian moodiness. Mr. Evans has written string quartets and A NEW YORK (CIRCA 1950) SUITE FOR PIANO. A member of Chamber Music America, he has a considerable background in the pop/jazz, theater, and classical traditions. His credits include the musical, ROSCOE, A SLAPSTICK TRAGEDY.

The lyrics--in contemporary, American English--include sassy, structured light verse and serious songs with minimal rhyme. Alexei proposes marriage in a sonnet with the unusual rhyme scheme that Pushkin used in EUGENE ONEGIN.

The title character must appear to be darker than everyone else on stage.

Jailer Jack taunts inmate Camille that she was probably a lousy actress. Camille responds that her real talent was doing impressions. She relives the glory of the HEDDA GABLER performance in which she had shot and killed her unfaithful lover:


Shooting Henry /

In front of an attentive audience /

Was not the perfect crime? /

Maybe not, but they were rapt! /

And, after all this time, /

I can still hear how they clapped!


When Ms. Nation interrogates her, Camille complains about a strategy to make inmates feel like children. Camille overpowers Ms. Nation, trades clothes with her, and walks out of prison.

At Ms. Nation's home, Camille exults that she is free. Jack enters; she hadn't realized that he is romantically involved with Ms. Nation. Camille continues to "do" Ms. Nation. She wishes she could have done to Ms. Nation what she'd done to the unfaithful lover.

The following morning, Ms. Nation, still wearing the prison jumpsuit, is in the cell. Camille enters and devotes herself to infantilizing Ms. Nation. They are both miserable.

In verse.

"She's not the prettiest girl in the whole world. She doesn't even have brown hair!"

When Mrs. Sageboil returns from a long vacation so tired that she’s forgotten that she’s a witch, she finds her neighbors protesting her plan to lock Rapunzel in a tower. After a rest, Mrs. Sageboil remembers and puts the plan into action. The villagers tease Billy about having a crush on Rapunzel.

Appropriate for primary grades and older.

Single set.