Announcer: Welcome to COFAC's podcast on this year's theme, Lighten Up, Humor and satire. Today, we'll hear from Courtney Kalbacker, lecturer in voice and the director of the music for the stage ensembles in the Department of Music. 

Courtney Kalbacker: I'm very lucky because all of my time is usually spent in live performance, teaching live performance, doing it myself. But last year was very different. No audience, which meant no reaction, no feedback. The Department of Music and University created virtual symphonies and choirs and digital opera. But this year, the music for the stage ensembles the Department of Music are embracing had genre that thrives off of audience interaction, humor and satire.

We have three treats for the university and greater public coming up in our two different ensembles over this next year. Our music for the stage ensemble is our opera workshop and Music Theater Performance Group. This fall, we are presenting a concert called Let's Laugh an afternoon of comic scenes, and in the spring we're presenting A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Shakespeare story, of course, but composed by composer Michael Cheng, our other ensemble, our children's opera ensemble called Opera in a can. It's easy. Take it to go is for kids. Our students will perform a piece called Once Upon a Story Time, but let's go back to our first music for the stage ensemble concert that's coming up. 

Give you a few more details. Let's Laugh is occurring on Sunday, November 21st at 3:00 p.m. in our concert hall. In this concert, we're focusing on the masters of musical comedy over the last 150 years. We've got pieces by Stephen Sondheim, Gilbert and Sullivan, Johann Strauss Jr, Bernstein, and even some very, very funny cabaret songs.

We will be taking the audience on a journey that includes satire and absurdity. Mistaken identities and pretty sure they're going to be some folks in cat costumes and mustaches and lots of absurd situations. I can't wait to share this with you. It's going to be a blast. For our children, we also have our Opera in a Can show coming up that is on November 13th, a Saturday at 10:00 p.m. And in this show, called Once Upon a Story Time, we are embracing silliness. There is a love ballad to a spoon, wild animal noises, and some made up Latin lyrics, which I think include applaud or at order dominoes. It's really ridiculous, and it's a puppet opera theater performance. Our singers will be singing and the puppets will be acting out the story. It's going to be fantastic and I hope it will have kids rolling in the aisles. 

Lastly, coming up in the spring are music for the stage ensemble will be growing. We will have a team of over 50 singers and instrumentalists creating a bold new approach to a very, very classic comedy. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream for this production, composer Michael Cheng has created a score, especially for our Towson University students, for our singers, operatic singers, music, theater singers and even a cappella groups. And one of our wind ensembles to all come together to create something very special.

On top of that, our COFAC innovator in residence, Shodekeh, a breath artist and beatboxer, will be adding his talent to this piece as well. We're going to reimagine the operatic experience and take you on a fantastical journey that will include physical comedy, silliness, mistaken identity satire. But don't worry, it all ends well. This production of A Midsummer Night's Dream will take place April 22nd, 23rd and 24th in Stephen's Hall Theater, with full costumes, staging and the whole shebang. We certainly hope you can join us for all of these fantastic events. We can all use the laugh.