come together sandwich with clown bread!

Here's one piece of the 'bread': the set for the world premiere of Michael Ching's "The Birthday Clown" at SVF7!

Funny story: I was standing in the lobby, talking to the volunteers, when Sherrill Milnes caught my eye.

"You've been summoned," he said.

Sure enough, I had been!

Fran and Pete Zipperer were there for the show, too, and she wanted me to sit with them!

So, I did.

The one-act new opera featured quite a few children, as it was about a 13-year-old boy's birthday party.

The mother had misjudged the boy's interest and had hired a clown to entertain the group, but no one seemed amused except one little girl on the fringes of the crowd.
The others took off as soon as Dad showed up with a remote-controlled airplane.

But not Marco the clown or Marie the violin-playing girl (aka Emily Yocum Black), who kept each other company as they played music.

It truly was a sweet little piece, and I loved the "Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't" number, but the best part was the duet between Marco and Marie.

He sang "I Can Be Your Audience", and she sang back to him, "I Can Be Your Orchestra."

Like I said, very sweet!

Afterward was a treat for us older kids: a performance of "I Pagliacci", the short two-act tale of Tonio the Clown and his troubles with his wife.

I'd never seen it and had thought it to be a comedy.

Nope, it was definitely a tragedy... and very nicely done!

That was on Wednesday.

At noon today I was at the Fine Arts Auditorium at GaSoU, Armstrong, for the Savannah VOICE "Come Together Master Class".

This time, Maria Zouves was the advisor of four singers, all of which were accompanied by Benjamin Warsaw on piano.

I had hoped for a bit of The Beatles... but the 25-minute segments were still entertaining, as well as informative.

This evening found me back at the Yamacraw Center For The Performing Arts for a second slice of clown 'bread'.

That's right!

I was there for a second helping of the double bill of "The Birthday Clown" and "I Pagliacci"... but this time, I was an usher!

Joan Silver, who I knew from the Lucas Theatre, had asked earlier if I was interested in picking up some shifts - of course I was!

(Last night was the first of those volunteer stints, with me at the Charles Morris Center for "Old Time Rock And Roll: Music Of The 70's".

That's when I got my Beatles fix, as well as Elton John, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, and others, such as Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash.

Yeah, those last two are most def not in the rock genre, but that's okay!

I guess this would be the piece of cheddar on the sandwich I made.

[smile])

I'm so glad I was able to see both operas again!

I'm so glad I was able to hear those songs again that I had so enjoyed!

I'm so glad Joan had thought to ask me to usher!

What a beautiful way to finish out my SVF7 adventure!

i thank You, God!