Sitting criss-cross in the middle of the teepee, Chautauqua Children’s School teacher John Denton debriefs the audience on the upcoming egg-hatching operation it is about to endure. Kneeled down like a gargoyle, Denton looks over to the trolls-in-training, the students, and his fellow teachers to deliver the news.
Sandy D’Andrade, a veteran costume designer from Philadelphia, has been creating handmade knitwear for well over 30 years. With her rich-colored collection of skirts, scarves, jackets and gowns, D’Andrade has turned her artistry to supporting the Chautauqua Opera Young Artists through the Chautauqua Opera Guild for the last 12 years.
In honor of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, playwright and producer Meredith Bean McMath opted to commemorate the milestone with an opera based on the life on one of its characters: Oliver Willcox Norton.
It’s been 12 years since the Children’s School debuted its annual “Troll Play,” in honor of Chautauqua’s birthday and to raise money for Old First Night.
On July 12, tenor Andrew Lunsford sang Puccini’s “Nessun dorma” to help close the annual Opera Highlights concert. With the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra behind him, Lunsford vibrantly sustained the final high A, while the audience wildly applauded the Apprentice Artist’s talent.
Last Thursday, the Chautauqua Opera Young Artists began to sit down one-by-one in Carol Rausch’s office for their end-of-the-season exit interviews.
When teachers John Denton, Pie Kasbar, Gretchen Hathaway, Heidi Zarou and Tiffany Clementi-Hammes all sat down together to write this year’s annual Children’s School “Troll Play,” they figured they would try something new.
At 8:15 p.m. Saturday in the Amphitheater, the entire ensemble of Apprentice and Studio artists will be waving goodbye to Chautauqua via a grand concert that features the music of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.
It was shortly after a bloody battle near Gaines’ Mill, Virginia, in June 1862, when Oliver Willcox Norton settled with his Third Brigade alongside the James River. With 236 men lost to Confederate soldiers — along with Norton’s two best friends, Henry and Denison — the company slept with low spirits.
In the Yellow Room at Children’s School, 5-year-old Eve Kushmaul pours sand on a fake sunflower with a plastic shovel, while other 5s around the room paint toilet-paper-tube cacti or play with worms. Eve takes her friend’s hand and buries it alongside her “sandflower.”
The Chautauquan Daily 