FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Squonk Opera celebrates 20 years of Squonking
Performances take place at Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival - June 8, 9 and 10
Pittsburgh, PA: In celebration of 20 years of creating and performing original multimedia works in and from Pittsburgh, Squonk Opera will be doing 20 free shows all around Pittsburgh this summer, more local shows than they’ve ever done in a season. They will premiere this next creation – GO Roadshow– at the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival with shows on June 8, 9 and 10.
GO Roadshowwill be a free street spectacle aboard a 34-foot long monster truck. This show-making machine will be retrofitted with truck-horn calliope, a wall made of rotors and a spinning grand piano that is played while it wheels around! Each show will start with a shameless parade of peacock trumpets, spinning drums, accordion, sousaphone and glockenspiel.
“GO is a music and art-mobile - a rolling ruckus that opens up like a mechanical blossom to make the street a vibrant place where people can share a community of the imagination,” says Co-Artistic Director and composer Jackie Dempsey. Night shows will include video projected on a rotor screen made of movement itself, and on a blimp that will have a mouth that opens in a call to celebration. “We are drawing from the great American history of traveling circuses, Shriner and holiday parades, medicine shows, and used car lot events that vitalized the heartland of this country,” says Co-Artistic Director and chief designer Steve O’Hearn.
Squonk Opera hails from Pittsburgh, has toured the world and played on and off Broadway. They are celebrating their 20th anniversary of creating completely original work from Pittsburgh: no scripts from LA, or design from New York or music from London. Squonk is just Pittsburghers making their own art and music. And now, they are taking it to the street.
GO Roadshowhas been generously funded by Fisher Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Anonymous Donor, The Heinz Endowments, EQT Corporation, Henry C. Frick Educational Fund of the Buhl Foundation, Hillman Foundation, The Grable Foundation, The Fine Foundation and the PA Council on the Arts. Commissioners include Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and many generous individual donors.
For more information, go to our website at http://www.squonkopera.org/
Final rehearsals will be held on Thursday, May 31 and Friday, August 1 from 2 to 10 pm at the Squonk Farm in Tarentum, PA. If you would like details so you can stop by to chat or take photos, email Jackie Dempsey (contact info below).
To watch a video about the creation and to see sketches, etc., go to our Kickstarter campaign athttp://www.kickstarter.com/projects/squonkopera/go-roadshow
Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival
Presented by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and sponsored by EQT Corporation
Downtown Pittsburgh, PA
June 8 – Evening show at 9.45 pm
June 9 – Daytime shows at 1 pm & 4 pm, evening show at 9.45 pm
June 10 – Daytime time show at 12 pm (parade starts in family area), evening show at 7.45 pm
Arsenal Park
Presented by Citiparks
Lawrenceville, PA
July 12 – Shows are between 10 am and 1 pm
Highland Park
Presented by Citiparks
Highland Park, PA
July 13 - Shows are between 10 am and 1 pm
Schenley Plaza
Presented by Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and sponsored by EQT Corporation
Oakland, PA
July 14 - Evening show at 8.45 pm, daytime events TBD
Pittsburgh Public Schools Summer Dreamers Academy
Pittsburgh, PA
July 31, August 1, August 2 – Shows at 12 & 12.30 pm
Mon County Fair
Sponsored by EQT Corporation
Morgantown, WV
August 11 – Times TBD
Schenley Plaza
Presented by Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and sponsored by EQT Corporation
Oakland, PA
August 25 - Evening show at 8 pm, daytime events TBD
Hays Recreational Area
Presented by the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation
Wilkinsburg, PA
August 26 – Show and tree planting at 1 pm
Community Food Bank Garden
Presented by the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation
Bellevue, PA
August 26 – Show and tree planting at 7 pm
A Fair in the Park
Presented by Citiparks
Mellon Park, Shadyside, PA
September 7 – Show time TBD
Storybook & Alphabet Trails
Presented by Citiparks
Frick Park, Regent Square, PA
September 8 – Show time TBD
A Fair in the Park
Presented by Citiparks
Mellon Park, Shadyside, PA
September 9 – Show time TBD
Summer/Fall tour dates are currently scheduled for:
Artscape
Baltimore, MD
July 20, 21 and 22, 2012
IngenuityFest
Cleveland, OH
September 14, 15 and 16, 2012
Contact info:
Steve O’Hearn, Co-Artistic Director/Designer/Wind Player
steve@squonkopera.org
412.496.6480
Jackie Dempsey, Co-Artistic Director/Composer/Pianist
jackie@squonkopera.org
412.654.1796
Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates. Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping. Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business. www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh
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