Looking Back on the June 9^th Spring Show “Gold Medal A Cappella”

“Gold Medal A Cappella” was a gold medal success.  Great chorus singing and staging, lighting and sound, decent sized crowd in the huge George Mason Center for the Performing Arts, wonderful quartet lineup and our own TBD, and a fun afterglow to wrap it all up.

Nick Leiserson was show producer.  Job well done by a relatively new Harmonizer.  YeEd is sure there will be others to thank as we know he had a team of creative people and detail operators. Shows vp Brian Ammerman seemed to manage many of the business details too such as ticket sales with help from Michael Gilmore and Ian Poulin. Brian and Cheryl Wallen arranged for the fun afterglow at a nearby restaurant and TJ Donahue and Lew Klinge managed ticket sales.  Eric Wallen was emcee for the glow.

Chris Clark headed up the printed show program with help from John Pence, Steve and Lise Lingo. Catherine Colosimo did the show poster and cover design. Show marketing was done by vp Steve Lingo including getting some professional photo shots made in the theater for the chapter’s future use.

The tech crew worked hard all day and evening!  Scott Kahler, Dixie Kennett, Craig Odell, Keith Jones, Paul Grimes, Mike Kelly and Mary Anne Cleaveland all had a hand in the tech side of the show. They worked well with the house tech crew. Bob Blair and the riser crews and truck drivers all got things were we needed them.  Ross Felker and Clark Chesser had water and snacks backstage for the chorus and crew.

The quartet lineup included current International champs, OLD SCHOOL with Kip Buckner, Joe Connelly, Joe Krones and Jack Pinto; TOP SHELF one of our chapter quartets headed for Portland’s contest this July with Jay Butterfield, Brett Thomas, Fred Womer and Andrew Havens; GQ who recently took second place in the Harmony Sweepstakes finals in CA with Ali Hauger, Katie Gillis, Katie Macdonald and Amanda McNutt; and SHADES OF JADE who sang for us last week at chapter meeting with Meghan Brueggemann, Heather Krones, Kasey Cox and Erin Odell . 

Director Joe Cerutti and assistant directors Terry Reynolds, Mike Kelly and Will Cox prepared the chorus to go on stage.  Since we presented two new songs for our audiences, there was some last minute review in the warm up period and stage time.   Visual team leaders Chuck McKeever and Scipio Garling helped with this review too.  “Jersey Boys” and “I’m the Music Man” were huge hits with the audience.  (Which by the way, was a terrific audience – cheering loudly and laughing and applauding tons!) Recent weeks of hard work on Tuesday nites paid off in satisfied customers. Soloists for the “Jersey Boys” Medley included Joe Cerutti, Frank Fedarko and Doug White with Mike Kelly doing the voice over announcements for before and during the song. Mark Klostermeyer continues as chorus manager to get us where we need to be.

Uniforms for the show included the silk yellow shirts and ties and blue silk shirts and ties with some variations with front row black ties and hats.  There were no props or stage set items for this show.

Emcee for the show was Gary Plaag.  The FRIENDS of HARMONY helped staff sales booths in the lobby for CDs from the chorus and the guest quartets.  This was the first show for new members Rich Hewitt and David DesPortes.

It was great to see so many former members and friends of the chapter in the lobby after the show, as well as friends and members from the nearby chapters in the DC Metro area.

Until next time – editorjack!

(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on with the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)