Classy benefit

Tom Titus

Two now-departed local musical theater performers will be remembered

Saturday in a classical concert at Huntington Beach High School, with

donations earmarked for charities fighting the diseases that took their

lives.

“A Touch of Class,” scheduled for 2 p.m. in the high school’s

auditorium, will feature Tim Nelson on flute and oboe and Elizabeth

Burson on piano. The cost is $15 per person, with funds to be contributed

to the American Heart Assn. and the American Cancer Society.

The recital comes as a tribute to John L. Moreno, who died of a

massive heart attack in 1994, and Adrienne Hatcher, who succumbed to

breast cancer two years earlier. Both were active in local theater and

both were close friends of Nelson and Burson.

Nelson, who will direct “Once On This Island” for the Academy of

Performing Arts in the same auditorium next month, conducts for a summer

stock company in New York each year, and also fills in on flute and oboe

in the orchestra.

“I decided that when I came home this year, I wanted to do this

recital while I was still in great shape from the summer,” he noted.

“Most people at APA know me as a teacher, so I kind of wanted to let

my students and fellow cast members know where my training originally

was.”Nelson, whose musical directing gigs have taken him all over Orange

County as well as New York State, trained at the University of Colorado

and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. “This was a big part of my life,”

he said.

Burson is a pianist who has worked a great deal with the Musical Youth

Artists Repertory Theater in Long Beach, and is the wife of actor Kyle

Burson, another close friend of Nelson’s who has performed in Orange and

Los Angeles counties.

“We rarely have the chance to work together and wanted to do so,”

Nelson explained. “So, we just decided that we would work all summer

toward this. She was classically trained at Long Beach State and has sort

of gotten hooked on musical theater, as I did.”Since Moreno’s death,

Nelson has conducted fund-raising concerts at the Curtain Call Dinner

Theater in Tustin, where both had worked extensively. “I try to hold a

memorial for him once a year if possible for friends just to remember the

good times and honor Johnny’s life,” he said. “He was a wonderful friend

and terrific performer.”

Hatcher was another close friend of both Nelson and Burson who played

such roles as Aldonza in “Man of La Mancha” and Appassionata Von Climax

in “Lil Abner” with the pair. “She was also very close, and her death at

age 40 was a tragic loss,” he said.

Nelson and Burson have come up with a classical concert -- since both

Moreno and Hatcher were classical performers as well.

“It’s a way to bring the old friends of these two together as well as

let their spirit live on and be known by new friends and students,”

Nelson said, “as well as expose a lot of people to classical music who

might otherwise never attend a concert.”

The concert rehearsals have been tough, Nelson said, since he is in

the middle of rehearsals for “Once on This Island,” as well as working on

“The King and I” for the Curtain Call and teaching both in Huntington

Beach and Westminster. Burson, the mother of three children, also has

numerous jobs.

“But we both agree, when we’re playing the classics there is a

different uplifting of the soul, and an excitement we really cherish,”

Nelson declared. “It has all been very worthwhile. Now we just want

people to hear it and enjoy.”

For information on Saturday’s concert at Huntington Beach High, call

Burson at (661) 299-5264. The recital is suggested for ages 15 and older.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.