Music of faith from the Great White Way
Michele Marr
They have rehearsed for dozens of hours. They come from as many
professions -- geologist, librarian, college administrator, manufacturer,
UFO researcher, teacher, animal shelter supervisor, registered nurse,
thespian, student and musician.
All are part of the more than 40-member music ministry at Mesa Verde
United Methodist Church in Costa Mesa, which will be thecast and crew for
“Sounds of Broadway IV.”
“The music is filled with words of hope, faith, courage and love. It
reminds us that the journey of faith is serious, but it doesn’t have to
be solemn,” said Dick George, pastor of the church.
The show will open its two-night run on May 31, on a stage that is the
church’s altar area with a small extension built onto it. It’s the fourth
Broadway-themed show the church has produced since 1978. It’s the first
for choir director Eliza Rubenstein.
“The first one was done when I was just 10 years old and living in
Missouri,” she said.
Rubenstein, who also directs the Orange County Women’s Chorus, came to
the church after earning her master’s degree in conducting at UC Irvine.
She grew up in a family she describes as “a family that lived by
music.” She first studied choral conducting at the Oberlin Conservatory
of Music in Ohio, before coming to California in 1995. Her theater
experience, until now, has been confined to playing viola in a handful of
Gilbert and Sullivan shows.
“I’ve enjoyed cutting my theatrical teeth on this,” she said,
“especially since I have had the help of many experienced members of the
choir and talented volunteers.”
Many in her cast and crew have worked and performed together before.
Some have community theater experience. Most of them have amateur or
school production experience, or like Carlene Reuscher -- the choir
librarian -- they are longtime choir members. Reuscher, like assistant
director Jay Dablow, has been in all of the church’s Broadway-themed
productions.
“Many of our church members of all ages are involved in the staging,
lighting, making sets, costuming and providing refreshments,” Reuscher
said. “It is an amateur production, but the quality of the music really
is exceptional.”
That’s in part to the talent of people such as Clark Weyenberg.”I’ve
been singing for as long as I can remember,” said the member.
Weyenberg has performed in church choirs, high school choirs and
theater. He performed with the Paul McNeff Singers in a 40-minute musical
program that took music to elementary schools throughout Orange County.
Besides community theater, he also worked in the Whoopi Goldberg film
“Sister Act II.” Weyenberg joined the choir at Mesa Verde in 1989.
In “Sounds of Broadway IV,” he will have the lead in several numbers,
among them Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” and the Major General in “The
Pirates of Penzance.”
“The song ‘I am the very model of a modern major-general,’ is quite a
tongue-twister, but it’s very well-received when it’s done well,”
Weyenberg said.
On Thursday, everyone gathered to rehearse. As the cast sang,
Rubenstein directed.
“Infernal nonsense -- sing it like it’s infernal nonsense,” she
shouted with a staccato beat that mimicked the tempo she was after. The
cast laughed and practiced it over and over.
A trio of junior high-aged cast members -- Diana Liechty, Amanda
Holland, and Katie Marshall -- will sing “Matchmaker” from “Fiddler on
the Roof.” Liechty is an accomplished pianist. Holland has appeared in
numerous musical and theater productions, and Marshall is the youngest
member of the church’s adult hand bell ensemble.
Rubenstein believes the show is a good example of the strength and
range of talent in the music department. Last year this cast sang the
Mozart Requiem with a full orchestra. Next year she expects they will do
something entirely different.
Rubenstein described the preparation for the show “all-out insanity at
times.” But she quickly added, “We’re all having a great time.”
FYI
What: “Sounds of Broadway IV”
When: 7 p.m. May 31 and June 1
Where: Mesa Verde United Methodist Church, 1701 Baker St., Costa Mesa
Call: (714) 979-8234
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