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