Barber-ous Behavior

It was one of those moments all Supers dream about. The lights went down at the October 10th performance of The Barber of Seville and the ominous voice of the Stage Manager came over the sound system, striking fear into the opera-goers' hearts�

�At tonight's performance of The Barber of Seville the role of (pause) 'The Notary' will be played by Steve Nye�.

They were announcing a Super substitution from the stage! Never before had we heard the like (imagine �At tonight's performance the role of the third lackey on stage left will be played by��).

The sole Super role in Barber is that of the Notary (towards the end of Act Two) and is usually played by Robert Dickinson. Robert has his own dressing room on the second floor and an asterisk after his name in the cast list (indicating a San Francisco Opera debut). Steve is the cover and did a fabulous job as the bemused character who follows Don Basilio into the Bauhaus house to perform a marriage which ends in typical Rossini mayhem. Although it was hard to know where to look for much of this production, Steve, in top hat and frock coat, held his own as the comic foil throughout this lengthy scene, joining the principals for curtain calls and bows. Bravo!

Women Supers who received the call to audition for the role of the woman standing on her head on a Vespa while having her legs shaved will be interested to know that the part was taken by an acrobat. That would be Teresa Lonsbury, who gets to spend a lot of time, in a range of genders, riding around on the stage with heartthrob Nathan Gunn on said Vespa. She does eventually get to wear a stunning emerald green taffeta dress, which suits her much more than the aviator's cap and 5 o'clock shadow she starts out with. She, too, was back for well-deserved curtain calls. Brava!

While delivering the Barber opening night candies on �Total Recall� election night, Ulrica kept bumping into Rossini comedienne (and personal favorite since the time we shared the stage in the 1991 Elektra) mezzo Catherine Cook, also leaving little piles of sweeties for the cast and crew. A nice gesture!

The audience for the second Barber performance was crawling with Supers. John R. (�Film�) Martin, feeling much better after his recent surgery, was ushering and looking great: He hopes to be back on stage later this season. Karen and Albert Goodwyn were there too. Albert has just finished stage-managing 64 performances of the play Shakespeare's R&J at the New Conservatory Theater. Charlie Lichtman (also in the audience) caught one of the final performances of the play and was very impressed. In the lobby it was a delight to bump into Opera Mom Pat Beresford, in town for a few minutes. She is still traveling from opera house to opera house, so expect to see an update of �Around the World with Pat Beresford� any day now.

A Coup for the Right

Speaking of one-super operas: If you were sitting in the house-left section for any of the performances of Pagliacci then you would have missed Tom Carlisle 's sterling performance as a gesticulating priest trying to keep his over-excited schoolboys under control. Super Jim Downey made a point of occupying a vacant house-right seat for the second part of the verismo double bill in order to see that super moment.

The Other White Meat

As excitement builds for the November 23rd Annual Party at Fort Mason, Ulrica knows that many of you are preparing your Hammy acceptance speeches. But as you tearfully thank your agents and families she hopes you will pause for a moment and appreciate the little pig you are clutching to your breast. That handcrafted pig will be the work of long time Super John Janonis. John has been making the Hammies for longer than anyone can remember and tries to tie the pig's accessories in with one of that season's operas. As I am so closely identified with the Marschallin it was appropriate that my first Hammy was a tribute to Der Rosenkavalier, with the pig holding a tiny silver rose. John isn't supering this season but has promised to bring home-made dolmas to the next bake sale so watch out for them. When you are next in downtown San Francisco stop and buy a bouquet from him at the flower stand outside the San Francisco Center on Market at Fifth.

Kit and Kaboodle

And if you are reading this then you probably don't subscribe to the print version of The Spearhead. If you did you would know what a great job editor and lightwalker Kit Duane does with it, keeping the important highlights of the website and skillfully synthesizing Ulrica's excessive verbiage into a few succinct paragraphs. The print version goes out every two months or so to a small group of Supers who bravely refuse to go online.

Out and About

Culture Vulture Ulrica was out and about this weekend, not only at the Barber performance but also doing San Francisco Artists' Open Studios. While reading the Bay Area Reporter at the beauty salon she spotted the work of Super (and SFO Production Department employee) Michael Schoenig. So she made a beeline (bumping into Andrea Kohlruss en route, playing tour guide to Austrian friends) to 19th and Collingwood where Michael was exhibiting his very accomplished Realist paintings for the third consecutive year with the Gay and Lesbian Artists Alliance. Michael returned to art school in 1998 in his native upstate New York and has been painting ever since, sadly leaving little time to carry spears. He was exhibiting two spectacular allegorical pieces based on the iconic Saint Sebastian as well as a series of beautiful, though stark, seascapes and desert landscapes. Particularly striking was a painting of islands off the Brittany Coast that Michael had visited and where Chateaubriand de Chateaubriand is buried (that would be author François-René, who died in 1848, not the steak). There was also a stunning still life with contrasting textures of basket weave and red silk that Ulrica might have been tempted to buy, had it not had a little red dot at its side. Check out Michael's nicely presented website.

 Also exhibiting with GLAA this past weekend was former Super (is there such a thing or, as Carrie Bradshaw might wonder, �If we've ever carried a spear for someone does that mean we'll be super all our lives?�) Barry Nielsen. Barry was exhibiting his homoerotic works, many using an acrylic paint that responds to ultraviolet light, which gives them an interesting spatial quality and eerie glow: wonderful after-dark paintings for up-all-night viewing.

Barry had a lot of Supering experience in the late 80s and early 90s, appearing in many operas including televised productions of L'Africaine with Placido Domingo and Shirley Verrett, Dangerous Laisons with Flicka and Thomas Hampson, and the 1988 La Bohéme with Pavarotti and Mirella Freni.

Also doing artful things is Super Michael Strickland . Check out his photo-essays being featured every Monday evening on �Foto Tales� from 6 � 6:30 p.m. on Channel 29 (Public Access cable channel in San Francisco). Michael spent a whole year taking photographs and each week shows seven days worth of photos, many with an operatic theme, in a slideshow format. Michael has returned to supering with a bang, appearing in this year's Don Carlos and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Welcome back, Michael!

Anyone who supered in the early 90s will fondly remember Michael's t-shirt designs, including the Don Carlo �Throw Another Heretic on the Barbie, Bishop� as well as the �Slaves of Elektra,� which a close friend informs me is still in the t-shirt collection of Dame Gwyneth Jones.

Supers Marcel Delgado, Charlie Lichtman and Andrew Korniej answered a recent call for extras for a community-based movie being shot in San Francisco's Mission District and called, appropriately �The Mission Movie.� The film follows several story lines based on the lives of Mission characters and is tentatively scheduled for a January release. Watch for the super trio in the war protest scene, holding a giant blue man-puppet. Puppet holding seems to be a specialty for Charlie, who held up a bride doll in this past summer's Faust, and is holding a heretic doll (known as �Zippy the Heretic� or �Sponge Bob Sackcloth Pants�) in Don Carlo.

And finally as another edition of Ulrica draws to a close she realizes that she has failed to mention actor and Super Grove Wiley in the column and doesn't want him to feel neglected so �Hello, Grove!�

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