ROOTABAGA OPERA clip

The standout gig of the evening was Dan Cantrell's "The Rootabaga Opera," a musical-theatrical thrill ride through the Bay Area's American, Chinese, and Eastern European cultural roots, inspired by the children's stories of poet Carl Sandburg. The piece was done up in style with a massive cast of singers (including the luminescent Kitka), dancers, musicians, puppeteers, and performance artists. Blasts of fire punctuated the entertaining storyline, which had something to do with Newsies, trains, and an adorable goat and goose, though it was impossible to follow the narrative in the chaos of the multisensory overload. Of course, this didn't matter as the soundtrack entranced, moving deftly from country hoedown to uptown jazz to Tom Waits-like carnival antics, Brechtian drama, haunting folksong, and so on.

Dan Cantell is an Emmy award winning composer who currently creates the soundtrack for The Cartoon Network's, "Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack." Dan has recorded with Tom Waits and Joanna Newsom. He is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts.

Video edited by Christine Marie

cast: dan cantrell eric perney jason ditzian ryan francesconi freddi price meredith yayanos patrick kalinski shira cion janet kutulas leslie bonnett elizabeth setzer caitlin austin elizabeth castaneda melissa castaneda reesa dye andy start julianna seligman ben turner hunter reidy angela mae thompson emily butterfly jessie rose vala russel howe caryl klietz leslie dreyer arielle halpern ben turner goobie herms fae comiskey larry reed mark bullwinkle christine marie

complete video and HD edit coming soon!

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Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• music
• theater
• puppetry

[samanthahasthorpe]

YAYYYYY DANNYYY