THE OPERA HOUSE

Who would’ve thought that a small town in north eastern North Dakota would have such culture?

New Rockford, North Dakota is such a place....

Have you ever heard of the Dakota Prairie Regional Center For the Arts?   A friend introduced me to these events last year and what I am about to describe is the second event that she and I have experience together in the past several months. Last Fall, we went to the drama/play, The Woman In Black. What an experience!!!  Have you seen this play or this movie?  You should, because it is a very moving and deeply thought provoking production.  This winter the Opera House had a production of a Christmas play. We missed that because of previous obligations, but we knew we wanted to see more of what this fine, local, cultural event had to offer.

New Rockford is a town of about 1,500 population. This weekend, the Spring of 2012, we went again to the latest production of the DPRCA.  (Google it to see what's up.)  The spring production is a musical/play entitled: ALWAYS...PATSY CLINE.    We love the short lived life and music of Patsy Cline and thought this would be an experience we would really enjoy. That is an understatement!!!! After all, how well could a small town drama group portray such a superstar???

Susie Sharp played Patsy Cline. Who is Susie? She is the New Rockford City Librarian! Patsy's friend and “business manager”, Louise, was played by Kathy Teschner who is the administrative assistant to the middle school principal at Ft. Totten ND. For any of you who are fans and followers of Patsy Cline, you would appreciate the historical accuracy and significance of the players in this production, not to mention the wonderful and entertaining music of the era. At least WE appreciated it!!!!

“Patsy” sang no fewer than 28 of Patsy Cline's hits during this performance. To top it all off, the musical accompaniment was portrayed as The Grand Ole Opera’s backup band. This included musicians who played piano, drums, fiddle, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, steel guitar and Dobro, LIVE.   As I said before...Who would’ve thought??? And all of these musicians were local!!!! What talent we have here in the Northern Plains!!!

Now, why would we want to travel all across the US in order to see Grand Musicals and Stellar Performances when all of that, as well as Grand Symphony performances (more on that later) are right here in our back yard???? I can answer that for you, but I'm sure you know the answer already......