Art Chowder September | October, Issue 23 | Page 39

B ackstage are dressing rooms for both small and larger groups of performers and a green room, equipped with a kitchenette, sofas, and table-and- chair seating, which serves as a lounge for performers. Both types of rooms have large video monitors to show exactly what is happening onstage in real time. The Woldson Center also includes the 168-seat Martin and Edwidge Woldson Recital Hall (named in honor of Miss Woldson’s father and mother), and the Design Center, an interdisciplinary classroom and laboratory for integrating costume, lighting, set design, and performance. The opening gala of April 25-28, “A New Season: A Celebration of Artistry, Place, and Potential” utilized the entire stage and the aisles in a highly ambitious attempt to showcase the capabilities of the new facility and the artistic accomplishments of Gonzaga students, with a performance of contemporary English composer Alec Roth’s 2012 work, A Time to Dance. The composition contains song settings for seasonally-inspired poetry extending back to the Roman poet Ovid and carried forward by English-speaking poets of the British Isles and America. Some familiar names come to mind here: John Donne, Robert Herrick, William Blake, W.B. Yeats, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Emily Dickinson. And yet the cornerstone of the work comes from a verse in the Book of Ecclesiastes that predates them all: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” With the 31-piece chamber orchestra already on stage, the program opened with a large processional singing, “To every thing there is a season,” as it flowed through the aisles and onto the stage. Thereafter, each “season” in the cycle of the program began with works of original student poetry read by a company of nine student actors, followed by a series of poetic songs accompanying performances by the 29 student dancers. As the seasons changed, so did the scenes displayed on the suspended ribbon screen and the costumes of the actors and dancers, some of which were simple and others elaborate. The program closed with a processional “Afterdance” accompanied by the refrain “For Dauncing is Love’s proper exercise,” taken from “The Praise of Dancing” by Sir John Davies (1569- 1631). 1 This was the first time so many Gonzaga departments had collaborated in concert, in a state-of-the-art campus facility, and it came off essentially without a hitch. Sound, sights, lighting, dancers, musicians, singers, costumes and more — a masterpiece of musical, theatrical, and choreographed artistry that raised the bar of live performance in Spokane by several octaves. 2 The Martin and Edwidge Woldson Recital Hall showing the panels rotated to reveal dance practice mirrors and portable ballet barres, with the Jundt Museum Art Center in the reflection. photo: Courtesy of Gonzaga University The debut of the Gonzaga Symphony came a few days later, with a performance of Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome, under the direction of resident conductor Kevin Hekmatpanah. The surprise came near the end of the Pines when the horns sounded from the boxes below the balcony. From every direction, the production was a musical triumph. The announcement of the 2019-2020 season promises a broad variety of performances styles and genres. For a listing of events please see online: https://www.gonzaga.edu/myrtle- woldson-performing-arts-center/events September | October 2019 39