There's Beauty in the Beast
by One Ounce Opera

Oct. 23 - Oct. 31, 2015
Fridays-Saturdays

OOO Presents a World Premiere! A 45-minute operetta in three acts: There’s Beauty In The Beast, a transgender tale of love, betrayal and Frankenstein, with music and libretto by Michael Nesline and harmonic realization by Steve Saugey. Dialogue by Nesline and Saugey.

Dr. Frankenstein, with Egor’s assistance, is in the last stages of completing The Creature, and is exultant. Meanwhile, Mrs. Frankenstein, upon discovering the nature of the work her husband has been bringing home from the office, is appalled. In another part of the mansion, Egor and the maid, Lazie Suzan, discover they have some very important things in common, especially when it comes to feeling comfortable in their own skin. Egor imagines a possible solution to this problem, one involving Dr. Frankenstein’s “brain wave” device. Mrs. Frankenstein, lovelorn and feeling despondent, realizes that she too has a possible use for the device, one with slightly different results. There is mayhem (and a little bit of murder!), but in the end, love is revived, and everyone lives – if somewhat differently, – very happily ever after!

More about the creators:

Michael Nesline was a founding member of Esther’s Follies, where he was a principal performer from 1977 until 1979, when he moved to New York City with ambitions of becoming involved in the downtown performance scene, then in its heyday. Between 1979 and 1985, he originated the roles of Flo Ballard in Flo, She Don’t Know: The Unauthorized Story of The Supremes; Mounds in Peter Paul and Mounds: The Untold Story; and Lentil: The Little Bean That Could, based on Barbra Streisand’s opus Yentl. Along with Tri Garraty and Stephen Evasew, Michael opened Limbo Lounge, the legendary 1980’s East Village nightclub where numerous performers who went on to establish legitimate stage and screen careers first performed, including Karen Finley, The Alien Comic, Charles Busch and a very young Mike Iveson. In 1984 Michael costarred in Eva Braun: A Musical Fantasy, the infamous off-Broadway show where he learned the difference between drama and psychodrama when, during the second performance, the actor cast as Adolf Hitler went off script and threw his leading lady across the stage and into the audience by the scruff of her neck. A critic in the audience that night described the show as being “literally hair raising.”  

In 1985, in response to the exponentially increasing AIDS crisis, Michael earned a degree in Nursing Science and spent the next 25 years seeing to the medical and psychosocial needs of people infected with HIV. He was also a founding member of the AIDS activist group Act Up (the AIDS Coalition To Unleash power) as well as Gran Fury, the AIDS Activist Art Collective who’s award-winning public work continues to arouse conversation and controversy in addressing the social, corporate and political ramifications of the AIDS crisis. Gran Fury’s billboards, posters and signage continue to be seen around the world, most recently in Beijing, China. There’s Beauty and The Beast: a transgender opera of love, betrayal and Frankenstein, is Michael’s first opera. He is very happy to be back in Austin, renewing his artistic relationship with Steve Saugey.

Steve Saugey has been a bright light in Austin’s musical performance world since 1977 when his musical review, Microwaves; A Musical Salute to the Bicentennial debuted at Waller Creek Theater. In 1977, Steve was a founding member of Esther’s Follies; from the very beginning, he was a principal writer, performer and composer. In 2001, Steve left the Follies to serve as rehearsal pianist for Austin Ballet, a position he now holds at the University of Texas School of Dance. Steve has been the pianist for many of the musicals produced by Austin theater companies, including Austin Musical Theater, Austin Playhouse and the Penfold Theater Company. He has worked many times with Michael McKelvey, a well known presence in the world of Austin musical theater. With Lyova Rosanoff, Steve was commissioned by the Austin Lyric Opera (now Austin Opera), to write The Bat, a retelling of Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, relocated from Vienna, Austria to present day Austin, Texas. Steve is the composer for, and composer and artistic director of The Austin Flops who have performed at the Paramount Theater on more than one occasion. Steve was inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame in 2014. Currently, an original ballet set to Steve’s musical mash-up of West Side Story and The Rite of Spring is being planned for spring 2015. His life is, in Steve’s words, just fine.

 

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There's Beauty in the Beast
by Michael Nesline and Steve Saugey
One Ounce Opera

Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. at a private residence in Austin, TX

Tickets and details at OneOunceOpera.com

Six performances. Friday, October 23 + 30 at 7pm. Saturday, October 24 + 31 at 7 and 10 pm*. Only 40 seats available for each performance. Enjoy spooky pre-show entertainment, enough booze to make you snarky, and stuff to munch. Don’t miss out! Tickets available soon.Mark your calendars!

*FINAL SHOW HALLOWEEN PARTY! Saturday, October 31st, 10 pm only. Special live band performance and other goodies.