Light Opera Works to Unveil New Name in 2017 Season

As Light Opera Works' 35th season recently concluded with December performances of GUYS AND DOLLS, general manager Bridget McDonough and artistic director Rudy Hogenmiller announced the company will debut a new name, to become official in its 2017 season.

McDonough said, "After 35 years, we've decided to make a change. Light Opera Works has been a wonderful name for a long time, but we feel it no longer tells the full story of who we are and what we do."

"The company will remain a home for light opera -- for example, Die Fledermaus is on the 2016 season," she continued, "but we are also the home of Broadway classics, Great American Songbook concerts and popular educational programs for young people. We would like our new name to reflect the diversity of our repertoire and programs."

Hogenmiller said that people unfamiliar with the company often ask "if we perform short -- 'lite' -- versions of grand operas. There's nothing 'lite' about our productions! We pride ourselves on full-scale stagings of musical theater classics. Everything from Gilbert and Sullivan and Franz Lehar to Lerner and Loewe and Jerry Herman, with big casts and full orchestras. We need a name that gives people a sense of that."

No name has yet been chosen. McDonough and Hogenmiller asked for input from the Light Opera Works audience at the GUYS AND DOLLS performances. "Suggestions have begun pouring in," said Hogenmiller. "Our audience is not shy!"

Submissions are being accepted at info@lightoperaworks.org through January 31, and McDonough and Hogenmiller plan to announce the new name at the company's annual gala on April 16, 2016, at the Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield.

Light Opera Works is a resident professional not-for-profit theater in Evanston, founded in 1980. The company's mission is to produce and present musical theater from a variety of world traditions. All productions are presented in English, with foreign works done in carefully edited modern translations. Maximum scholarship is employed to preserve the original vocal and orchestral material as well as the spirit of the original text whenever possible. Audiences have come to know that at Light Opera Works they will experience repertoire often unavailable on the stages of commercial theaters and opera houses, in modern productions with professional artists and full orchestra.

Light Opera Works' mission is to produce musical theater from a variety of world traditions, to engage the community through educational and outreach programs, and to train artists in musical theater.

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