BWW Exclusive: Glow Lyric Theatre's Christian and Jenna Elser Announce 2021 Summer Festival Season

Time to Glow On!

Executive and Artistic Directors Christian and Jenna Elser announced today the Glow Lyric Theatre 2021 Summer Festival Season, featuring three new and completely original productions at the Fred Collins Performing Arts Center at Greenville's Kroc Center. This summer's Festival Season will run August 19-29, 2021.

First up is ROCK OPERA, a 90-minute fusion of opera, musical theatre, pop and rock created to respond to our collective Covid-19 experience while celebrating the spirit of human resilience.

Next will be PASSIONE, featuring operatic arias and love duets performed by tenor Hugo Vera from The Metropolitan Opera and soprano Marina Harris from the San Francisco Opera.

Finally, Glow co-founders (and married couple), Christian and Jenna Elser, star in THE JENNA & CHRISTIAN SHOW, described as "a humorous and intimate cabaret highlighting the Elsers' charming love story, their creation of Glow, and an array of your favorite music from the Golden Age of Broadway."

Every season, Glow partners with a non-profit agency related to that season's theme. This year the theme is #GlowOn, and their partner is mental health awareness organization Walt's Waltz.

We asked Christian and Jenna to open up about their process in assembling a new season, the ways they're handling safety protocols, and how they plan to #GlowOn.

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BWW: Tell us how you went about putting together this season. I expect your pivot to all original content must be related to safety protocols, but would love to hear your thinking.

Jenna: We knew with needing to limit audiences this year that the shows we originally choose for our postponed 2020 season (which had casts of upwards of 30 people each), weren't going to work out safely. However, at Glow, a big priority for us is that we analyze what is going on in our community, country and world, and respond in an immediate way with our season through our shows. We really felt this year that we needed to "start over," and take the time and opportunity to respond to what we have all collectively been through this year- the pandemic, racial reckoning, division. So that's what we are doing! We have also loved getting to showcase the people that make up Glow through our virtual programming in 2020. We think this upcoming season is a way to keep that personal connection we've created with our audiences while we were all isolating, as well as fulfill our mission by confronting what we've been through and celebrating what lies ahead.

Christian: We had to make a call on the season (what we would or would not be doing) over the winter. Producing theatre is always a gamble, and I do often feel like I'm running the Bialystock and Bloom Production Agency. Not knowing if it would be safe enough to produce the planned 2020 10th Anniversary Season of Elton John & Tim Rice's AIDA, Showboat and the opera Tosca was a gigantic financial gamble. Our other option was to simply to postpone until 2022, and I will admit that option was solidly on the table up until March. But, in the end we knew that in times like this, art can say so much and lift us up. Art is not only for the times that we are comfortable, it's there for us in our dark, lonely, and troubled times as well. It is food for the soul. Therefore we decided to take a more modest gamble and still produce three shows, but shows that would require only a cast of 9 plus our live band over the course of two weeks. We refused to compromise on the quality of our productions, so these will still be the same fully produced Glow shows you've come to love, along with the same amazing professional performers and designers from SC and around the country. The original nature of our productions was partially a practical consideration, but I would say equally artistic. It's been well over a year since most of our artists have performed, and frankly, we have a lot to say. Jenna and I thought, well, I think we need to let them express themselves through some structured devised pieces - of course, featuring all of the music that our audiences have come to love, but with a personal artistic twist. Honestly, we're are SUPER excited about this season!

BWW: Glow always puts together a season around a theme. Tell us about #GlowOn and what that means to you, and how you want to see that theme play out in your productions.

Jenna: We chose #GlowOn as our season theme because it means a lot of different things to us. It means that we are able to "go on" with live performances, and this is a historic moment for us! We were devastated when we had to cancel our 10th Anniversary Season, but even being able to announce this 2021 season means that we are inching closer to doing what Glow was made to do and what we have been really missing- sharing relevant, innovative, personal stories in person, together. #GlowOn is a commitment to "go on" and continue the work we promise our audiences- work that sparks dialogue and ignites change in the Upstate. #GlowOn means we are fighting to keep arts alive here. You'll see riffs on the #GlowOn theme on all our marketing as well. We'll be creating virtual content that we are calling #GlowOnTopic, where our actors, designers, and musicians weigh in on current topics in round table discussions. The point has, and always will be, for Glow to deepen discussion on the themes in our productions.

BWW: Tell us about Walt's Waltz and how that partnership came together.

Jenna: I had my eye on Walt's Waltz since Executive Director Susan Crooks formed the organization. I was deeply moved and inspired by how she so freely tells the story of losing her son to suicide, and how personal her mission is to get people the mental health resources they need, and in doing so, save lives. What could be more important than that? We choose season partners each summer whose missions connect to the themes and discussions that are present in our shows, so when I thought about the fact that our shows would be a reflection of the last year and half, I knew that mental health had to be a part of our conversations and actions. Thanks to Walt's Waltz, Christian and I are now both certified Mental Health First Aid responders, and they'll also be curating some virtual pre-show content that explains the connections between mental health and the arts.

BWW: Opera - and choral singing in general - is a big challenge in this COVID era. How do you think your rehearsals and performances will differ from quote unquote "normal" times? How will it be the same?

Christian: We are, right now, planning on following guidelines that have been set by Actor's Equity and the CDC, as well as our local government. We are creating a Covid Safety Re-Opening Plan that will be published. Luckily for Glow, we are going to have a 100% vaccinated company: from the entire staff down to all of the performers and instrumentalists. This actually allows actors to rehearse and perform without masks - so from the audience's perspective, the shows will look the same as ever. Right now, I think we are assuming that the audience will be masked, and we will only be selling our shows at 50% capacity to accommodate social distancing. Luckily, the flexible seating at the Kroc Center allows for some pretty easy social distancing between seats, so we're grateful for that! Things are changing rapidly, so we are keeping our finger on the pulse of the recommended guidelines to keep everyone safe. Theatre that is not done safely just isn't worth the risk.

BWW: What are you most excited about for this new season?

Jenna: What am I not excited about is really the question! Seeing our patrons, who I've missed dearly, and whose support has made this season possible. Getting to create with this fabulous cast, face to face. Hearing live music again. Performing with Christian, the love of my life. Truly, this summer is going to be a dream come true.

Christian: MAKING ART - I think we've all been starved of it for too long! And again, from our production of ROCK OPERA which will fuse Musical Theatre and Pop with Opera, to PASSIONE: a real treat for opera lovers sung by two international opera stars, to THE JENNA & CHRISTIAN SHOW: the original cabaret that Jenna and I will be performing in, singing ALL of your Golden Age Musical Theatre hits, and telling lots of fun Glow stories - this will definitely be Glow's most innovative and original season to date. And that says a lot!

Jenna: I really, really hope that people will jump on the opportunity to support live theatre again- in the same way they have been supporting their favorite restaurants, businesses and churches. The arts are often held to different safety standards than other businesses, but our survival depends upon our ticket sales and donations. Also, we are limiting our audiences to less than half of what we normally sell in a season to accommodate for social distancing, and we usually sell out our performances each summer at full capacity. We are prioritizing our past season subscribers and others who would like to become season subscribers. I can't emphasize enough that when tickets go on sale, you get them as soon as possible!

Christian: PLEASE COME SUPPORT THE LIVE AND PERFORMING ARTS! Companies like Glow have survived by the mere skin of our teeth over the past year and a half. We NEED our audiences to return to the theatre and support us. Without them, there is no Glow!

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Season Subscriptions are available by purchasing a Festival Pass for $105. Festival Pass Holders receive a 15% discount and an automatic upgrade to reserved seating.

June 14: Festival Passes open to past season subscribers

June 25: Festival Passes open to the general public and group sales open July 5: Single Tickets open to general public

Purchase tickets by phone: 864-558-4569 or online at

https://glowlyric.com/summer-festival-season/

PHOTO CREDIT: Will Crooks