Previews: THE SECOND HURRICANE at Stray Dog Theatre

On August 7, 2025, Stray Dog Theatre will continue its season with the youth opera The Second Hurricane. Composed by Aaron Copland, with a libretto by Edwin Denby, The Second Hurricane premiered in 1937 at The Playhouse in New York City. That original production was directed by a then 21-year-old Orson Welles and starred a young Joseph Cotten. 

In 1985, the rarely staged operetta was revived in celebration of Copland’s 85th Birthday. A young Gary Bell, the founder and artistic director of Stray Dog Theatre, was cast as part of the ensemble.  

Bell talked about his good fortune being cast with some extraordinarily talented 18-and-19-year-old leads who already had impressive professional theatre credits on their resume. “I was very inexperienced. I learned a lot about music, singing and diction.” 

The Second Hurricane has only been produced a handful of times since its 1937 premiere. In the fictional story based on real events a group of students get trapped on an island after venturing out to rescue the victims of a hurricane. While trapped, the students learn tolerance, courage, and the spirit of freedom in the time of danger.  

Bell will direct the Stray Dog Theatre’s production of the Copland operetta. He has tapped John Gerdes to serve as conductor and music director. The company will feature 35-artists, an ensemble of 23 voices supported by an orchestra of 12 musicians. Bell says, “it will be quite the show. It is a lot of performers for the size of our stage. The sound will be big and strong in this performance space.” 

When asked about the musical motif of the opera, Gerdes says, “It is unmistakably Aaron Copland. The opening chords are those big open sonorities. It is, for lack of a better word, the bounciness you hear in his “Billy the Kid” ballet.” Gerdes says that the harmonies let you know that the piece was written by a 20th-century American composer.  

Gerdes shared that a few of the ensemble members have opera backgrounds, but most of the singers come in with musical theater experience. He has spent an immense amount of time teaching the company how Copland composed the piece and what it means to perform as part of an operatic ensemble singing with an orchestra. 

Bell conducted an extensive search to find the right performers, especially the seven young singers who will perform the principal roles. “I visited schools, talked with the students, and exposed our Stray Pups program students to the project. I’ve never spent this amount of time casting a production.” Bell says he’s extremely excited about the amazing and talented singers he has hired. “I feel very fortunate to have found them.” 

High school and college students Wesley Balsamo, Jabari Boykin, Soren Carroll, Ben Hammock, Nadja Kapetanovich, Cece Mohn, and Bryn Sentnor will sing the seven principal roles. They will be joined by 10 voices in an adult choir and another six singers in a youth choir.  

“The young singers that we found have been well trained and came in with good pitch,” says Gerdes. “My main work so far has been refining their delivery, rounding vowel sounds, and teaching them to not cut off their consonants.”  

He calls the libretto a musical mix between traditional opera and a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. “It has a lot of clipped phrasing. Again, it is unmistakably Copland, some of it sounds a bit jazzy like Gershwin, and some of the closeness reminds me of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók.”  

Bell says, “Because Copland wrote this with young people in mind, I find it to have a very youthful spirit, even when the music is intense.” He said revisiting this piece and hearing it sung again makes him realize how profound his experience was performing this opera in New York City in front of Aaron Copland.  

“Audiences are going to want to see this because it is unique and hasn’t been done in St. Louis before,” says Bell. “This is a unique art form that needs to be explored and cherished.” 

Gerdes echoed Bell’s sentiments about what a different theater going experience this will be. “People are really going to enjoy the amazing singers and the beautiful music.” 

Stray Dog Theatre’s production of Aaron Copland’s The Second Hurricane will run August 7 – 30, 2025. Performances are held at the Tower Grove Abbey. Tickets can be purchased online by clicking the link below.