through an outreach program supported by Tulane. And his plans for community involvement don’t end there. He is already looking around the city, checking out the local theatre offerings, meeting with artistic directors from other theatrical organizations and trying to find niches he can fill. “I’m going to be doing some independent producing in New Orleans,” McKelvey said. “I’m trying to find where there’s a need in the local theatre scene. Is there a genre or style of show that’s not being done by somebody and that I feel there’s an audience for? I went to a lot of theatre this year and I’ve gotten pretty close to some of the other artistic directors. I’m just trying to see what other theatre people are doing so I can get some idea of what’s needed.” Continuing, McKelvey added, “I really love small chamber musicals; like two- , three- and four- person shows, and I don’t see a lot of that kind of work in New Orleans. So I’m hoping that might be something I do.” Regarding his theatre outreach program in the local schools, “The Story Road Project,” McKelvey said “It is definitely going to continue. What we’re doing is taking a piece of new musical theatre based on the folk story ‘Stone Soup’ and performing it. A friend of mine wrote a really beautiful musical based on that story and it’s all about community and not being afraid of people who are different from you and things like that.” During the past school year, McKelvey and his group from Tulane took the program to four area schools, one of which was in the 7th Ward. The group performed six on-site performances and two at Tulane, which were open to the public free of charge. “This year we’re hoping to expand that,” he noted. “We have some grants that we’ve written out there, so, if they come in we can expand our outreach.” The coming school year’s programs will be staged in the spring of 2017. Consistent with his mission to introduce more young people to the theatrical experience, McKelvey expanded Tulane’s summer workshop offerings for young people to include two additional age groups. All three workshop groups staged productions this past summer involving over 100 youngsters between the ages of 8 and 18, and McKelvey reaffirmed that this will continue next summer and beyond. Coming on board in time for Summer Lyric’s 50th Season next year, McKelvey outlined ambitious plans for a Golden Anniversary Gala that will serve as both a fundraiser and a retrospective tribute to the directors, actors, choreographers and other support staff who have graced the Lyric stage over the past half-century. The Gala, McKelvey hopes, will also serve as a vehicle for showcasing the 2017 Summer Lyric Theatre Season schedule, using actors from all three productions to stage excerpts from them. “We’re trying to bring back a lot of our alumni,” McKelvey explained. “A lot of our former artists are in New York and we’re hoping they might come back for that. And a number of local artists haven’t been on a Summer Lyric stage in years, so we’d like to get them back up there as well. “I always believe in paying homage to the people who made you,” McKelvey added. “I really want to show the respect that Frank Monachino and Michael Howard deserve. If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be here.” The 2017 Summer Lyric Season very likely will, as always, be announced one show at a time over a three-week period. That process will probably begin right after Thanksgiving, McKelvey said. This fall finds McKelvey splitting his time between New Orleans and Austin where he still heads up a theatrical production company that he founded. Around Halloween his company will be staging Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, which recently wrapped up a wellreceived off-Broadway run. If successful in Austin, McKelvey hopes to bring the production to New Orleans. Following the run of that show in Austin, McKelvey will be in New Orleans for the remainder of the cultural season and through next summer. A native of Southern California, McKelvey received his doctorate in music from the University of Texas – Austin. Starting out as a lyric baritone opera singer, he headed up the Voice Department at Pittsburgh’s Point Park University before returning to Austin to produce and direct shows for several companies, including the one he founded. During a career stretching over three decades, McKelvey has served as musical and/or vocal director for more than 80 different shows. Discussing the shows he envisions bringing to the Summer Lyric stage, McKelvey hinted that he will be looking outside the box toward productions that have little or no prior performance history in New Orleans. He isn’t ruling out scheduling popular pieces in the standard theatrical repertoire but, as he explained, “What I’m going to look for in Summer Lyric in the future are pieces that we think will be in the repertoire for the next 50 or more years.” Summing up his first year in New Orleans, McKelvey had this to say: “I’m trying to, if I can, raise our level of production. I’m willing to bring in performers when we can’t fill a role properly with someone local, but I am committed to casting as many locally. I want to continue to raise the level of what we do in every aspect of our productions without raising ticket prices tremendously, and to also make sure our performers are compensated. Most importantly, Summer Lyric will continue its tradition of presenting quality Golden Age musical theatre with wonderful sets and costumes, and, of course, full orchestra – the way these wonderful shows were meant to be presented.” �� S E P T E M B E R / O C TOB E R 2 0 1 6 breakthrumediamagazine.com | BREAKTHRU MEDIA | 25
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