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FROM: Lisa Middleton Director of Marketing

MEDIA INQUIRIES:

Holly H. Gilson [email protected] 312­827­5939

Magda Krance [email protected] 312­827­5924 Casting Announced for Kamaria Morris Lyric Opera and ’s production of [email protected] 312­827­5928 Longer! Louder! Wagner! The Second City Wagner Companion The original musical comedy production inspired by RING THE SECOND CITY composer Richard Wagner runs October 27 – October 30 Jana Liles [email protected] 312­664­4032 (9/14/16) – Lyric Opera and The Second City announced casting today #LyricSecondCity for the actors and singers who will headline Longer! Louder! Wagner! The Second City Wagner Companion, the original musical comedy inspired by the life of Richard Wagner, creator of the epic four­part Ring cycle.

Longer! Louder! Wagner! will feature The Second City company members Jesse Case in the role of Richard Wagner and Tim Ryder as his descendant, Fred Wagner, along with actors Randall Harr, Sayjal Joshi, Alice Stanley Jr., and Travis Turner. Soprano Tracy Cantin (an alumna of Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center) and bass­baritone Jonah D. Winston round out the cast.

Longer! Louder! Wagner! is Lyric’s second collaboration with The Second City, the first being The Second City’s Guide to Opera, which went on to have a month­ long run in the summer of 2013 and won two Joseph Jefferson Awards. Longer! Louder! Wagner! is written by Timothy Sniffen and directed by Anneliese Toft. Jesse Case, the music director for The Second City Guide to the Opera, returns as composer, sound director, and musical director. The dramaturge is Stuart Carden.

"The Second City Guide to the Opera was a terrific debut collaboration in 2013, and we're thrilled to be working together again,” says Lyric’s general director, Anthony Freud. "Writer Timothy Sniffen and music director Jesse Case’s work on the Guide to the Opera was outstanding, and we can't wait to share with our audiences the hilarious material they have created for Longer! Louder! Wagner!"

“The Second City is so thrilled to continue our relationship with our friends at Lyric Opera with Longer! Louder! Wagner!,” said Erica Daniels, president of Second City Theatricals. “We have brought Timothy Sniffen and Jesse Case back for this second collaboration and joining them are many Second City folks including actor Tim Ryder and director Anneliese Toft, along with Lyric performers and creatives. Our companion piece to Wagner's Ring cycle is sure to amuse as we dive into the very interesting life, psyche, and imagination of Richard Wagner.”

Longer! Louder! Wagner!, the newest collaboration between Lyric –through its Lyric Unlimited division– and The Second City, brings audiences to 1848 Germany, where Wagner first began work on the Ring cycle, to modern­day Bayreuth, the home of Wagner’s personally­designed opera house. The original production hilariously illustrates the lasting effects of Wagner’s massive masterpiece and the headaches an opera company might encounter trying to mount this behemoth. Note: show may contain inaccurate German accents.

With a running time of approximately 80 minutes, Longer! Louder! Wagner! opens Thursday, October 27 at 7pm and will have six performances through October 30. Shows will take place backstage in Lyric’s William Mason Rehearsal Hall, giving ticket holders a unique opportunity to enjoy the show within the spaces rarely seen by the public. The space will be transformed into an intimate, comedy club­like venue, and food and beverage service will be available. Ticket prices are $35, $45 and $65 and can be purchased by visiting lyricopera.org/secondcity or by calling 312­827­5600. Tracy Cantin (Valerie), a Canadian soprano and recent graduate of ’s prestigious Ryan Opera Center, earned critical acclaim at Lyric as Berta/The Barber of Seville. She has also appeared with the company in Elektra, Rigoletto, Parsifal, and most recently – for the opera’s final two scenes – in the demanding title role/Anna Bolena. Cantin’s repertoire also includes leading roles in operas of Mozart, Johann Strauss, Verdi, Puccini, Dvořák, and Britten. In concert she has been heard as soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Australian debut with Bryn Terfel, Sir Andrew Davis, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in A­flat, and Bernstein’s Songfest. Cantin has recently made acclaimed debuts at the , Grant Park Festival, Oregon Symphony, Illinois Philharmonic, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. She will make her Canadian debut with Edmonton Opera in 2017. Among Cantin’s numerous awards are a Sullivan Foundation Award, a Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award, a Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation career development grant, and first place in Canada’s prestigious Lois Marshall Memorial Competition.

Jesse Case (Richard Wagner) is thrilled to be making his Chicago acting debut. At The Second City, he's served as the Musical Director for five original revues on both e.t.c. and Mainstage, and his numerous theatrical productions there include composing and co­ writing The Second City Guide to the Opera, the first collaboration with Lyric in 2011. He's made music and sound for a wide variety of plays, short films, pilots, web series, and documentaries, and his production credits include a bloated, overindulgent rap album by T.J. Miller for Comedy Central Records. Randall Harr (Dirk) has been performing with the Second City as an actor, writer, and Communications Facilitator since 2003. He also spent two years in Amsterdam performing with the Comedy Theatre, BOOM CHICAGO! Some of Randall’s Second City credits include, ‘Who's yer Baghdadi?’ and ‘No Shirt, No Shoes, No WMDs’ (Second City Cleveland), ‘American Mixed Tape’(Denver’s Garner Galleria Theatre) ‘Sex and the Second City’(National Tour), ‘Rod Blagojevich Super Star’ (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), ‘Peach, Drop, Stop and Roll’ (Atlanta's Alliance Theatre) and ‘#DateMe’ (UP Comedy Club). You can also see Randall performing with the Improvised Shakespeare Company at the IO Theater.

Sayjal Joshi (Marguerite) hails from North Carolina where she earned her BA in Theater from UNC Greensboro and co­founded Greensboro’s first improv comedy club, The Idiot Box. For fifteen years she has been writing, performing, and teaching theater, sketch, improv, video, guitar comedy, and stand­up all over the universe. Credits include The Kennedy Center, The Goodman, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Zanie’s Comedy Club, The Laugh Factory, The Second City National Touring Company, The Annoyance Theater, iO, ComedySportz, Laugh Out Loud Theater, and critically acclaimed Asian­ American sketch ensemble, Stir­Friday Night! Tim Ryder (Fred Wagner) was previously seen in Apes of Wrath and Soul Brother, Where Art Thou? on the Second City e.t.c. Stage. An alumnus of The Second City Touring Company, he has performed in The Second City Guide to the Opera, The Second City Improv All­Stars, Baby Wants Candy, The Beatbox, and in shows at iO Chicago (The Improvised Shakespeare Company, Chaos Theory, The Deltones) and ComedySportz. You might have seen him in videos for The Onion, the webseries Game Bros or on Chicago Fire and Sirens. He also voices the Elvish archer DQ in the popular podcast Hello From the Magic Tavern.

Alice Stanley Jr. (Karen) is a proud South Side native. Her plays have been performed in eight states and counting­­including with Alaska’s Last Frontier Theatre Conference and at The Goodman as a winner of ’ New Play Bake­Off. Previous comedy credits include The Chicago Funny Women’s Fest, Chicago Sketchfest, CHIMIF, ImprovAcadia, iO Chicago, and Second City Boat Co. Travis Turner (Gunther) returns to Second City having previously appeared in revues at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, La Jolla Playhouse and the Hubbard Street Dance collaboration, The Art of Falling. He also understudied the role of Puck in Lyric's 2010 production of Britten's A Midsummer Nights Dream. Other recent Chicago credits include The Flick at Steppenwolf Theatre and Thaddeus and Slocum at Lookingglass.

Jonah D. Winston (Morgan) made his Lyric debut last season as the Maître D’/The Merry Widow. A native of Indianapolis, the actor recently appeared as Judge Luca Van Deelsteldonk/Leo Fall’s The Girl on the Train at Chicago Folks Operetta. Winston has performed with numerous theater companies in the Indianapolis area, including the Sapphire Theatre Company (Lysistrata), the Indiana Repertory Theatre (Wild Horses), and the Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre (Oklahoma!, Camelot, A Christmas Carol). Among his numerous Chicago credits is his portrayal of Antonio/Twelfth Night at the . He will appear in the 's production of A Christmas Carol this winter. Winston is a graduate of Flinders University Drama and Film Center in Adelaide, South Australia, as well as Indiana’s Butler University, where his roles included Salieri/Mozart and Salieri and Elpina/Torquato Tasso’s Aminta.

Tickets for Longer! Louder! Wagner! The Second City Wagner Companion are on sale now and can be purchased at lyricopera.org/secondcity or by calling 312­827­5600.

Wagner’s Ring cycle, inspired by Norse sagas, centers on the magically powerful ring made from stolen Rhine gold, which sets in motion a series of catastrophic and unexpected events and consequences for gods and mortals alike that unfold over four individual operas. Lyric will present Das Rheingold in the 2016/17 season, followed by Die Walküre (2017/18), Siegfried (2018/19), Götterdämmerung (2019/2020), and finally the full Ring cycle of all four operas in the spring of 2020.

About Lyric

Lyric Opera of Chicago’s mission is to express and promote the life­changing, transformational, revelatory power of great opera. Lyric exists to provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to Chicago and the nation, and to advance the development of the art form.

Founded in 1954, Lyric is dedicated to producing and performing consistently thrilling, entertaining, and thought­provoking opera with a balanced repertoire of core classics, lesser­known masterpieces, and new works; to creating an innovative and wide­ranging program of community engagement and educational activities; and to developing exceptional emerging operatic talent.

Under the leadership of general director Anthony Freud, music director Sir Andrew Davis, and creative consultant Renée Fleming, Lyric strives to become

The Great North American Opera Company for the 21st century: a globally significant arts organization embodying the core values of excellence, relevance, and fiscal responsibility. Visit www.lyricopera.org for more information.

About Lyric Unlimited

Lyric Unlimited is a long­term, evolving initiative that encompasses company activities that are not part of Lyric’s mainstage opera season. Its mission is to provide a relevant cultural service to communities throughout the Chicago area and to advance the development of opera by exploring how opera as an art form can resonate more powerfully with people of multiple backgrounds, ethnicities, and interests. It also leads the development of innovative partnerships with a wide range of cultural, community, and educational organizations to create a breadth of programming through which Chicagoans of all ages can connect with Lyric. In the 2014/15 season, more than 126,000 children, students, and adults participated in Lyric Unlimited activities. For more information about Lyric Unlimited program offerings, visit lyricopera.org/lyricunlimited.

About Second City Theatricals

Second City Theatricals produces an eclectic array of entertainment in venues worldwide. Recent productions include The Second City's Almost Accurate

Guide to America, a customized show for The Kennedy Center; The Art of Falling, a critically acclaimed collaboration with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

(Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles); Let Them Eat Chaos (The Woolly Mammoth Theatre); #DateMe, an original comedy in partnership with OK Cupid and;

Death of a Streetcar Name Virginia Woolf, with . Upcoming productions include Unelectable You, a political show in partnership with

SLATE Magazine. The Second City Theatricals is the exclusive provider of sketch and improv comedy for Norwegian Cruise Line.

Generous support provided by The Wallace Foundation.

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