Football Players on Opera Stage.

[garland sooner]

In case you are interested, there are several football players taking part in Handel's Julius Caesar opera as Egyptian guards for Cleopatra. I had to usher at Holmberg Hall for the night and I got a kick out of seeing them acting on stage.

There are a couple more shows left, tomorrow and Sunday. So, if you want to see them, go ahead.

Names of those on stage:
Billy Blackard,
Quentin Chaney,
Jon Cooper,
Lendy Holmes,
Eric Huggins,
Manuel Johnson,
Cordero Moore,
Allen Patrick,
Demarrio Pleasant,
Duke Robinson,
Fred Strong,
Daniel Tabon,
and DJ Wolfe.

Story goes (as told to me from a Dramaturgy major since i'm an engineer and didn't know about it until then):

The Opera needed some strong people to carry the Cleopatra from off stage to on stage by a chair and they extras for her army so they called the Football team for help. They gave each person 3 hours of fine arts credit in exchange for 2 weeks of rehearsals and 3/4 shows.

[MamaMia]

Oh how cool! :D
I sure would love to go, but alas, I have company this weekend.

[Jimminy Crimson]

That's pretty cool.

Reminds me of 'Saved by the Bell', when (I forget which one) Zach or Slater needed another credit to graduate and joined in the school production of Swan Lake. :cool:

[goingoneight]

Saved by the Bell... how old am I getting these days? :O

[GottaHavePride]

Story goes (as told to me from a Dramaturgy major since i'm an engineer and didn't know about it until then):

The Opera needed some strong people to carry the Cleopatra from off stage to on stage by a chair and they extras for her army so they called the Football team for help. They gave each person 3 hours of fine arts credit in exchange for 2 weeks of rehearsals and 3/4 shows.
I was in the room when that was first suggested. The orchestra director mentioned needing some big guys to play guards and soldiers. A former Pride trumpet section leader (yes, the Mann-cub) said "well, why don't we call over to the athletic department to see if we can get some of the football team to do it? that would be sweet." It all went from there. And they're doing a great job, and really seem to be getting into it. They like it because they get to run around shirtless showing off their muscles and carrying spears. Heh.

oh, and Duke Robinson is is about the most gigantic royal guard you'll ever see.

There's a show tonight at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 pm.

[OUBabe]

I went to the performance last night and they were so serious about their roles and very professional.

The hub.ou.edu has some slides from the performance on Thursday