“Mr. Twister and the Tale of Tornado Alley”

A touring opera for youth and family audiences, June 2022 - September 2023.

Marc Hoffeditz, Composer & Librettist
Brenda Huggins, Stage Director, Puppetry Artist, and Co-Producer
Sonja DuToit Tengblad Co-Producer and Climate Activist, Mothers Out Front East Boston

SEPTEMBER TOUR: BROOKLINE, CAMBRIDGE & WORCESTER

NEW TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED!

About the Event: Through the power of his magic telescope, Mr. Twister can see just about everything — except the family reunion of the North and South winds that’s about to create a cyclone in Tornado Alley! Join us for a global musical adventure (with puppets!) about science and climate. Recommended for ages 3 & up. Run time: 45mins.

Creative Team & Cast

Marc Hoffeditz - Composer & Librettist

Brenda Huggins - Stage Director, Puppetry Artist, & Co-Producer

Sonja DuToit Tengblad Co-Producer and Climate Activist, Mothers Out Front East Boston

Eve Budnick Music Director and Pianist

Marcus Schenck (Baritone) as Mr. Twister

Leo Balkovets (Tenor) as Bobby

Isabelle Zeledón (Mezzo Soprano) as South Wind

Marsé Alaundra (Soprano) as North Wind

Costume Design by Nancy Ishihara

Props Design by Maria Laird

Produced in partnership with the Puppet Showplace Theater, Mothers Out Front Worcester, East Boston, and Brookline, the East End House, with funding from the Boston Foundation's Live Arts Boston, Cambridge Arts Council, Brookline Arts Commission, and the Worcester Arts Council.

Creative Team

Marc Hoffeditz (Composer & Librettist)

Marc Hoffeditz (he/him) is a librarian and occasional composer of dramatic vocal music living in Boston, Massachusetts. His library-related interests include resource sharing, scholarly communications, and copyright. His musical interests include the dramatization of mundane events and the exploration of queer aesthetics through the operatic medium. He has been fortunate to work with numerous operatic and vocal organizations, including the New York Opera Festival, NANOWorks Opera (Delaware, OH), Hartford Opera Theater, Opera Elect (Boise, ID), and One Ounce Opera (Austin, TX). Most recently, he was the winner of Poptart Punk Opera’s 1st Call for Scores for his chamber opera Non Motus. The same work was recently nominated at the 2020 B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Production of Music Theater and Outstanding Original Score. Marc has currently stepped away from writing music to finish his Masters of Library and Information Science at San José State University. If/when he gets back into the swing of things, he’d like to explore writing more children’s operas as the process of creating and seeing Mr. Twister come to life has been incredibly rewarding.

Sonja DuToit Tengblad (Co-Producer and Climate Activist,
Mothers Out Front East Boston)

Soprano Sonja DuToit Tengblad has appeared as a featured soloist with A Far Cry, the Boston Philharmonic, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Boston Baroque, the Handel and Haydn Society, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Minnesota’s Bach Roots Festival. A recent highlight was her Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center debuts with the New York City Chamber Orchestra. Sonja performs with the Lorelei Ensemble, Blue Heron, Cut Circle, and the Grammy-winning ensemble Conspirare. Upcoming highlights include Julia Wolfe’s Her Story with Lorelei and five American symphonies and performances of her award-winning program Modern Dickinson. In 2019, Sonja founded Beyond Artists and with every performance supports the Eden Reforestation Project, Singers Of This Age, and Braver Angels. She is the founder and coordinator of Mothers Out Front East Boston and teaches at Wellesley College and Harvard University.

Brenda L Huggins (Stage Director, Puppetry Artist, Co-Producer)

Brenda Huggins is a Boston based theater director, dramaturg, puppetry artist and applied theater practitioner with a deep interest in new work development, public art, and creating intimate and culturally resonant productions of classical opera. Upcoming projects include Dramaturgy and Assistant Director with White Snake Projects, "Monkey: A Kung Fu Puppet Parable" (2023), and "La clemenza di Tito" with Opera del West at the BCA Plaza theater (2023.) Additional directing projects include "Mr. Twister and the Tale of Tornado Alley," a touring opera and puppetry public art work in partnership with local Climate Activists (2022-23), NEMPAC Opera Project’s Le nozze di Figaro (2023), Guerilla Opera’s Emergence Composer Fellowship (2020), CantantiProject’s Teseo:Medea (NYC, 2019), Opera del West’s Pepito (2022), The Clever Artifice of Harriet and Margaret (2019), Le Portrait de Manon (2017), Signor Deluso (2017), Don Pasquale (2016), Le nozze di Figaro (2015), and The Seagull (2014). Specializing in theater for young audiences, Brenda co-created a series of interactive puppetry performances for the very young with live music, “Puppet Playtime” and performed in residence at the Puppet Showplace theater from 2013 to 2016. Brenda holds an M.F.A in Theatre Education and Applied Theatre from Emerson College, and is the Director of Performing Arts at the Colleges of the Fenway, Boston MA.

Eve K. Budnick (Music Director & Pianist)

Eve founded Opera del West years ago, and has music directed over 20 productions for the company. “Eve Budnick’s reputation for excellence is well-known in the business” (Thomas Pasatieri, composer). OdW has performed at venues in Boston, Cambridge, Natick, and Framingham. Eve is the Chair of the Voice Department at Rivers School Conservatory She taught Diction for the Voice Department at Boston University and Diction and Vocal Literature at University of Connecticut. She was repetiteur for MassOpera’s Workshop production of “Freedom Ride” at The Strand Theatre and has been a Music Director and Pianist for Opera Boston and for Boston Opera Collaborative. Eve has performed in faculty recitals at the University of Connecticut, Boston Conservatory, and Princeton University. Eve holds a bachelor’s degree in Musicology from Princeton, a master’s degree in Vocal Accompaniment from BU, and a graduate diploma in Collaborative Piano from New England Conservatory.

Cast

Marsé Alaundra (North Wind)

Soprano, Marsé Alaundra (North Wind) has always used singing as a way to escape. As an only child, singing was her way of creating a space of comfort, clarity, and creativity. Her passion for singing started as a little girl who sung jazz standards at the kitchen table after dinner with her grandmother. When she began her bachelors degree in 2014, she discovered her potential as a soprano and her new found love for classical music. "Empathy is the driving force in my musicality. I aim to create a space where my audience can emotionally connect to me and my character. I believe being able to feel my vulnerability and emotion during a performance will cultivate an amazing listening experience for an audience member who is willing to join me in the musical journey."

Marcus Schenck (Mr. Twister)

Marcus Schenck is a Boston-based baritone and is delighted to return to the title in this touring production of Marc Hoffeditz’s Mr. Twister and the Tale of Tornado Alley since the workshop premiere in 2019. Recent performances include the Baritone Soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols and as the Bass Soloist in Mozart’s Krönungsmesse with the Arlington-Belmont Chorale and the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra. with Opera on Tap Boston in their explorative and intimate ‘I Am What I Am’ concert, and Nick Bottom in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Miami Music Festival. Other notable performances include Lore in The Maid of Orleans with Opera Company of Middlebury. Don Bartolo (The Marriage of Figaro) with Boston Opera Collaborative, The King (The Little Prince) with NEMPAC Opera Project, and Le Gouverneur (Le comte Ory) with Lowell House Opera.

Leo Balkovetz (Bobby)

Tenor, Leo Balkovetz is a performer of operatic, choral and chamber music in the Boston area. In 2018, he graduated with a Master's of Music in Historical Voice Performance from the Longy School of Music where he sang the role of Vaguas in Vivaldi's Juditha Triumphans with Early Music group Eudaimonia. He has also performed in “La Sonnambula” (The Notary), “Fidelio” (1st Prisoner) and the world premieres of “You Reap What You Soul” (Guy) and “Bedbug” (The Reporter) with Promenade Opera Project and the world premier of “NIGHTTOWN” (Buck Mulligan) with Lowell House Opera. As an oratorio soloist, Leo has performed across the state in Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Mass in C. You can also find him at open mics or on social media as @yaboileonidas

Isabelle Zeledón

Nicaraguan-American soprano Isabelle Zeledón (South Wind) seeks to forge cross-cultural connections through music. During the 2020-2021 season, Ms. Zeledón produced and performed in Mezcla de Raices, a virtual recital exploring Latinx identity through the last three centuries, in Santa Fe. In 2019, she joined the Boston Lyric Opera chorus and has performed in their productions of Champion (2022), Norma (2020), and Pagliacci (2019), The Handmaid’s Tale (2019). Past operatic highlights include Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Alcina in Alcina, Almera in Dark Sisters, and Frau Fluth in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor.

Ms Zeledón was a NYIOP + Premiere Foundation Competition semi finalist in 2020 and 2021, and won third place in the 2020 Classical Singer Fall Competition. In 2017, Ms. Zeledón participated in the inaugural year of the Boston Conservatory’s Opera Intensive in Valencia, Spain, where she was an Advanced Artist. In the summer of 2016, Ms. Zeledón was an Advanced Artist at OperaWorks. Ms. Zeledón received her Professional Studies Certificate in Voice Performance and M.M in Opera Performance at the Boston Conservatory. She obtained a B.M. in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory and a B.A. in International Relations and German Studies from Tufts University.