The WKU Department of Theatre & Dance along with the WKU Department of Music is tackling not just one opera this spring, but two.
The overall theme of the evening is "It’s Complicated: Love, Comedy Opera!" and the performance features two operas: Joseph Haydn's La Canterina and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury. The production runs April 4-7 at the Russell H. Miller Theatre at WKU.
Liz Walker, a sophomore from Taylorsville, Kentucky is stage manager for the production.
“Even though they’re old classics they have a lot of jokes that still transfer and every time I watch them I notice more things and it gets funnier and funnier every single night and I never get tired of it,” said Walker.
Walker says she’s wanted to be in theatre since she was in sixth grade and aspired to follow in her older sister’s footsteps “it just instantly felt like a home and something where I could have a nice creative input,” she said.
That involvement and interest from a young age has proven valuable as she’s been given an opportunity not often bestowed upon sophomores.
“Typically, this would be a senior’s job to be the stage manager for a production like this,” said Walker. “But I got chosen to do this and I got asked to fill this position, so I am being able to jump ahead get right into what I’d be doing in the professional world and get that experience so I can build a nice resume before I go out.”
“I’m the person who will run the show and makes sure everything goes smoothly. The director sometimes might not even be there and I’m the person that gets to take care of all of that and bring everything together,” said Walker.