Dead Men Do Tell Tales at the Strand

The title of the York Symphony Orchestra Saturday Symphony collaboration, "The Composer is Dead," doesn't immediately make it sound like the good kind of educational.

But bring your sense of humor and you might warm to the snarky ironic wit of Lemony Snicket -- yes, the "Series of Unfortunate Events" author -- and the music of Benjamin Britten, finding yourself both educated and engaged through dual, possibly dueling, audiovisual tours of the orchestra.

The York Symphony Orchestra's annual collaboration with Greater York Dance and DreamWrights Youth & Family Theatre promises to be the good kind of entertaining.

This year, the orchestra took the lead on the program.

"Some years we select the music; some years Dr. Baker does," says Lori Pergament, artistic director and CEO of Greater York Dance, referring to the orchestra's conductor and artistic director, Robert Hart Baker, as she describes how she fell in love with the music at first listen. "(Got) the music to listen to -- so stirring, so adorable -- I begged them to let me do a ballet. As soon as I heard the music, it was very danceable."

Dance: Pergament is forging a new interpretation. "The Composer is Dead," a narration for orchestra written by Lemony Snicket with a musical score by Nathaniel Stookey, debuted in 2006, but dance is a new addition to its charms.

"As far as I know, dancing had never been done before," Pergament says. "There's no one to replicate. It's completely what we needed to have told (about the story)."

In late December, when the Midstate Ballet dancers wondered what was next after "The Nutcracker," Pergament revealed her plan.

"I pulled out the music (and) talked them about it," she says. "We found it very creative, very funny."

The story involves an inspector trying to solve the mystery of why composers played by orchestras seem always to be "decomposing," as Snicket puns it.

The inspector interrogates each section of the orchestra in turn.

"We have dancers who are portraying strings, violas, trumpets. Dancers are the instruments," Pergament says. "It was a challenge to create the costumes. We have flute headpieces, spiral curves at the top for the strings."

Theater: Shannon Hallisey, the education director for DreamWrights, also is building from scratch with the help of the actors bringing Benjamin Britten's "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" to life.

"It's an interesting piece, not particularly dramatic, different from years previous, focusing more on parts of the orchestra," Hallisey says.

Hallisey and the rest of the DreamWrights crew decided to set it in a classroom and bring out the stories they heard in the music. For many of the actors, it's their first exposure to Britten's piece, based on a Henry Purcell rondeau -- a repeating musical theme -- written to accompany Aphra Behn's play "Abdelazer."

Hallisey recalls the first session, where they listened to a version done by the Boston Pops. "At first, they were worried. The narrator spoke in a monotone. But when we started talking about the music itself and what it sounded like, they got excited."

The woodwinds and their waltz-like mood inspired talk of a scene set in a royal ball. What the actors want the audience to understand, Hallisey says, is "something fun is happening, something amusing."

That will be conveyed with movement. The actors have no lines to memorize; their entire focus is on dramatic movement.

"It's more pantomime -- bigger, more expressive," Hallisey says. "We try to really emphasize telling the story to the audience with movement."

Purpose: The goal is to really know the piece of music and transfer that concentration and awareness to the audience.

Both DreamWrights and Greater York Dance have been collaborating with the orchestra for more than five years. Hallisey said the DreamWrights team wasn't sure what to expect at the beginning, but "the movement part of it made it more focused for the audience, underscoring what happens, opening up the world of music."

Pergament hopes the audience will range over all ages.

"This is very good for children of all ages. Older children will understand the jokes, (and) there's nothing really dark."

Both groups of movers will be trying to bring the audience to the realization that, as Hallisey puts it, "this music is useful. It's not just a bunch of old guys playing; people are still writing classical music now."

For a bargain price compared to the average symphony ticket, the audience can take part in an ironic, amusing tribute to a still-living force.

-- Reach Michelle Denise Norton at 854-1575 or news@yorkdispatch.com.

Have a seat

The Saturday Morning Symphony performance of "The Composer is Dead," a collaborative effort of the York Symphony Orchestra, DreamWrights Youth & Family Theatre and Greater York Dance, will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 3, at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center, 50 N. George St. After the performance, an Instrument Petting Zoo will be open for attendees to try out musical instruments.

Tickets are $8.

For more information, call 846-1111 or visit www.strandcapitol.org.