Escape to Freedom

by Sandy Moore
Vocalypse Productions

At Scotiabank Stage
Thursday, June 6 at 7:00pm - $20 plus tax
Friday, June 7 at 9:00pm - $20 plus tax
Saturday, June 8 at 2:00pm - $20 plus tax

ESCAPE TO FREEDOM, a Vocalypse Production, is a workshop presentation of composer Sandy Moore’s 12 scene opera for Soprano (Janice Isabel Jackson) and Ensemble based on the life of Mona Parsons (1901–1976) from Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

The opera focuses on Mona’s WWII experiences (1941-1945) - her arrest, interrogation, sentencing, deportation, captivity, and escape from Vechta prison during an allied bombing raid in March, 1945. With the help of prisoner Wendelien van Boetzelaer, a young Baroness, also with the Dutch resistance, she made a harrowing journey through war torn Germany to the Dutch Border where she was rescued by Canadian Soldiers. An unlikely war hero, Mona Parsons has been recognized through citations for her courage in sheltering members of Allied forces.

The Escape To Freedom presentations come on the heels of a workshop which has been generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. With thanks to Eastern Front Theatre and Sam Rosenthal for supporting the first presentations of this new opera.

Michelle Piller appears with the permission of the Canadian Actor’s Equity under the D.O.T. contract.

The Team

Sandy Moore - Composer
Award-winning composer: film (Best Original Scores) – theatre (Merit nominations), dance, concert, and site-specific performances. Notable: TV – Trudeau; Film – Assholes: A Theory, (John Walker); Theatre - Macbeth (NAC/Citadel); Concert - Echoes of Time Weeping (Soprano/Tape). “This opportunity for a workshop and concert presentations of this project has been a vital step towards the development and completion of a performance ready score and I sincerely thank all those involved. I have sustained a poetic and nonlinear approach to the libretto, and a lyric, reflective style in the music to convey the fragility of life juxtaposed with the forces of brutality, still much too real in our world today.”

Janice Isabel Jackson - Mona Parsons
Janice Isabel Jackson has sung over 220 world premieres, many works written specifically for her, and
performed with contemporary music ensembles and in concert halls around the world – Beijing, Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Torino, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Berlin, Johannesburg, Cape Town and more. She has appeared in countless contemporary music festivals including the November Festival (Ghent), Wien Modern (Vienna), Ludwigs Lust (Hamburg), The Proms (Amsterdam), IRCAM (Paris), Big Torino 2000 (Turin), the Diem Festival of Electro-acoustic music (Denmark), and Temp’ora (France). She is also the Artistic Director of the Halifax based contemporary vocal music society Vocalypse Productions and was awarded the 2018 Friends of Canadian Music Award by SOCAN and the Canadian Music Centre.

Barbara Pritchard - Pianist
Barbara Pritchard is active in Halifax as an accompanist, chamber musician and solo pianist. She enjoys playing a wide range of repertoire, but specializes in performing music from the 20th and 21st centuries. She studied music at the University of British Columbia, Ljungskile Folkhogskola (Sweden), The Banff Centre for the Arts, and the Eastman School of Music. For several years she was a faculty member in the Banff Centre's New Music Residency program, and she has taught courses in 20th century piano music for the Dalhousie University. Miss Pritchard is a member of the Canadian Music Centre and the Atlantic Federation of Musicians and is designated Canadian Music Centre Ambassador – for her commitment to the performance of Canadian music.

Ruusu-Maaria Brousseau - Ensemble and Wendelien van Boetzelaer
Finnish mezzo-soprano Ruusu-Maaria Brousseau is a fresh graduate of the Fountain School of
Performing Arts, with a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance. She is a student of professor Marcia Swanston. In recent years she has performed Lazuli’s role in Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’Étoile (2019) and sung the role of the third lady in the Fountain School’s production
of W. A. Mozart's the Magic Flute (2017). She has also been a member of the opera chorus for
Ralph Vaughan Williams' Rider's to the Sea (2016) as well as the ONS production of Gustav Holst's Savitri (2017). Ruusu-Maaria is a Nova Scotia Talent Trust scholarship recipient.

John Lindsay-Botten – Interrogator, Willem Leonhardt, General Douglas MacArthur
Since 2004, John Lindsay-Botten has been active in Greater Halifax with church music and presently acts as Minister of Music and Dramatic Arts at Knox United Church in Lower Sackville. With Opera Nova Scotia he performed Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienne as well as Massenet’s Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame He performed the role of the former PM in Vocalypse Productions’ presentation of George Elliot Clarke and D.D. Jackson’s Trudeau: Long March, Shining Path. On the small screen, he’s been featured in the Trailer Park Boys and Mr. D. Recently, he also appeared occasionally at Grafton Street Dinner Theatre in Sound A’Music, B’ye!

Linda Moore - Director
Linda Moore would like to thank Sam Rosenthal for the opportunity to explore and develop the opera Escape to Freedom, at the Stages Festival. The opera is written by composer Sandy Moore and produced in collaboration with Soprano Janice Jackson of Vocalypse Productions who is singing the central role of Mona Parsons. We are fortunate to have a wonderful company of singer/actors to help us begin to shape and realize this new work. Moore recently worked on The Lear Project with Leon Major as a special feature for Neptune - and will be at Festival Antigonish this summer directing A Brimful of Asha.

Patrick Maubert – DeBoer (Mona’s Chauffeur), Aric (a soldier)
Patrick Maubert received his associate degree in Musical Theatre Performance from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy of New York City and a master’s degree in Musical Theatre Creative Practice in Directing at the Arts Educational Schools of London, England. As a performing artist, Maubert has worked internationally in a range of cross-genre projects from musical to physical theatre. Select international credits include: John and Jen, Neptune Theatre Chrysalis Showcase Me and My Girl, NYC Off-Broadway revival; Cinderella, CBroadway U.S Tour; Wizard of Oz, UK Tour; The Diamond Horseshoe Revue, Tokyo Disneyland; Unforgettable, UK Tour; Chasing the Money, Theatre New Brunswick. For several years Patrick has been touring internationally as a member of The 12 Tenors.

Tom Roach - Percussion
A proud native of New Waterford and graduate of Berklee College of Music, Boston, Tom is a long-established “first-call” drummer in Halifax. His career has spanned decades and includes countless live performances, hundreds of recording sessions, and years of international touring. Tom has recently retired after serving 16 years with the Stadacona Band of the Royal Canadian Navy. He has resumed his freelance career and is currently on the music faculty of St. Francis Xavier University. In 2006 Tom’s debut recording won the ECMA for jazz recording of the year.

Ross Thomson - Ensemble, Dirk Brouwer, and Judge
Living in Truro, Ross’s eclectic singing career has embraced musical theatre, opera, choral work and music education. His opera roles include: Danilo (Merry Widow), Giusepppi (The Gondoliers), Escamillo (Carmen), Gianni Schicchi, the Father (Hansel and Gretel), Figaro (Barber of Seville), Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Dandini (La Cenorentola), Papageno (Magic Flute), Koko (Mikado) and Bob (Old Maid and the Thief). Appearances with Symphony Nova Scotia have included Bach's beautiful cantatas "Ich habe genung" and the "Coffee Cantata". Currently, he is a featured soloist with the "Rhapsody Quintet" on their first CD, “The Melody Lingers On. He will appear as Major-General Stanley with Maritime Concert Opera later in June. He is a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

Michelle Piller - Ensemble
Stage: Great Harbour (Hogtown Collective Halifax); Bluenose; Kamp (EFT / 2019 Merritt Award Outstanding Production);This Is Nowhere (Zuppa Theatre); Lunenberg; Hope and Gravity (Festival Antigonish); Hogtown (Hogtown Collective / Dora Award nomination Outstanding Ensemble Independent Musical Theatre); Street Scene (Long Reach Opera); Murder in Noirville (Orillia Opera
House); I Do, I Do (Stage West Calgary); Side by Side by Sondheim (McManus Theatre); Assassins (Talbot Theatre); I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Tribal Productions); Nunsense (Port Stanley Theatre); Beautiful City; Possible Worlds (Hit and Run). Film and television: The Stall Boy; Designated Survivor;
The Next Step; The Twelve Dates of Christmas. Instagram and Twitter: @Time4ANewStory

Rianna Robinson - Ensemble
Rianna Robinson is a newly graduated voice performance student from Dalhousie University where she studied with mezzo-soprano Marcia Swanston. Rianna has participated in several operas with Opera Nova Scotia and with Dalhousie Opera including 2nd lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Aloës in Chabrier’s L’Étoile. Rianna will be continuing her studies in a Masters of voice performance at the University of Toronto in September.

Emily Jewer - Stage Manager
Emily is an actor, director and artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She graduated from Mount Allison with a BFA and spent a year training with Neptune PPTP program. Credits include: Asst. Directing: Shakespeare in Love; KAMP; Salt Water Moon - Neptune Theatre; Hamlet - Below the Salt; Director: The Jewish Wife -Chrysalis Project Showcase; Heathers - WhaleSong Theatre; Doubt a Parable - TAG; Actor: Stop Kiss - WhaleSong Theatre; Spirits, 30/60, Too Much Light - Up the Hill Theatre; Drood, Proof - TAG; Company - Dartmouth Players; Haven -Syfy/Showcase; Stage Manager: Echoes of Time - Vocalypse Productions. Emily also works as a photographer with her company MJ Photographics.