Crucible makes sparks with fire opera

Oakland Tribune, Jan 6, 2006 by Laura Casey, STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND

IN the classic production of Kurt Weill's "Seven Deadly Sins" -- to be performed four evenings next week at The Crucible by San Francisco Opera singers, the Oakland East Bay Symphony orchestra and a cast of dozens of other artists -- lead character Anna struggles to balance acquiring material wealth against her love for the arts.

It is a struggle The Crucible's Michael Sturtz knows all too well as director of the nonprofit arts organization in West Oakland. It is a theme woven through the lives of everyone who comes through The Crucible's doors -- staff, volunteers and students.

"A lot of our students identify with needing to make money and needing to make art," he said. "For me, my staff and everyone around here there's that balance, and we're playing with that balance through the opera."

Perhaps that is the reason Sturtz chose "Seven Deadly Sins" for The Crucible's second stab at producing an opera with fire effects. The piece is also fitting because this month marks the seventh anniversary of theart space opening to the public.

Sturtz launched his dream -- to create a premier educational and industrial arts center -- six months after receiving his master's degree in fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He landed a $1,750 grant from Levi Strauss & Co. and began teaching classes in a 6,000-square-foot warehouse in Berkeley.

He taught four of the seven classes offered and roped in volunteers to help grow his dream.

Today, The Crucible owns a 56,000-square-foot building on Seventh Street and teaches

4,500 adult students a year through almost 600 classes in metal fabrication, kinetics, ceramics, wood carving and many other disciplines. An additional 800 school-age students circulate through the warehouse on field trips each year.

More than 500 volunteers donate thousands of hours each year.

Sturtz is now in charge of a $1.8 million operating budget, which The Crucible supports through its annual Fire Arts Festival in July and the upcoming opera.

Although performed by professionals, The Crucible's production of "Seven Deadly Sins" probably will not ever be seen at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House or Oakland's Paramount Theatre.

The opera's lead dancer, Lee Kobus as Anna II, will bend glass with a kiln as she oscillates across the stage. A team of blacksmiths will pound red-hot metal on stage, sometime before or after a flaming casket makes its debut.

The Crucible's Fire Opera is just different.

"It is fund raising, it's awareness raising, and in this we are creating an amazing piece of art," Sturtz said.

Although the arts of opera and the symphony are as classic as the art forms taught at The

Crucible, such as blacksmithing and glass-blowing, each discipline usually attracts a different set of disciples.

The mixing of the two -- black-tie symphony-goers and the Carhardt-wearing Burning Man devotees -- will benefit all organizations involved, as it did two years ago when The Crucible hosted its first opera.

"This is the first time we have been asked to participate, and we are really thrilled about the new collaboration," said Jennifer Duston of the Oakland East Bay Symphony.

For its part, the symphony has been hosting a variety of acts to spark a younger audience's interest in classical music, staging performances with popular turntablist DJ Spooky.

"Seven Deadly Sins" opens Wednesday and runs through Jan. 14. Organizers expect the opera to sell out -- they turned away 1,000 people from the last show two years ago. All shows are at 8:30 p.m.

General admission tickets are $25, reserved seating is $50, and VIP tickets for the Saturday night artists' reception and show are $100. All proceeds benefit The Crucible's art programs.

Buy tickets online at http://www.thecrucible.org/opera or call 444-0919.

The legendary Odetta, described as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, teams up with baritone Robert Sims to perform "Let the Spirituals Roll On," a fundraising concert for the Oakland-based Friends of Negro Spirituals. Primarily known as a folk singer, Odetta has frequently performed spirituals and in October released an all-Negro Spirituals album, "Gonna Let It Shine."

Ghanaian Master Drummer Pope Flyne will open the program, and well-known Bay Area pianist and choral arranger Jacqueline Hairston will lead the audience in singing Negro Spirituals in the traditional style. It is at 3 p.m. Sunday at Beth Eden Baptist Church, 1183 10th St., Oakland. Tickets are $30.

Listings

- Today -- Excellence: High School Awards Show Exhibition, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Oakland Art Gallery, 199 Kahn's Alley, Oakland. Reception and ceremony Jan. 19, 5 to 8 p.m. Exhibit through Jan. 20. Visit oaklandartgallery.org for gallery hours.

- Tonight -- "Walkin Talkin' Bill Hawkins ... In Search of My Father," in this one-man show, W. Allen Taylor tells the intimate story of his life-long search for his father, the first black disc jockey in Cleveland, Ohio, 7 p.m. The Marsh, 2118 Allston Way, Berkeley, $5 to $22. Through Jan. 28. Visit TheMarsh.org for dates and ticket prices.