South Alabama audiences have a full slate of live performances to choose from this October, with a comic opera classic returning to downtown Mobile, a beloved stage drama opening in Chickasaw, and a free outdoor concert planned near the Baldwin County coast.
Mobile Opera brings back “The Barber of Seville”
Mobile Opera is staging Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” a comic opera that has remained a favorite for two centuries and gained even wider recognition thanks to its long association with Warner Bros. cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny.
“When everyone, including Bugs Bunny, has covered an aria, you have to know that it is a keeper,” said Mobile Opera Executive Director Scott Wright.
The story follows Figaro, a village barber and jack-of-all-trades, as his romantic scheming and elaborate deceptions spiral into comic chaos. The production features an eight-person cast and an all-male chorus under stage director Eric Gibson, a veteran of several past Mobile Opera productions, including a version of “The Mikado” reimagined inside a Japanese hibachi restaurant.
“[Gibson] is brilliant at comedy and you can always count on him to make the details count,” Wright said.
Performances are set for Oct. 19 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. at The Temple Downtown, located at 351 St. Francis St. in Mobile. Tickets are $45 and $30, with $10 tickets available for students. Those interested can call 251-432-6772 or visit mobileopera.org for more information.
Chickasaw stages the story of Helen Keller
Alabama natives have long taken pride in Helen Keller, the Tuscumbia-born author and advocate whose early childhood was upended by an illness that left her blind and deaf before she turned 2. Her life changed when teacher Anne Sullivan arrived at the Keller family home in 1887, beginning a relationship that helped Keller eventually become the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree.
That story is the basis for “The Miracle Worker,” playwright William Gibson’s stage adaptation of his own 1957 “Playhouse 90” teleplay, itself drawn from Keller’s autobiography. The show dramatizes the difficult, breakthrough-filled early partnership between Keller and Sullivan.
Chickasaw Civic Theatre will present the show at the Lola Phillips Playhouse, located at 801 Iroquois St., running Oct. 12 through Oct. 21. Friday and Saturday performances begin at 7:30 p.m., with a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $15.75, or $12.50 for students, seniors and military. For tickets or more information, call 251-457-8887 or visit cctshows.com.
Baldwin Pops plays a free concert at the beach
For those closer to the coast, the Baldwin Pops Band will perform a free concert on Oct. 14 at 4 p.m. at the Orange Beach Library Green, 26267 Canal Road. The program includes selections from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” and Justin Hurwitz’s “La La Land,” along with works by Henry Mancini, Pierre La Plante and William G. Harbinson.
The concert is sponsored by the city of Orange Beach, and the Baldwin Pops Band receives additional support through a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. More information is available at baldwinpops.com or by searching for the Baldwin Pops Band on Facebook.
Together, the three performances give South Alabama residents an opportunity to take in opera, drama and orchestral music without leaving the region, from downtown Mobile to the Gulf Coast library lawn in Orange Beach.