Media
(Left to right) Kristi Davis, Rochelle Clark, and Chris McMullen rehearse in a makeshift version of the fictional UP Buckhorn Bar.
Rochelle Clark and Brad Phillips, playing the leads and love interests, flirt under the watchful eye of the Old Man, a Buckhorn Bar regular played by David Menefee.
Brad Phillips and Rochelle Clark play the leads and love interests meeting for the first time in the Buckhorn Bar.
(Left to right) David Menefee, Kristi Davis, and Brad Phillips rehearse in a makeshift version of the fictional Buckhorn Bar.
(Left to right) Kristi Davis, Chris McMullen and Rochelle Clark rehearse in a makeshift version of the fictional Buckhorn Bar.
An interview NCO Director Ron Miller and actor David Menefee (who plays "Grandpa") had with Cheboygan Opera House Director Owen Evans Goslin discussing the upcoming performance of North Country Opera at the Cheboygan Opera House, Monday, 10/10, 7:30 p.m.
For ticket and performance information for the Oct. 10, 7:30pm performance of North Country Opera at the Cheboygan Opera House visit: https://ci.ovationtix.com/36618/production/1136438
Press
"North Country" Fare: The 40th-Anniversary Edition of Jay Stielstra’s Folk Opera Sails Into The Ark
Forty years ago, Jay Stielstra was playing his songs to enthusiastic listeners around Ann Arbor, mostly at Mr. Flood’s Party, a bar that once stood on 120 West Liberty. Bouyed by the response to his tunes, the folk singer decided to write some continuity and put them together in a play, North Country Opera.
“The main thing that carries it are the songs,” Stielstra says. “I asked other musicians I knew in Ann Arbor if they wanted to be in a play, and they all said yes.”
Stielstra knew one of the founders of the Performance Network, the late David Bernstein, and brought the work to him. “David was very enthusiastic,” Stielstra says, and North Country Opera premiered in 1982 as the fledgling theater's second production.
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'A love story about Michigan': Stielstra's 'North Country Opera' coming to LACA
Director Ron Miller told the Daily News “the closest it got to Ludington was Frankfort” during the play’s last tour in the ’90s.
Both Miller and musical director Judy Banker have history with “North Country Opera” and with Stielstra. Banker’s connection with the playwright dates back to the early ’80s, when the play first premiered at the Performance Network in Ann Arbor.
“I went to a performance of ‘North Country Opera’ … and subsequently became friends with the people involved,” Banker told the Daily News. “As the years passed, all of us would play music together … just informally like you would in an Irish pub.”
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Michigan music: Jay Stielstra, Michigan’s Poet Laureate
“…this year represents the 40th anniversary of North Country Opera, the first of the plays to be penned by Jay. In 1982, it was the second play to be staged at the Performance Network in Ann Arbor. The performance was taken on tour to Northern Michigan, as well as the UP, and was tremendously popular. North Country Opera is a tribute to Northern Michigan.
Set in the Buckhorn Bar, it is the north country’s own version of a timeless love story: a young man falls in love with the beauty of the northern woods and rivers — and the woman he meets there. North Country Opera has been revived in 1992, 1993, 2003, and will be again this year!”
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North Country Opera: The Return
LELAND — Back in 1982, renowned Michigan playwright and songwriter Jay Stielstra premiered his original musical, “North Country Opera,” in Ann Arbor.
Forty years later, the production is being revived in honor of its 40th anniversary. As part of its five-date tour, “North Country Opera” will be performed in Mancelona’s Green River Schoolhouse on Oct. 7-8; Cheboygan Opera House on Oct. 10; the Old Art Building in Leland on Oct. 12; and Ludington on Oct. 14, before turning south to Ann Arbor. Mancelona’s shows are sold out, but tickets are available at the other venues.
Stielstra’s folk production gathered long-time fans, garnered much praise, and earned a bit of a cult following of those who love hus work and the beauty of northern Michigan.
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