A narrator stepped onto the stage in an olive tunic holding an empty three-ringed binder.
“Once upon a time,” he said.
But this wasn’t a fairytale.
A 20-foot-long golden snake tried to eat a prince, a birdcatcher with a net and a birdcage strapped to his back had his mouth sealed with a golden lock and everyone sang in German and spoke in English.
Student actors rehearsed an opera by Mozart, “The Magic Flute,” Tuesday night. It will be performed Thursday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
About 150 UF students worked on the production, a classic German opera about failure and forgiveness.
The cast members are students in Opera Theater Workshop, which the show’s director, Anthony Offerle, teaches to give students real-world experience with theater.
Cody Laun, the UF music graduate student who will play the prince, said he’s learned more on stage than he ever has in a classroom.
He said being on stage teaches you how to work as a team while under pressure, and the rush of excitement is indescribable.
“There’s nothing like being on stage in front of 2,000 people,” he said.
The orchestra members, the chorus and the stagehands are also students, Offerle said.
Mary Steffel, a 29-year-old marketing post-doctorate fellow, said singing in the show’s chorus is a way for her to disconnect from the stress of her research, which focuses on consumer behavior.
“It’s easy to be totally consumed with one’s work,” she said. “For four hours in my life, my primary concern is being actively engaged in telling a story.”
Offerle said the performance cost between $20,000 and $30,000, which includes renting the set, hemming the costumes and staff payroll. The cost will be paid for by ticket sales, which are $15 for students and $25 to $40 for everyone else.
Since the show was set up to help students learn to perform, Offerle had some help with the funds. He said the Sarasota Opera House rented out its sets for Offerle to use, the Operafestival di Roma let him borrow the costumes for free and employees from the Phillips Center helped with behind-the-scenes work.
If this show was done in a non-academic setting, he said, it would have cost no less than $175,000 to rent the set for its full market price, rent the costumes and pay a full staff.
He said he’s grateful for the contributions because he’s seen how much his students enjoy performing.
While some of them will continue performing, he said, others put in the time for the love of the arts.
“We have people who are going to go on to all sort of walks of life,” he said, “but they’ll be music lovers forever.”
