FEBRUARY 23, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3
KeizerCommunity
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Lend Me a Tenor opens
at McNary Feb. 23-24
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
McNary senior Beau Reitz has played the national athem before volleyball and basketball games
as well as wrestling duals. He plans to double major in music and political science in college.
Reitz plays the anthem
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
McNary senior Beau Reitz
was nervous the fi rst time he
played the national anthem on
the violin before a Lady Celts
volleyball game.
“My heart was pounding,”
Reitz said. “It’s really scary
because kind of how you’re
afraid if you’re singing it to
mess up the lyrics, in the same
way if you mess up people are
shocked so you don’t want to
do that. There’s more pressure
and more enthusiasm about
the piece itself. It’s defi nitely
hard to do but thankfully it’s
an easier piece to play on the
violin.”
Reitz has since played the
anthem four more times, be-
fore wrestling duals and bas-
ketball games.
He fi rst picked up the vio-
lin in the fourth grade when
Bruce Purdy, then the orches-
tra director at Claggett Creek
Middle school, came to his
elementary school and played
all of the different instruments.
“I just really loved the song
he played on the violin and
had to play it,” Reitz said.
Reitz began taking private
lessons in the sixth grade with
Evan Roth in Salem. He now
plays in the chamber ensemble
and advanced symphony at
McNary.
Reitz primarily plays classi-
cal musical and is working on
Chaconee in G Minor by Tomaso
Vitali for the Oregon Music
Education Association Dis-
trict 4 competition on March
10 at McNary. He’ll also use
the piece to earn scholarship
crossword
money.
Reitz has been accepted
to Georgetown University,
University of San Francisco
and Seattle University. He’s
learning towards Georgetown,
where he would double major
in music and political science.
Reitz’s interest in politics
started last year when he took
AP government during the
presidential election.
“That was just a really good
time to be in that class and I
just got really interested,” said
Reitz, who has no interest in
running for offi ce himself but
might be interested in work-
ing on a campaign or going to
law school.
At McNary, Reitz is also a
member of FBLA and presi-
dent of National Honor So-
ciety.
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
McNary senior Jon Taylor
can relate to Max in Lend Me
a Tenor, an assistant to the gen-
eral manager of the Cleve-
land Grand Opera Company
who is thrust to take center
stage after a series of unfor-
tunate events strike a world-
famous tenor.
Since moving to Keizer
from Maryland, Taylor has
spent the past two years off
stage working on the techni-
cal side of McNary’s produc-
tion, building sets and pro-
gramming lights.
Taylor’s only unfortunate
event was missing the stage
manager meeting.
Instead, he decided to au-
dition for McNary’s One Act
Festival.
But to his surprise, Taylor
was called back for Lend Me a
Tenor.
“I was pretty terrifi ed be-
cause this is the biggest thing
I’ve ever done and I’m still
pretty nervous,” Taylor said.
“I’m much more confi dent
now than I was like two
months ago.”
Lend Me a Tenor opens in
the Ken Collins Theater on
Friday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. Ad-
ditional shows are Feb. 24,
March 1-3 at 7 p.m. and
March 3 at 2 p.m.
General admission tickets
are $5 for students and se-
niors and $7 for adults and
available at the door or in
advance at mcnary-theatre.
ticketleap.com.
As Max, Taylor spends the
fi rst act of the play running
around looking for Tito Mer-
elli, the greatest tenor of his
generation.
After accidentally giving
Tito a double dose of tran-
quilizers in an attempt to
calm the singer down, Max
is persuaded to get into Tito’s
costume and fool the audi-
ence into thinking he’s the
tenor.
“I really like the charac-
ter,” Taylor said. “I can kind
of relate to the fi rst act Max.
It’s a whole lot of fun to play
Max.”
Taylor wasn’t the only cast
member of Lend Me a Tenor
who though they were audi-
tioning for one acts.
Freshman
Elise
My-
ers, who plays Maggie, the
daughter of Saunders, the
general manager of the op-
era company, who is Max’s
girlfriend but also infatuated
with Tito, was also surprised
to get called back.
“That really surprised me
but I was really happy,” said
Myers, who was in the en-
semble for The Wizard of Oz at
McNary and the cabaret as a
student at Whiteaker Middle
School.
“It’s a big change from
ensemble but at least there’s
no dancing and singing. That
makes it a little easier.”
“I try to cast on based who
I think is right for the roles
and just something about
her really fi t the role and the
qualities I was looking for,”
McNary drama director Tom
Cavanaugh said.
“It was also nice that she
was younger because we need
the audience to buy into the
fact that another high school-
er is her dad. That’s not why I
cast her but it defi nitely helps
with the story telling a little
bit, too.”
McNary senior Matthew
Albright plays her dad—
Saunders.
The rest of the cast in-
cludes Steven Cummings as
Tito, Sydnie Gould as Tito’s
wife—Maria, Bella Fox as a
seductive opera singer named
Diana, AB Feinauer as chair-
woman of the Cleveland Op-
era Build—Julia and Rachel
Herriges as a bellhop who’s
also an obnoxious opera fan.
The play takes place in
1934 in a hotel suite in
Cleveland, Ohio.
The set includes a bed-
room and living room, with a
wall dividing each room and
door leading from one to the
other. Throughout the play,
the audience can see what is
happening in both rooms at
the same time.
Lend Me a Tenor is written
by Ken Ludwig and received
nine Tony Award nomina-
tions when it premiered on
Broadway in 1989.
The play is rated PG-13.
“We’re doing a straightfor-
ward interpretation of what
the script says,” Cavanaugh
said.
“I picked it because I liked
the script so much. I think
it’s a really well written farce.
It’s also an opportunity for
eight very different charac-
ters to be on stage. There’s
eight very distinctive differ-
ent personalities. One of the
things we spent a lot of time
talking about in this play is
what their characters want
and using that to drive the
humor so there was a lot of
good acting conversations we
could have around the play.”
We are
Everything
Except
Overpriced
Simple
Cremation
$875
Inexpensive Burial
and Funeral Options
Pre-Planning Available
On-Site Crematory
4365 RIVER RD N, KEIZER
503.393.7037
Se habla español
Pucker up.
Salem-Keizer Lemonade Day
May 19, 2018
Kick-off: March 14, Salem Convention Center
salemkeizer.lemonadeday.org