UVa-Wise presents chamber opera based on O’Connor short story

The Department of Visual and Performing Arts at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise will present the original chamber opera “A Good Man is Hard to Find” on Jan. 26 and 27 at J.J. Kelly High School.

The performances are free and open to the public. Saturday’s performance will begin at 7 p.m. The Sunday show is set for 3 p.m.

The one-act chamber opera was composed by UVa-Wise Associate Professor of Music David Volk. Based on the short story by famed southern writer Flannery O’Connor, the work is set in Georgia and recounts the murder of a vacationing family by an escaped convict known as “The Misfit.”

The performance cast includes Liz Frazier, an adjunct professor at Emory and Henry College, and Bradley Whaley, a graduate student at North Park University in Chicago, as well as UVa-Wise instructor Michael Cox, UVa-Wise students Rocky Cooper, Ben Harding, Amelia Trask, Alex Isom, Heather Jones and community members Melanie Cooper and Wesley Polly.

The production is directed by UVa-Wise Assistant Professor of Theatre Michael McNulty with technical production by UVa-Wise instructor Jonathan Taylor.

Volk's chamber opera was completed and premiered in Athens, Ga., in 2003 as part of his doctoral dissertation at the University of Georgia. The work was performed later that year as a featured presentation at “Revelations: Flannery O’Connor, the Visionary and the Vernacular,” a quadrennial interdisciplinary conference sponsored by the Flannery O’Connor Library at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville.

For more information, contact the Office of College Relations at 276-328-0130.

Posted January 22, 2008