{"id":10450,"date":"2014-01-30T08:39:18","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T13:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=10450"},"modified":"2014-01-24T16:08:41","modified_gmt":"2014-01-24T21:08:41","slug":"vampire-themed-valentine-makes-world-premiere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=10450","title":{"rendered":"Vampire-themed Valentine making world premiere"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">First State Ballet Theatre to perform &#8216;Irene&#8217; at Grand Opera House<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10451\" style=\"width: 278px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Irene-photo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10451\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10451\" style=\"border: 2px solid black; margin: 4px;\" alt=\"Irene photo\" src=\"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Irene-photo-268x300.jpg\" width=\"268\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Irene-photo-268x300.jpg 268w, https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Irene-photo.jpg 311w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 268px) 100vw, 268px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10451\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cast of &#8220;Irene&#8221; will include dancers Justin Estelle (from left, bottom row) and Emily Shenaut; and Ethan Raysor (top, from left), Molly Rooney, Aubrey Clemens and Jake Nowicki.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Here\u2019s a cultural opportunity patrons can sink their teeth into: the world premiere of \u201cIrene,\u201d a vampire-themed Valentine offered by the First State Ballet Theatre (FSBT) in Wilmington.<\/p>\n<p>The company says it is pulling out all the stops for the single-performance premiere, which will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21, on the main stage of Wilmington&#8217;s Grand Opera House.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201c<\/i>Irene<i>\u201d<\/i> is the creation of Wilmington-based guitarist, teacher and composer Shaun Dougherty, who composed the music and libretto for the full-length work. FSBT dancer and choreographer Alex Buckner &#8211; who choreographed the company\u2019s Delaware premiere of &#8220;A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream&#8221;\u00a0and whose work was featured at the 2011 Delaware Arts Summit &#8211; will set the piece on FSBT\u2019s 22-person professional company, a company news release said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Shaun proposed this collaboration, we saw immediately that its edgy, sophisticated, urban vibe could add a younger demographic &#8211; teens through 30-somethings &#8211; to our typical audience,\u201d said Robert Grenfell, FSBT\u2019s president and executive director. \u201cSince a key component of our mission is to educate the Delaware dance audience of the future, we jumped at the chance to work with Shaun. And the concepts we\u2019ve developed in our production meetings have been fantastic.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo further broaden our audience, we\u2019ve invited some of Wilmington\u2019s best known culturati to take walk-on roles in the ballet\u2019s ballroom scene,\u201d Grenfell added.<\/p>\n<p>An all-Delaware production,\u00a0&#8220;Irene&#8221; will feature a live pit band, including a 12-person string section, a percussion section, pianist, Dougherty on guitar, and a conductor. The music is vibrant and rock-inspired, the staging will be dark and mysterious, and the choreography will feature Buckner\u2019s blend of classical and contemporary technique infused with humor and pathos, the release said.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;Irene&#8221; production team encourages everyone to bring their Valentine to the Grand for an evening of drama, suspense and passion.\u00a0Tickets are available at 1-800-37-GRAND or online at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ticketsatthegrand.org\/\">www.ticketsatthegrand.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First State Ballet Theatre to perform &#8216;Irene&#8217; at Grand Opera House Here\u2019s a cultural opportunity patrons can sink their teeth into: the world premiere of \u201cIrene,\u201d a vampire-themed Valentine offered by the First State Ballet Theatre (FSBT) in Wilmington. The company says it is pulling out all the stops for the single-performance premiere, which will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,4],"tags":[3359,3356,210,3873,3872],"class_list":["post-10450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-featured","tag-first-state-ballet-theatre-fsbt","tag-grand-opera-house","tag-irene","tag-robert-grenfell","tag-shaun-dougherty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}