South of Broadway stages 'Cafe La Boheme'

The flavor of 1830s Bohemian Paris will waft through North Charleston's Park Circle neighborhood this week when the South of Broadway Theatre Company performs an abbreviated version of "La Boheme," one of Puccini's most popular operas.

"Cafe La Boheme" by Mary Gould, South of Broadway's founder and producer, opens Friday for a four-performance run. Its staging is evidence of the gradual changing of the theater company from mainly focusing on children's theater to staging more adult fare.

And Gould has reason to believe the area is ripe for this change.

"We performed our first opera, an adaptation of 'Carmen' sung in French, last year and it was well-received," says Gould.

Also, last October, the theater's 150 seats were filled for six performances of the strictly adult comedy, "Dirty Blonde," starring Sarah Coe as Mae West.

However unlikely it seems that the small company could stage an opera famous for its gigantic orchestra and large choruses, Gould has an answer.

"We're using a piano-vocal score, or otherwise we would need at least a 60-piece orchestra," she explains. To show a visitor the score, she takes a large music book from the baby grand piano which dominates her office at the theater.

"The story of 'La Boheme' is intact from beginning to end," she says. "But we have cut superfluous lines and shortened it from four to three acts."

The cast was taught to sing in Italian by Gould, a former Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions finalist who speaks fluent Italian.

Born in Brazil to missionary parents, Gould grew up speaking Portuguese. At 18, she left home for Chicago, where she studied voice at the American Conservatory of Music before continuing her studies for a year in Florence, Italy.

"Unfortunately, I am a soprano with a medium-size range, a dime a dozen in opera circles," she says. In New York, however, she frequently sang in venues such as the 46th Street restaurant Don't Tell Mama.

Gould spent more than 25 years performing opera all over the world before moving in 1997 to the Charleston area with her husband, a retired Realtor on Seabrook Island.

After teaching voice lessons in a downtown studio for three years, Gould noticed that the arts were increasing in importance in North Charleston, which didn't have a theater.

"In 2000, I founded the SOBTC, and with the wonderful help of North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey, I rented a building on E. Montague Avenue in the Olde Village area," Gould says.

Next, she and a cadre of volunteers built a stage and spruced up the four offices in the 4,000-plus-square-foot space, where acting and singing classes for children and adults continue to be taught.

All the theater's financing is donated by private sources, including the Zucker Family Endowment Fund.

Standing in front of the theater, Gould surveys the tree-lined street, and explains why it will soon become an arts destination.

"In 2000 when I started the theater, only one restaurant was on this street," she says. "Now, there are five restaurants, a spa and a fancy bar."

For now, Gould is preparing to sing the role of the destitute grisette Mimi, a neighbor to the struggling painter Marcello and the burgeoning poet Rodolfo, with whom she tragically falls in love.

Portraying Rodolfo will be Jaeyoon Kim, a native of Seoul, Korea, who holds a doctorate in vocal performance and teaches at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Venezuelan singer Cesar Lozada will portray Marcello.

Musetta, Marcello's feisty girlfriend, will be sung by Maryland native Jennifer Morlan, who made her operatic debut with the Mittelsachsische Theater in Germany.

The North Charleston theater will be transformed into a cabaret with patrons seated at tables where snacks, coffee, wine and other beverages will be available.

Performances will be 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday 5 p.m. Feb. 20 and 27 at the South of Broadway Theatre, 1080 E. Montague Ave. off Park Circle.

Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for children under age 18. Visit www.southofbroadway.com.

Tickets will be sold at the box office, which opens two hours before curtain time.

Reach Dottie Ashley at dottieashley@gmail.com.