Today we’d like to introduce you to George Cederquist.
George, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Acted and sang in musical theatre and opera as a child – went to boarding school in England – started directing plays in high school – continued to direct plays in undergrad at Yale – a week after graduating, moved to Chicago with my then-girlfriend-now-wife – directed in storefront theater for five years as a company member of Steep Theater…
On the eve of going to graduate school at Northwestern, I realized I wanted to tell stories through music, not just words – completed my MFA in directing opera and theater – had a child – moved to Germany to work as an Assistant Director – had another child – moved back to the US – did a year at Pittsburgh Opera and was miserable – realized that life was about people and relationships, so moved back to Chicago…
Founded Chicago Fringe Opera to create experiential, immersive and site-specific opera productions in English.
Phew.
Has it been a smooth road?
“Everyone, in the course of a twenty-year career, is going to get the same breaks — some at the beginning, some at the end.” – David Mamet, ‘True and False’
Truer words never were spoken.
I reckon I’ve had as much luck — or lack thereof — in this business as anyone else. I envy some people; others might envy me. My approach is to play the Long Game. Directors only get better as they get older.
My family are my biggest critics and my biggest fans. Does being a husband and a father in the performing arts make things more difficult? Of course. I don’t travel at the drop of a hat, for instance. I do school runs. I wipe bottoms and noses. And I’m not a woman in this business, which makes things about a thousand times more challenging.
But I can’t imagine it any other way. People ask me “How can you be an artist AND be a parent?” The answer is “How can I NOT be?” Who am I ultimately creating my work for, if not for them? This is a lonely profession; having a family means you — and your ideas — are never alone.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Chicago Fringe Opera (CFO) is our city’s leading storefront opera company. We create experiential, immersive and site-specific productions of operas that are composed in English. We choose repertoire that allows our company members to excel. We choose repertoire whose instrumentation we can either afford (such as a string quartet) or which we can re-score and adapt for new instruments. We only use local artists.
We’re also very conscious of the city’s opera ecology. We want Lyric Opera of Chicago to do their thing; we want Chicago Opera Theater to do their thing; we want to do our thing.
And what we can do is get our audience members close to the action, to the voices, to the music, to the experience. Our 2015 production of Benjamin Britten’s THE TURN OF THE SCREW, in which the audience moved through the rooms of an old mansion, following the action, is a good example of that immersive feeling.
Research shows that what opera audiences struggle with most is NOT that it’s often in a foreign language or that it’s about a time or place that has no relationship to today, or that it’s too long, or even that it’s too expensive. The reason is that most people don’t feel welcome or at home at the opera house itself, the edifice.
We get opera out of the opera house so that our audiences can experience this most complex of art forms in an entirely experiential way.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
When I graduated from Yale, most of my theater friends went to New York City. Being a Midwesterner, I went to Chicago. The difference is that you likely won’t make a dime in the arts here, but you’ll always be able to do it. It’s the opposite in NYC.
In addition, you’ll easily find as many talented collaborators here as in NYC. The difference, again, is that you’ll go to them with a crazy idea, and they’ll probably say “yes”, whereas they’ll hedge their bets and say “no” in NYC.
It would be great to have more national press coverage of the arts in Chicago. That is certainly one area where we fall to NYC.
Pricing:
- Tickets range from $20-$40 for our productions.
Contact Info:
- Website: chicagofringeopera.com
- Email: info@chicagofringeopera.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/chicagofringeopera
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/chicagofringeopera
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/chicagofringeop
- Other: gjcederquist.com operaboxscore.com
Image Credit:
Victor Le Jeune, William Frederking, Steve Scapardine, Wendy Alas
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