2007 - Love Bites, Pride, Queer Night at the Opera, An Autumnal Out-ing, Home for the Holidays, Christmas Crap-Array

Love Bites the Hand That Feeds It, February 9 and 10, Theatre Rhinoceros. The chorus was at 35 strong as we started with the year with the next incarnation of our anti-Valentine's Day cabaret. This was our first time performing in Theatre Rhinoceros, a theatre that has supported gay playwrights and actors as well as singers. We began this show with "Down With Love" and then the various soloists, duets, etc. did their things and we ended the first half waltzing to the "Neighbors' Chorus." In the second half we sang a song by Jack Curtis Dubowsky, who would become a composer who would work closely with Stephanie through the rest of this decade.

29th Annual Pride Concert: Here's Where I Stand, June 21 & 22, First Unitarian Church. This was another wonderful time to perform together at Pride with SFGMC and the Freedom along with guest artists GLAM Youth Choir and Voices: Lesbian Choral Ensemble. The Band was magnificent as usual as were the Men's Chorus. Our set contained music of different styles, from the deranged lyrics of "Potluck" to "Gay Little Nymph" "The Offbeat of Avenues," and "For Now" from Avenue Q and the night ended with all choruses together singing "Here's Where I Stand."

A Queer Night at the Opera, June 29, SOMArts Theatre. This concert was a departure for us. We were asked to participate in this National Queer Arts Festival evening of operatic music. There were four local opera singers and we were essentially the opera chorus behind these singers. Learning this music expanded and challenged our musical chops and we were singing before a new audience which is always good for us. The evening ended with "Libiamo" from La Traviata.

An Autumnal OUT-ing, October 26 & 27, November 2 & 3, Theatre Rhinoceros. This show combined a cabaret for the first half and Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta "Trial by Jury" in the second half. We worked with our stage director and choreographer Michael Mohammed to stage "Trial by Jury" as we all took on a character of the opera and created our costumes and makeup. Of course we changed the setting of the opera from a courtroom to a 1960's era gay bar. It was challenging to learn the music but all of our hard work paid off for us and our audiences. The photos below are from backstage at Theatre Rhino for "Trial by Jury."

Home for the Holidays, December 1, Thomas Downey High School, Modesto. The chorus traveled to Modesto as guests of SFGMC to sing in their Home for the Holidays concert for the good people of Modesto. On this World AIDS Day, this concert was a fundraiser for the Stanislaus Community Assistance Program which provides critical health and human services to people effected by life-threatening diseases. This was a good time for us and it was for a good cause.

Christmas Crap-Array, December 20, 21 & 22, EXIT Theatre. What Love Bites is to Valentine's Day this new cabaret we hope will become a Christmas type tradition. Many traditional Christmas and holiday songs were de-ranged by various chorus members such as "My Favorite Drinks" based on "My Favorite Things" from "The Sound of Music," and de-ranged by Kirk Johnson. The full chorus led off with a new and naughty song by Jack Dubowsky called "Magic Snow" which tells how Santa is able to make all of his deliveries on Christmas Eve. Lots of fun for us as we discovered more hidden talents from the chorus. This was a fundraiser for us to help send the chorus to Miami next July for the next GALA Festival.